liability consumer-protection customer-service
Service provider states I terminated the agreement by moving to a location they do not service, am I liable?
<p>I signed a 24 month agreement for internet service while living in Atlanta. A month or two into the contract, my wife formally accepted a contract for a position 800 miles away (expensive move). We flew out to the new area, shopped for homes and purchased one (normal life).</p>

<p>When we moved into our new place I called the service provider to transfer our service to our new home. Unfortunately, at that time the company stated they do not service our new property address (fwiw - my account is paid in full and good standing for services used). ...Long story short a few weeks later I get a notice for an early termination fee.</p>

<p>I've been fighting this for 2+ months now.  I've spent hours with countless phone reps and getting the boilerplate, "these charges are valid due to termination of service." I stated in many words I didn't terminate the contract, I asked for my service to be transferred to my new address." I asked the question in a few different ways and the service rep states, "moving to avoid a service charge is not valid."</p>

<p>I asked a phone rep manager, "how can a customer be held responsible for where a service provider provides service?" The answer given was, "to avoid ETF you should call [us] before purchasing a home." </p>

<p>This seems unreal, unjust, and possibly unconstitutional.  Am I crazy?
How is it that "blah blah blah big company" can place their interests above a citizen's choice of where to live (school district, neighborhood, etc.)?</p>

<p>Am I off base for thinking that I did not terminate the service? On the contrary the service provider terminated the service by not continuing to provide service for my account.</p>

<p>Here's the only copy of the service agreement I could find:
<a href="https://www.xfinity.com/corporate/customers/policies/subscriberagreement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AGREEMENT FOR RESIDENTIAL SERVICES</a></p>

<p>This is actually pretty standard. You have a contract with a business to provide some service, and you get a bargain on the price of the service as long as you stay with them for some period, such as 2 years. You could get the 'pay as you go' option which doesn't have a termination fee, but that costs more <em>if</em> you are sure you can commit to what you signed up for, for that period. So it's not that you can't terminate the contract, it's that you can't just walk away from your obligation (what they call a "minimum term agreement"), cost-free. The early-termination fee is part of the cost of moving.</p>

<p>You have to look in the Legal Agreements &amp; Contract part of Account Details on your account to get the specific agreement that you are bound by. Generally, you are subject to that fee, unless the subscriber dies, or is in the military and is shipped out. You can also transfer your service from area to area – I assume you either are moving to an area without Xfinity service, or you elected to not use Xfinity in that location.</p>

<p>It is legal for a business to put their business interest above that of a customer, even in the case of regulated "utilities".</p>
