Qwest sued by customers miffed over early termination fees

Qwest this week became the latest in a lengthening list of telcos sued by customers over early termination fees (EFTs), in a class action filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington State.

Specifically, the suit by plaintiffs Rob Vernon and Rory Durkin challenges the practice of charging ETFs for broadband ISP services in so-called "price-for-life" plans.

Vernon and Durkin each claim they were charged $200 by Qwest upon cancelling their high-speed Internet services.

Although Qwest's price-for-life plan is pitched to customers as requiring only a two-year agreement, Qwest charges an ETF regardless of the customer's cancellation date, according to the court complaint.

"Qwest imposes this $200 fee on its Internet customers regardless of the customer's reason for cancelling service, the time remaining on the subscriber's alleged oral term commitment and the lack of an agreement signed by the customer agreeing to such terms," the two plaintiffs charge.

Thc complaint also alleges that the ETFs from Qwest -- described in the court documents as "the primary local telephone service provider in a multi-state region covering parts of the West and Midwestern United States" -- discourages competition in Internet services.

"The termination fee is not actually designed to compensate Qwest for any losses arising from a customer's termination of Internet service within two years. Rather, Qwest intends the ETF to 'lock in' customers for the duration of the service term and discourage them from switching to competing Internet service providers for the year," the lawsuit filing states.

The plaintiffs also suggest that Qwest has tried to collect ETFs from them without being able to provide any evidence -- such as a signed contract or a tape recording -- that they ever agreed to pay a fee if they cancelled the service.

As previously reported in BetaNews, Sprint and Verizon Wireless did not fare very well in other class action suits brought by customers, filed in California earlier this year.

In July of this year, a judge in California ordered Sprint to pay $18.3 million to customers who launched a class action suit over fees charged for ending their contracts early -- as well as to credit another $54.5 million to customers who were charged the fees but hadn't paid them yet.

In June of this year, Verizon Wireless settled a similar case in the state of California for $21 million, just as court proceedings got under way.