I don't get this reply.
The OP signed a contract now he wants out of the contract, and per the terms of the contract he has to pay early termination fees.
Have you ever been in prison ?
Just ment that he didn't read his contract(as most idiots don't)and that as you said, he was liable for the ETF, and when he recieves the bill he is going to feel it. And yes I view contracts as a form of prison, when my wife and I first started out it was, debt,no-debt,debt, no-debt, then we got ahead of the game, and game it is. We have services with cell phones, Dish network, Verizon, Vonage, Dominion Power, a few have contracts and if we want out we pay and leave, no sweat. My oldest son and daughter share a condo at college(that I rent for them) the end of September they made a careless mistake, actually daughter did, she left a candle lit in her bedroom when she went to sleep, well matress burns(with newer standards they don't really flame, at least not in the begining) son wakes to alarm, daughter freakin out, can find a fire extinguisher, son I guess decides to do some fire walking( they do have 2 1/2 baths that have water, this is a Class A fire), well long story short, bill is a few cents shy of 10K(in Va be careful when you call emergency service they charge, ambulance alone was 400.00+). Everyone was telling me to file with my insurance company, a friend of my wife and her husband had a simlar instance and did, now what the hell does this have to do with my insurance policys, I had told them to get renters insurance, they didn't, and part is my fault for not following up to see if they had. Well just like the OP trying to find a short cut out, or people trying to avoid fessing up for carelessness(I don't belive in the word accidently- you carelessly run into the back of a car)I paid out of my pocket, and we move on. No one was hurt seriously and a lesson was learned, though the hard way. I can also feel good about the ethics of my oldest son, his feeling of responsibilities for thier actions, he wanted to sell his 2009 Fusion to pay for the cost, not trying to pass the blame or find a short cut.
And no I have not been in prison, I did get locked up for 3 days when I crossed from South Australia into New South Wales for operating a motorcycle without a helmet, it was that or pay the fine, but after spending considerable time crossing the Nallarbor Plain(we were there in 1970) 470 miles of dirt road, figured it was 3 days of rest, especially after one part that was 90 miles without any turns, not one