Verizon Ups Regulatory Charge $0.03, Will Pay Difference for Life of Contract Instead of Waiving ETF

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There was a whole bunch of Regulatory Charge talk going on around these parts over the last week or so, and we’ve got some additional information on it today to pass along to those of you looking to exit your VZW contract.  If you need to catch up on this story, you’ll want to read this post first, followed by this post.

According to our sources, Verizon did indeed up the Regulatory Charge by $0.03 and did not offset the cost in another area.  That technically counts as a material adverse effect since it raises your bill and should allow you to exit your contract without paying an ETF (early termination fee), except Verizon is taking another approach.

At this time, they are willing to credit your account for this new 3 cent charge for the life of your current contract and are denying requests for free early terminations.  So basically this menas that Big Red would be handing you back $0.72, assuming you have an entire 2 years left on your contract rather than let you walk away without paying a fee.

While I’m no lawyer and am not about to make any predictions on whether or not they can legally do this, I will say that this appears to go against their own customer agreement which clearly states, “…this agreement has a material adverse effect on you, you can cancel the line of Service that has been affected within 60 days of receiving the notice with no early termination fee.”

Update:  I should point out that in order to get this credit, you would have to call in to their customer service department.  They won’t just automatically  refund you the difference from this charge.

/shrug.

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