Filed under: iPhone
Get out of your current cell contract
Thank you, Wired.The #1 hindering factor in purchasing an iPhone -- at least for most people I know -- is that they're mired in contracts with other, lesser-blessed carriers like Verizon or T-Mobile. And often cancellation fees are steep, too steep to warrant a cancellation just (hah, just) to buy an iPhone. (Imagine tacking $200 to that $600 price tag.) Well, the good folks -- particularly Daniel Dumas -- at Wired has you covered with 8 ethically-questionable-but-incredibly-clever tips to salvage your soul from the wireless devils.
A few of the gems include changing your address to an area where your provider doesn't offer coverage (nulling the contract); demanding the physical paperwork (if they can't produce it you're free); or faking your own death. Check the full article for more tips, details on how to get it done, and the odds of each tip's success.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
J.J. said 9:57PM on 6-27-2007
Why would TUAW publish this? You're telling people how to break (weasel out of) contracts that they have signed in good faith with other carriers. You even admit it's ethically questionable.
If people want to find ways to opt out of their current contract, let them find the ways. TUAW doesn't need to be seemingly endorsing ("incredibly clever...") this practice by blogging about it.
Blogging about this is extremely irresponsible.
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Nick said 10:12PM on 6-27-2007
To the person who thinks TUAW shouldn't publish this. breaking cellphone contracts is nothing wrong. Cellphone companies are crooks in this country, its their way or the high way. I wish many people break their contracts, so that cellphone companies learn their lesson and be more flexible.
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shubopshadangalang said 10:15PM on 6-27-2007
#1 - Well, they didn't publish it, and they're not telling people how. This is just a link to Wired with a brief description. And you left out the fact that though they called the ideas "incredibly-clever" they preceded it with "ethically-questionable-but-". Plus, it's just the tiniest bit iPhone-related, so as usual TUAW absolutely must mention it ;)
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Scott said 10:30PM on 6-27-2007
That website for transfering your contract to someone else looks promising and legit. Promising aside, is it legit? I'm glad for this post if it is, getting out of my contract for $20 is very appealing right now because I have 18 months left.
#2 - I haven't seen a cell phone companies profit margins, but I can confirm that preparing a contract for another person to sign willingly and legally is not the definition of a crook. Hyperbole notwithstanding, I get your sentiment!
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Leonardo Santagada said 10:52PM on 6-27-2007
Cellphone companies at least in brazil limit almost all features of phones from non contract (prepaid) cellphones, so there isn't an option to not be part of a contract. So as they force us to have contracts so we can use something that is really importante in the digital age life, it is moral to use a loophole to get out of a contract.
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Peter Payne said 11:01PM on 6-27-2007
One thing I like about living in Japan is, there are NO contracts for cell phones (not that I've ever heard of at least). Phones cost between free (for anything older than 6 months) and $250 or so, depending on whether you're coming in from another company (new sign up) or whether you're already a customer. You pay for minutes when calling, but NEVER for incoming calls -- that's f*ck up. And there's 3G everywhere, I love to go online via my MacBook while on the shinkansen just because I can.
Course there's no iPhone either, and I sense that it will take a year to get anything out over there since Japanese companies are so hard to work with. I can hope though...
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Leonardo Santagada said 11:55PM on 6-27-2007
#6 - Are you sure you live in japan, that seems to be heaven :). And how much is the minute, $10? (that would explain why no plans and cheap phones).
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basscadet said 4:11AM on 6-28-2007
"other, lesser-blessed carriers like Verizon or T-Mobile"???
carriers of a lesser god? just because they don't have the iphone? FFWD 2 months ahead and no one's going to even remember what all this fuss was about, what with many new models coming out (and apple possibly announcing iphone 2.0). but the 2 year non-business user plan will still remain...
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Dan Pourhadi said 5:27AM on 6-28-2007
@J.J - It was Wired who wrote the story. I simply pointed to it.
@ basscadet - Glad you caught the hyperbole.
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Galley said 8:58AM on 6-28-2007
Uh, Hi, Verizon? Yeah, I like died last week, so I need to get out of my contract. Is that a problem?
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hugmup said 9:33AM on 6-28-2007
Only "abuse the system" and "fake your own death" are unethical. Faking your own death can be illegal. The others are perfectly ethical if they are applicable to your situation. If you really did move to the boonies, for example, you might not know that you can get out of your contract.
Faking your own death might not work. I held the power of attorney for a man who had become paralyzed, blind, bedridden, and was unable to speak. He was in diapers and on a catheter. I faxed the power of attorney to the cell phone company and asked them to cancel the contract, since he could not use the phone and was in hospice care. They refused. I had to pay the installments until the contract ended, which was after his death.
The carrier, I'm horrified to say, was AT&T.
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hugmup said 9:34AM on 6-28-2007
I must add that the incident with the dying man took place eleven years ago. I should have mentioned that. Post-traumatic stress makes it seem like last week.
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Sean Flanagan said 10:48AM on 6-28-2007
Just to add a note that may be of interest:
If you happen to be part of a family plan with Verizon, you can switch without penalty as long as at least one person remains with Verizon. This keeps the contract in place and merely modifies it. However, if the number you are trying to switch is the primary line for the contract, you may have to visit a Verizon store beforehand to switch the primary line to another number on the plan.
This all came straight from the horse's mouth: Verizon customer service. I'm just repeating what they told me.
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Donald Burr said 12:30PM on 6-28-2007
I have absolutely zero interest in the iPhone, but close to 100 percent interest in switching carriers. I'm currently on a T-Mobile family plan, which used to work fine where we used to live, but in our new city, barely works at all. Technically, it *does* work, but just *not very well at all*. We have family spread all across SoCal, and none of them get a usable signal where they live or work either. Also we are experiencing quirks like voicemails not being delivered until DAYS after people left them, lots of dropped calls, etc. We are really displeased with our service and would love to switch, except are locked into a 2yr contract because some of us upgraded phones in hopes that it was our phones that were causing the problems instead of the service itself. Oh well. I guess I'll give CellTradeUSA a try.
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dale said 4:39PM on 6-28-2007
When I first moved to the US, I was baffled by some of the ridiculous charges the carriers make you pay here.
In the UK, a carrier would not have to waste advertising dollars to promote such a basic concept as incoming calls not using up your minutes, incoming text messages not using up your messaging allowance and so forth. Those are just basic features.
That being said, legally there's no question about it - weasling out of your contract using one of these methods is unacceptable. Were the carrier to break the terms of the agreement in some way, for example by not offering anything approaching the basic quality of service detailed in the contract, you would rightly be up in arms about it.
They may charge well over the odds, and their methods of securing us in these needlessly lengthy agreements are questionable, but you obviously wanted the phone enough to willingly enter into the agreement. You just have to live with it.
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rickr said 1:20AM on 6-29-2007
i moved to an area without service (just like the tip sheets said, though not for this reason) but still couldn't get out of a contract - so if you are moving to an area simply for this reason, think again.
the rule at t-mobile at least is that if the coverage map online shows that you should get service (regardless of how well you get service) then you can't get out of your contract by living there.
i get zero service (as in always searching for a network, never finding one) and can't manually find one either while indoors, despite the 'good network area' rating on their coverage map. clearly the map is a lie or at least a few years old (the building i am in is fairly new).
the only thing they let me do is get a discounted phone with a 'better' antenna and would hopefully get better service. but instead of paying $70 for a phone that may not work, i'm going to just bite the bullet and pay the early-termination fee ($200) to get an iphone.
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Farshid said 3:39PM on 9-07-2007
At TradeMyCellular.com you can post your contract info and sub-lease it to someone else Free of charge.
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