At 19 Oct 2011 09:59:21 -0400 Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article <dfht97hpiqp2q2hm3vba1gisr4amm16h1o@4ax.com>,
> meh <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> > A woman bought a cellphone for her deaf brother.
> >
> > He went to Canada for a month, and NO ONE told him about roaming,
> > OR turning off data.
>
> Ummmm.....are we such a nanny state that we have abdicated ANY and ALL
> responsibility for knowing how something works? That we can complain
> loudly about how "they never told me!" and EXPECT the world NOT to
> ridicule that?
>
> If you drive a car, you are obligated to know how it works and the
rules
> of the road. "But nobody told me!" is an the whine of a helpless loser
> who should not have the privilege of a driver's license.
>
> Same goes for swingsets, or using technology, or whatever. That no one
> TOLD you, AND that you don't know, only means that you are an idiot
> loser without the capability of finding out how the world works on your
> own.
The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Consumers certainly bear
much of the responsibility, but the providers bear some as well. What
creditor (and frankly, that's what cell phone companies are) would ever
let a customer run up a $200,000 balance? As a matter of policy the
phone should've been shut off by the provider long before the charges
racked up that high.
Hell, T-Mo has no problem texting me when they think I'm gaming them (I
received a text last month warning me to stop tethering- interestingly I
hadn't been tethering! I changed the browser User Agent on my WinMo
phone to look like a desktop PC to try and fool a few websites into
displaying in desktop instead of mobile format. T-Mo apparently saw my
"Windows 7 IE9" browser and assumed I was tethering a Win 7 PC to my phone.
Three days later I got another text and they blocked the browser from
working until I changed the UA back to mobile.)
T-Mo wasted no time texting me and shutting off my access when they
thought I scamming them out of a $20 tethering fee, but they couldn't
bother texting this guy or shutting him off when he hit $1000 in roaming
fees? Or $10,000? Or $100,000?
There was a time when some cell providers disabled international roaming
by default and forced customers to call in and request it be enabled
prior to traveling, at which time they rattled off the warnings about the
cost of roaming, (and this was in the voice-only days! Data charges can
pile up much higher and faster than voice ever could!)
So yes, the carrier has some responsibility here, but so does the user.
Obviously most everyone loves a good "big bad corporation pisses on the
poor consumer" story, else the The Consumerist website would be out of
business, but to defend the "evil" corporation here, let me state that
every time I've left the US with my T-Mobile phones, I've received a text
message from T-Mo the second I turned on a phone on foreign soil,
welcoming me to that country, warning me I was roaming, and offering a
phone number I could call for free to check on current rates. Did our
victim turn a blind eye (I thought "deaf ear" would be in bad taste!) to
the text message warning he most likely received the first minute he was
in Canada? I've received similar texts from Verizon warning me I was
roaminf internationally (and ironically I was in Texas, but within a mile
of the Mexican border.)
Regardless of the details in this particular story, I think carriers
should go back to the "no international roaming" default on cellular
accounts. With today's technology, it's be easy to blast a text to any
roaming phone telling the exact rates for usage in that country and
requiring the user to respond (e.g. "text BENDMEOVER to short code 55555
to enable roaming") to enable roaming.
On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:22:56 -0600, Todd Allcock
<elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> wrote:
>At 19 Oct 2011 09:59:21 -0400 Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>> In article <dfht97hpiqp2q2hm3vba1gisr4amm16h1o@4ax.com>,
>> meh <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>>
>> > A woman bought a cellphone for her deaf brother.
>> >
>> > He went to Canada for a month, and NO ONE told him about roaming,
>> > OR turning off data.
>>
>> Ummmm.....are we such a nanny state that we have abdicated ANY and ALL
>> responsibility for knowing how something works? That we can complain
>> loudly about how "they never told me!" and EXPECT the world NOT to
>> ridicule that?
>>
>> If you drive a car, you are obligated to know how it works and the
>rules
>> of the road. "But nobody told me!" is an the whine of a helpless loser
>> who should not have the privilege of a driver's license.
>>
>> Same goes for swingsets, or using technology, or whatever. That no one
>> TOLD you, AND that you don't know, only means that you are an idiot
>> loser without the capability of finding out how the world works on your
>> own.
>
>
>The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Consumers certainly bear
>much of the responsibility, but the providers bear some as well. What
>creditor (and frankly, that's what cell phone companies are) would ever
>let a customer run up a $200,000 balance? As a matter of policy the
>phone should've been shut off by the provider long before the charges
>racked up that high.
And then people would whine because their service has been cut off.
>
>Hell, T-Mo has no problem texting me when they think I'm gaming them (I
>received a text last month warning me to stop tethering- interestingly I
>hadn't been tethering! I changed the browser User Agent on my WinMo
>phone to look like a desktop PC to try and fool a few websites into
>displaying in desktop instead of mobile format. T-Mo apparently saw my
>"Windows 7 IE9" browser and assumed I was tethering a Win 7 PC to my phone.
> Three days later I got another text and they blocked the browser from
>working until I changed the UA back to mobile.)
>
>T-Mo wasted no time texting me and shutting off my access when they
>thought I scamming them out of a $20 tethering fee, but they couldn't
>bother texting this guy or shutting him off when he hit $1000 in roaming
>fees? Or $10,000? Or $100,000?
>
>There was a time when some cell providers disabled international roaming
>by default and forced customers to call in and request it be enabled
>prior to traveling, at which time they rattled off the warnings about the
>cost of roaming, (and this was in the voice-only days! Data charges can
>pile up much higher and faster than voice ever could!)
>
>So yes, the carrier has some responsibility here, but so does the user.
>Obviously most everyone loves a good "big bad corporation pisses on the
>poor consumer" story, else the The Consumerist website would be out of
>business, but to defend the "evil" corporation here, let me state that
>every time I've left the US with my T-Mobile phones, I've received a text
>message from T-Mo the second I turned on a phone on foreign soil,
>welcoming me to that country, warning me I was roaming, and offering a
>phone number I could call for free to check on current rates. Did our
>victim turn a blind eye (I thought "deaf ear" would be in bad taste!) to
>the text message warning he most likely received the first minute he was
>in Canada? I've received similar texts from Verizon warning me I was
>roaminf internationally (and ironically I was in Texas, but within a mile
>of the Mexican border.)
>
>Regardless of the details in this particular story, I think carriers
>should go back to the "no international roaming" default on cellular
>accounts. With today's technology, it's be easy to blast a text to any
>roaming phone telling the exact rates for usage in that country and
>requiring the user to respond (e.g. "text BENDMEOVER to short code 55555
>to enable roaming") to enable roaming.
>
nobody@nada.com wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:22:56 -0600, Todd Allcock
> <elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> wrote:
>
>> At 19 Oct 2011 09:59:21 -0400 Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>>> In article <dfht97hpiqp2q2hm3vba1gisr4amm16h1o@4ax.com>,
>>> meh <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> A woman bought a cellphone for her deaf brother.
>>>>
>>>> He went to Canada for a month, and NO ONE told him about roaming,
>>>> OR turning off data.
>>>
>>> Ummmm.....are we such a nanny state that we have abdicated ANY and
>>> ALL responsibility for knowing how something works? That we can
>>> complain loudly about how "they never told me!" and EXPECT the
>>> world NOT to ridicule that?
>>>
>>> If you drive a car, you are obligated to know how it works and the
>> rules
>>> of the road. "But nobody told me!" is an the whine of a helpless
>>> loser who should not have the privilege of a driver's license.
>>>
>>> Same goes for swingsets, or using technology, or whatever. That no
>>> one TOLD you, AND that you don't know, only means that you are an
>>> idiot loser without the capability of finding out how the world
>>> works on your own.
>>
>>
>> The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Consumers certainly
>> bear much of the responsibility, but the providers bear some as
>> well. What creditor (and frankly, that's what cell phone companies
>> are) would ever let a customer run up a $200,000 balance? As a
>> matter of policy the
>> phone should've been shut off by the provider long before the charges
>> racked up that high.
>
> And then people would whine because their service has been cut off.
And how many people whine when they've reached their credit limit and their
Visa is turned down?
Besides, how many providers wouldn't turn you off if you refused to pay your
bill which would be 1? that amount (that's $200 btw). Stuff happens, deal
with it and be glad you don't owe enough to buy a house. ;-D
At 20 Oct 2011 09:49:41 -0700 nobody@nada.com wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:22:56 -0600, Todd Allcock
> <elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> wrote:
> >
> > Consumers certainly bear
> >much of the responsibility, but the providers bear some as well. What
> >creditor (and frankly, that's what cell phone companies are) would ever
> >let a customer run up a $200,000 balance? As a matter of policy the
> >phone should've been shut off by the provider long before the charges
> >racked up that high.
>
> And then people would whine because their service has been cut off.
A much smaller number than the number who have been burned by thousands
in overage charges!
Being shut off would require them to call in and find our what the
problem was, which would lead them to discover what the roaming was
costing them.
I doubt many people would knowingly rack up thousands in overages- those
who knew the costs would likely find alternate methods of connecting
overseas (local prepaid SIMs, etc.) Let's face it- anyone willing to
toss thousands on roaming and not care probably wouldn't be using T-Mo,
the "value carrier", in the first place!
On Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:38:45 -0700, "Drewdove" <cheadle@juno.com>
wrote:
>nobody@nada.com wrote:
>> On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:22:56 -0600, Todd Allcock
>> <elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> wrote:
>>
>>> At 19 Oct 2011 09:59:21 -0400 Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
>>>> In article <dfht97hpiqp2q2hm3vba1gisr4amm16h1o@4ax.com>,
>>>> meh <me@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A woman bought a cellphone for her deaf brother.
>>>>>
>>>>> He went to Canada for a month, and NO ONE told him about roaming,
>>>>> OR turning off data.
>>>>
>>>> Ummmm.....are we such a nanny state that we have abdicated ANY and
>>>> ALL responsibility for knowing how something works? That we can
>>>> complain loudly about how "they never told me!" and EXPECT the
>>>> world NOT to ridicule that?
>>>>
>>>> If you drive a car, you are obligated to know how it works and the
>>> rules
>>>> of the road. "But nobody told me!" is an the whine of a helpless
>>>> loser who should not have the privilege of a driver's license.
>>>>
>>>> Same goes for swingsets, or using technology, or whatever. That no
>>>> one TOLD you, AND that you don't know, only means that you are an
>>>> idiot loser without the capability of finding out how the world
>>>> works on your own.
>>>
>>>
>>> The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Consumers certainly
>>> bear much of the responsibility, but the providers bear some as
>>> well. What creditor (and frankly, that's what cell phone companies
>>> are) would ever let a customer run up a $200,000 balance? As a
>>> matter of policy the
>>> phone should've been shut off by the provider long before the charges
>>> racked up that high.
>>
>> And then people would whine because their service has been cut off.
>
>And how many people whine when they've reached their credit limit and their
>Visa is turned down?
How many people whined about being charges a fee when they overdraw
using a debit card? People will whine either way.
>
>Besides, how many providers wouldn't turn you off if you refused to pay your
>bill which would be 1? that amount (that's $200 btw). Stuff happens, deal
>with it and be glad you don't owe enough to buy a house. ;-D
Re: OBSCENELY large bill!! 
Linear Mode
