This seems a bit curious, and there might actually be something behind it. I read a few places on Monday that Verizon was raising its regulatory charge by 3 cents on July 1. Most outlets covering speculated that you could perhaps terminate your Verizon contract pursuant to this new rate. That’s always interesting. No one likes being contractually bound to a cellular carrier, and so the ability to clip your contract and free yourself can feel liberating. But this does seem a bit odd. Terminating your contract over a 3 cent rate raise? Something’s up. The Consumerist is always on things like this. As expected, they laid out the route for you. Call up customer service and ask for the Retention Department. You can then point out the fee raise — call it a material adverse change, since that’s the language in the contract — and apparently they will let you walk with no early termination fee. You can then play the field and check out what Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, and even prepaid carriers such as Cricket and MetroPCS, have to offer. Ah, but be careful what you wish for, my grandmother always told me. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re an Android users. As such, you probably aren’t too happy with Verizon’s decision to implement tiered data plans starting July 7th. When I wrote about the situation, I said that once they remove the grandfather clause and put everyone on tiers, that I’d leave. Well, this gives you the opportunity to walk away right now. But that’s kind of backwards. Wouldn’t non-Verizon customers want to sign up now, while they can still get in on unlimited? Therein lies the ploy. Why would Verizon drop such a minuscule rate raise on you, knowing that you can use that to terminate your contract? It makes so little sense. Why not wait and start implementing the fee when people re-sign their contract? That way you can assess the fee and not worry about people exiting their contracts over three friggin cents. It make so little sense that it seems to me that Verizon is simply betting on itself. Yeah, you can get out of your contract, they’re saying. But when you come crawling back you’ll be on our data tiers, rather than unlimited. Maybe I’m off here, and Verizon is in a tough position where they have to raise the fee now. But the timing is a bit too coincidental. Sure, go ahead, exit your contract. But if you have the same complaints about your new carrier as you do Verizon — and, having read tens of thousands of user cell service reviews, I’m sure you will — going back to Verizon will cost you plenty. The idea of getting out of your contract might seem tempting, but for right now Verizon customers are better off keeping their grandfathered unlimited data plans.
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