Consumer Law, Warranties Small Business Phone Service

[springy]

Do to the economy, we are closing our Business where we have had Verizon business land line service since Feb. 2008. I am being told by customer service that we have a 3 year contract. We never signed anything to this effect. They said it is just an agreement and we should have received a notice in the mail when we signed up. According to Verizon, We are now in our third year and have 10 months left. The cancellation charges work backwards. If we cancel today (04/29/10) they will charge us $16.00 per month for the months we have had service which would be 26 months times $16.00= $416.00 charge to cancel our service. Next month it will be $432.00 and so on to the end!! When I ask where it is written or where I agreed to this the customer service lady said it is just known and she can not produce it. What are my rights please?? By the way, we also have another existing contract with them at another location that we are not planning to close.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

My guess is they probably have it somewhere, however, you should send a written letter of termination to them and tell them that your business is unfortunately closing as a result of the bad economy. You may also state that you do not believe you have any obligation with them, as was told on the phone, and are thus terminating the agreement officially. It's possible either (a) they may not have a copy or, more likely, (b) they may not bother coming after you for $400 on an agreement where they won't have an obligation to provide services. You should hope for the latter since it's likely an agreement is on file there somewhere.