Skip the line to pay the cellphone termination fee
January 11, 2007 – 1:34 pmI was reading my daily TechCrunch email about an new company called CellSwapper that allows you to get out of your existing cell phone contract by selling or giving it away with additional cash or the phone accessories. They charge a fee for the service, but around $15, which pales in comparison to the $250 fee the carriers charge.
The About Us page of CellSwapper perfectly plays out the idea of finding a problem and coming up with a solution.
I think this is a great idea, and just like TechCrunch, I’m interested to see how it pans out. Obviously, the timing is great, like the article mentions, with the launch of the new iPhone, and people inevitably switching to Cingular.
Verizon announced in November the details of their new pro-rating termination fee program. I think this makes sense, and somewhat reduces the risk of picking any specific carrier.
Even still, the carriers trying to trick us the termination fee is needed to cover the cost of subsidizing the handset that you purchase when you first sign up is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. I’d rather pay full price for the cellphone if I didn’t have a termination fee. And what really is the point of the termination fee anyway? Termination fees just add to the frustration of users that are already upset with the quality of service they are getting, and when the power word of mouth kicks in, the termination fee revenue is offset with a tarnished image.
I’m interested how the rest of the world handles cell phone termination fees, and if they even exist, because I know that in some countries the user picks the cell phone that they want first, and the select the carrier, because the phone service has become a commodity.
Check out the full article for details.
