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How to drop-kick Verizon...

bobert83

bobert83

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Does anyone know/theorize any sure fire way to get out of a Verizon contract? I am long overdue for a new phone and I really, really want an iPhone, but my wife is locked into Verizon for another year. She has approved my iPhone purchase as long as I can get her on to AT&T as well. Any brilliant ideas?
 
i hear paying the ETF like your contract states you're required to is a great way to get out 🙄
 
yg17 said:
i hear paying the ETF like your contract states you're required to is a great way to get out 🙄
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You have a little sarcasm on the side of your mouth there... little to the left, there you go... you got it. 🙂
 
get a tour to Iraq. worked for me any time I needed to get out of a contract. but I had the necessary legal documentation to back it up 🙂

does Verizon pro-rate your early termination contract?

what you could do....is drop one of the phones if you are on a family plan. then with your remaining phone put it on the downright lowest plan available. should be around $10 bucks a month...

so depending on the termination fee this could be a way out.

pay $120 for the lowest bill ever. compared to $175 or what ever it is.
 
thestaton said:
get a tour to Iraq. worked for me any time I needed to get out of a contract. but I had the necessary legal documentation to back it up 🙂

does Verizon pro-rate your early termination contract?

what you could do....is drop one of the phones if you are on a family plan. then with your remaining phone put it on the downright lowest plan available. should be around $10 bucks a month...

so depending on the termination fee this could be a way out.

pay $120 for the lowest bill ever. compared to $175 or what ever it is.
Click to expand...

Good idea, I think she may be on a family plan... but as much as I love the iPhone, I am not going to Iraq for one!
 
Just pay the ETF, I did. Not a big deal. You're already willing to spend $600 on the iPhone, so what's another $170? There is no surefire way. And anyone who has some dumb "formula" is full of it or had a set of circumstances that probably won't apply to you.

Oh, and don't listen to the folks telling you to wait a year for a "better' version of the phone. THere will always be a "better" version released at some point. The version available now is amazing and well worth the early adoption. Not to mention there will probably be software updates down the road that improve it.
 
I used to work for Verizon for a short period of time. I was told that one of the only ways that a customer would be released from a contract outside of an ETF is if they were not receiving service at their home address. Apparently the contract states that you are garunteed to have service at your home address and if not Verizon is in breach of the contract. My understanding is that if you complain enough about your reception and they are unable to resolve the issue if you request they are obligated to release you from your contract. Another thing I noticed while at Verizon was thatit was very rare for customers to have actually signed their contract, these are usually sent out to be signed and mailed back. If you didnt happen to sign a contract you can't be charged an ETF. Hope this helps and good luck
 
why not sell your contract to someone else

Or just give it away.

http://celltradeusa.com/

or sell your phones on ebay to conter the early termination fee. Thats what I did, I paid T-mobile $200 to cancel, and sold my bb for $230! I made $30, sweet deal!
 
s8film40 said:
I used to work for Verizon for a short period of time. I was told that one of the only ways that a customer would be released from a contract outside of an ETF is if they were not receiving service at their home address. Apparently the contract states that you are garunteed to have service at your home address and if not Verizon is in breach of the contract. My understanding is that if you complain enough about your reception and they are unable to resolve the issue if you request they are obligated to release you from your contract. Another thing I noticed while at Verizon was thatit was very rare for customers to have actually signed their contract, these are usually sent out to be signed and mailed back. If you didnt happen to sign a contract you can't be charged an ETF. Hope this helps and good luck
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Is there any "easy" way to see if a contract was signed? I know she got in online and is infamously bad at mailing things.
 
you could always call and deny that you signed a contract and then it would be up to them to contradict you with proof of a signed contract. Now the only catch to this route is while they can't charge you the ETF they could charge you for any discounts you received as part of the contract. In other words you may have to pay the difference that your phone would have cost without a contract, but in many cases its no where near $175.00
 
bobert83 said:
Is there any "easy" way to see if a contract was signed? I know she got in online and is infamously bad at mailing things.
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This route isn't worth pursuing.

If you ever paid a Verizon bill, "implied consent" kicks in.

See also:
  • Paying any online merchant with a credit card
  • Paying any bill or person via online banking
  • Giving anyone your checking account number for debit purposes
 
I agree that claiming you never signed the contract will be a difficult route. Paying your bill does not imply that you have had the opportunity to read a full copy of the contract however this is propably the stance Verizon will take it won't hold up legally though so what you would have to do is cancel your service not pay the fee and go through the legal means of avoiding the ETF (once in the hands of credit bureas Verizon will be required to provide a signed contract). I think the best route to go would be to claim you are not receiving service. If necessary you could change your billing address to a location outside of Verizon coverage and then Verizon has no choice but to release you from your contract or place a cell tower near your new location (doubtful). Either way you need to make lots of calls to technical support so that it is documented that you are not receiving service. It might not be worth it to you but those are the only ways I know of doing this without the ETF.
 
This is what I did on Sprint...

I called Sprint & upgraded my phone & my wife's to Moto Q's. Cost was $99 each. I then sold the Moto Q's on eBay for $250-300 each. The ETF at Sprint was $200 each. I put the balance in my pocket.

The trick is that you need to get the carrier to give you a good price on a phone upgrade that you can resell on eBay. The best way to do that with Sprint is to call support and when the computer asks what you want to do sya "cancel my account". The save-desk people have the most lattitude and creativity to deal with you. Note we were both still within our 2-year agreements. Sprint made me sign up for another 2 years on each phone in order to thet the cheap price on the Q's but that didn't really matter - whether I cancelled on day 1 or any time before the end of year 2, the ETF was $200. So basically, you're just scamming the system for the "discount" that the provider will give you for re-upping and then sucking that back out by selling it on eBay to someone that can't qualify for the "discount". It ends up being a good deal for that person and you since you basically get paid to bail.
 
s8film40 said:
Paying your bill does not imply that you have had the opportunity to read a full copy of the contract
Click to expand...
Actually, it does, legally.
however this is propably the stance Verizon will take it won't hold up legally
Click to expand...
Actually, it will.
(once in the hands of credit bureas Verizon will be required to provide a signed contract)
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Wrong again. Bureaus don't need any proof unless you dispute it, and showing months of on-time payments trumps an ink-signed contract under the FCRA and FDCPA.
I think the best route to go would be to claim you are not receiving service.
Click to expand...
This might work if the OP is already living in an area with marginal coverage. However, Verizon has a pretty good idea about where their towers are, and what their capacity is like. Saying you're getting crap service when you're two miles from a tower at 10% capacity isn't going to work so much.
If necessary you could change your billing address to a location outside of Verizon coverage and then Verizon has no choice but to release you from your contract or place a cell tower near your new location (doubtful).
Click to expand...
Not really. There isn't a clause anywhere in Verizon's contract (which is available to view online, if you don't believe me) that says they have to provide service to you if you move. While they're more likely to let you out of your contract without an ETF, they have no legal obligation to do so.
Either way you need to make lots of calls to technical support so that it is documented that you are not receiving service. It might not be worth it to you but those are the only ways I know of doing this without the ETF.
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Of course, he could just be a man about it and pay the ETF.
 
I bought a BB Curve for $300, got my $100 rebate, sold the phone on Craigslist for $400 then used the money for my iPhone. Pain in the neck but worth it.
 
All of this would obviously be very iffy from my experience with Verizon this has worked for customers however it is highly scrutinized and there certainly is no guarantee. Of course Verizon doesn't want anyone to know about this. But from my experience, and this could possibly have changed since I worked there but if you are not able to receive service (documented through tech support) they almost always will offer to release the contract. This really is in their best interest because if you are truly out of their network you may be using partner networks which cost Verizon money for you to use and you may cut into profits or even cause a loss for them. In fact some carriers will automatically terminate service if you are out of network for too long.

Twinkie said:
Wrong again. Bureaus don't need any proof unless you dispute it, and showing months of on-time payments trumps an ink-signed contract under the FCRA and FDCPA.
Click to expand...
It was implied that this would be in the case of you disputing it and according to the legal precedent of "Wegner vs. Transunion" the Bureaus are required to provide documents bearing signatures if disputed and in the absence of signed documents must remove the disputed item from the report within 30 days of the dispute or they can be held liable for damages.

Like I said all of this is a little iffy and underhanded but it certainly has worked for many others. It may be easier to do as the other poster said and upgrade the phone with the purpose of reselling, Who knows you could even turn a profit that way.
 
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