You can take that contract and...

I'm sure you can finish the rest. This is mainly in reference to the contracts proffered by ridiculous cell phone companies. I pretty much have refused to honor their contracts under any circumstances. 2 Year?...HA! In your dreams if you think I make it to month 18. I remember years ago when there was a push to have phones without contracts, but then the cell companies countered by offering the cheapest prices and new innovations like "FREE NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS" and "CALLER ID". Ah when things were much simpler. Basically you signed a contract so you could get a the phone for a cheaper price and a larger amount of minutes per month, and I could at least live with a one year contract.

However, at some point cell companies wanted to push us a bit farther, for "ADDED SAVINGS" by making us commit to 2 year contracts. Now any self respecting tech person knows the amount of changes cell phones go through in a 2 year period. Something new comes out every 6-8 months and you probably want it or some variation of it (Unless you are McCoy and you wait like 3 years to change phones to the point where your current phone doesn't actually ring anymore) . Either way...asking someone to commit to 2 years of anything is usually not possible. Especially not something as transient as a cell phone. So I end up breaking contracts. They try to scare me with their "Early Termination Fees" or whatever, I call bullshit. I see you your $175 fee and laugh. Not because I am rich, but because peace of mind is worth more. For example. I currently have a pocket pc style phone, with high speed internet access and a full QWERTY keyboard. I previously owned a Sidekick II and wanted to upgrade to something more professional. Unfortunately, after 2 months of using the phone, I decided I hated using it for phone calls, and wanted to try something else. I happened to be at the mall yesterday with "girlfriend" and went into the Verizon store to see if there was a way to cancel the phone service on my phone while keeping the data services. The busied customer service rep initially said no, and that he wasn't sure. I didn't feel like waiting, so I left. There was another Verizon kiosk in the mall, and I queried this customer service person the same. Different answer (Lesson learned yesterday between mine and "girlfriends" experiences, if there are two stores for a cell phone company in one place they will undoubtedly give you two different answer to your questions...Asinine) this guy says he knows it can be done, but not sure how. Sigh.

After that mall experience I went to a different mall later in the day, and picked up the Motorola PEBL, from T-Mobile. Easy experience, no problems. My thinking was that I would get that for voice and hopefully scale the voice plan out of my Verizon phone, figuring they had to have some kind of Zero minute plan. Alas, I found out this morning my thinking was incorrect (because, I of course, think logically. unfortunately anyone who answers the phone at Verizon does not). The customer service person's only suggestion was to cancel my current plan, pay $175 early termination fee, then re sign up to get a Data only plan. Not only would I lose my phone number I'd also be out 175 bucks just to keep the same phone. Bullshit I say. I ate the cancellation fee, and transferred my old number to my new T-mobile phone. Goodbye again, Verizon, hopefully for the last time....bastards.

Take your contract and shove it up your ass.