My wife and I want iphones. Problem is, we have T-mobile as our service provider and we share a family plan. T-mobile wants to charge us $200 for each line to get out of our contract. That's right: $400 freaking dollars just for cancelling our service. Then there would be the $600 for two iphones, an activation fee for each new line with AT&T, plus a 2-year contract.
This system seems messed up to me.
Of course I get the cell phone companies' angle on this. They don't want to lose customers. But it doesn't feel right to be on the receiving end of this. It feels like these companies are trapping us. My wife's cell phone broke about four months ago. She has not used a cell phone since. She decided to try life without a cell phone and she found that it wasn't all that bad. Since we're on a family plan, which is more expensive than one individual plan, I went to a T-mobile store to ask about switching to an individual plan. I was told that we would have to pay a $200 termination fee to drop my wife off the plan. Fricking ridiculous. She's not even using a cell phone anymore and they can insist that we either keep paying for the service anyway or pay to get out of her contract.
The T-mobile rep explained that cell phone companies need to charge these fees to recoup money they lose when selling cell phones at discounted prices at the front end of the contracts. Maybe this is legitimate, but it doesn't feel right. Knowing how much companies typically mark up their products...I doubt these companies are really taking a hit. And I'm guessing the profits cell phone companies are making off our use of their satellite/tower signals is off the charts. ($50-$100 per person to use their signals each month? Combined with all the people out there using cell phones?)
Well, I'm scamming the system. Damn the man. I found out that cell phone companies will often drop termination fees if a customer is moving to a location outside of the company's coverage area. My cabin is outside of T-mobile's coverage area. So, I've informed T-mobile that my wife and I will be moving to our cabin June 1st (we are not moving to our cabin). They told me it's a simple process: I just need to submit an i.d. or a bill with the cabin's address. Simple enough: I will contact the utility company that provides electricity to our cabin, have them send my next bill to my cabin rather than my home, and I will be free from the tyranny that is T-mobile.
I love beating the system. Especially an unjust system. :)
