“Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Monday that she will introduce a measure to prevent US cellular carriers from raising their early termination fees (ETFs) quickly,” Electronista reports.
“The move is a direct reaction to Verizon’s decision to double ETF rates for ‘advanced devices’ like the Droid to deter customers from exiting their service early,” Electronista reports.
“Klobuchar claims the rate hike has ‘little to no relation’ to the cost of the phone and that it punishes those who depend on cellphones and have to quit for honest reasons, such as moving into regions that don’t have coverage,” Electronista reports.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Sheesh.
These guys will legislate anything.
@ Chrissy
We now have the scientific proof that Liberals are smarter than Conservatives.
@ Giles
You had me at “Sarah Palin”.
Thanks ChrissyOne, you rock!
Kudos to Minnesota Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar for this bill.
It’s about time someone does something about these outrageous fees!
Thanks for the intelligent input, ChrissyOne.
Vote conservative —big corporations need your help!
I’m not sure I see what this is going to do. Will congress dictate what the early termination fees will be? The last time I renewed my contract, with verizon, that long piece of paper I signed said exactly what the terminations fees were. When I signed it, there is no way they can send me a letter and say they are raising the fee. It’s a signed contract. If AT7T want high termination fees, that’s up to them, but once you sign the contract, then I see no way they can change it (I looked at my old one and it had the dollar figure, not ‘ETF subject to change’). Am I missing something? I can’t see why this is needed.
Vote liberal – BIG government needs your help
“Vote liberal – BIG government needs your help”
Haha. Funny. Not that this makes things right or wrong but the Wallstreet that liberals complain of is owned by and employs Mainstreet.
@ChrissyOne;
The only reason GOP’ers aren’t giving you better material is quite simple… The only place GOP’ers “think the way you think they think” is in your mind.
Get over yourself, please. Your self declared superiority is annoying.
‘Wall Street is owned by Main Street’
Whaat? Main Street who exactly?? If you think that Chevy car dealer “owns” Wall Street, then you’re even more delusional that Carrie Prejean.
Mr Capitalist, you have that backwards [have you been drinking… and so early too?]
Are we sure that’s actually ChrissyOne? It doesn’t read like her normal posts… syntax, tone, etc…
Leave it to a Dem….
Why don’t they believe that capitalism works? Let the free markets do their job…. If the termination rates are too high, competition will resolve it… You always have the option of choosing a shorter contract period & paying a higher price for the device (that’s what I do & what Consumer Reports recommends)
The LAST thing we need is the Nanny-State stepping in to screw things up some more… These are the same morons in Congress who blew $800B on a so-called ‘stimulus’ to keep the unemployment rate below 8%… we all know how that went… Would you trust the vile Nazi Pelosi to run a lemonade stand? Whenever that liar speaks, I can hear the wind whistling through the pine trees in her mind. She’s had so many facelifts she looks like she’s in a perpetual wind tunnel!
This same scenario happened in California in the early days of cellular. In the Nanny-State’s view, CA decided that it was in the people’s best interest to not allow the cellular carriers to bundle phones & service contracts… It resulted in phones costing 10X as much as any other state in the nation b/c the carriers couldn’t subsidize them…
One of many great Ronald Reagan quotes; “The nine scariest words in the English language are; ‘I’m from the govt. and I’m here to help.'”
This bill hasn’t even reached committe yet, and already the brain dead among us are over reacting as is par for those who never took a civics course in their life.
Those of whining about govt intrusions and encroachment on wall street will be off and running to some other tea party before we’ve resolved this issue.
You aren’t interested in the truth, you just want to scream and yell while getting tea bagged.
How did this go from early termination cell phone contracts to gay marriage. I know our country is polarized, but this is ridiculous.
@ Capitalist
The commerce clause. It can be used to justify just about anything.
“Whaat? Main Street who exactly?? If you think that Chevy car dealer “owns” Wall Street, then you’re even more delusional that Carrie Prejean.”
Er, if the owner of that Chevy dealer or any of his/her employees have an IRA or 401K, they in fact DO own a piece of Wall St. (duh!) I think you’ve been listening to your Marxist college professors for too long who’ve never held a REAL job!
BTW, the only reason why libtards personally attack people’s intelligence like Carrie Prejean is b/c you have no intellectual arguments against them…
Remember, it was a vile libtard who thrust her into the national spotlight, she was just a young girl who, when asked a question, gave an honest answer….
The REAL reason why you attack people like Carrie is b/c libtard women are androgynous shrews w/ flat chests & hairy armpits… ala Rachel Maddow the Cow or simply fat & ugly like Joy Behar… (which is why liberal guys are all secretly gay… OR hide in their govt. subsidized housing secretly watching Megyn Kelly & Julie Banderas on Fox News w/ their doors locked & shades drawn!) LMAO!
IMHO congress has an obligation to ensure a level playing field. I don’t every remember the people granting congress the right to tell business what their policies and prices will be. We are losing our liberties.
Freedom = The ability to act without external influence.
Soon we will be able to say “there’s a law for that”.
This thread illustrates precisely why I hate politics soooo much even though I’m passionate about it—the knee-jerk bickering that tends to go on on each side of the issue. Number of minds changed: 0.
If I may venture an opinion…
The reason conservatives (like myself) are so skeptical of government regulations such as the one Mrs. Klobuchar is proposing is that all too often the unintended consequences rear their ugly heads later, sometimes well after the initial feel-good legislation has passed. Regulation on private businesses usually results in higher prices elsewhere to compensate for the new strains that they must endure, and at the very worst it causes businesses to close their doors.
It is so easy to demonize those of us who criticize moves like this because on the face of it, it SOUNDS like the cell carriers are price gouging (and maybe they are). But I would argue that there are other, more healthy mechanisms in place that are a waaay better option than government involvement.
HazMatt
These idiots needs to go tackle real issues. It’s none of the federal government’s business.
>>You aren’t interested in the truth, you just want to scream and yell while getting tea bagged.
Nah, we’re not interested in loser liberals who wouldn’t know how to work for what they have if their lives depended on it. You still living in mommy and daddy’s basement?
We’ve gone so long without any substantive consumer rights or protections that it seems many conservatives have forgotten what they look like.
You guys are so scared of government pinching your butt that you don’t even recognize when corporations leash you and bend you over.
Boy, I love how this president has polarized liberals and conservatives. Easy to forget these are problems INHERITED from a republican (but clearly not fiscally conservative) administration.
While I vehemently disagree with early termination fees, if the cost of the device is subsidized, then the company does have the right to recoup those costs. I would rather this be more clearly stated rather than tucked in termination fees.
“We’ve gone so long without any substantive consumer rights or protections that it seems many conservatives have forgotten what they look like.”
Sounds like you’ve gone so long w/o reading the US Constitution (if you ever) that you’ve forgotten what small govt. looks like….
What the Dems have delivered is exactly what the founding fathers warned against & attempted to codify in the Constitution….