T-Mobile proposes settlement for early termination fees

Class action suits against carrier early termination fees (ETFs) are nothing new, but now it appears one case may come to an end.

Though it has yet to be approved by the court, T-Mobile has proposed a settlement in an $11.5 million class action suit filed in August 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The suit alleges that T-Mobile broke federal and state laws when charging the ETFs.

The settlement would cover T-Mobile subscribers who were charged a flat-rate ETF from July 23, 1999 to February 19, 2009, or those whose service contract included an ETF during the same time period. The settlement would resolve several other pending cases that challenge T-Mobile's flat-rate ETFs.

T-Mobile customers who file a claim form will be eligible for one of three awards, according to the terms of the settlement. Customers who paid an ETF can receive up to $125. Customers who were charged an ETF but did not pay and did not receive a full credit within 30 days, can receive up to $25.

"Non-cash" relief will be provided for customers who had an ETF in their contract. Such relief could include 50 bonus minutes a month for three months, 100 bonus text messages a month for three months, "T-Mobile HotSpot" access for three days, or the right to have your contract with T-Mobile contain a prorated ETF. T-Mobile began prorating ETFs in June 2008.

[QualityFrog]

What about those of us improperly charged a fee for contracts that had expired who refused to pay and have had their credit impacted by T-Mobile?

[James7777777]

Why would someone sign a contract and then end it early? Are they too stupid to realize that a 2-year contract means you are committed for 2 years? It's even worse that it's T-Mobile as they supported 1-year contracts longer then everyone else, and still allow for them.

People should be forced to pay for stupidity, I don't see the point to both the legislation and the lawsuit. It will just make all other subscribers pay more. Makes you wonder what happened to survival of the fit.

[QualityFrog]

In my case: T-Mobile took over 40 days to port numbers. T-Mobile sold me phones when I live in an area not covered by their service. T-Mobile insisted that I had service when I did not. T-Mobile told my wife to get in her car and drive 2 miles from the house every time she wanted to use her phone. T-Mobile extended my contract without my authorization. I canceled during a time T-Mobile advertised that anyone could get out of the contract at any time. T-Mobile also refused to provide copy of the contract at the time it was put into effect. T-Mobile refused to go to arbitration as their contact at the time of dispute required. T-Mobile refused to admit that their employees could make mistakes. A T-Mobile collection rep even told me the only way to resolve the issue with them was to file criminal charges against the unknown (to me) employee that extended my contact without authorization.

T-Mobile has the customer service of a company owned by what used to be a monopoly. I seriously doubt that all the people charged early termination fees are people who violated whatever contract they had with T-Mobile.

[bknowledge]

Just last month T-Mobile renewed my contract for another year after I had been on month-to month for 10 months saying that someone had called them to accept the renewal and wanted to charge me $200 if I left. It took me emailing their Executive Response team & two weeks to finally have them correct their mistake. So it's not always that you broke your contract, it's they screwed up.

[James7777777]

@QualityFrog

All your cases should have been settled in the first 30 days before the contract is set. If you had canceled in those 30 days it would not have been a problem. Though with all your drama I have a feeling this is more a case of user error then anything else.

@bknowledge

Since they screwed up, you did not end up paying an early termination fee. They might have made it harder then they should have, but in the end you did not pay so you do not qualify for the suit. The people involved are cases where it was not T-Mobile's mistake, but instead their inability to hold their end of a signed contract.

[chickenstheycometheygo]

what about people who moved mid-contract to a place with no service? should they be penalized for the 'stupidity' of moving? how about people who started a job somewhere they don't get service (and considering we spend a lot a time at work and receive important calls while there, it's pretty important to have service there)?

also, QualityFrog said explicitly that they cancelled in those 30 days. nice try, though.

[Throgged]

@ QualityFrog
That was exactly what i was thinking. "up to $125" is not worth much when you compare it to the negative stain that unpaid balance left on their CreditScores.

Meh. At least it's a step in the right direction. next i'd like to see the mandatory 2 year contracts go by wayside of extinct! Highway robbery that those contracts are...

[furonius]

Seriously people you should read what you sign when you go to a store, If you ask questions and pay attention to whats going on you wouldnt find yourself in a situation where youre stuck in a contract. Also contracts allow cell phone companys to give discounts off new phones, otherwise people would just get the "free" phone a million times and sell them on (enter favorite internet store here) for not free. How else could you get a 500 dollar phone for under 200?

[JCPayne]

What about if that wrecked someone's credit scrore/was placed on someone's credit report causing people to get charged more on other services. T-Mobile should have to provide restitution for that too.

[noah1164]

Yeah...it's also pretty sad when you depend on only a cell phone and you move and find out that the phone doesn't get reception in the apartment. I had to actually go out of the apartment and into the parking lot to talk. And that meant no incoming calls that I could see. I live in WA...gets tiring standing in the rain to talk. Too bad we all can't live your perfect little world... must be nice living in a world of make believe where you have no complaints because after all...you research everything and never had a problem. Good for you. Too bad the world as you know it won't be around for much longer either, seeing its already been shot but not yet fallen. Maybe we should have read that contract.hmmm

[Suebeeee]

I run a company that was sold a whole truckload of BS from the salesperson..."We'll send people out to train your employees" (They had no one to do this), our phones can port to be a modem for your laptops (again bs). We started requesting help within days of receipt of the phones and five months later, after going for three weeks without the phones taking messages, bringing in emails or texts, we had enough. We called, called and called to try and resolve the whole early termination process BEFORE we terminated. We had no choice. My small company changed over to AT&T. T-Mobile continued to charge us fees!!!

Maybe a new class action suit is in order.