pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
|  Surprised?
People who are dumb enough to pay $600 for a piece of inferior technology (multiple times over in this case) are also dumb enough to understand the terms of service to which they agreed when they bought such a device.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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ace1974
join:2007-06-09
Goldsboro, NC
| said by pnh102  :People who are dumb enough to pay $600 for a piece of inferior technology (multiple times over in this case) are also dumb enough to understand the terms of service to which they agreed when they bought such a device. You got that right,,I just cant understand why anyone would pay that kind of money for such a device. It's clearly a ripoff in my opinion |
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CSU
join:2002-10-21
Lagrange, GA
| Re: Suprised!
There's not anything wrong with the iPhone. I think it's a great stylish phone. The problem is the cell company. It seems that all cell companies can take a great phone and screw it up. AT&T was lucky enough to have apple bring their product to them and no other company. I can't even imagine how T-Mobile would have screwed things up. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| Interesting..
quote:
....he user brought attention to the fact that AT&T Blackberry users are able to sign up for a $70 unlimited international plan, but iPhone users are not.
And I wonder why this is?
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YourIP.US - It's Your IP .. and more!
rr.cx - Personal Site.. coming soon. |
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tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Floral Park, NY | rate reform, NOW!
Data does NOT cost that much to route internationally, even if it's through 3rd party carriers, even if it were by SATELLITE PHONE, $5-20 per megabyte?
What a ripoff! Time for AT&T to reform these international data rates. |
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Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York
 ·PHONE POWER
·Broadvox Direct
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Dumb
Dumb people getting dumber. Do people ever look at their phones? It says "DIGITAL ROAM" for a reason, some phones even warn you about this before placing a data or voice call.
I do blame the sales marketing machine for this though. They're great about highlighting what's included, not too forthcoming about the fine print.
They'll get off though. Last thing AT&T wants is a mass exodus due to alleged draconian business practices. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to tmc8080
Re: rate reform, NOW!
said by tmc8080 :What a ripoff! Time for AT&T to reform these international data rates. Because of a couple of idiots who don't read their contracts?
Lots of people use cellular data abroad and have no problem at all. Why should these people be inconvenienced because of a few people who don't bother to read the fine print?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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justDave
join:2000-02-29
Brooklyn, NY
·ViaTalk
| reply to tmc8080
Standard US data rate is $10/MB
What's surprising here?
The standard advertised data rate in the US is one cent/kB. Just a penny, right? That's umm... let's see... carry the one... $10/MB (additional taxes and fees may apply)!
Of course nobody uses data without a plan, not after their first bill anyway.
Now it looks like AT&T forgot to offer an unlimited international data plan for iPhone users. Here come those first bills.
On my recent trip to London, I was prepared and used T-Mobile UK instead. Their data plan was superficially similar, I think it was 1p/kB. That would make it about twice as expensive as AT&T except for one thing - it was capped at £1/day.
When are the US carriers going to institute caps like that? It's not like anyone actually pays those $4800 bills, do they? |
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ender7074
join:2006-11-21
Saint Louis, MO
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to CSU
Re: Suprised!
Actually AT&T was what was left after others turned down the iPhone. There was no luck involved here. Other than that you are absolutely right. I think the damn cell phone companies need to stop screwing around with the phones and let them work as intended. |
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N10Cities
SILENCE I Keel You
Premium
join:2002-05-07
Roland, OK
clubs:
·Cox HSI
·World Lynx
4 edits | Background processes running up bill....
It looks like in the instance of the family hit with $4800, the emails were being downloaded to the phones even while they were off! (prefetching them to save time)
Slashdot article on same issue claims they didn't even use the phones while on the cruise: »hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl···/1216224
 Would have been hard to catch this one unless the phone warned that it was going to International Roaming and would you like to continue downloading emails..assuming you had them on to start with...  |
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NoelC
D S L R Bliss
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-03
Florida
1 edit | Am I missing something?
How does a user with a relatively low bandwitch iPhone chew through enough data to result in an $1900 bill at $24.95 for 20 megabytes? That's 1.5 gigabytes of data.
quote:
AT&T iPhone users users who travel Outside the U.S. pay $24.99 for 20 megabytes. In some countries, users can pay between $5 to $20 per megabyte for data.
Even at the extreme of $20 a megabyte they would have had to pull 95 megabytes through their iPhones. What did they do - play YouTube videos constantly?
Something seems rather fishy here.
-Noel |
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vicorjh
Premium
join:2007-06-24
Arlington, MA
| reply to pnh102
Re: rate reform, NOW!
Really, that is the exact point. These companies bury the details in the fine print and gain usurious profit in what should be considered normal activity.
We know that these companies are well aware that such a situation will occur well before bringing the service on-line. We also know that these companies will not provide any sort of "warning" that they are currently being billed at a higher rate of $20 per megabyte (uh, digital roaming indiciation provides no indication as to the charges).
Why, because they know this is a BIG profit opportuinity.
Are they technically correct that they've provided the details in the TOS? Possibly, but as you've mentioned it is buried somewhere in the fine print.
If anything, companies such as this are just limiting their customer base to those who are fabulously weathly and don't give a damn about $20 per megabyte. For those not weathly, ATT will bring collections and lawsuits to them. All the while, the self imposed negative publicity erodes away the future customer base.
If you've never been caught or pissed about some of the ridiculous fine print in these companies legalise (after it was too late), then I'd say you're in the minority. Not to mention, have you actually tried to interpret some of that stuff.
Instead of providing reasonable terms and reasonable charges, some of these players insist on tying you into a legal contracts (where they can sue you but you're limited to arbitration), eliminate customer service, fail to address billing errors, claim no responsiblity when they are in error, and find any way they can to nibble at your pocketbook. These players are usually the one that find them self at a loss as to why they've lost the customer base. |
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Pirate515
Premium
join:2001-01-22
Brooklyn, NY
|  reply to ender7074
Re: Suprised!
said by ender7074 :Actually AT&T was what was left after others turned down the iPhone. There was no luck involved here. Other than that you are absolutely right. I think the damn cell phone companies need to stop screwing around with the phones and let them work as intended. Why are you saying that every other cell phone company turned down the iPhone? AFAIK, the only other company that Apple approached when developing iPhone was Verizon, and they were actually trying to work out a deal, but it ultimately fell through. So then Apple went with AT&T instead.
IMO, Apple should have simply sold them unlocked. That would have allowed them to sell them to both AT&T and T-Mobile customers. Plus they could have made a CDMA version of it for Verizon and Sprint customers as well. Of course, CDMA phones are not as easy to activate as GSM ones, but it's still only a matter of trip to the carrier's store or a phone call to have them program the phone's ESN with customer's account.
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Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies...
A MESSAGE to the RIAA and the MPAA: You shouldn't wound what you can't kill... |
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packetscan
Premium
join:2004-10-19
Bridgeport, CT
clubs:
·Optimum Online
| Network Restrictions
You should be told on the phone you are entering a roaming zone and to accept the out of network charges with the rates disclosed. Similar to authorizing the charge for say a ring tone/game.
These Folks should have done some research, no doubt about that. However I can't help but feel they are knowingly and willing allowing the customer to Vastly exceed normal usage with out warning prior to the ACT (not in fine print of a contract).
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Reach out and Tap someone! |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI
·Comcast
| reply to Pirate515
Re: Suprised!
said by Pirate515 :Apple should have simply sold them unlocked. That would have allowed them to sell them to both AT&T and T-Mobile customers. I can't figure out why they didn't. That would have given them far more potential sales. Since it supports Edge only they could have made a quad band, unlocked version that could have been sold worldwide. Very shortsighted of them not to do so.
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We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company.
-- Ernestine |
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proefain
Premium
join:2000-05-08
Crofton, MD
1 edit | It was 3 phones
Come on people read the article. It was 3 iphones, a husband, wife and their daughter each had their own.
The way I see it this family is not the type to read the fine print because what’s a few hundred dollars in roaming fees when you’re traveling Europe and all have matching iphones with a month bill of ~ $300 for the trio. The shock came when instead of a few hundred dollar bill it was a few thousand dollar bill. |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | reply to Pirate515
Re: Suprised!
AT&T was the only one who would give up their ability to decide what would be on the phone and instead give that power to Apple. They were the only ones willing to give that up so there is less luck to do with it. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | reply to vicorjh
Re: rate reform, NOW!
So what if it is fine print? The point is that these idiots racked up these charges because they were too lazy to read the contract.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
1 edit | Actually, in this case it looks like it could be a serious problem, not just a user not reading the fine print. Apparently, the iPhone downloads updates/e-mails/etc even when you turn it off. The family had their three iPhones turned off, but the phones still went ahead with the downloads and the family was charged for international roaming. There's an expectation that turning something off will mean that it won't be incurring additional charges. If you can't avoid bills by turning your phone off then something is seriously wrong with the phone/service. |
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morbo
Complete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000
clubs:
2 edits |  3 iPhones = too rich to care, right?
who has 3 iPhones? that means they dropped almost $2k for the phones plus have a monthly bill of $200+ just for cell phone service.
you'd think they wouldn't notice the bill for $4800. |
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