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MagicalPig
join:2008-07-25

MagicalPig to saintj1

Member

to saintj1

Re: Formerly Unlimited (really) 3G card

Yeah if you are under contract you can get out of it without the ETF. What they did is considered "a material change". i think the timeline is 30 days (might be wrong). After that you agree to the change by default.
criggs
join:2000-07-14
New York, NY

criggs

Member

said by MagicalPig:

i think the timeline is 30 days (might be wrong). After that you agree to the change by default.

In my case, I called as soon as I got the notice and

1) informed them that I did NOT agree to the change and
2) was NOT terminating the contract.

According to a lawyer friend of mine who is NOT an expert in this specific area, that protects me at least until they try to start charging me overage fees.

I'm still working out what I'm going to do when and if they start doing that.

Nor am I sure that just telling them over the phone cannot be ignored by Sprint. For all I know, they can still claim that one is past the 30 days and still using the service, and therefore that one has agreed to the change.
suceress
join:2008-04-04

suceress

Member

Maybe you can get your lawyer friend to draft a formal letter to them. Most things require you have written notice. If you still have time, you should send them a written letter stating that you do not agree to the change.

Unfortunately I'm fairly sure that they will terminate the contract anyway. You might ask them for a credit to your account for your trouble since they violated the contract and reduced your service. I don't know if that would fly though.

I'm still waiting for my modem to arrive so I can test out Millenicom.

What did they say to you on the phone when you informed them of your decision?

MagicalPig
join:2008-07-25

MagicalPig to criggs

Member

to criggs
Yeah I suspect they will just pretend to have not gotten the call. lol As suceress suggested, get it in writing.

On the side, you could prob cancel the contract and go monthly. I would think Sprint would rather keep you monthly then losing you entirely. That way you can see how your usage turns out. But be prepared to pay for any overages on the last bill. From what I have read once you 'ignore' the notice they tech have you bent over. They have the right to enforce the contract.
criggs
join:2000-07-14
New York, NY

criggs to suceress

Member

to suceress
said by suceress:

Maybe you can get your lawyer friend to draft a formal letter to them. Most things require you have written notice. If you still have time, you should send them a written letter stating that you do not agree to the change.

Good idea, thanks. I'll run it by him.
said by suceress:

You might ask them for a credit to your account for your trouble since they violated the contract and reduced your service.

Hadn't thought of that either, thanks. However to ask for a credit concedes that the change has taken place. My current position is that they have not assessed me any overage fees and so far have not broken the contract. Furthermore I have told them I'm proceeding on the basis that I expect cooler heads to prevail at Sprint and that they will not, in the end, break the contract. Consequently I have not been damaged or injured by them yet, and therefore am not requesting any sort of recompense for that damage or injury.
said by suceress:

What did they say to you on the phone when you informed them of your decision?

They were extremely upset. They never said A WORD about the 30-day clock on the ETF waiver. Instead they tried their damnedest to persuade me to cancel the account and accept the waiver. They obviously didn't have a script for someone who refuses to cancel and refuses to accept the waiver. In fact, the first rep really seemed very uneasy. After trying to persuade me for about ten minutes, he transferred me to his supervisor (I didn't even ask to speak to him), who then basically had exactly the same conversation with me. I had the distinct impression they were improvising, and really were at a loss. Definitely not the response they were expecting.
criggs

criggs to MagicalPig

Member

to MagicalPig
said by MagicalPig:

On the side, you could prob cancel the contract and go monthly. I would think Sprint would rather keep you monthly then losing you entirely.

Surprisingly, not true, though you think it would be. As you can see in my previous reply this morning, they bent over backwards trying to get me to cancel the account and accept the ETF waiver. They are EAGER to lose me as a customer (don't forget that my normal monthly download is 60 gigs).

Also if I go monthly, I've effectively conceded the point that my unlimited 4G is gone, and that I'll be paying overage fees. My formal legal position is that I don't expect that to happen, and therefore don't see a reason either to cancel the account or to accept an ETF waiver.
said by MagicalPig:

That way you can see how your usage turns out.

Not much of a mystery, I'm afraid. I'm running about 60 gigs a month. About 15 of that is live audio streams from Europe, since I listen to a lot of live operas (we only do Saturday broadcasts over here but Europe does them pretty much every day). Plus Sirius runs a Metropolitan Opera online radio service that runs 7 days a week, and I normally listen to about two operas a day. That's probably about another 15 gigs per month. Then there's a lot of Youtube viewing and live stream viewing of news events which totals another 30 gigs.
said by MagicalPig:

From what I have read once you 'ignore' the notice they tech have you bent over.

Which is pretty much why I had that conversation with them to make clear that 1) I was not ignoring the notice and 2) I fully expected them not to follow through on their statement, which I told them I expected to end up being an empty threat.

Frankly, I still expect them to implement the overage fees, but at least, at that point, I can date the violation of the contract from that point, rather than from the point in time of the notice, which, at least, may help me lengthen the clock a bit.