Is Viasat charging you a bogus Early Termination Fee? FairShake can help.
An early termination fee, sometimes called a cancellation fee, is a way for companies to protect themselves when entering into contracts. It is a fee that they charge you if you cancel your contract early.
Think of it this way:
You sign up for a telecommunications service and you agree that you will pay them $50 every month for 24 months. Once you sign that contract it is believed that you will honor it and you will stick with them for the duration of those 24 months. So your service provider can rely on that $50 every month for the next two years. However, there are plenty of reasons why you might have to cancel a contract and no one requires you to stick with a service provider.
So when you exercise your right to cancel prematurely, you deprive the company of that remaining income. To make up for this, they charge you the early termination fee. In theory this fee compensates them for the money they missed out on for however many months are remaining in your contract.
Technically early termination fees are perfectly legal in that they’re designed to help companies recuperate the loss when consumers take advantage of deals or promotions and then leave the company.
Early termination fees have come under fire in the news because companies have gone above and beyond what is considered legal. Viasat is one of many companies that still charges consumers an early termination fee when a natural disaster destroys a home and that customer is without service or unable to maintain their service. Under the terms and conditions of Viasat this is referred to as an act of God.
Look over your Viasat contract. The contract will list whether or not there is an early termination fee associated with your account, and if so, how much.
When you are looking at your contract, there will be a section that refers to termination. The section explains when you are allowed to cancel your contract and by the same token when Viasat can cancel the contract with you. This will help you better prepare for what early termination fees you have to pay and under what circumstances.
This can happen when companies mislead you during the sales process especially during a promotional deal. Or even just when their billing system messes up. While sales staff don’t have to explain to you what the early termination fee is, or under which conditions may apply, they also can’t actively mislead you. So long as the company puts the information in the customer agreement or the terms and conditions, it’s up to you to read that over before you agree to the contract.
Realistically there are very few ways that you can avoid the early termination fee once you are already in a contract. Typically these are reasons laid out in the terms and conditions.
For example, if Viasat violates its agreement with you and failed to offer the right service, then they have voided the contract and as such you are not liable for the early termination fee should you cancel your account.
More commonly, if you were misled by a salesperson and you can get it in writing that they misinformed you about the terms of your deal, the price points, the length of the contract, or the cancellation policy, then you can work with customer service to avoid this fee.
Alternatively you might be able to find a new contract with the company to whom you are switching service that includes a contract buyout. This is something carriers offer as part of a promotion or discounted deal where they pay up to a certain amount in fees. Be advised that if you are very early in your contract the fees might exceed what the competing companies are willing to cover. The same is true if you have multiple lines each of which have their own early termination fee.
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