http://cbs13.com/local/marine.widow.verizon.2.1772409.html

I think it should be standard policy for any company involving any type of contracts, that when their customer dies, the customer's family shouldn't be burdnered with huge cancellation fees, if the customer dies before whatever contract they signed is up.

A Marine serving on the front lines in Afghanistan was killed.  His wife was handling their financial matters in the wake of his death.  She decided to move to be closer to her family, where her cell phone carrier doesn't provide great service, so, she chose to cancel the contract early with Verizon.  Verizon said she could cancel early, but she'd have to shell out 350 bucks to do so.  Verizon wound up letting her cancel, without paying the fee, but only after this story hit the national news.

In extreme cases like this, I don't think any company should hold family members financial responsible.  It's not like her husband expected to die young, nor did she expect to move back to nowhereville.  And it's not only huge companies that do this.  I once worked at a local gym where I live.  One of our members was killed in a car accident.  At first, the owner of the gym wasn't going to relieve the family of the member's contract, even though the member still had two years left.  Then he decided he would, but he'd charge them a huge cancellation fee.  It wasn't until I stepped in and raised hell that he finally decided to let them off the hook financially.  I know companies, big or small, can't let customers out of their contracts for every little thing. But in cases like this, they damn sure should, with no financial reprocussions.