Gadgetory

here is how cell phone contract works you agree to shell out a wad of cash each month for a couple of years and in return you can have a phone that normally costs hundreds of dollars for a fraction of the price or even for free pretty good deal right then why does C not receive a steady stream of complaints and questions about bailing on their contract early without paying up to $350 in penalty fees I'm Jessica dual core for C net and I'm gonna dish out some tips for getting out of your contract or at least for solving your underlying issue without coughing up the early termination fee you're not gonna like this but it is extremely difficult to squirm out of an early termination fee even in some cases when you're dead there are a few loophole clauses that could help you avoid the charge if the carrier were too seriously significantly drastically change the terms of your contract or if there are material negative changes to your service like to be really extreme one day you have full signal strength and the next day you have none even then a complaint could get you a signal booster or a bill credit so what do you do I say embrace your role is a squeaky wheel and hang out on hold with customer service yeah it's a pain I won't lie but it is worth every minute if you can resolve your problem rather than suffer in silence when in doubt you can always escalate to a supervisor in the loyalty department or in customer care managers generally have more power to make exceptions for you or at least to provide more detailed information on your situation you might be frustrated but I do warn you watch that temper you really don't want to be ticking off one of the few people who could actually help you carriers have also flocked to social networks like Twitter and Facebook in a big way and they have people on hand to help you fast they do not want you starting a Twitter riot so they'll get back to you another option is to use websites like sell trade USA which will match you up with someone who is willing to take over the rest of your contract the service costs $20 and expect tuned ago with her contracts new owner before sealing the deal in extreme cases there is also the option of arbitration which the carriers pay for but if you think that waiting on hold is bad then this is not the option for you keep in mind that the four major carriers now prorate their termination penalty fees which means that the closer you are to the end of your contract the less it will cost you to leave the bottom line is that your carrier will not release you from that agreement that you signed if you're interested it is fueled only by that shiny a new phone over there at the rival carrier if that's the case then you might as well start saving your pennies for that early termination fee or simply grate your teeth and write out your contract if you've got your own questions or comments about anything cell phone or smartphone related then you can email cnut's mobile crew as dialed in at cnet.com I'm Jessica's all-court foreseen it