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(UPI) Asinine Today's story of incredibly excessive roaming charges comes to you from Saskatchewan, Canada   (upi.com) divider line 26
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2843 clicks; posted to Business » on 04 Feb 2012 at 12:19 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



26 Comments   (+0 »)
   
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ZAZ [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 08:07:44 AM
It also comes to us from Phoenix, Arizona. I wonder if it was the American or Candian company that determined the $10,000 charge.

CBC article is better: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2012/02/02/sk-movie- r oaming-charges-120202.html
 
namegoeshere
2012-02-04 09:35:25 AM
"It's sort of my fault," he said. "I'll pay the thousand bucks and -- lesson learned."

This right here makes him better than 99% of the idiots we hear about who rack up outrageous bills and then whine about how it's not their fault.

Taking responsibility for one's actions is so refreshing.
 
swaniefrmreddeer [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 11:36:46 AM
Last time I landed in phoenix, I received a text message from Bell, informing me that data would be billed at $10 a megabyte. Needless to say I turned my data off for the duration of my stay.
 
itazurakko
2012-02-04 12:09:21 PM
swaniefrmreddeer: Last time I landed in phoenix, I received a text message from Bell, informing me that data would be billed at $10 a megabyte. Needless to say I turned my data off for the duration of my stay.

Exactly my experience, in reverse - I go north into Canada, and as soon as my phone switches over to Canadian telecom towers AT&T sends me a text message reminding me to turn data roaming off unless I want to pay through the nose.

I leave it off by default.

You can buy data roaming packages for a limited time, they're annoyingly expensive (the entire regionality of all of this is annoying, but that's another thread I guess) but it's FAR cheaper than anything you'll pay without one. If the guy desperately needed to use his netflix over the PHONE SIGNAL (what, they had no wireless internet???) in a foreign country, he should buy one of these planes before going (or better yet, use wireless internet like normal people!).
 
itazurakko
2012-02-04 12:10:26 PM
itazurakko: planes

Er, plans.

/don't use your phone on the plane either
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 12:29:03 PM
They used a data card instead of a phone to access the cell phone network. If the phone company's computers tried to text the device using the data instead of the account owner's phone, the text would have gone nowhere.
 
GoodyearPimp
2012-02-04 12:40:47 PM
Good to see the family taking advantage of vacation. "We're a few thousand miles from home, what should we do? Let's watch movies on our iPhones."
 
der Glitzkrieg
2012-02-04 12:41:22 PM
Roaming charges are why I get a cheap pre-paid when I go out of town. After the $300 bill I got for exactly two phone calls made in a different state, I learned my damn lesson.
 
itazurakko
2012-02-04 12:44:32 PM
ZAZ: data card

Ah. Yeah. I'd been assuming iPad.

/have an iPad
//without phone capabilities in it
 
StingerJ
2012-02-04 01:06:23 PM
There are people who still don't realize data roaming is massively expensive? I thought we got through this all in 2007.
 
Flint Ironstag
2012-02-04 01:32:19 PM
The only "mod" I have done to my HTC is to unlock it from my carrier. So if I go to another country I just buy a local PAYG SIM with a data plan and use that while I'm there.
Before smatrphones it was just as cheap and easy to just buy a pay as you go phone for $20 or $30 when you got there and throw them away when you leave.
 
Big_Thumb
2012-02-04 02:04:05 PM
Vacationing family hit with $10,000 movie bill, An understanding SaskTel agrees to reduce the charge to about $1,000

At least Sasktel had the decency to trim it back.

After dealing with Rogers and Bell, I find Sasktel to be a pretty good company to deal with all round.
 
Funk Brothers
2012-02-04 02:08:32 PM
This is why I kept my Blackberry just in case when I upgraded to the iPhone 4 back in December of 2010. Needless to say, I unlocked it before my trip to Europe last June and downloaded several apps such as foursquare and Twitter to keep me up to date and tell my friends where I am at. I bought two SIM cards one in France and one in Germany. I was upset that I didn't get a SIM card that had internet capabilities in France, but lesson was applied and Germany for the majority of my stay there. Saved me a bunch of money from getting charged on my AT&T plan and using an iPhone internationally. They recently changed their international plans once I got back and will again in the next 12-18 months. Things are getting cheaper for more data.
 
Ivo Shandor
2012-02-04 02:10:31 PM
Open-ended phone billing plans are a very bad idea. With a pre-paid one the worst that can happen is that your credit suddenly drops to 0 and you call customer service to figure out WTF just happened.

Mobilicity (in Vancouver) offers a nice balance. It's a fixed $whatever/month billed to my credit card for local unlimited services, plus a pre-paid "wallet" for roaming charges.
 
suburbanguy
2012-02-04 02:16:22 PM
ZAZ: They used a data card instead of a phone to access the cell phone network. If the phone company's computers tried to text the device using the data instead of the account owner's phone, the text would have gone nowhere.

Wouldn't he also have a cell phone with the provider that the texts could go to?
 
Unobtanium
2012-02-04 02:37:15 PM
I've had two business trips to Canada in the last few years. Both times, I called my provider (Verizon) to find out what I was looking at for roaming. Both times, the CSR suggested waiting until I was about a week out from the trips, change over to "North American Choice" or whatever they called it each time, and then switch back after the close of the billing cycle, but within 30 days of the change.

On one trip, my wife went with me, but each time, it saved us all kinds of $$. Of course, we didn't have smartphones back then so a different strategy is called for these days, like data off and WiFi only.

/We had a manager at work who took his laptop with aircard on vacation on a cruise ship, and didn't ask about the fees. New policy came out about company stuff on vacations after the bill hit accounting.
 
adenosine
2012-02-04 03:00:55 PM
ZAZ: They used a data card instead of a phone to access the cell phone network. If the phone company's computers tried to text the device using the data instead of the account owner's phone, the text would have gone nowhere.

You can text a data card. I've walked many people though checking their data cards texts.
 
Representative of the unwashed masses
2012-02-04 03:07:22 PM
namegoeshere: "It's sort of my fault," he said. "I'll pay the thousand bucks and -- lesson learned."

This right here makes him better than 99% of the idiots we hear about who rack up outrageous bills and then whine about how it's not their fault.

Taking responsibility for one's actions is so refreshing.

Being originally from Saskatchewan I am not surprised. Lots of good hard working salt of the earth no nonsense people.
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 03:21:17 PM
You can text a data card. I've walked many people though checking their data cards texts.

If you have to work to see the text, kids watching movies wouldn't know and father watching kids watch movies wouldn't know.

Better to have an opt-in system for expensive roaming.
 
Happy Hours [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 08:51:00 PM
Unobtanium: I've had two business trips to Canada in the last few years. Both times, I called my provider (Verizon) to find out what I was looking at for roaming. Both times, the CSR suggested waiting until I was about a week out from the trips, change over to "North American Choice" or whatever they called it each time, and then switch back after the close of the billing cycle, but within 30 days of the change.

That's nice of them, but you know you just reset your contract each time you changed plans.

Still better than AT&T which likes to say "No problem. Your plan covers that area. You won't get any roaming charges at all." (Me: "Are you sure?") "Oh yes, no problem sir". (Me: "Okay, just to be clear I will be here calling there. Are you absolutely sure my plan covers this?") "Yes, I understand and there will be no roaming fees."

Bill: $600. It's a good thing I was only there for a few days.
 
ZAZ [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 09:06:58 PM
Happy Hours

Reminds me of phone companies at the end of the 1990s, landlines and long distance wars. I left AT&T forever after falling into their trap and knowing people who did get taken for $600 in long distance charges. One of the other companies was accused of lying about as blatantly as you describe. They got away with it because of the "filed tariff doctrine." The doctrine says companies are not allowed to deviate from the rate the government has authorized. It's your responsibility to go down the stairs and fight the leopard to get to the official rate plan to find out if you are being lied to. Deregulation of rates put an end to that. Unregulated plans are covered by contract law. The contract may say you settle disputes by arbitration on an ice floe in the middle of the arctic winter, but at least you have a chance.
 
Rodeodoc [TotalFark]
2012-02-04 11:15:07 PM
namegoeshere: Taking responsibility for one's actions is so refreshing Canadian.

FTFY

/not always true, but Saskatchewan folks are pretty good people, eh?
 
StoneColdAtheist
2012-02-04 11:19:00 PM
Psst...Subby, where you from, dude? We all understand Sasquatchistan is in Canada, eh.

That's like saying "Texas, USA"...as if we didn't know.

/okay, I'll quit biatching now
//time for a beer
 
Flint Ironstag
2012-02-05 05:15:17 PM
And who can forget the classic tale of Verizon telling a customer the roaming data charge was 0.02 cents and insisting that meant the same as 0.02 dollars.
 
cefm
2012-02-06 01:27:18 PM
Kind of like debit-card overdraft fees. Yes it makes perfect sense to blame the dumbass who racked up the bill. But since the whole basis for the bill is because it's not really the true cost of the behavior itself but the fact the behavior is meant to be discouraged, then why the hell wouldn't the provider simply prevent it in the first place? Just build into the plan a default setting that any use that exceeds x limit out-of-country or 3x the average monthly bill, or over x dollar amount will automatically be disabled (w/ a message to contact customer service to resolve)? It would be an extremely simple algorithm to build in. Nobody would care except the people who really want that capability and they'd sign up for a different level of service!
 
brianbankerus
2012-02-07 12:54:23 AM
When I'm on vacation I love to gather the kids around the laptop and watch tons and tons of movies.
 
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