"I have worked with T-mobile for over six months now on this problem," the reader wrote recently. "Here's the story. When my second child graduated high school and needed her own cell phone, we looked into a family plan. I had been with Verizon for many years and my oldest child had T-mobile. We decided to all join up under T-mobile, the myFaves being the deciding factor."

The reader lives in a rural area and knew coverage could be an issue. "I knew Verizon had better service in our area, but my oldest got adequate service around town so I thought we would be fine. And the phones worked okay -- not wonderful, but okay -- for the first month. Then calls started dropping. Service got less and less and less. Called customer service several times, each time trying something new. Finally they send in an engineering report - the outfit that provides service in our area has lost a tower or something, so the coverage has dropped, they said. No kidding, I noticed that."

While the coverage didn't completely disappear, the lost tower made the service next to worthless for the reader and her family. "We've tried everything we can think of to deal with the problem. Phone says good coverage, make a call, turn my head to look out the window, and call is dropped. No coverage inside buildings, on the road in front of buildings, or even by a tree. Picture me ... 44-year-old woman, cell phone in the air ... slowly turning in a circle to find a signal ... then slowly moving head to cell phone to make the call..."

The final straw came one day when her daughter was on her way home from school. "Car breaks down. She calls home, but in order for her to make the call she has to leave the car (it is about 10 degrees outside) and walk to the end of the block to get a signal. Husband goes to pick her up and calls to get final directions, but she can't receive the call since she is back inside the car."

The reader called T-Mobile to cancel her service. In spite of having acknowledged they're missing a tower, T-Mobile officials would not give an inch on the termination penalties. "To cancel my contract and go with Verizon (which does still have coverage in the area) is $200 per line, for a total of $800. I don't have that kind of money lying around. Customer service says they can't let me out of my contract as long as any service is available in my area. Only option they offer is a wi-fi package. I pay $90 per phone and $40 for a box to use my DSL line for coverage at home. But what about away from home? They told me I can use any of my neighbor's unsecured wireless routers to make calls. Isn't that illegal? Anyway, the upshot is they no longer provide the service I signed up for. But, I still have to pay them my $180 a month for the next 18 months."

Is there a company making it hard for you to terminate your relationship? Tell us about it by posting your comments below or by writing me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.