WOW...even the "old" phone companies can learn from what the BANKS have been getting away with..."fee your customers to death"....drain 'em dry...they should honor current contracts at least! watch....they will soon get "more creative", because alot of bankers are outta work and will bring their craf(TY) methods to the attention of the "slow to learn" phone giants...we are going back to the stone age here, so i wouldn't worry about your cell phone bill...we'll be using smoke signals and drums...soon.

After being a Verizon customer for years, I just went with someone else's Smartphone because the additional costs that Verizon would now charge me to have change phones -- even though I have a "new every two" contract -- includes an extra $120 fee for internet capable phones ON TOP OF THE PHONE COST AND REGULAR MONTHLY CHARGES, and I have to change my current plan (which includes an Internet enabled phone!)!!!! Basically, I have a contract, but they don't have to honor it. So here's a suggestion to everyone: DON'T SIGN WITH VERIZON!! You'll get stuck!!

Must be the $175.00 wasn't enough for the termination due to shitty service and dropped calls! In the "network" my tush! The most over priced, undependable carrier there is! I used Verizon for years and seemed to not be able to argue the fact of "strange" bills that kept coming for calls and texts that I had paid for in a "bundle" pack each month! I dropped them and went to a pre-paid program. I get my minutes at MY discretion and haven't had any issues with "dropped" calls etc!

It would seem as if the company is piling fee on top of fee with this move. Cell phones are so popular that the company can get away with price gouging as much as they want. I don't like government regulation but something has to bring it back inline for the consumer soon. I paid full price for a Blackberry storm when they came out and certainly will not pay that kind of termination fee without abandoning Verizon completely.

To = nonewsgoodnews - = YEARS ago when they had the phone wars MCI called me up and promised the world and i was dumb enough to switch only to end up paying close to $100 per month for phone service. CALLED MCI and told them i only wanted BASIC SERVICE AND THEY GAVE ME ALL OF IT. No problem they would reduce it to $50.00 PER MONTH and then i told them to switch me back to the other phone company [UNDER THE SIGN UP AGREEMENT IF I DISLIKED THEIRF SERVICE WITHIN 30 DAYS THEY HAVE TO SWITCH ME BACK TO THE OTHER SERVICE} and they refused until i paid that months bill. I DID pay but on fixed income i had to pay the following month. THEN i told them again to switch to the other service and they refused and told me i have to switch myself. I DID AND THEN i too had bill collectors hounding me like crazy telling me i owed a bill for $156.00 which i refused to pay citing the 30 day agreement which they breached of contract and i didn't MEANING I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ONE PENNEY. THEY TRIED ALMOST EVERYTHING TO GET ME TO PAY. = recently the state closed of heavly fined most all bill collectors in New York State. YIPPIE I SAID... How i got rid of them? CHANGED NUMBERS & A RELOCATION helped.

I personally don't have a problem with cancellations in general. For example, why should a phone carrier subsidize an expensive cell phone, only to have you have you cancel the service, keep the phone, and use a different carrier. And the same thing with FIOS. I could understand why I had to do a one-year thing. It probably wasn't cheap to set me up. While I dislike the commitments and stuff, I can see why they are needed (at least for a set amount of time).

Verizon has a fairly good network but their business practices are anything but customer friendly. Same as BeagleGal I also switched to AT&T pay as you go.

Sorry to hear about your troubles nonews. I'm glad you're sticking to your guns, though. I used Verizon for my cell phone service but I switched to AT&T (the pay-as-you-go service) because the termination fees alone associated with any type of contract are bovine scat. I think termination fees in general should be eliminated. To me, a termination fee should only be issued if the company actually loses money because of a cancellation (i.e. if you didn't pay previous bills). For a regular cancellation, they don't lose money they just stop getting money. But that would only be in a perfect world where greed wasn't the root of all evil.

A few facts of my dealings with Verizon. I lived in town, and subscribed to Verizon phone and DSL for several years. Wonderful service, everything worked fine. I moved to a rural area, and asked Verizon to move my account to my new address. "No Problem". I move there and my phone and internet is intermittant, at best, and out at most times. I call them at least a dozen times and they keep telling me nothing is wrong.. I am receiving my services just fine. But I wasn't. The service was terrible. I keep calling and finally they tell me that I live so far out that I should expect bad service. WTF? I ask them for a refund on the bills I had paid from my new address and a reduction in my bill because my service is reduced. "Nope" "Wont' do it". I cancel my account, put my bill into dispute, and several months later I am still disputing it. Meanwhile, I get several calls a day from a bill collection agency trying to get me to pay for my non-service. It has affected my credit rating. It is annoying as hell, and very frustrating. I am not gong to pay them for services not rendered. Just my story.