Suit against Cell phone company

[LesMcgee]

I have a question?
I canceled my cellphone contract early and they want to charge me a $150.00 dollar breach of contract fee per phone. I feel that this contract is unfair, I promise everything and they promise nothing. I have been having problems with these "new and improved" phones for over three months. I gave them a chance to fix this problem but to no avail. Please inform me if I have a case. I do not wish to pay this.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by LesMcgee
I have a question?
I canceled my cellphone contract early and they want to charge me a $150.00 dollar breach of contract fee per phone. I feel that this contract is unfair, I promise everything and they promise nothing. I have been having problems with these "new and improved" phones for over three months. I gave them a chance to fix this problem but to no avail. Please inform me if I have a case. I do not wish to pay this.

You are probably best to send them a letter, certified return receipt about the problems you had and why they breached your contact first, detailing every item and why it was a major breach. The best would be to indicate as to how the problem was significant, you attempted numerous times to contact them and allow them to 'cure' their breach but they did not do so. You were thus forced to go elsewhere.

You should have sent this letter prior to canceling your contract.

Note, if you think your letter is unconvincing and you didn't have good reason to cancel then you will likely lose in court if they come after you. Then you will have to pay for their collection fees and that could get expensive. Decide how strong your case is before you let this drag on...

 

[LesMcgee]

One of the main reasons I am asking is because my dad told me something along the lines of "if the contract is unfair or unjust" that it is invalid and will not hold up in court. He also said he heard that some small claims cases have been won this way, but indication that the contract is indeed unfair, because you promise everything and they really promise you nothing, because they can't. Just checking to see if you might have any info on some small claims cases that had been in favor of the little guy that got screwed, or in any case whther threat of suit or actually filing the suit might encourage them to drop the matter? what do you think?

 

[NYClex]

well, there are cases in which the contracts are held to have been invalid, but your case does not belong to them. The reasoning is this:

The cellphone company gives you a certain price for using the service, let's say $ 50 for 1000 minutes a month. The condition is that you sign up for 2 years.

You could also get a non-binding service, for example pre paid, but there you pay $ .40 per minute usage, or $ 400 for 1000 minutes.

So what the phone company is giving you for binding yourself to them for 2 years in this example is the better rate, savings of $ 350 per month.

This is only one example how the phone company gives you something in exchange. It could also be the free phone or a special price on the phone etc.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is true. However, I think that the original poster's complaint might be due to the fact that the cell phone they sold him was highly defective or didn't work as planned in a significant manner. I have seen this happen before as these companies try to suck you in with phones whose testing must have been done by monkeys... well, let's not insult monkeys.

It really depends upon how long you have used the phone and service. If it was a month or maybe two, it is possible that the service will not bother you because they know the issue. I've heard of successful small claims cases as a result of this. However, the longer you use the service the less of a problem the problems are and your case is weakened. I find that most really know whether they have ulterior motives for moving and use good judgment -- if you wouldn't buy your own case then chances are they won't either plus they have leverage.

Originally posted by NYClex
well, there are cases in which the contracts are held to have been invalid, but your case does not belong to them. The reasoning is this:

The cellphone company gives you a certain price for using the service, let's say $ 50 for 1000 minutes a month. The condition is that you sign up for 2 years.

You could also get a non-binding service, for example pre paid, but there you pay $ .40 per minute usage, or $ 400 for 1000 minutes.

So what the phone company is giving you for binding yourself to them for 2 years in this example is the better rate, savings of $ 350 per month.

This is only one example how the phone company gives you something in exchange. It could also be the free phone or a special price on the phone etc.