Can you hear me now? Good.
“These niggaz ain’t thugs, the real thugs is the government.” ~ Talib Kweli, Reflection Eternal
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE FROM A NON-TECHIE. Early termination fees? No, thank you.
Generally speaking, I’m a pretty upstanding citizen. I don’t advocate taking down The Man or bucking the system. I will soon have two higher education degrees and I pay my bills on time . . . most of the time. I brush my teeth, I help blind people cross the street, I tell my family and my partner that I love them. Did I mention that I usually pay my bills on time?
This becomes relevant because this month, I decided to break free from this upstanding citizenship that has gotten me nothing but robbed for the last undisclosed number of months (too many, if you ask me) from a company I’ll refer not-so-discreetly to as VzN. But, I’m not the only one questioning these crooks. Apparently, the LA Times and the FCC have a question mark about them, too. The FCC is asking major telcomms to break it down: why the early termination fees, yo?
Personally, I signed up for a $59.99/month plan for an air card that allowed me to have Internet anywhere by just plugging the thing into my USB port. Sounded sweet. And for awhile, it was! My air card and I lived happily around the country, getting reception wherever we pleased. But then, “..a DJ changed my life!” and my techie partner was using more Internet when we shared a computer than I ever had as a two-click Sally (I essentially use Microsoft Office and the Internet. I’m that basic of a computer user) and the fees tripled. They hit me with $160 in overusage fees for three consecutive months! I, the faithful consumer, paid without question. Translation: the stupid, uninquiring consumer. When I called to investigate, their “courtesy” to me was to drop the charges down a bit (if I had ID, I wouldn’t need ID — or, if VzN HAD my back, I wouldn’t need to ASK them to have my back).
The icing on my bank account came this month, though, when they charged me…DRUMROLLLL!!!!
$850 in overages.
Technically, I think I could just leave the blog entry there and anyone reading would quickly terminate his/her VzN services immediately. But, if I did, I’d be leaving out the sprinkles on TOP of the financial icing, which is that VzN also wants me to give them $90 for canceling. The NERVE of the routine question that followed, “Ma’am, I understand that you’ll be canceling your services today. May I inquire as to why you will be leaving the company?” My face the color of a beet and 20 halved pens brutalized by my clamping teeth, I asked, “If your cell phone company charged you 800 times more than your monthly bill, would you change companies?”
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…here’s the craziest thing I’ve heard all day. The folks at Google and T-Mobile, treacherous team of two that they are, want you to pay $550 ($350 to Google and $200 to T-Mobile) for Early Termination Fees (ETFs). I really hope you didn’t buy that Nexus thingie. I thought I had it bad!
I’m going to start saving all the money my old tech provider has been stealing from charging me today and invest that, plus the money I’ll save only drinking water (check the next post), in something worthwhile . . . like clean drinking water for our friends in Uganda or community development and women’s empowerment in my mom’s home country, Burma.
What would you do with $199 USD? My good friend, Dr. Kyra Gaunt, explores that here:
Nokia Responsiveness – Kyra Gaunt
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