Today, “missy”, a friend of my mothers, told me that when ever she RECEIVES a call on her home phone from her friend “Mary”, Mary using a U.S. Cellular cell phone, Missy get’s a charge on her telephone bill.
I absolutely doubt this. Except in the case of collect calls where one has accepted the charges, how can a person be billed for RECEIVING a call. If I got a seperate charge just for answering my phone, I’d scream at the phone company until eternity ended.
However, “Missy” insists that she get’s charged for receiving calls from “Mary’s” cell phone. So much so, that she forbids Mary to call her from her cell phone. Missy has a regular phone line in her home, not another cell phone.
I still very much doubt this. However, not 5 minutes ago “Mary” called me up (yes, using her cell phone. I told Missy to have Mary do this) and told me that she has seen Missy’s phone bill, and she does indeed get charged when receiving a call from her. Mary also states that now my phone bill will get a charge for receiving a call from her. I seriously doubt this, but I wanted to find out, which is why I had her call me.
My phone bill won’t be here for another month. But I want to know if this is indeed happening, and if so, how? How could that be at all legal? How could the phone company charge people for receiving a call? Does anyone know anything about this? I’ve had cell phones and different cell phone companies for almost 2 decades and never heard of this.
you haven’t specified the geographical location of “missy”.
All, without exception, cellular operators in India charge cell phones for calls that they receive. So, if Mary from the U.S. called Missy in India, indeed missy would be charged for picking up that call. Missy would be charged the local airtime rate of about 4 cents a minute, whereas Mary would be charged an international call. Missy would also be charged for every outgoing call. So if Missy from India called Mary in the U.S., Missy would be charged local outgoing air time of 6 cents plus international trunk call charges of about US$1 per minute. ( outgoing airtime rates in most cases is slightly more than incoming air time rates )
yojimbo has it right. use caller id to reject calls you don’t want to pay for. divert calls to voice mail if you are unsure of the identity of the caller ( let’s say the caller is calling from a pay phone ). And at 4 cents a minute it’s not as much of an issue anymore. When cellular phones were introduced here, the incoming call charge was US$0.50 per minute.
ofcourse, you can opt for schemes that allow free incoming, or free outgoing, or both. But you pay a fixed high slab per month for that.
I’m not talking about receiving a call on a cell phone. I’m talking about a regular home phone line.
You pay on your home phone for receiving calls? I certainly don’t pay on my home telephone to receive a call, even from a cell phone.
Why the heck would I pay for anyone to call my house?
What phone company do you have?
You guys need to read the entire OP. “MISSY” is NOT using a cell phone. She is receiving the call on her regular phone line in her house. You know, the kind that plugs into your wall, telephone poles outside, etc.! I know that you get billed to receive a call on a cell phone. Everyone knows that!
Really? I’ve heard of phone packages that are based on how many calls you make (including local calls) but not on how many you receive. Who would sign up for a package that bills you on received calls? I can picture it now, some guy wringing his hands…“gee. I hope nobody calls me this month. I’m broke”.
Wouldn’t this set someone up to be a victim? Somebody doesn’t like you so he calls you all the time knowing it will cost you money each time?
Anyway, I’m sure Missy’s phone isn’t set up this way, as she told me it is only “mary’s” cell phone that put’s a charge on her phone bill. Other cell phones don’t do this. Mary has U.S. Cellular, if that means anything about this.
…maybe some of our EuroDopers can chime in here. My friend from Norway tells me that land-line users do pay for any incoming calls from cell phones there. So it’s not just places like India…
Are we to assume that “Missy” lives in the United States?
I suggest you take a look at Missy’s phone bill. Then you’ll know for sure what the heck she’s talking about.
The only situation I can think of where both parties are charged is if Missy is dialing mary’s long distance cell phone number. Then they both pay.
I can’t even get local toll calls to be itemized on my phone bill. I can’t imagine her bill says “LONG DISTANCE” “LOCAL TOLL CALLS” and “CALLS RECIEVED.”
Make a bet with Missy and then demand to see her bill
Just to give a european (actually Irish) perspective on this :
Land lines do not pay to receive calls. Ever.
Mobile (cell) phones also do not pay to receive calls. The caller pays an increased rate instead.
Their is one exception to the last statement. Because our mobile phones are gsm we can use them in the rest of europe. So, if I am in Spain and somebody calls my mobile phone the following happens :
The call gets redirected to spain. The caller pays the same amount as they would if I was in Ireland. I pay for the Ireland to Spain leg of the call.
but honestly, i just totally missed the “RECEIVES a call on her home phone” bit…
my sincerest apologies…
also, i have been misquoted by Mr Fink.
I was referring to cellular phones and not to land line telephones.
I too have never heard of a regular land line being charged to receive a call. So i shall join you in monitoring this thread for answers that can reveal the truth…
DMC offers the only plausible explanation thus far…
my cellular operator does not charge the receiver of an sms for the message. the recepient doesn’t pay for any messages received, whether from an international number or from an internet sms gateway ( through which icq, msn etc. sms messages are sent ). the sender pays the same amount whether sms’ing locally or internationally, however it is possible that a nominal monthly charge for global sms’ing is levied by the cellular service provide.
perhaps in the future sms messages will be chargeable to the receiver, for services such as internet to sms messages and mobile updates, services etc. i read a lot of articles discussing this quite some time back.
wait, lemme look it up…
there:
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Reverse Billing SMS
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In Finland (and I think in most of Europe), there is no charge for receiving a cell phone call. Receiving text messages is also free, sending them costs a fixed amount per message.
It costs more to call from cell phone to phone line than cell phone to cell phone, though. (Not that that has any real reference to the situation at hand…:))
The only reason why you might be charged that I could see:
A while back I seem to remember either a cell phone and/or beeper company offering numbers that were 900-xxx-xxxx numbers or equivlant. THe idea is that the person other then the holder of the device would pay for the call and the person who get the device would either get a very low bill or no bill. I don’t know why there would be a charge for recieving a call from a 900# though.
Ah…thanks for clearing that up. My Norwegian friend was apparently wrong about the way cellular calls are charged there. Isn’t the first time she’s been wrong
Ah…thanks for clearing that up. My Norwegian friend was apparently wrong about the way cellular calls are charged there. Isn’t the first time she’s been wrong
