 
Hazy Arc
join:2006-04-10
Greenwood, SC |  Worthless Companies
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| | walliser
join:2002-01-27
Philadelphia, PA
| Re: Worthless Companies This is interesting, particularly in light of what the EC is doing. They told European carriers that their rates are to high. In essence: lower your rates to what we deem reasonable or we will cap the SMS charges for you.
20c an SMS is a rip-off. | |
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n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
 ·Optimum Online
| New Slogan T-Mobile needs to drop their "Stick Together" slogan and change it to "Me Too!". When Verizon, AT&T and Sprint raise the SMS/MMS rate to twenty five cents next March, T-Mobile will wait a few months and say "Me Too". I am a T-Mobile subscriber because their plans are/were cheap but this game of follow the leaders is becoming tiresome. Maybe they should make a preemptive strike and raise their rates to thirty cents.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: New Slogan If customers really care about SMS, they need to subscribe to one of their provider's plans. If customers don't care about SMS and don't want to be billed for receiving them, they can have their provider block SMS...like I did with VZW. I honestly don't see this as a big deal. It's meant to entice customers to subscribe to higher tiers of service. | |
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n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY | Re: New Slogan I do not use SMS but I do receive free Amber alerts via SMS. If I can disable SMS but keep the Amber alerts then I will do it.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| said by openbox9  :It's meant to entice customers to subscribe to higher tiers of service. It's meant to FORCE users to pay more money then they want to. Maybe they hardly ever SMS etc and aren't really interested in it, but occasionally have to use it a bit or have someone they know who insists on using it (sibling, child, etc).... now they will be *forced* into buying a plan and pay more more per month for service.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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| | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA | Re: New Slogan Forced? I'm not forced into paying more. VZW had no problem honoring my request to block sending/receiving SMS to all of the handhelds on my account. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: New Slogan Obviously you don't fit the example then, or the targeted customer demographic. This isn't an enticement or incentive program. It's a penalty program. The old motivational principle of "The Carrot or the Stick" applies here.... this clearly isn't the carrot--- it's the stick.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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| | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA | Re: New Slogan Customers have a choice. Actually, customers have several choices. Bottom line is, companies are using this as an incentive to upsell products/ services. This is common practice and happens in just about every industry that I can think of. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: New Slogan It's not an incentive! They aren't offering you something for upgrading. They're penalizing you to force you to upgrade in order to save money FROM the new penalties. | |
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| | | | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: New Slogan I'm not sure why you aren't grasping this. There are no penalties. If you choose not to send/receive SMS, you pay nothing above your current cost of service. If you choose to send/receive SMS, you'll be charged a fee per SMS. If you don't like that fee, you can purchase a different level of service that includes SMS for a nominal charge. If a person wants to send/receive numerous SMS/mth, the incentive of paying a lower fee to purchase that additional SMS package vice paying $0.20/SMS seem real to me. | |
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redhatnation
Premium
join:2005-06-02
Woodbridge, VA
·Comcast
| Material Change in Contract = no ETF to cancel Cancel Time! T-Mobile rate increase (Consumerist)
Those who are offended by the rate increase or have been looking to cancel can do so with no ETF as a result of this "material change" to the contract.
For the record, I'm a T-Mobile subscriber on an "all you can eat" data plan so this doesn't impact me. | |
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| jesseb_66
join:2002-12-06
Tucson, AZ | Re: Material Change in Contract = no ETF to cancel It's pretty annoying I agree. I finally signed up for the $5 400 txt msg plan a couple of weeks ago. I started to receive so many from co-workers/friends etc that it ended up costing more than the cheap plan. | |
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| | luckystreich
join:2005-11-05
united state | Re: Material Change in Contract = no ETF to cancel Time to bump yourself up to the next plan or block SMS altogether | |
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| maxpower
join:2006-10-09
Providence, RI
| I would have done this but I am already out of contract. I love TMO but I barely use my cell phone. I am thinking about ditching them for now and trying some prepaid option, I just haven't found an option I like yet. Or I could just get a better job. | |
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Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | They need to have free incomeing TXT / SMS / MMS They need to have free incomeing TXT / SMS / MMS | |
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| maxpower
join:2006-10-09
Providence, RI | Re: News Flash Verizon Cuts own throat. You should probably try to find out whos sending XXX to your wife? 143? | |
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| | Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL
·Comcast
·Embarq
| Re: News Flash Verizon Cuts own throat.  Fortunately there was only one PIX message received. It was probably sent to her handset by mistake. It could be considered close to pornographic by someone that was very conservative. I was particularly irritated because the message included the phone number of the sender and the Verizon representative seemed not the least bit interested in taking action against the sender. Verizon's representative did not seem to understand why I felt so strongly about being charged for a message sent in error. | |
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AZ_OGM
join:2007-01-12
Phoenix, AZ | Re: SMS Blocking Its true that T-Mo doesn't allow blocking of text messages, but AT&T does allow blocking of SMS messages. Considering the outrageous amount they charge for incoming texts, all providers should have the ability to turn off the feature. | |
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| | benc
Premium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
·Charter Pipeline
 ·Future Nine Corpor..
·Callcentric
·AT&T Midwest
| Re: SMS Blocking said by AZ_OGM :Its true that T-Mo doesn't allow blocking of text messages, but AT&T does allow blocking of SMS messages. Considering the outrageous amount they charge for incoming texts, all providers should have the ability to turn off the feature. That's too bad.
I'm guessing T-Mo won't be a good choice for my parents then. They don't use SMS, and neither do I (I refuse to since AT&T and Verizon haven't implemented landline SMS).
It would appear the only way to avoid this with T-Mo is to get the unlimited family plan ($150 for two lines), or get the $15 unlimited SMS option.
At least with USC it's unlimited incoming everything.
I agree with you that all providers should allow SMS blocking. One shouldn't have to get the unlimited SMS option just to avoid bill variability.
It really makes we wonder, what would happen if some no-good sent you 5,000 junk SMS on the pay-per-use charges? At $.20, that's $1,000. Hopefully you could refund most of it.
Before you say, "but how can one send you 5,000 messages without also paying $1,000?" consider this:
SMS to E-mail gateways cost nothing. One can easily write a script to automatically send E-mail after E-mail. It'd cost the perpetrator nothing at all. Even if his Internet provider monitors this sort of thing, he could just find some public Wi-Fi network somewhere. Or he could go to Starbucks, use the Wi-Fi there, and for a few bucks cause all sort of trouble for his mark.
I'm surprised that I haven't yet heard of this sort of thing happening. It'd be so easy to pull off. | |
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Jovi
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA
| said by AZ_OGM :Its true that T-Mo doesn't allow blocking of text messages, but AT&T does allow blocking of SMS messages. Considering the outrageous amount they charge for incoming texts, all providers should have the ability to turn off the feature. I get nailed 15 cents(now 20) for every unwanted spam text message, because I choose not to pay extra for a text plan. I called T-mobile to ask to turn it off, since I was paying for unwanted text messages, and was told they cannot do it. They told me they update there phones that way. I call crock 'o shit.
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"Where's my coffee? Oh. I guess it's my turn to make it."  | |
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madcow666tmobile
@wavecable.com
| Re: SMS Blocking Been there, done that too many times. What you do, and I have been doing this for 10 months now, is file a complaint online with your state's Attorney General's Office. Every month I file because of the unwanted spam text messages I receive and t-mobile's indifference or refusal to help. You'll eventually get a formal letter from some higher up at t-mobile who is forced to respond to the complaint which will basically blame you for your actions, but granting you 'good faith, one-time credit" for the charges. It is loads of work for them believe me. T-mobile customer service is scripted to not help you get credit. One has to immediately ask for supervisor to get you charges reversed, but it still takes 10-25 minutes. I so hate dealing with this crap as I have zero use for SMS, but it is on by default and they can't (won't) turn it off. It's a HUGE money maker for them so I encourage everyone to fight back until they change their ways. I'm leaving t-mobile September 19th as the contract is up! I'm so excited. | |
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SLD
join:2002-04-17
Los Angeles, CA | Oh Goodie! Oh Goodie - now they can charge me double when they allow spammers to SMS my phone! | |
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Jan Janowski
join:2000-06-18
Skokie, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| T-Mobile and blocking Text Messages I was on the phone with T-Mobile again last night, to complain (again) about un-solicited Text messages being billed to our phone numbers.
They tell me that "Sometime in August" they will be changing their software, and at that time, we will be able to BLOCK ALL TEXT MESSAGES!!!
Not only did they tell me that, they offered (and I gladly accepted) to credit each of our phones for many text "Credits" and eliminated the charges from last month, too!!!
That's fine by me!!!
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Looking for 1939 Indian Motocycle | |
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Jovi
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA
| Re: T-Mobile and blocking Text Messages said by Jan Janowski :I was on the phone with T-Mobile again last night, to complain (again) about un-solicited Text messages being billed to our phone numbers. They tell me that "Sometime in August" they will be changing their software, and at that time, we will be able to BLOCK ALL TEXT MESSAGES!!! Not only did they tell me that, they offered (and I gladly accepted) to credit each of our phones for many text "Credits" and eliminated the charges from last month, too!!! That's fine by me!!! They wouldn't credit me. 
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"Where's my coffee? Oh. I guess it's my turn to make it." | |
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Alakar
Facts do not cease to exist when ignored
join:2001-03-23
Milwaukee, WI
| You can't block all SMS on T-Mobile, but you can block text's coming from email address's. I started getting a ton of spam text messages and found that all of them didn't have phone numbers, only email address's. I blocked anything from email and now get no spam text's. Might be something you want to check out.
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"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the arguments of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt the Younger | |
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Dryvlyne
Far Beyond Driven
Premium
join:2004-08-30
Newark, OH
| Not a suprise... Capitalism and the so called "free market economy" sound good in theory, but not when an overwhelming portion of the population is ignorant to what the wholesale costs really are. This of applies to every industry of course, but particularly the telcos and cablecos IMO.
And just think, companies have the audacity to wine and cry that they NEED MORE of consumers money to build out their pathetic infrastructure. You gotta love America, where the ignorant consumer masses just keep on buying into the same corporate BS over and over again! | |
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NoSMSforMe
@rr.com
| A non-issue Text messaging is, well, text messaging.
If you raise a generation of text messaging addicts, and their parents are gullible enough to subscribe them (after they can longer keep their precious kids on a leash, they're easily convinced that somehow a cell phone will protect them from the boogeyman, and they'll "always know where they are"), then it is only a matter of time before the extortion will begin.
The solution?
No text messaging.
Telco will always play the same game. Threaten to charge by the unit, so as to convince to buy a higher service level package. Consumers are typically too gluttonous and too proud to meter their use, so they pay. | |
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SLD
join:2002-04-17
Los Angeles, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | Re: A non-issue I save a bundle by using pre-paid. My monthly is cost averages about $6/mo. The phone is used for potential emergencies (car crash) or a quick call to my wife or a call from a client. Why pay $40/mo if you occasionally use the phone. The telcos treat prepaid as the red-headed stepchild for that very reason. | |
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Trinijoy
Premium
join:2005-09-12
Brick, NJ | Come on. already. I can't wait until the FCC does away with contracts so I can finally get rid of T-MoBile. | |
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xyzthanak
@verizon.net
|  I am planning to cancel my contract with T mobile.
Device 100% of market price - just for talking you can get a phone for $30 or you can get a decent multimedia phone with internet and email for $200 (Nokia E51)
Call price per minute anywhere in India - $0.04
Incomming free
SMS - $0.04
Data charges - $0.5 for 1MB (pay only when used)
US consumers are suckers. I am currently having a t mobile plan and i am going cancel this and go for pre-paid. | |
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T-Mobile Bumping SMS/MMS Rates
