SBC and Early Termination Fees

- 181 Words


sigh

Yet another FUBAR company to deal with. Yuk. I currently have SBC DSL service, from which I pull 1.3mb down, 70k up. Not awesome, but acceptable at $27 a month.

The contract ends on October 2nd. Cancellation before then results in a $200 early termination fee. Ouch. My plan is to have a cable modem installed in a few weeks, and leave the DSL dormant for a week or so until I cancel it. No big deal, right?

Here’s the problem. I’d like to replace my telephone line with a broadband phone service, either Vonage or most likely Lingo. I would like to use the Local Number Portability to transfer my home phone number over to the broadband service. They are claiming that it takes 15 - 20 business days for that to happen. Once the transfer is complete, service with the original provider is terminated. So, if they complete the cutover on October 1st, one day before my contract completes, I get nailed with a $200 early termination fee. Yuk.

This is yet another reason to hate contracts. Argh.