HOW TO GET OUT OF A CELL PHONE CONTRACT

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Some Steps to Consider:

• Ask your cell phone company to waive the early termination fee.
• Escalate your request to a local sales director or Vice President
• Be a squeaky wheel. Say you want out because the service isn't up to par.  Then back that up by filing official complaints online with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.
• Get a lemon. Get a known problematic phone, complain 3 times, be let out of a contract due to your local lemon law.
• What is a Transfer of contract Responsibility (TOR)?
  Do a transfer of contract responsibility.  A Transfer of Responsibility is a service offered by all cell phone service providers which permits cell phone subscribers to transfer the remaining months of their service contract to another party. Once the transfer is completed the person who claimed responsibility is then responsible for the remaining months of the contract.
• Try a service called TradeMyCellular.com
• Look for your provider to bury changes to Terms of Service with your bill. Quite often providers modify their service plans, much of the time the modification is a benefit. It doesn't matter, this voids the previous contract. Read the small print on those inserts included with your bill, it will spell out that you have 30 days (may vary on where you live) to cancel your contract with no charge simply because they changed the contract. With SprintPCS, call customer service and ask them to use the "maintenance screen" to enable "direct mailing notification" which will notify you via text message whenever changes are made to your contract.

Other ideas that some have had success with:

• Get off the grid. If you move and cannot get the same level of service as your previous location, tell your service provider. They're not legally required to cut you loose, but frustrated consumers have reported success.
• Join the army. If you are a member of the US Armed Services and you receive orders to somewhere the company doesn't provide service they are obligated to cancel your contract free of charge. Keep in mind, you'll have to provide a copy of your official orders. Your base legal office should be able to provide you with free assistance in working with the company.
• Overuse Free Roaming. Most phones come with free roaming now. But it's not actually free. The company pays it for you. So all you do is go to an area that is considered roaming (and when you have free nights or weekends) and place a long (5 hours?) phone call to "Moviefone" or something along those lines. You can also set your phone to only roam and instead of utilizing its own network it will search for others and utilize those. This will start adding up for them in the fees they have to pay to the service provider in that area and they will kick you out of the contract.
• Force them to produce the signed contract. Tell them you didn't get a copy of the contract (which actually is pretty likely) and ask them to produce a copy and mail it to you. In many cases, copies haven't been scanned into the database, especially with recent mergers, and if they can't produce a copy, the most they can legally hold you to is a year.
• Shrink your plan. As a last resort, cut back to the bare minimum the provider allows and drop any frills, like picture-messaging. Depending on the number of months you have left, this could be cheaper than paying the typically prorated termination fee, which can often run up to $300. However, at some cellular companies changing your plan, even to reduce it, may extend it for at least another year, so do the math first to make certain it will actually save you money.
• Contact the FCC. If you have a valid complaint(s), contact the Federal Communications Commission (FCC, USA only). Typically, your case will be reviewed and the FCC will contact the phone company. In most cases, the phone company will avoid any confrontations with this government body, and will choose to be agreeable and expedite the necessary steps to resolve the complaint. List your opinion for the only valid resolution to be that of contract cancellation without applying fees.
• Dead?? If your cellphone happens to be in someone's name who recently deceased (spouse, Dad, Mom, the CEO/Owner of your workplace) - call and get the service cancelled.

 Tips

• Think carefully before you sign another contract. If you're reading this article, chances are excellent that you understand the basic nature of mobile service carriers. There are lots of alternatives that don't require contracts, and you might do well to consider one.
• Consider just paying the early termination fee. Take responsibility for your actions.  You entered the contract - honor it.  The Good News is that once you pay, your nightmare is over. Following the steps above can be an unpleasant pursuit that spans hours, days, even weeks. What's your time worth?
• If you have a contract with "Unlimited Nights and Weekends", then anything that the carrier does, or doesn't do, to limit the number of minutes you could use during that period is a potential contract violation on the carrier's part. This might work if you consistently receive 'all circuits are busy now' messages or poorer reception than advertised on their coverage maps. Plus it has the added value of being the truth.
• No contract is enforceable on a minor.