Cell Phones

[jackrpr]

What does everyone think about the fact that congress is trynig to ban early termination fees on cell phone contract. I hope it doesn't go through because if it does. Cell phone company's wont give discounts on cell phones anymore, because no way to get the money back. We will be hurt in the long run by it.

[3red]

i dont care. cell phones are a dead end anyway, everything will be wi fi soon

[rbstern]

It sucks.

It means that we are not free to enter into perfectly legal contracts with other citizens (including corporate citizens), designed to benefit both parties, because big brother is worried about a small group of people in our society who don't know which end is up and need government handholding before signing a simple contract.

This is going to have far reaching ramifications.

[Jon Hiller]

What does everyone think about the fact that congress is trynig to ban early termination fees on cell phone contract. I hope it doesn't go through because if it does. Cell phone company's wont give discounts on cell phones anymore, because no way to get the money back. We will be hurt in the long run by it.


I think you could be right. I have a friend who works for Alltel, and from what he says, what they pay versus what we are actually charged for a phone when we sign a contract are two completely different things. They often lose pretty big money on a phone in order to get new customers on board. I personally see where you could get into a situation where you were over your head with your contract's fees, but if you aren't smart enough to figure out what you need or don't need regarding a phone contract, then you probably have other issues to deal with. What are those who complain about termination fees (presumably because they can't afford to stay in their current contracts) going to say when phones quadruple in price (or go up even more than that) because of their crying about the termination fees? You know it will happen.

[nice keetee]

Buy the phone and then pay for the plan

[Fred Fartboski]

How about cell service providers not charge hundreds of dollars for phones that cost them only four or five dollars per unit?

[whiteop]

What does everyone think about the fact that congress is trynig to ban early termination fees on cell phone contract. I hope it doesn't go through because if it does. Cell phone company's wont give discounts on cell phones anymore, because no way to get the money back. We will be hurt in the long run by it.

prob a knee jerk reaction to one of the Congressman's not being able to cancel his kids cell phone account without having to pay those pesky early termination fees. Anyone with a shred of common sense knows they'll start charging us full price for their over priced phones anyway. Of course, I guess it's no big deal when you pull down a 6 figure income with tons of perks.

[DonK]

It sucks.

It means that we are not free to enter into perfectly legal contracts with other citizens (including corporate citizens), designed to benefit both parties, because big brother is worried about a small group of people in our society who don't know which end is up and need government handholding before signing a simple contract.

This is going to have far reaching ramifications.

I agree with the principle: Congress should stay out of it. Private consumers can vote with their feet and their pocketbooks.

OTOH, as a practical matter I doubt it would prevent cell phone companies from selling discounted phones. Cellular companies will do whatever it takes to attract customers - and cheap hardware buy-in is the only thing proven to work in an instant-gratification starved society. The cost of subsidizing upfront costs ("discounted" phones) will be covered by other charges. I'll note that I think it's questionable whether consumers are getting "discounted" phones in the first place. You can buy a powerful laptop for less than the price of some PDA phones, which leads me to believe those phones are priced well above their cost.