Zel-kun’s Words

Listening to the radio this morning, and I hear there’s a law being petitioned to our state.  Basically, if a cellular phone breaks three times, then the customer may cancel their service without a penalty.  Its being called the cellular lemon law.

It seems like a good thing in theory, but that’s punishing the carrier for a fault of the manufacturer.  If your television’s tube blows out (or pixels break, for you fancy-tv-having folks), would you then be able to cancel your cable contract?

I agree with the representative on the radio, who basically said that the cost of the phones (usually offered either free or at a discount), are recovered over the course of the contract.  If customers could then escape the contract, then the wireless companies would have to recover the cost somewhere else, likely with non-discounted phones.

Again, if the wireless companies manufactured the phones, then this would be very fair.  You make a faulty phone, you deal with the consequences.  There SHOULD be a law that protects customers who sign a contract, and then realize the coverage is bare where they need it most.  I once had a Nextel phone that had low signal at my job, no signal in downtown Chicago (no signal in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country?), and no signal at home.  It was a terrible service, and there was no way out of the contract.

I didn’t overly mind, it WAS paid for by my job, but still…

Anyhow, the program went on to say that Chicago was the home of the first ever cullular call.  Indeed, in 1983, on the 50-yard line in Soldier Field, the great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell made the very first cellular phone call.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Zel-kun out.