Warning: Cell Phones

[TAVS]

Never Ever get a shared plan with someone you're involved with. If you're married, sure, go for it. If you're dating; dont even think about it. I signed a 2-yr contract with my Ex about 10 months ago. Everything was great at the time and we were planning to get married but now of course we're separated.

Anyway, I'm told her dad got her a new cell phone, and plan, for Christmas. The catch? She has to pay for the service. Anyway, she can barely afford one plan let alone two so she wants to cancel the plan she has shared with me. That comes with a $200 penalty. She can't afford that and I certainly don't want to. Looks like I'm going to have a battle on my hands.

[Lloyd95]

Why would you have a penalty? Aren't you keeping your cell phone? Just drop her extra line.

[TAVS]

Here's what I got via email when I inquired

"If you cancel the second line on your account while still in a Service
Agreement, you will be charged an Early Termination Fee of $200.00. If
you want to cancel this line, please respond to this email with the
Wireless Phone Number you want to cancel and any passcode on the account
and I will forward your request to our specialized Account Services
department for completion. If you do not have a passcode on your account,
please also include two of the following for authorization purposes:

*CLIP*

There would be no charge to change your rate plan to the Sprint Fair &
Flexible 400 plan for $34.99 per month. You would, however, need to agree
to a new two-year Service Agreement and the change would not take effect
until the beginning of your next billing cycle. Additionally, while this
plan includes Unlimited Nationwide Walkie-Talkie usage, it does not
include any Walkie-Talkie minutes and you would incur a $0.15 per minute
charge for any Walkie-Talkie calls. You can add Unlimited Walkie-Talkie
Minutes to the plan for $10.00 per month."

[vashti]

This reminds me of people who buy homes together before getting married. Ugh - bad idea on a much larger scale.

She really wouldn't pay the penalty TAVS? Damn, that's cold.

EDIT: Walkie-talkies? Is that a joke?

[misombra]

well tavs, that's what happens when you decide to move in a get joint accounts on everything after a month of dating.

[TAVS]

well tavs, that's what happens when you decide to move in a get joint accounts on everything after a month of dating.

No No No. I was with her for four years before we did stuff like that. Aside from the phone we dont have anything joint; including the House we got a year ago, which is in my name only.

My new girlfriend is the one moving in after only 3 months.

[Lloyd95]

Walkie talkies is that push to talk thingy that Nextel has had. Quite annoying in my opinion. But Nextel teamed up with Sprint.

TAVS-you can drop her line with no charge, you just start your 2 year agreement over. Sucks. I just bought a new phone and it restarted my 2 years; and I'm with Verizon.

[Tone]

Yeah call them - don't send them e-mails cause then they can find every excuse and BS with you for so long you'll want to just pay the $200.

Talk to them person to person and it's a whoooole new story.

[blackiesharley]

Never Ever get a shared plan with someone you're involved with. If you're married, sure, go for it. If you're dating; dont even think about it. I signed a 2-yr contract with my Ex about 10 months ago. Everything was great at the time and we were planning to get married but now of course we're separated.

Anyway, I'm told her dad got her a new cell phone, and plan, for Christmas. The catch? She has to pay for the service. Anyway, she can barely afford one plan let alone two so she wants to cancel the plan she has shared with me. That comes with a $200 penalty. She can't afford that and I certainly don't want to. Looks like I'm going to have a battle on my hands.

Oh shit. I hope that you're not talking about Verizon. Read my thread 'Xmas dinner-would this bother you?' and you'll see what I mean. Although I didn't sign anything and will gladly return the phone to her, I sure as hell don't want a bill for $200. Last time I accept an 'eletronic leash' from anybody.

Good luck.

[misombra]

at least its a phone and not a house and children. right lloyd?

[Lloyd95]

at least its a phone and not a house and children. right lloyd?

Absol-freakin-lutely.

[Bigg Boss]

Never Ever get a shared plan with someone you're involved with. If you're married, sure, go for it. If you're dating; dont even think about it. I signed a 2-yr contract with my Ex about 10 months ago. Everything was great at the time and we were planning to get married but now of course we're separated.

Anyway, I'm told her dad got her a new cell phone, and plan, for Christmas. The catch? She has to pay for the service. Anyway, she can barely afford one plan let alone two so she wants to cancel the plan she has shared with me. That comes with a $200 penalty. She can't afford that and I certainly don't want to. Looks like I'm going to have a battle on my hands.

I think you signed 2yrs agreement to stick with the same plan/phone. Therefore, yeah, you gotta pay 200 bucks to cancel.

Yep, that sucks. And you got 14 months left... Hmmm... What would cost less? Paying 200 bucks now and get it over with? Or go another 14 months where you two help each other with the old contract?

[indigosoul]

Hmmm. Tough one. Had something similar happen w/my husband (who "lost" his cellphone on purpose--he's a strange technophobe in some ways). Anyway, we had to pay the $200 (it would've cost more to pay the $35/month for another 12 months). I will attempt to recover the money when my contract comes up for renewal in a couple of months, BTW. No reimbursement, no renewal

A couple things come to mind:

1. Ask her to pay you the full amount for 1/2 the phone rate for the next 14 months (if this works out to < $200). Make sure you get the phone back from her.

2. Ask her to pay the $200 to cancel the account.

3. If she causes trouble or balks, then YOU cancel YOUR account and pay the $200. This assumes that she also signed the contract. Then they will go after her for any part of her account and you are free.

Hope this helps.

[TAVS]

So I talked to the person at the store. She claimed a $150 penalty but suggested I call customer service because sometimes they have more options available than she does. I'll call them but I only want to call once so I want to get confirmation that the Ex is going to take responsibility before I call.....Not that I have a choice, even a $200 fee is better than the alternatives. Billing cycle is not up until Jan 17th so I have a few days to figure it out.

The problem is, she doesn't have $200 (haha, girl had it good when I supported her ass). She might be willing to do some sorta payment plan with me. Anyway, hopefully this is my last post on the subject; my goal wasn't to try and get advice. Then again, the board is awefully slow lately.

[Hugo Pickle]

Hey man if she doesn't want the phone anymore there is always Judge Judy. He he, sorry man couldn't help it. But seriously small claims court is exactly what this is for. Hey, she broke up with you, she doesn’t want the phone, oh well lady, buck up and pay the bill or Jimmy “The Fist” comes knocking on your door. (just a joke man)

Women, man let me tell you what a co worker did, hope this cheers you up.

Ok, so this jeep comes screaming down the road and screeches to a halt at the front door of the building. Out comes my coworker screaming her head off saying “Where’s the oil!” (We always have a quart of oil in the closet for the vehicles at work) I point to the closet (was halfway downing a can of coke.) She tears open the closet and grabs the oil and leaves. A few seconds later she comes back in the building and says “how do I open the hood?” I go outside to her smoking hot car and open the hood for her and slowly enter the building shaking my head from side to side. Just as I sit down at the deskA again you know who barges through the door like a police officer screaming so loud that other people a few buildings away could have heard her, “It’s on fire!” “Help me!”

I jump from my seat and scramble out the door of the building to a car slowly engulfing itself in flames. I run back to the back of the building and grab the hose (this woman yelling at me to hurry up the whole time.) I hose down the car and extinguish the flaming engine of the vehicle just in the nick of time before major damage to electrical components and other things happens. After the flames go out and the smoke clears my co-worker says “great now there’s water in my engine” Getting pissed now I say out loud, “Well then maybe you shouldn’t catch it on fire then huh!”

I leave the hose running and go back inside to my can of coke. After a minuet she comes in and says she is sorry for yelling at me and thanks me for the help. I say to her “I just didn’t want the building to burn down.” A tear wells up in her eye and she begins to tell me why all this happened.

You see she knew her car was out of oil because the light had been on for 2 days. She tells me that she knows from past experience that you can’t drive with the light on for more than 2 days because then the car will “just break” and “cost a lot of money” So this morning she “thought”
about stopping by a gas station to get oil but after spending too much time on her makeup she was going to be late for work. SO she drove her jeep at light speed to get to work because she said “the faster I got to work then I could use the oil here and not be late either.” After getting to work and having me open the hood she (not ever putting oil into a car before) didn’t realize that the oil would spill everywhere. She makes a side comment on the “stupid bottle” sucking and being a bad design for the job, then she goes on to tell me that she had no idea it would catch fire like that so quickly. At this point I get up to get another drink and attempt to change the subject.

Yeah so women, (smirks) gota love em, they can be the best thing, the worst thing, and everything else in between.