Any way out of a wireless phone contract?

[450R]

I'm tired of Nextel. Almost every night I lose service and it doesn't come back until the early morning whilst I'm sleeping. I've called them several times the next day to ask WTF the problem is and all they can tell me is to reset my phone if/when it happens again ... which doesn't work. On top of the regular outages I get at least 1 dropped call a day. I've got more than a few friends with Nextels and some of them have the exact same problems I do while others have no issues at all.

Well anyway, tonight it's been out since roughly 7PM, almost 6 hours now. I don't have a house phone and I obviously can't call them on my cell phone, so all that's left to do is hit up the website and see if I can get some support there. In what seems to be typical Nextel fashion, I can't login to the site (generic server error) so at the moment I'm SOL for any support whatsoever. I've reached the end of my tolerance and patience - I'm tired of paying $40/mo for crappy service. Problem is the 2 year contract which is not ending for ... uh, well I'd tell you but I can't login to see my account details and I disabled paper billing (bad decision) ... about a year I'd guess.

Is there any way out of the contract without paying the early cancellation fee? I do NOT want to give them any more of my money but common sense tells me I'm fudged.

 

[keeleysam]

How much time is there left in your contract?

 

[mchammer]

Go to a store and demand they replace the handset.

 

[mugs]

Sounds like the problem may be that there are too many people using their cell phones at the same time.

 

[Zugzwang152]

probably screwed, although maybe the better business bureau can assist?

 

[450R]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
How much time is there left in your contract?

About a year I think, don't know for sure as the account section of the site is brokeded.

 

[450R]

Originally posted by: mchammer
Go to a store and demand they replace the handset.

That seems to be the only choice at the moment but I'm still holding it as a last resort as I'm not sure it would fix anything. Several of my friends are having the same problems, though not as often as I am so maybe it is the phone itself.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Maybe you can make a complaint to the BBB that you're paying for service that you're not fully getting. If not, I'd just pay the early termination fee and move on.

It's not worth having to put up with unreliable service. What if you needed that phone for an emergency?

 

[BoomerD]

I had a Nextel phone when I worked for my union. HORRIBLE service, lots of dropped calls, poor service area. The Nextel connect is ok for groups, but I don't understand why individuals need it. (nice to talk to the other half I suppose, but otherwise???
When I quit to go back into the field, Nextel offered me a good deal on service & equipment. I not-so-politely declined, and went with AT&T. (now cingular)

 

[SampSon]

Do you live in the rurals?

 

[DaWhim]

pay the early termination fee.