We inked a two year contract with Ramcell of Oregon in March for a family shared minutes plan. The original contract allowed for use anywhere within the ten western states with no roaming fees. The purpose for choosing this particular plan was that my children would soon be headed off to college somewhere within this area.
Nineteen months into the contract, Ramcell decided that it was no longer profitable to offer this service. They unilaterally changed their contracts to read that any calls placed outside of our local four county area would incur roaming fees. For us, this made the plan extremely expensive since both our children now resided outside of this area.
Ramcell offered a contract cancellation IF the phones were returned to them. They offered no compensation for the amounts paid for "upgraded" phones (around $100 in our case, others paid much more) nor any compensation for the prorated phone costs that we paid throughout the course of our contract. Combined, this turned our "no cancellation fee" into over $600 in cancellation fees (using retail values on the cell phones).
We wrote two letters to Ramcell explaining our feelings on the matter. Both letters were answered only by continued billing.in the end, I paid a $236 cancellation fee and have filed a small claims court action to reclaim it. Ramcell had turned the account over to a collection agency for payment.
Almost every contract you sign for cellular service will contain the phrase "we reserve the right to make changes to this contract as deemed necessary" (or similar language). When you choose your cellular provider, it would be a good idea to choose one that cares enough about their customers to not totally alter the contract midstream. Any service worth their salt will honor their contract with you for the stated term and only enforce changes to that contract after it's expired at renewal time.
I will never again contract with Ramcell and advise those considering Ramcell to speak with those who had Ramcell service during that period of time. Ramcell lost a lot of customers over this.
Best of luck and choose wisely BEFORE inking that contract.
0 comments