Well, I’ve got some people (including US Cellular tech support) telling me to use a task killer, and others telling me not to. I guess that means I can decide for myself, and for now I’m going to go with using it. I’d rather have to recharge the battery a little sooner (and so far I’m happy with battery life) than risk another $300 bill that US Cellular can’t explain, but still insists on collecting.
I’m a service tech with U.S. Cellular. The only times I’ve seen what you are describing it’s been a runaway app or a glitch with the network. If it’s an app I have a couple of suggestions for you:
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If you haven’t already done so upgrade to Android 2.2 The task manager on 2.2 is better than the one on 2.1 and negates the need for a third party app killer.
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Continue to monitor your data usage. I’m not a fan of 3G Watchdog (I’ve found that it overestimates your usage on CDMA networks–it’s more accurate on GSM networks). I use ZDBox. It’s more accurate and breaks down how much data your individual apps are using.
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If there’s a large discrepancy between the data used on your next bill compared to what your phone says it used I would recommend wiping the phone. Your contacts are saved to your gmail account and your pictures, videos and music are saved to your memory card. If there’s a runaway app this will solve the issue. I would then re-download your apps one or two at a time, monitoring your data usage after downloading them. If there’s an app causing the problem you’ll be able to detect it better this way.
To clarify some other things from this thread:
When you’re using wifi the cellular data radio is turned off. As CookingWithGas said, you’re either on wifi or you’re not. Wifi usage does not count against the 5GB limit.
Your calling plan is a national plan so you will not be charged for roaming. Your phone may show that you’re roaming but no charges will be applied.
I noticed that you downloaded a ringtone from Tone Room. My boss would not be happy with me for saying this, but don’t use Tone Room. Check out Myxer. Many ringtones on Myxer are free and you can even create ringtones from your MP3s with the Myxer app.
If you don’t hear anything from tech support in the next few days PM me. I can do some digging around for you. Unfortunately I can’t do anything about the overage charge but I may be able to get some answers.
That’s one of the fixes the tech guy suggested (if that’s the same as Froyo?), and I’ll have them do that when I go back in.
Thanks, I’ll try ZDBox. I’d like to see what apps are using data, and neither of teh ones I’m using do that.
I’m still a little confused as to why some of my contacts are tied to Gmail or Facebook when I never had them there in the first place. I’d rather have them as just numbers in the phone, especially since the Gmail/FB thing apparently doesn’t allow me to update or delete them, which seems really stupid.
That was the first and last ringtone I will download. I simply didn’t like any of the native ringtones, so I found one I liked (a "ringing phone sound, duh) and downloaded it. I don’t care about getting fancy with ringtones, I just want one that’s inobtrusive and sounds like a damn phone ringing already. 
Thanks very much for the offer. The last CS person I talked to has promised to check in with me once a week for the next month to see how things are going. (Wow!)
I think I’m going to put my thoughts about that bill in writing to US Cellular and if I can’t get it at least partly knocked down. I mean, they can’t explain how my usage was that high, they don’t offer a native meter to check usage or an alert system to let me know if I’m getting close, there’s no way to see a detailed accounting of where the data was used . . . basically it’s, “We say you used this much data, but we’re not going to show you how or where, but you have to pay this bill anyway.” I brought it to their attention as soon as I found out, and I’ve been completely honest in explaining my usage, and what data they can see seems to bear that out. I’m feeling pretty blindsided here. I can understand that people sometimes intentionally rack up a huge bill and then try to weasel out of it, or maybe their stupid kid sent 3 million texts or downloaded 73 movies and they don’t want to pay the bill. But none of that applies to me. As I explained to them, I had no reason to expect that I would ever come close to the limit, and they can’t explain what happened, so why am I left holding the bag?
Do you have any children that might be using the phone for things you are not aware of?
There have been recent news items about Android Trojans that cause large data volumes.
Here is one article on the general topic, I’ve read others:
http://www.wirelessindustrynews.org/news-mar-2011/2423-031011-win-news.html
Here’s another (article link says iphone but it covers Android also):
http://unravelingmysteries.com/smart-phone-viruses-iphon
Yes, it’s the same as Froyo.
When you put your Gmail info into the phone it automatically takes your phone contacts and places them in your Gmail contact list. It’s a feature built in by Google. I like it a lot. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a customer come in with a lost/smashed/moisture damaged phone that got upset because their contacts were lost. This way you have a separate place where those are stored and can be recovered in case anything happens to your phone.
Unfortunately the billing system doesn’t allow for an alert system like Overage Protection for data, although this will change in the next year or so. Before sending the letter talk to Customer Relations, not Customer Service. I’ve seen CR do some great things to help customers. Stay calm when talking to them, mention how long you’ve been a customer and how much you like the service. If that doesn’t work throw in how you would hate to cancel your service and go somewhere else. If that doesn’t work then send the letter.
No. They asked me if someone might have used my phone without my knowledge. No kids. Husband not interested/wouldn’t know how. A stranger would have had to take the phone without my knowledge, rack up a bunch of data charges, and then put it back in my purse/pocket or on my desk. Neat trick.
But that’s not what I’m seeing . . . most of them got made into “Facebook contacts,” even though almost none of these people are on Facebook. And then they’re not editable/deletable. Pretty useless.
I just spot checked a few that are “Google contacts” and I’m not seeing them in my Gmail contacts. I just synced them to be sure, and nothing. (I don’t expect you to solve this for me, just describing the issue. Something else to bring up when I take the phone in.)
Hmm . . . I’m not finding contact info for “Customer Relations,” just the CS number. Googling just produces a bunch of complaints. Is it an option in the phone tree when you call the CS number?
Check your PMs.
You can thank facebook for that, they have a history of hijacking your contacts, your life, your privacy, etc. Facebook maintains your facebook contacts on their servers, google keeps your contacts in your gmail account (or is supposed to, not sure what’s up with yours). I don’t think facebook contacts can be deleted but there might be an option under the contacts settings to not show them or an option under account sync to not sync them. I don’t have facebook so my phone doesn’t show anything or I might be of more help.
The tech I talked to said that because I still have my old phone with the contacts in it (and I’ve only added a few), they should be able to wipe them and re-import them, but first change some setting so that they don’t sync to Facebook and/or Gmail. The down side being that I wouldn’t have the backup feature, but I don’t really care about that. And I suppose there are other backup options.
It’s just so lame that you can only hide them, not edit or delete. I suppose that if I hid (say) my friend’s old cell number, then tried to create a new entry with the same name, it wouldn’t let me, so instead of following my usual format of “Jane Cell,” I’d have to use “Jane Cell1” or something. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And I don’t need the old Alltel service numbers anymore, but I can only hide them, not delete them.
And now that I think about it, I don’t think you can choose to hide certain numbers either. It’s entire categories. So you’re forced to keep all your old contacts cluttering up your phone, even if you can’t see them. Lame! Who thought this was a good idea?
Why can’t you edit them?
The ones that were mysteriously associated with Facebook say, “Facebook contact information is not editable on this device.” If I choose “Delete,” I get “You cannot delete contacts from read-only accounts, but you can hide them in your contacts lists.” But again, I can hide either all or none of them. Can’t pick and choose. (And why would I, if I just want to delete the damned thing?)
OK, so apparently the Google ones I can edit, but those are only the two or three I added manually.
It’s so annoying that I can’t simply edit/delete whichever the hell contacts I want!
Following up:
(1) I went back to the US Cellular store yesterday, and the tech wiped my phone, did the Froyo update, and restored my contacts as editable Google contacts only. Still no idea what caused my data overages.
(2) I spoke with a very nice rep at Customer Relations today (thanks, Cell Guy!), who kindly agreed to waive half of my overage fee. That was my realistic goal, though of course I would have been thrilled if she could have waived the whole thing. So only $194 instead of $294. Still a big hit at tax time. (I usually owe some.)
So I guess it’s resolved. Expensive lesson learned, though not as expensive as it could have been. Thanks to everyone for your ideas.
I just purchased a US Cellular Samsung Acclaim and spent two days trying to figure everything out. I found where I was using most of my battery and probably racking up MGs of online time too, by going to settings, applications, running services then see what applications are running and using data and battery. You can also do a shorter route by going to settings, about phone, battery use -what has been using the battery. Then you have to go to the Application and physically find where the log out button is. This might not solve your problem but when I checked it out my maps and some other applications had been on for over 24 hours because I have always been used to just shutting my phone and the app would end, not on this one.
I just purchased a US Cellular Samsung Acclaim and spent two days trying to figure everything out. I found where I was using most of my battery and probably racking up MGs of online time too, by going to settings, applications, running services then see what applications are running and using data and battery. You can also do a shorter route by going to settings, about phone, battery use -what has been using the battery. Then you have to go to the Application and physically find where the log out button is. This might not solve your problem but when I checked it out my maps and some other applications had been on for over 24 hours because I have always been used to just shutting my phone and the app would end, not on this one.