No Escape from Early Termination Fees
 

*Source: The Red Tape Diaries (http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/07/no-escape-from-.html)*
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Quick quiz: Do you know when your cell phone contract expires? The question isn't as easy as you'd think -- and getting it wrong could cost you hundreds of dollars.

Yon-Paul Siebeneck, of Salt Lake City, Utah, went shopping in a Sprint store last fall and said he was told that both his family cell phone contracts would expire on Nov. 30, 2006. His wife, Chris, even called Sprint to double-check, he said. Believing they were both cell phone free agents, on Dec. 14, he purchased two new phones from a rival cell phone firm and canceled his Sprint phones.

But in January, a Sprint bill arrived for more than $300. Siebeneck's two contracts, Sprint now said, were in force until the end of January. So after paying for nearly 23 months on two two-year contracts, Siebeneck was now stuck two early termination fees of $150 each. Adding insult to injury, taxes were applied to early termination fees, so the total bill was almost $340.

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