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The Phone, the Broadband, the Cable and the Gym — Cancelled, No Penalty, But You Have Fourteen Days

A service member ordered to ninety days or more of active duty can terminate a telecommunications, internet, television or health club contract signed before deployment where the provider cannot deliver the service at the new duty station. The catch is the clock: written notice with a copy of the orders within FOURTEEN DAYS of receiving them. A separate section cancels other rental contracts with a full refund of deposits on one week's notice.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A service member ordered to ninety days or more of active duty can terminate a telecommunications, internet, television or health club contract signed before deployment where the provider cannot deliver the service at the new duty station. The catch is the clock: written notice with a copy of the orders within FOURTEEN DAYS of receiving them. A separate section cancels other rental contracts with a full refund of deposits on one week's notice.

What it's worth: Termination without penalty of a telecommunications, internet, television or health club contract on deployment of 90 days or more — written notice with orders within 14 days; and cancellation of other rental contracts at no penalty with a full refund of deposits, on notice within one week

  • Section 311-C covers services from a telecommunications provider, an internet service provider, a health club as defined in section 621 of the general business law, a health spa, and a provider of television services including cable, direct satellite and other television-like services.
  • Three conditions must all be met under 311-C: the contract was entered before deployment, the member entered active military service for ninety days or more, and the provider cannot provide the contracted services at the location the member is ordered to.
  • Notice under 311-C must be in writing, delivered within fourteen days of the member receiving the orders, and must include a copy of the orders and specify the future date of termination.
  • Section 311-B covers rental contracts for goods or services not otherwise dealt with in the article, where the contract was executed by or on behalf of a person who afterwards entered active military service and the service makes it impossible to abide by the terms.
  • Under 311-B the contract may be cancelled at no penalty and with a full refund of any moneys placed on deposit.
  • Notice under 311-B must be given in writing within one week of receiving the orders, must include a copy of the orders, and is delivered by certified mail.
  • The 311-C section text read this session does not address the disposition of equipment or of payments made in advance.

Who is entitled to it

  • Your home is in New York.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

From what you have told us so far, you appear to qualify.

How to claim it

  1. 1Diary the deadline the day the orders land. Fourteen days for a service contract, one week for a rental contract. These are the shortest deadlines in this whole record set and they run from the ORDERS, not from the move.
  2. 2Send the orders with the notice. Both sections require a copy of the orders in the notice itself; a notice without them is not the notice the statute describes.
  3. 3Use certified mail for a rental contract cancellation. Section 311-B names it. Section 311-C instead asks for delivery according to industry standards and a stated future termination date.
  4. 4Name the reason the provider cannot serve you. The service-contract right turns on the provider being unable to supply the service at your new duty location — not simply on you leaving.
  5. 5Ask for your deposit back on a rental contract in the notice itself. The statute gives a full refund of moneys on deposit and providers do not offer it unprompted.
  6. 6Gym contracts are in scope. A health club as the general business law defines it, and a health spa, are both named alongside phone and broadband — and a gym is the contract people simply abandon and are chased for months later.
  7. 7Ask the provider in writing what happens to leased equipment and to payments already made. The section read this session is silent on both, so get their answer on paper before you post the handset back.
Form
A written notice to the provider with a copy of the orders attached
File with
The service provider — by the delivery method the statute names for that section
No renewal needed
Worth knowingA phone contract, a broadband contract, a satellite subscription and a gym membership are, together, the recurring bills people forget when they deploy and come home to in collections. Two sections of state law kill all four, and neither is quoted in a normal deployment briefing.
CorrectionThe federal Act allows a phone or television service termination too, but the state sections are not identical to it and the state notice windows are much shorter. Do not assume the thirty days you remember from the federal rule applies here.
Known gapSection 311-A, on termination of motor vehicle lease contracts, sits between these two and was not read section by section this session. A member with a car lease should have that section read before relying on anything written here.

Sources

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