I’m travelling to Japan, so I’ve rented a cell phone to use while I’m there.
My provider, Verizon, has given me an access code to have calls to my US phone forwarded to the Japanese number.
And Verizon has told me that incoming calls are free in Japan under this particular plan.
So, would I be right in assuming that a friend could call my local phone number (free call for them) and then be forwarded to my phone in Japan, where they could chat with me for as long as the batteries hold out.
The forwarded calls don’t count against my US airtime either.
It seems like a good deal, but then again it seems like too good of a deal.
I agree. You will pay. If you have a month or two, you could test this billing mechanism by forwarding your phone to a Japanese number, calling your phone and then checking the next bill. Calling customer care will get you a quicker answer. Hopefully, that answer will be accurate.
$5 gets you $10 that if you call back, speak to a different supervisor, you’ll get a different answer. When you do call them back, get ID#s, extensions, and whatever else they’re willing to provide so you can enable the next person you speak to identify the person who gave you that information. That way, if what your bill shows, and what you were told don’t match, you can get them to fix it. (I used to work for SprintPCS, and if Verizon’s anything like SPCS, you really need to do this.)
I agree with Tuckerfan. The supervisor could be wrong or may not understand the full question. In all likelihood the in-coming calls are free… for the Japanese phone. Forget about the new phone and the forwarding charge for a second, and ask the rate to make a call to Japan. It should be a per minute charge. You can add that charge to the forwarding charge to try to come up with cost.