Telephone

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The Catch in Verizon’s $84.99 Triple Play Deal

Verizon FiOS has been advertising a great package price online for Internet, telephone, and FiOS TV — just $84.99 a month for a year. That is less than most competitors, and many consumers rave about FiOS.

Here is their online animated ad (for which you need Adobe Flash player to view). Click the replay button if the animation has ended.

Did you catch that pop-up disclaimer at the end that was on the screen for less than two seconds? (You can hover over the “legal” button with your mouse to freeze it in place — something we guess most consumers probably wouldn’t know to do.)

*MOUSE PRINT:

$109.99/month for months 13-24, two-yr agrmt req’d plus taxes and fees.

We would venture to say that most consumers didn’t catch the fact that you must sign a two year contract to get this deal, and that the bargain $84.99 price only lasts for the first year. The price then jumps up $25 a month to regular price (apparently) for the second year.

Imagine the customers’ shock when they open their Verizon bill in month 13! And, if they want to cancel at that point, they are in for a second expensive surprise. Also not disclosed in the ad is Verizon’s new $360 early termination penalty (which is evenly pro-rated over the life of the contract).

Mouse Print* invited Verizon to comment on this story, but as of publication time, they had not yet done so. This post will be updated should they respond this week.

As we have repeatedly said, companies need to be more upfront about their pricing in their advertising, so their customers are not hit with unexpected charges.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: The editor of Mouse Print* is a compensated member of Verizon’s Consumer Advisory Board, which advises the company on policy and public issues.

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Google’s Cell Phone: Double Early Termination Fees

You’ve heard of double coupons, right. And that’s a good thing. But you probably never heard of double terminations fees. And that’s a bad thing.

Google just introduced its first cell phone, the Nexus One. They sell for a lot of money: $529 if you just want to buy the phone, but only $179 if you buy it as part of a package deal with two years of service from T-Mobile.

If you cancel early, you would expect to pay an early termination fee to T-Mobile:

*MOUSE PRINT:

So, you would owe $200 to T-Mobile if you cancel within the first year and a half of your contract. What you might not expect is to pay a second early termination fee, this time to Google.

*MOUSE PRINT:

If you cancel your service within the first 120 days, you will owe Google an “equipment recovery fee.” That’s the difference between what you paid for the phone ($179) and the full retail price ($529). In other words, $350.

So let’s do the math. You pay $179 for the phone upfront. If you cancel, you pay T-Mobile $200 and Google $350. That totals $729 for a phone that would have cost you at most only $529. Seems like someone is profiting from your early cancellation.

And to add insult to injury, should you want to avail yourself of Google’s 14 day trial period where no early termination fees apply, you will have to pay a restocking fee of $45.

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The Limits of Unlimited Cell Service

More and more cell companies are advertising unlimited service packages these days. Here’s one from a company you have never heard of:

unlimited

Their “unlimited” plans range in price from $39.99 to $69.99. So do they really give you “unlimited” service?

*MOUSE PRINT:

From their FAQ:

Q: Is there a cap on the unlimited program. A: Yes, the unlimited Local & LD Plans are capped at 10,000 minutes per month.

Q: How many text messages can I send per month? A: Unlimited Text Messaging is capped at 30,000 per month.

Q: How much data can I use on the unlimited program? A: Unlimited MMS, Internet & Data is capped at 5 Gig

Ten thousand minutes of talk time sounds like a lot, but it really is only about 5.5 hours a day.  Some business people may in fact be on their phone longer than that.  At least they disclose the actual limits of their “unlimited” service, unlike most of the big brand name cell companies that make you hunt through their terms and conditions to find out that their unlimited service is subject to (sometimes unstated) limits. 

Realistically, while most users won’t go over these limits, that should not give a company the right to call a service unlimited when it is not.  From a consumer protection standpoint, no company should advertise “unlimited” service unless it actually is that.