Dropped VZW and switched to ATT to get the SG4

[Bluesman2008]

This is so strange. I switched about a week ago to get the GS4. VZW renigged on their promise of an early update, and then I found out that getting an upgrade would cause me to lose my unlimited that I've had for years. I was about 5 months short of my latest two year stint with them. Not only is the phone fantastic, but they haven't demanded an early disconnect fee (I would have told them what they could do with that demand had they sent one). But they sent me a long questionaire about why I left VZW and what they could do to get me back. LOL...I told them. They haven't bothered me since and I don't anticipate they will. If they tried to collect their money, they'd lose.

 

[JBarker727]

Billion dollar corporation. If they come after money owed to them per your CONTRACT, then no, you won't win lol

 

[SFGate]

Billion dollar corporation. If they come after money owed to them per your CONTRACT, then no, you won't win lol

Yes, agree that these phone service providers have no qualms about sending their early term bills/other owed account balances to collection agencies and they will put the info on your credit report. They will even do this years later, again, even if you have paid everything owed or claimed to be owed. No qualms whatsoever.

 

[Bluesman2008]

I'd fight them tooth and nail. I consider their refusal to continue unlimited service as, what is called, an anticipatory breach of contract. Trust me. I do this stuff for a living. You can't just have an agreement and then decide you don't like it and want to change it.

 

[bbtkd]

I'd fight them tooth and nail. I consider their refusal to continue unlimited service as, what is called, an anticipatory breach of contract. Trust me. I do this stuff for a living. You can't just have an agreement and then decide you don't like it and want to change it.

You're a corporate lawyer specializing in service contracts? The contract giving unlimited data stays in force until you sign a new contract without unlimited data - which you willingly sign when accepting a deal on a new phone. If you buy phones on your own, you can keep that unlimited data contract. They're not forcing you to sign a new contract, and they're not canceling it - you are.

 

[Bluesman2008]

No. I'm a tort lawyer with over 40 years litigation experience.

 

[leeshor]

Let us know how it turns out. You aren't the first and won't be the last.

 

[Bluesman2008]

I will. They've never contacted me and I doubt seriously that they will. For the couple of hundred bucks they could possibly collect, it wouldn't be worth the bad PR.

 

[NOVICE]

I've been an attorney for +35 years (although I concentrate on criminal defense).

The theory of an anticipatory breach in this context is, let us say, somewhat unique.

Put me down on the side which views the arrangement with Verizon as consisting of separate contracts each running typically 2 years. They are free to offer new and different terms upon expiration; the consumer is free to walk away.

Wish it were otherwise.

 

[Bluesman2008]

" the consumer is free to walk away"

But that's exactly the point, no? You're not free to walk away without paying what I would consider a penalty or a forfeiture. Should I be forced to pay the same amount of money to get less service than I'd been getting for years simply because I succumb to the bombardment of ads for the latest and greatest from, guess who? Should one stick with two cans and a string forever?....well, come to think about it, sometimes I wonder.

 

[FoxKat]

Yes, agree that these phone service providers have no qualms about sending their early term bills/other owed account balances to collection agencies and they will put the info on your credit report. They will even do this years later, again, even if you have paid everything owed or claimed to be owed. No qualms whatsoever.

It's likely not the original creditor that places these once delinquent but now paid in full contracts back on the credit report again. Often times debt collectors who might not even have legal right to do so will seek out people who've had bad debts and try to collect on them anyway hoping you don't know any better. It's highly illegal, but they do to anyway since the potential payoff would be very profitable.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bluesman2008]

That's true. Most, if not all businesses sell off their receivables to a variety of sheister collectors and hope to get 10% back. The collector also gets a piece. By the time it gets to me, it's too miniscule to exist.

Bottom line to me, it simply doesn't make even good business sense to lose that monthly they get from me month after month, year after year. For what?

 

[bbtkd]

" the consumer is free to walk away"

But that's exactly the point, no? You're not free to walk away without paying what I would consider a penalty or a forfeiture. Should I be forced to pay the same amount of money to get less service than I'd been getting for years simply because I succumb to the bombardment of ads for the latest and greatest from, guess who? Should one stick with two cans and a string forever?....well, come to think about it, sometimes I wonder.

I'm not a lawyer, but slept at Holiday Inn Express. We signed a two year contract where we agreed to pay them for their unlimited data service in return for a deal on a new phone. At the end of two years, they continue to honor the unlimited plan, apparently out of good will and to avoid mass-exodus. If you walk away before the end of the contract, then you have broken it. If you take a new phone deal from them, you sign a new contract, nullifying the previous one. Too bad there is nothing in there letting us out of it due to bloatware or wanting to go to another carrier for better deal, unlimited data, new phone, etc. I suspect they have a dollar or time threshold which determines whether they take any legal action. Even if they come after you for walking away with 23 months left, they're going to lose money if they have to take any court action. I bet you get a few nastygrams at least, but with only five months left they'd surely be better off writing it off than starting legal action. I once got a series of computer-generated letters threatening legal action for 75 cents I owed (for a magazine subscription or something). Eventually the system or some carbon-unit looked at it and decided it was ridiculous. Hopefully yours will be trivial enough to them to just let it go after a few threatening letters.

 

[leeshor]

I have found,. as with most use agreements/contracts, few people have read all the mice type. Most people who have Microsoft Office or Windows on their PCs think they own/bought the software. They don't/didn't. They are essentially only purchasing a license that allows them to use it, and that license, though rarely enforced, can be revoked for nearly no reason at all.

The corporations have rather large teams of lawyers making certain they are protected. It's pretty much a fact of life and has been that way for a very long time.

 

[Bluesman2008]

"The corporations have rtather large teams of lawyers making certain they are protected. It's pretty much a fact of life and has been that way for a very long time. "

That's pretty much true. But there is such a thing as a contract of adhesion. It's one where you have zero negotiating ability and you have to accept it as is or else. The courts rarely enforce them. Ever see a receipt given to you when you give your car to the valet guy? It usually says they're not responsible for anything that happens to your car. Guess what. WRONG. As long as they have control (you did give them your car keys) THEY are responsible for it. Businesses try all the time to minimize their exposure to anything. But sometimes, they go overboard thereby throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Did you ever read the EULA for Windows during it's install? Really? You read the whole thing? Did you understand any of it?