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Cell Phone Companies in Legal Battles Over Contracts Essay

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Cell Phone Contracts In the present day, most people have cell phones. It is also true that most people have a negative experience with a cell phone company imposing early termination fees. When people activate their cell service, they are forces to enter a binding contract for one to two years. If the customer agrees to the contract they will be obligated to pay the whole contract term or they will be assessed the early termination fee. However, the days of cell phone contracts early termination fees are beginning to change. Contract “A contract is a legally enforceable promise.” Lau, T., & Johnson, L. (2013). When people buy cell phones these days, they understand that they will be entering a legally enforceable promise. …show more content…

Personal experience with T- Mobile I had been a valued customer with T- Mobile since I was 17 and at the time of my dispute with this company I was 23 years old. Six years of being loyal and promptly paying my bill T-Mobile lost my business. Of course, they did not lose it right away. I was in the Navy during this time and was about to go on deployment to the Persian Gulf for at least 8 months. My contract was due to expire in 6 months and I did not want to pay for my service while I was not using it. I called and asked to terminate my service, because my service where I was stationed was less than par. However, I was told that if I wanted to terminate the contract I would have to pay the 200 hundred dollar early termination fee. On the other hand, place the phone on inactive status and pay 20 dollars a month. I was frustrated with these options so I told them I will pay the 20 dollars and when I get back from deployment I was going to switch carriers. The operator seemed if she did not care either way. After returning from deployment I switched to Verizon and long story short, I am currently with A&TT. Still, I see a change in the not too distant future. Ethical Issues The ethical issue that arises with cell phone early termination fees is when the service is not providing quality service. Not only do I mean cell service, but customer service. People pay good money for cell phones every month and they should expect

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