The Cell Phone Text Fee Fiasco

[Rorschach]

I've been reading stories in the news this morning about people suing over certain cell phone carriers plans to charge a fee for receiving a text message on their cell phone. It does seem completely unreasonable because the expense is out of your control. It's probably a set up for text senders to opt to pay the receiver's fee, i.e., a raise in price to send a text. I like sending text messages online instead of via the phone to save costs and because I can't type on my phone. It's hard.

However, the point of this message is to let everyone know that when you are locked into a multi-year contract with a cell phone company, when they change the conditions of service like this, you can get out of the contract without having to pay the huge penalties they usually charge for that.

Of course, they won't tell you that, but that "out" is written into your contract if you actually kept a copy of your service agreement. So, there is no sense bothering to sue a carrier over this, you have an easy remedy - a change in the service agreement requires your consent. You can decide not to agree. There's usually a notice in fine print that if you don't promptly let them know you don't agree they will assume you do agree - an implied consent.

I wonder why the newspaper isn't reporting this simple remedy for so many cell phone users? So much wasted space about people complaining and wanting to sue. If there are any newspaper reporters lurking, move a story on this. Consult your paper's lawyer and he/she will tell you about this simple contract principle and maybe you can help a few people out there and put a stop to this kind of extortion.

[Mike K.]

I wasn't aware of that, Rors. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Phil McAvity]

While your suggestion may result in saving the early termination fee, the problem is that when you opt out of your contract you are then left with no cell phone provider so when you go and sign up with another company, that company will put the boots to you for text messages anyway.

I can't imagine why people use their cell phones for text messaging anyway. I've found it to be extremely laborious. You could say the same thing in about 1/10th the time it takes to text message someone.

[Mike K.]

If you use A9 it's actually quite easy to type on your phone. A9 is a standard that attempts to identify the word you want to spell with only a few clicks of the number keys. If it can't identify the word, it presents options for you based on the keys you've clicked so you can scroll down and select the word you want to use. Once you get the hang of it text messaging on a cell phone can be just as fast as typing on a keyboard.

[Dylan Leblanc]

text is good for sending someone info they need to have written down, like an address or phone number

[gumgum]

I text when I don't have time to chat. It saves time sometimes.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Dylan Leblanc

text is good for sending someone info they need to have written down, like an address or phone number

That's the time I use it most. I also use it to message multiple people (like many staff members) at the same time with the same message. That's real handy.

[Rorschach]

Originally Posted by Phil McAvity

While your suggestion may result in saving the early termination fee, the problem is that when you opt out of your contract you are then left with no cell phone provider so when you go and sign up with another company, that company will put the boots to you for text messages anyway.

Not all the carriers charge the incoming text fee, so you have to shop for a new cell phone carrier. With number portability between the carriers available pretty easily, you can keep your same number.

I know that all the carriers can set you up to disable text altogether and they can disable any of the other included features too if you want.

[Mike K.]

Fido doesn't charge incoming fees.