[QUOTE=Pixilated]
If you dont answer the call and it goes to voicemail, chances are you are charged to check your vm regardless if you wanted that person to leave you a message.
[/QUOTE]
True, BUT you have the option of not listening to the voice mail. Wand to know what it says, you have to pay, fair enough. Maybe you should be able to see something on your phone that says “Text message from 555-1212” then if you are willing to pay to see what it says, you click okay and it pulls the message from the server.
This is why contracts are a bad idea. Once you’re locked in to a contract, the company can pretty much bend you over at will. Cricket offers free text messaging on all their plans and if you decide at some point to switch carriers, you’re free to do so. No longer do we worry about using too many minutes, texts or anything really. I haven’t found a downside. I hope the pay-as-you-go model eventually drives the larger carriers to abandon the contract and prepaid minutes models in favor of keeping the customers they keep pissing off with ridiculous fees and charges.
[QUOTE=interface2x]
Wow, your friends are assholes unless they later get together with you, say haha, and buy the next round.
[/QUOTE]
Yup…it’s probably a little revenge though as I was a pawn in their Photoshopping games against each other - one would request some sort of image of the other to email around, and the other would do the same. So, for the first time they’re able to “get” me, and it appears to excite them. I’m sure they’ll pay me back, but it was them that made me notice this evil loophole in the cell phone system. As ASAKMOTSD said, I get random text messages directly from Sprint as well, and it never occurred to me that they’re charging me for those. Pure evil.
But yes Brown Eyed Girl, I should start looking into carriers that have plans that are more accommodating to their customers, who don’t try this nickel and dime stuff. Hope I can find one.
The downside to Cricket is their coverage area. Frankly, it stinks. However, if they do cover all the places you go, it’s a pretty good deal.
Sprint is pretty much the laughingstock of the mobile industry. If you love dropped calls and a poor coverage area, Sprint is for you. And Bob, I think it’s a bunch of crap that they won’t reimburse you for those spam texts. I know of at least one other major carrier that would happily do so, at least the first go-round. Of course, if I didn’t have unlimited messaging, I’d be in trouble with my 1000+ texts each month. I talk less than a hundred minutes though. Too bad nobody makes a plan with fewer than 300 minutes.
Since your contract is month-to-month, find a carrier who does not charge for incoming text messages. Switch to a plan with them. Port your number over. Don’t tell your “friends” you’re no longer paying for their text messages and secretly feel superior while they continue to text you from a variety of phones you haven’t yet blocked.
[QUOTE=Bob55] Pixilated, I don’t think I get charged for incoming phone calls that I don’t answer. If I do, wow, that’s news to me. Add this to my complaint!
[/QUOTE]
Let me rephrase - your plan may charge you for checking vmail messages that was a result of a missed call, not the missed call itself, and those minutes may or may not fall under package plan. If I’m not mistaken, once you access your vmail the minute ticker starts… so, even if you dont listen to the message but you go in to vmail to delete it, that’s still one minute of usage.
Reason why a lot of companies charge for incoming anything - because it makes them money.
I’m with the OP, but . . .
. . . the cell phone ripoff (or, the price we pay for the convenience of a cell phone) is nothing new.
I get charged for calling you, and you get charged for receiving the call. You get charged for receiving texts. As if they take up more bandwidth than a phone conversation.
It’s all a game of ‘what can we bundle as a “feature” that we can charge more for?’
I have my kids on a service similar to the one Brown Eyed Girl posted. As far as I can tell they talk and text and send pics simultaneously while eating and playing a video game. $40 bucks a month each. Theirs is the $45 plan but I pay less because I have three phones on the same plan, each additional phone on the plan is $5 per month cheaper. . My wife and I plan to drop ours and join theirs later this month.
This reminds me of an article I read in the paper this a.m. about advertisers wanting to send stuff (spam?) to cellphones. An advocate for some advertisers’ group said something like, “Opinions appear to be mixed as to the desirability of receiving advertising on cellphones.” Really? Exactly who would be in favor of that?
[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
You have 10 emergencies a month? Are you Batman?
[/QUOTE]
Funny, that was my thought too. What, pray tell, is an “emergency” that can be handled with a text? To me and emergency that doesn’t require a call to 911 is not an emergency.
[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
This reminds me of an article I read in the paper this a.m. about advertisers wanting to send stuff (spam?) to cellphones. An advocate for some advertisers’ group said something like, “Opinions appear to be mixed as to the desirability of receiving advertising on cellphones.” Really? Exactly who would be in favor of that?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Bob55]
Fast forward to me making the mistake of telling a friend I pay per text. He - knowing how conservative I am with money - thinks it’s funny to text me randomly to intentionally charge me money. Tonight he sent 10 in a row. Regardless of how childish this is, it opened my eyes to a bigger problem - how can a cell phone company legally charge me for something I have zero control over?
[/QUOTE]
What an asshole. The solution to this is to print out a response to each message, tie each to a rock, and throw them through separate windows of his car and/or house.
I agree with you that charging to receive text messages is absurd. I did my best to discourage it among my friends by telling them I don’t like text messages, ignoring text messages I receive, and not sending text messages, but I’d still get a dozen or so each month. Then I got a plan that happened to come with free text messages (Sprint SERO), and I don’t care any more. I still hardly ever send them, though.
I don’t get charged for incoming texts, unless it’s one of those rip-off things that you have to subscribe to, then text ‘stop’ to end (and yeah, I bet texting ‘stop’ works just great).
But I just had a very interesting and slightly frustrating conversation with my phone provider. I received two texts in quick succession - both saying:
Well, I was deeply suspicious of this - what if this wasn’t from Orange at all (sender is just a four digit number - how would I know?), and what if texting ‘NO’ actually starts them sending me messages I do have to pay to receive…
So I phoned their customer care - after 15 minutes on hold, I spoke to a young lady, whose first answer was “Well, if it says ‘Hi from Orange’, it must be from us”
:dubious: Yeah, because nobody else but Orange could type the words ‘Hi from Orange’, right?
Anyway, after I had voiced my scepticism, she did some sort of search and was then able to assure me that as the sender’s number doesn’t belong to any third party, it must belong to Orange.
Still not really satisfactory, but obviously the best I was going to get. I replied ‘NO’ to one of the texts, as instructed.
