After years of being told, one cellular carrier is finally doing what customers have been asking them to do forever, and then some.

In the near future, Verizon Wireless will:

1. Prorate the term fee. This is an interesting move from Verizon because their term fee of $175 was already lower than the $200 or $250 some of the other carriers charged, but nonetheless, soon customers who cancel on day 364 of year 2 of their contract will not be penalized a full $175. Sounds logical to me.

I am a bit concerned, though, about what this will do to the already inflated cost of Verizon phones, seeing as they’re going to probably suffer increased cancellations or not receive as much when a customer does. Only time will tell. Verizon’s cancellation rate (at least in New York) is miniscule anyway.

2. Verizon will also allow existing subscribers who pay more than $50 a month will be allowed to upgrade their handset after one year instead of having to wait until the end of a 2 year contract. Customers who do participate in their “New Every Two” will still be given an option to upgrade after 2 years to a phone of equal value to their current handset for free. This is an issue I’m glad they tackled. Beth dropped her phone in a puddle last week and we had to buy a Razr to replace it because her phone wasn’t under warranty. For a new sub, the Razr was $69. For us? $269. Dammit I wish they would’ve started this policy a few f’ing days ago.

Now those are positive changes, and both of them benefit consumers. It’s important for a company in a leadership position to keep ahead of the competition and doing this is one way to stay there. Tomorrow’s going to be interesting because tomorrow, Beth is going to call Verizon and see what the customer service rep does for her seeing as they changed their policy two days after she spent $200 more for her phone than she needed to.

Maybe just for the heck of it, we’ll record the call.

You never know.

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