My name is ... and my complaint relates to AT&T Wireless regarding that company's early termination fees or ETFs. My AT&T phone number was ..... On November 8th, 2010 I called to see if I could transfer my AT&T cellular service to Taiwan. My company is transferring me to Taiwan and I wanted to take my service with me. I was informed by the service representative that AT&T does not offer native service in Taiwan. I requested to cancel my account with AT&T upon learning that AT&T does not offer native service in that market. I was subsequently informed of the following:

[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->I would be charged a $115 ETF despite the fact that AT&T does not offer service in Taiwan

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. a. Although I cancelled the account on the 8th of November, 2010, the cancellation would not take effect until the end of November at the end of the billing cycle

b. I was informed that the company does not prorate its billing

Clearly both of these practices are not consumer friendly and are solely designed to result in the enrichment of the company at the consumer's expense. I offered to send in proof of my residence in Taiwan and was informed that the company did not provide any form of cancellation for its customers.

I can safely say that while AT&T may rationalize this approach to the market by arguing that it subsidizes the purchase of the handsets, the fact that there are legitimate instances when contracts must be cancelled due to AT&T failing to offer service in a new market indicates just how tone deaf AT&T is.

I can hardly believe that the additional $115 and $138 in revenue garnered by the company from me for cancellation is worth the negative goodwill that this experience will engender. Not only am I complaining to the FCC and several other government organizations but I also work in the online marketing and publishing field to which I have already begun to post numerous negative complaints regarding my being fleeced by this company to blogs, online forums and social networking sites.

Clearly, AT&T is a firm that has lost site of the consumer and this approach to fleecing its consumers does not contribute to Apple's brand image or equity as well since that is the particular product that I owned (iPhone). Because of this experience I can safely say I will never purchase another Apple product as well.