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Cellphone carriers taking advantage of consumers?


DarkOne
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I just recently (last year) finally bought a cellphones for the family and cannot believe the prices on just voice/text and then you have to add $30 more per phone to get unlimited data (supposedly). Is being hooked in or contactable really worth the added expense? I have failed in trying to convince the family that we don't need the phones so I guess I will be stuck with this large bill for a while 🙁

I just read this article today about Verizon that really irritates me in the fact that these phone companies make a ton of money of the mobile market and they are still trying to screw it to the consumer.

Check this out: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/02/ ... zon-sucks/

The wife has been wanting an iphone when our renewal comes up later this year but after reading this crap I will probably get her an Android (which is what I suggested to her to begin with). Yeah I will probably still get screwed on the whole plan when I get that and some new phones. But is there any justice and reprieve for these high costs?

I was thinking about turning in my phone and just get a tablet with an unlimited data plan. But then I read that 'unlimited' doesn't usually mean unlimited. I just read the other day on my cable providers website in the fine print that the unlimited bandwidth is capped at 550GB which is a high amount but is still false advertising.

We need a few million people to make a class-action lawsuit against the phone companies for false advertising of services. 🙂


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Rith
 Rith
(@rith)
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Joined: 14 years ago
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Mozilla needs a to make a phone. I can just see it all starting again. 😆


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DarkOne
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Topic starter  

Not sure how much competition any new provider could give the big boys. We do need a nice battle in the telecom industry to give the consumers better service and prices.


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LancerSolurus
(@lancersolurus)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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Couldn't resist, had to post on this thread (no offense Darkone but you may not like the rest of this post) since you are being scammed....

Unfortunately you are paying to keep them in business, for me all of those extra features are useless since I use a phone for (drum roll) phone calls. Cricket is a good alternative since plans are usually under $50 a month and you get UNLIMITED local, long distance, pic and text msgs for $45 a month. They don't have the coverage yet of the major rip-offs services of those carriers yet, but if you live in any major city, you will have access. How about making each family member pay their own bill and see how fast they listen to you about how you are being ripped off.

BTW, you are probably stuck in a contract for a year or more, Cricket does not have that, it's month to month. You don't pay the bill it gets cut off. No $150 to $300 deactivation fee ($15 to turn your phone back on if you don't pay on time).


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DarkOne
(@sscadmin)
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Joined: 8 years ago
Posts: 7904
Topic starter  

I hear ya Lancer... wish I could make each member pay for it, I will when the kids get older and have jobs. I have a perfectly good house phone that has unlimited calling as well. The family plan that I have now I pay about $120 a month for 3 phones to have 700min and unlimited txt. Its amazing how people get addicted to these things. I have my phone only for emergencies really, I rarely use it. It's not like the family is internet and technology deprived they all have access to multiple computers in the house.

Maybe I am a big ole softy dad you got scammed by his family 😉

The one practice I would like to see the phone companies remove is the fine for exiting your contract early which is usually a few hundred dollars. Why should someone be penalized because maybe they cannot afford a phone anymore or their service stinks and they want to move to a new carrier. I do know that when I get ready to end my contract with Verizon that I will be really shopping and comparing the features/services for the money.

Why can't we go back to the days when there was only one phone in the house and it was a rotary-dial phone that had the 12ft cord that was stretched out to 25ft.


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