FCC Cracking Down on Cellphone ''Bill Shock''

[Guest]

I am sorry but this is a huge scam and has gone on long enough. Are the powers that be telling me that wireless is much more expensive to manage and operate compared to land lines which need to be physically installed, telephone poles every hundred feet or so. I pull down a fair amount of high def T.V. channels. It is all a tightly controlled monopoly. Open up the airwaves a bit more. It is about time.

 

[keczapifrytki]

Thank you FCC. I went to Mexico with my wife for a week long vacation. When we came back they wanted to charge us $400 for her iphone usage. We never called, or texted or browsed the web. They told us that the iphone constantly searches for connection and that racked up our charges. $400 of charges, ridiculous. Eventually they dropped the charges after I emailed Toms, cnet, and others for help. So once again, thank you FCC.

 

[Amen2That]

It's not something every user will know but most smartphones will periodically pull data. Whether it's syncing contacts with the cloud, an POP or IMAP request to check for new mail, a background app to updates your twitter account, these small data inquiries quickly add up. If you travel a lot, consider unlocking your iPhone and using a prepaid SIM from that countries local carriers. Alternatively, buy an unlocked GSM quadband phone to use during your travels. These are inexpensive ways to still use your phone during an international vacation.

It'd be nice if the carriers alerted you when you hit your monthly usage limits and when your bill hit a certain level (i.e. at $500, $1000, etc). It'd be even better if users we're allowed to customize these alerts. Some of my credit cards already allow me to do this and I'd like to see something similar implemented with the cellphone carriers if they have not already done so.

 

[techguy378]

[citation][nom]applegetsmelaid[/nom]What the hell is a megabyte?[/citation]
So Apple fans (judging by your user name) aren't just computer illiterate, they also don't have much of a brain since they're willing to spend double on a PC just to get a picture of an Apple on the case.

 

[techguy378]

[citation][nom]keczapifrytki[/nom]Thank you FCC. I went to Mexico with my wife for a week long vacation. When we came back they wanted to charge us $400 for her iphone usage. We never called, or texted or browsed the web. They told us that the iphone constantly searches for connection and that racked up our charges. $400 of charges, ridiculous. Eventually they dropped the charges after I emailed Toms, cnet, and others for help. So once again, thank you FCC.[/citation]
There is an option on the iPhone to turn off data while roaming. It's enabled by default. If you somehow disabled the option I don't see how this is your phone company's fault.

 

[eddieroolz]

This is nice change of pace. Also while at it, why not implement new laws that require accurate billing information to be displayed for online accounts?

I recently was charged by Rogers for going over my text message limit. Their online account allows users to see their standing with regards to minutes, data and messages. But guess what? It isn't available half the time, and even when available usually the information won't load anyway.

Long story short: make it so that customers have a way to check their current usage, and make it actually work 24/7.

 

[back_by_demand]

I am so glad my O2 account in the UK is easier to work out than these stupid US carriers, £7.50 per month bolt on to my standard contract and I get unlimited data, (that's $10 in funny money).

Maybe instead of using the FCC as a crutch, consumers should exercise market forces power and buy into a acrrier that provides the most transparency, after all despite the FCC the only thing these companies pay attention to is the bottom line.

 

[tommysch]

[citation][nom]applegetsmelaid[/nom]What the hell is a megabyte?[/citation]

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[bildo123]

[citation][nom]Hunter844[/nom]So when they send me this text, I guess I'll get charged for that too.[/citation]

Notification texts are free.

 

[amdwilliam1985]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]consumers should exercise market forces power and buy into a acrrier that provides the most transparency[/citation]

The only problem is that we can't find such carrier in the U.S.

 

[dustcrusher]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Maybe instead of using the FCC as a crutch, consumers should exercise market forces power and buy into a acrrier that provides the most transparency, after all despite the FCC the only thing these companies pay attention to is the bottom line.[/citation]
[citation][nom]amdwilliam1985[/nom]The only problem is that we can't find such carrier in the U.S.[/citation]
This. We can ditch wireless completely (good luck), live with it/minimize the pain by paying for an unlimited plan, switch to a small provider (dunno about everyone else but Cricket's coverage here is awful), or use a prepay phone (which is only cost-effective for non-typical users).

Even if we go with a regional carrier or use prepay, the big carriers still profit. Who owns all the towers?

For anything but a smartphone, features like texting and mobile web should be opt-in, not opt-out. If some jerk text-spams a user, why should they have to argue to get the charge removed? That should be a no-brainer. If a user fat-fingers and starts the browser on their featurephone by accident, why do some carriers charge for 1 MB of "data usage" even if they didn't actually load a single page?.

There is no logical reason why someone can't get a phone for voice only and not have to worry about surprise data/text/other feature charges except that it hurts carriers' profit. The problem is that overage is the biggest revenue stream for the carriers, hands-down; overage costs the carrier next to nothing so the profit margins are gigantic. So, naturally, the carriers are going to fight this tooth and nail.

I worked at Sprint a long time ago. They had a system for people with bad credit called Account Spending Limit. The system would cut off the phone entirely if the customer's total charges reached a set dollar amount. The customer would have to pay some or all of the bill to restore service (911 calls and customer service calls continued to work, of course). For every customer that pissed and moaned about having their phone cut off, 5 more would say they liked it or would ask for it to be put on their phones (which we couldn't- yet another way our credit system punishes the responsible). It ensured that these customers wouldn't get up to four-digit account balances they had little to no hope of every paying back.

This was in 2001. There is no excuse for not having it now.

Sorry, I know that was a lot. I'll stop ranting now.

 

[Conner Macleod]

The biggest problem I have with cell phone carriers, Verizon Wireless to be specific, is their double billing practices, which is made worse by double talk in their explanation of the charges.

The problem is caused by their billing method, which is that they pre-bill 1 month in advance, which is insane, no other company does this. So when I'm paying for February, I'm actually paying for March, and this is where the double billing comes in. If I make any change to my current plan, I'm billed on my current monthly charges as well as the next because they double bill. Whenever I've called and complained about it, they give me some double talk about billing in advance, and the date it takes effect, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Once I spoke with the tech support's supervisor and got my bill reduced by 2/3s but they won't admit that they're wrong and highly unethical with how they bill people.

The first time I signed up with them I was billed twice because I signed up in the middle of the month! I kid you not, I was billed for May and June at the same time, before I had even used the phone for one month. It's flat out highway robbery the way Verizon and other companies operate.

Ironically scam artists are arrested for this all the time, whether it's a phone scam or a con artist using some type of card trick at a casino, but when phone companies do it to millions of customers on a monthly basis, it's simply routine. It's kind of like the quote by Stalin: "If you kill one person, it's called murder, but if you kill millions it's a statistic." Same principle applies to cell phone companies, they're getting away with murder.

 

[dark_lord69]

This would be nice!
One time I got a bill for $300 I was so pissed.

 

[cue229]

Years after having left my contract behind for a el cheapo tracfone, I now read with bemusement about the FCC deeming it unfair on consumers, that they get given more credit than what they wanted. I'm a little dissapointed in people in general that they can't control themselvs. But having said that, knowing myself, I went onto pre paid for exactly that reason. Or at least that was one of the reasons.
But knowing that, surely other people would follow the same logic route.
The FCC is only a couple of years late.