A few questions about service providers and phones?

The likelihood of another carrier buying you out of your old carrier by paying the ETF is non-existent. Unless you got the top of the line plan with a top of the line phone, I doubt they'd even consider it. Even then, it isn't something any of them will do. It would cost them more than it's worth.

If your friend got a new phone for himself on his line, why did that affect the contract end date for you? With AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, the contract is line specific. Did he get new phones for each line or only his? I guess Alltel does things differently...

Sit tight, Alltel will be part of Verizon soon(unless you happen to be in a divested territory - if you are you'd know already). You may be able to upgrade to a better phone. YES, it means another two years, but with Verizon, you'll have a broader selection of phones, more so than Alltel has.

Trying to get out of your Alltel contract will be difficult, if not impossible. Usually the only way to get the ETF waived is if you moved to a no-service area.

This may not be the news you were hoping for, but this is the way of wireless these days.

 

Wirelessly posted (Q's Mobile: BlackBerry8130/4.5.0.77 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

A few carriers may offer credits on the phone bill. Usually it is the smaller carriers and not the ones with a larger national prescence. But the credits are off the new company's bill and not money going towards the old provider. I remember Cellulat South doing a promo like this a few months ago

 

You need to go and talk to CS at an Alltel store. I worked for them up until about a year ago and upgrading one phone on a contract does not change the end date for the other lines on the contract. I'm quite certain this has not changed as I still have service on one line with them. Your expiration date is still the same unless your friend upgraded your line in order to get himself a new phone and then put the phone on his line.

 

With Verizon buying them or being divested to another company you may have an opt out time with your contract so I would call customer service they have to tell you if you ask. I know when T-mobile bought Suncom, we gave all suncom customers 3 months to cancel ETF free.

 

With Verizon, there is no such escape clause because of the merger. Alltel customers merging into Verizon are bound by the terms of their contract.

 

So I guess we just decided to do this, as ours was a merger. Suncom customers were able to keep suncom rateplans and phones and existing contract status. I thought this would be standard practice, but I guess not.

 

That's the difference between T-Mobile and their larger counterparts. It would be nice if it was a standard practice across the board with all carriers, but sadly it isn't.

The other factor is probably the difference in size between the two bought-out carriers. Suncom is considerably smaller than Alltel. It probably wasn't much of a cost issue for T-Mobile versus Verizon leaving a door like this open for Alltel customers.

If Verizon can make more money, they'll take that option over what would be a better customer service option by allowing a window for ETF-free cancellations for those with Alltel who don't want or wish to be with Verizon. I've never counted on Verizon to do something better for the customer than for the benefit of their bottom line.