Wireless Carriers Now Sending Usage Warning Texts

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JOSHSKORN

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It's about time. Maybe if a wireless company had a brain, it could've pitched the idea "We'll tell you when you're low on texts" as a way to lure in customers.

I'm kind of curious if you're able to have more control on a family plan. Lets say, your oldest son took all of the text messages from the family plan of a given pay period. Can you then limit him for the rest of the month to only sending text messages to other members on the family plan, or other certain users (i.e. other family members or very close family friends)? That is, for the rest of the billing period, limit him from sending nonsense messages to his friends like "what did you eat for dinner?", "How was your date?" and so forth.
 

ThisIsMe

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Well, at least with at&t you get unlimited calling to and from any mobile phone when you add unlimited messages to your family plan. That should keep most kids in check.

BUT, I've long said that if a provider is to charge for a limited amount of usage, then that provider should offer an option to have that specific service deactivated when that limit is reached until the next billing cycle begins. That way they cannot use the threat of lowering someone's credit score and their lawyers to force someone to pay for something they never intended to purchase in the first place. I mean seriously, pay phones were doing this a long time before cell phones were even close to becoming real. You put in your dime/quarter and you talk until you run out. That's it. Also, I remember when pagers were kind of a big deal and when you bought your monthly quota, that was all you got. If you ran out of pages you got cut off until you bought more or the billing cycle started over. So, it's not like the systems can't do this. It's not like it would cost them more to impliment it. They just like getting that accidental extra income, and it's obvious.
 

ThisIsMe

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[citation][nom]jacekring[/nom]Wonder if the txt alert you get counts against your txting plan if you have a limited plan.[/citation]
I'm pretty sure that the Free VZW msg: at the beginning of the text indicates that it's a free Verizon Wireless message, but maybe that's just me.
 
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Why is the US gov working with these crooks and their bogus fees rather than forcing them to be more competitive and not charge 10,000% more than it actually costs to send a text message or use any significant amount of data.
 

house70

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How about this: cut back just a little bit on the outrageous CEO compensations and with that money build more infrastructure, so we can all get the unlimited services that the rest of the civilized world enjoys already. And for the govt. regulations, if they really want to do something helpful, they need to break down those quasi-monopolies that telcoms have created by fragmenting the market amongst themselves and bring back true competition.
 

leper84

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Tmobile has been doing this for awhile, near the end of every month when I'm about to hit my 5gb slow down cap.

Sad there has to be more govt. to force the big two to do the same when its gonna cost ya. If you're tired of the crap, buy from the small guys (until AT&T buys them).
 

TeraMedia

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@JOSHSKORN:
That is, for the rest of the billing period, limit him from sending nonsense messages to his friends like "what did you eat for dinner?", "How was your date?" and so forth.
Well...
You could take his phone away for the rest of the billing period. That might also teach him not to abuse texting...

I'm curious to see how this actually works. If there are controls on the consumer side (e.g. I can configure it to "alert me when I'm down to 10% or 5 messages per day, whichever comes first."), then consumers are truly empowered to manage their wireless usage. But if it simply says, "You've used >= 100% of your minutes/data/msgs for this billing period" then you either have to buy more (and we know what kind of pricing to expect there...), or completely forgo that feature for a while.

Can anyone who has already gotten these comment on the specifics about what these messages actually communicate?
 

TheOnion

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I have had this for almost a year on US Cellular and I must admit it is a good idea but the application of it is a bit sketchy. Some months I go over my texts and never get a warning text. Other months I go over and only get a 75% usage warning. I am supposed to get a 75% usage warning and another warning when I have sent my last allotted text. It is very hit or miss and it gives me a false sense of security. Please keep that in mind
 
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US Cellular has been doing this for years. They didn't sign on, they started the movement.
 

Montezuma

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Verizon Wireless has, for some time now, been sending out emails to data subscribers(at least for data-only devices) when customers reach 90% of monthly "allowances". There is even an option for getting emails at 50% and 75%, if I remember correctly. So, this is not news, as far as Verizon Wireless is concerned. This also does nothing for the consumer.

Customers should have the option to stop usage, once the monthly plan allotment has been reached. Well, actually, we should be able to access affordable plans, which offer unlimited access, across the board. Since I doubt that will occur, then the former will suffice, for now.

I have to use Verizon Wireless(VZW) for "broadband", since neither AT&T, Comcast, nor no other ISP, offers broadband to most of my county. Verizon Wireless is not great, as there are constant outages, even though VZW refuses to admit to it. I mean, when multiple devices, used by multiple customers go into a dormant state, it should be an indication there is a network issue. At least VZW is offering some sort of option, which puts it far ahead of the competition.

I live in the metro-Atlanta area, and no line-based ISP will be bothered to install proper "broadband" access to greater than 15 to 20% of my county. Yet, I have observed AT&T installing Remote Terminals("regular" DSL) and VRADs(U-Verse) in areas with half, or less, of the population that my street has on it. ...but, I digress...

Warnings do very little for people. Giving customers the option to suspend service, once their monthly allotment has been reached, would be great. The warnings are fine, but there needs to be more control options for customers.
 

FlyPonix

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This is good. Now when i go over my 5GB limit, i will claim "i never got a text" and will fight tooth and nail until they remove the fee.
 
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Think the catch is that, you receive a message probably afterwards, saying that will, in the efforts to prevent overages due to the timely interest of the send outs to maintain service without disruptive service is best based when a message can be placed within some means to be say warned of. Given of this placing a charge for the issue is better regulated by a bill statement for such given the intial say cycle of such and as the next cycle continues you are know more aware of the say issue before you have to pay for it. Even though the charge is already in place for it.

To a point after a few cycles or so, maybe less, you might get a warning before say interest of overage actually would take place. You have 1kb left of your say 200mbs, or less then 3mins of your 60mins or 120mins. Would need a pause say system probably. I've had the say 3min thing happen before right when I had gotten a call. But think is more a phone based say service then say service of interest within use of the say service. Didn't have say a "smartphone" either.

But hey, some interest of ideas of say overage is probably better then none.
 

unksol

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Did not know this was news... AT&T has been doing this, at least with my data. Minutes have never been an issue thanks to rollover minutes. I suppose its a convenience, I just assumed people were smart enough to press the button to see their current usage every now and then...
 
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