Federal Universal Service Fee- what a croc!

[Dice144]

Think I should go prepaid once my ATT contract ends. Be cheaper to just buy a good phone outright...

 

[ricleo2]

[=

 

[you2]

I have to admit i'm not really sure why charges are placed on phone bills to fund cable access.

 

[Fire&Blood]

How can a business cheat a customer, when you know what the contract says? The customer knows he will be charged by the min, MB, or texts up front.

LOL because of you I am starting to believe in unicorns. Have you heard of bill shock? Even if you are lucky to dodge unforeseen charges such as roaming and overages, you are still subject to the ripoff. Society evolved to a point where a cellphone has become a necessity for modern world individuals and telcos are taking advantage of it.

 

[ricleo2]

LOL because of you I am starting to believe in unicorns. Have you heard of bill shock? Even if you are lucky to dodge unforeseen charges such as roaming and overages, you are still subject to the ripoff. Society evolved to a point where a cellphone has become a necessity for modern world individuals and telcos are taking advantage of it.

I have managed to be without a cell phone just fine. My belief is that they have become entertainment for some. But, again, can't all charges be known beforehand? Thus negating the thought of being ripped off?

 

[obidamnkenobi]

I have managed to be without a cell phone just fine. My belief is that they have become entertainment for some. But, again, can't all charges be known beforehand? Thus negating the thought of being ripped off?

I would say so, yes. It's all in there and as a customer you should be aware of what you're getting into. I'm a bit torn on the "bill shock" issue. On the one hand it's kinda outrageous that people are charged $15,000 because they checked their email in Canada, but the terms are stated in the contract so they should know it was coming. I guess there's not much harm in legislating at least some form of warning, but in general I'm against laws that are purely made to (try to..) prevent people from being stupid.

 

[SunnyD]

I'm pretty sure the prepaid data that AT&T sells explicitly says "not for smartphones" so you would have to make sure they don't discover what kind of phone you have. Don't know what they do if they find out, or how often they do. Probably bump you to a proper smartphone plan?

Reread what I wrote, particularly the parts I have in quotation marks. I addressed exactly what you are referring to already.

 

[ricleo2]

I would say so, yes. It's all in there and as a customer you should be aware of what you're getting into. I'm a bit torn on the "bill shock" issue. On the one hand it's kinda outrageous that people are charged $15,000 because they checked their email in Canada, but the terms are stated in the contract so they should know it was coming. I guess there's not much harm in legislating at least some form of warning, but in general I'm against laws that are purely made to (try to..) prevent people from being stupid.

I know all consumers have to be careful. I was about to sign up for a smartphone and plan through Amazon wireless. The phone I wanted was 50 bucks cheaper than anywhere else so I went through the whole sign up process before the fine print showed up. I believe most carriers give you 30 days to return the phone and cancel the 2 year contract. Amazon said I have to keep the phone for 181 days before I could return it. Of course by then the 30 day cancellation, of the policy, from the carrier would over.