Thoughts Media.com

 


Windows Phone Thoughts

Loading feed...

Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Apple Thoughts

Loading feed...




Go Back   Thoughts Media Forums > Thoughts Media Off Topic

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 06-29-2009, 01:00 PM
Ed Hansberry
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Ed Hansberry's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
Default AT&T and Rogers Communications Ticking Off Customers Again

http://www.canada.com/MythBuster+us...1348/story.html

Just in case you missed it, AT&T tried to charge MythBusters star Adam Savage $11,000 for a recent trip to Canada for roaming. It had to do with the wording in their contract that says roaming data will be charged at ".015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb" AT&T seems to have gone to the same school of math that Verizon did a few years ago where in their strange carrier world, .015 cents = a penny and a half.

In other related user ticking-off news, Rogers Communications in Canada is going to start charging users 15 cents for incoming text messages, though if you have a text plan, you probably won't be hit by that charge.

__________________
text sig
 
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 06-29-2009, 05:01 PM
mmidgley
Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 251
Angry multiplication and division are hard.

US$110.00 is still a rip-off. i hope he involves lawyers competent enough to straighten at&t out.

m.
 
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 06-29-2009, 07:36 PM
Pete Paxton
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Pete Paxton's Avatar
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 716

I wonder if it depends on who you talk to. I took a Caribbean cruise last year and accessed the internet while in various ports. I'm not much of a traveler and didn't quite get the whole roaming charge thing. I only checked a few emails and a couple of baseball scores and when I got back I had a bill for an extra $125. I called AT&T and talked to a rep about it. She put me on hold for about a minute and came back and informed me that she took the entire charge off my bill.
__________________
iPhone
Tmo Dash
 
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 06-30-2009, 03:47 PM
leslietroyer
Intellectual
leslietroyer's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 155

How about paying international roaming, without even leaving the states?? We often frequent a cabin in the San Juan Islands (Washington State). It doesn't have a land line. We get GREAT cell phone reception. Unfortunatly it is from Victoria BC. The towers there overpower the towers on the island. We've had this problem with both ATT & Verizon. Both agree to remove the roaming charges ONCE and ONCE only. I feel cheated, as I am clearly in an area outlined on their coverage maps - they both say too bad.


LEs
__________________
Leslie
 
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 06-30-2009, 05:41 PM
frazell
Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9

OK seriously... Is this country full of people with an entitlement problem or are the majority of people so mentally incompetent that the society is on a crash course for destruction?

Last time I checked $0.015 is equal to 1.5 cents is it not? Cell phone roaming isn't the only charge that is denominated in fractions of a cent. Fuel is another one that is sold in fractions of a cent so I'm not sure what the problem is.

If people can't bother themselves to read a contract or inquire about potential roaming charges prior to roaming then they don't have a valid reason to complain. If you go to another country and expect your phone to work as it does in the US for free then you are either too stupid to own a cell phone or looking to push the cost off to someone else.

It is a shame that people don't read contracts and then they love to jump up and down about how they shouldn't get charged some charge they agreed to be charged. If you don't agree with the terms of the contract I have a very bright idea... DON'T SIGN IT!

Enough of my rant, but complaints like this just piss me off.
 
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 06-30-2009, 06:35 PM
Gerard
Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043

Quote:
Originally Posted by frazell View Post
Last time I checked $0.015 is equal to 1.5 cents is it not?
Um... did you read the quote? ".015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb" does not say $0.015. .015 cents is a rather smaller amount, per kb, as in the decimal is placed two spaces over. So the question becomes, which is it?
__________________
Gerard Ivan Samija
 
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 06-30-2009, 06:42 PM
daS
Thinker
daS's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 484

Quote:
Originally Posted by frazell View Post
Last time I checked $0.015 is equal to 1.5 cents is it not?

It is a shame that people don't read contracts and then they love to jump up and down about how they shouldn't get charged some charge they agreed to be charged. If you don't agree with the terms of the contract I have a very bright idea... DON'T SIGN IT!

Enough of my rant, but complaints like this just piss me off.
Before you get too pissed off, the issue here is that the contract reads 0.015 cents per 1KB, i.e. $0.00015 not $0.015. I actually have to find and read my contract with AT&T, but I know that was certainly the case with the Verizon issue a couple of years ago.
__________________
David Shier
VP - Sales & Marketing
CK Technologies, Inc.
 
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 06-30-2009, 06:54 PM
daS
Thinker
daS's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 484

I just got my AT&T bill that includes a trip I made to Korea. They are charging me $0.0195/Kb for data and $0.50 per SMS message!

I see that these are the published rates listed on their web site. What I can't find is the contract that I signed quite a while ago for my specific plan, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the rate.

What annoys me about this more than anything, is that while I was there, I really didn't have much need for data, but each time I tried to disconnect from the GPRS network, the AT&T Fuze just reconnected the next time I turned on the phone. I couldn't find a setting that said "don't connect to data when roaming". Most of the "data connect" charges were one or 2 KBs, but there were a couple in the 200 and 400KB ranges that added up quite fast.

Both voice and data added up to $54 in usage charges. However, considering their cheapest plans for international voice and data would cost $40/month and would still include usage charges - just at much lower rates, I'd rather pay this huge bill since I don't do more than a few international trips a year.

I also used Skype from my laptop at the hotels while I was there. It worked great, cost nothing to call home and I even had video when talking to the family.
__________________
David Shier
VP - Sales & Marketing
CK Technologies, Inc.
 
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 06-30-2009, 08:16 PM
frazell
Neophyte
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9

Quote:
Originally Posted by daS View Post
Before you get too pissed off, the issue here is that the contract reads 0.015 cents per 1KB, i.e. $0.00015 not $0.015. I actually have to find and read my contract with AT&T, but I know that was certainly the case with the Verizon issue a couple of years ago.
Maybe I'm a bit thick, but I'm not sure I get what you are saying at all. $0.015 per Kilobyte is what the source article said. That would translate to $15.36 ($0.015x1024) per megabyte. Those rates are in line with the industry for GSM carriers as I think T-Mobile was well over $10 per MB when I was a subscriber a few years back.

I'm not sure where exactly you are getting $0.00015 and etc.?

Besides, his charges look pretty accurate to me. He used a laptop data card on top of it all...

Seriously, he should have just paid his bill. People piss me off using the media as a pulpit to enrich themselves. AT&T still has to pay the share Rogers gets so the costs will be rolled over to everyone else.

But I guess it is all fine because he's famous? Give me a break.
 
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 06-30-2009, 08:58 PM
ctmagnus
5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
ctmagnus's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616

Quote:
Originally Posted by leslietroyer View Post
We often frequent a cabin in the San Juan Islands (Washington State). It doesn't have a land line. We get GREAT cell phone reception. Unfortunatly it is from Victoria BC. The towers there overpower the towers on the island.
And there's a spot in Victoria where the only cell signal you can get is from the States.
__________________
iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
 
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2019, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright Thoughts Media Inc. 2009