Consumerist
scams
Posts Tagged “
Phones
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Skype offers unlimited long distance for $2.95 a month. [Reuters]
scams
fail
General Outage Hits GrandCentral
Google's telephone service GrandCentral has been down all morning. The service's first general outage affects all customers; any calls to GrandCentral numbers are immediately disconnected. More »
scams
Watch Out For Cramming On Your Phone Bill
Josh discovered a mysterious $13 fee on his parents' phone bill, and as he tracked down the source of the bogus charge, he learned a lot about cramming. The FCC describes it as "the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading, or deceptive charges on your telephone bill" by third party companies, who bank on you being too confused/distracted/annoyed by your hard-to-read bill to notice. More »
cellphones
9 Confessions Of A Retentions Representative
Retentions representatives are the cellphone company's last line of defense between you and freedom. One brave retentions representative has come forward to teach us how to craft a direct, earnest request that will lead retention reps to do your bidding. Rivaled in effectiveness only by executive customer support, retentions reps are empowered to strike down nuisance fees and bargain liberally, all to keep you as a customer. If you were ever tempted to threaten your cellphone company with cancellation, this one is a must read. More »
activation fees
AT&T Says They'll Charge $25 "Activation Fee" To Move SIM From A Broken Phone To A GoPhone
Does AT&T really charge a $25 "activation fee" when you move your SIM card to a GoPhone? A father had to replace his child's broken cellphone over the weekend, and the rep at the AT&T store told him the only way to avoid an ETF or plan extension was to buy a GoPhone and pay an activation fee, even though the SIM card was the same. Online, you can buy a new GoPhone and have the activation fee waved. Way to treat your current customers, AT&T. More »
Here's a free idea for the taking: why doesn't a bank (cough HSBC cough) offer the option to have text message alerts sent to a registered phone number any time a withdrawal is made from a specific account via ATM? "$120 was withdrawn at 2:51pm EST in Palo Verde, CA. Reference #293005" See how easy that was? Such exception-based reporting would drastically cut down on fraud (we're guessing) by enlisting the help of customers to report unauthorized transactions immediately.
In response to consumer backlash, Verizon has decided to make it so alarms on its new phones don't go off on its phones when you dial 911. This is so if you hide and call 911 when a prowler breaks in, you don't give them a handy homing signal. [KOMO]
technology
Apple Files Patent App To Allow Wireless Ordering At Stores
Apple has applied to patent a wireless ordering system that would allow shoppers to place orders from, for example, their iPhones as they approached, oh, let's say a Starbucks, bypassing an ordering line altogether and going straight to the pick-up counter. The system would also allow stores to keep data on repeat customers to speed up future transactions. More »
personal finance
Intuit Planning To Launch "iPhone-Friendly" Version Of Quicken Online For $3/Month
Would you pay $36 a year to access Quicken on your iPhone? What the hell, why not, right? You already paid for the iPhone! That's probably what Intuit is hoping—and the zillion-dollar iPod accessories market proves there's a lot of "blue ocean" for businesses that want to fish in Apple waters. It launches the product as a web service on January 8th, 2008, with an iPhone-friendly flavor also available then. There are plans to roll out "tweaked" versions for other mobile devices at an unspecified point in the future. More »
cell phones
Consumer Reports Survey Discovers People Hate Cell Phone Companies
The next issue of Consumer Reports will contain the results of a nationwide customer satisfaction survey for the mobile phone industry. In a surprise to no one who actually has a mobile phone, the cellular industry is "among the lowest-rated services" for consumers, particularly because of termination fees, high prices, and confusing contracts.More »
telephony
AT&T Is Exiting The Pay Phone Business After 129 Years
AT&T announced today that they are exiting the pay phone business, and will be phasing out 65,000 pay phones in 13 states, according to Bloomberg. More »
unlocked
Verizon To Go GSM
Verizon's next generation of devices will run on the GSM network that will be used by AT&T and T-Mobile, meaning that in a few years, customers with unlocked phones will be able to move between the three providers without purchasing new equipment. Verizon currently uses a CDMA network along with Sprint, but last week announced that it would use the GSM-protocol LTE (Long Term Evolution) for their fourth-generation data services. Note, Verizon's LTE phones will not be backwards-compatible with the current GSM networks run by AT&T and T-Mobile. Both are expected to support LTE. And don't expect to see the new phones anytime soon... More »
defects
AT&T: There's A $39 Charge To Exchange Your Defective iPhone
Apple has a 10% restocking fee on opened non-defective products, but AT&T seems to think that this applies to iPhones that are defective right out of the box. More »
safety
Dialing 911 Could Be Dangerous
Dialing 911 sets off a loud alarm on newer Verizon phones, potentially putting customers in danger. Imagine dashing under your bed at the sound of an intruder breaking through the front door, only to wonder if you should call 911 from your cellphone because it would reveal your location. A Texas woman was forced to make a similar decision when she discovered that the security chain guarding her vacant property was missing.She grabbed her new Casio G'zOne phone from Verizon Wireless, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911.More »
whoops
Attention AT&T: Don't Lie About "Massive Outages," Reporters Have Phones Too
When Stephanie the AT&T "escalation affairs administrator" lied to Jan about why her phone couldn't be repaired for several days, she probably didn't know what Jan did for a living. More »
cell phones
Google In Talks With Verizon About Putting Its Software On Their Phones?
Google's not answering any questions, and Verizon is being all coy about it, but anonymous sources have told the press that the two companies are in talks right now over installing Google apps on Verizon phones—an interesting idea, though not quite as dramatic as installing the full-fledged phone operating system that Google has supposedly been working on for a while now. The big questions (for consumers) are: will Google apps help subsidize the cost of phones or plans, or will Verizon just invent new inefficiencies to justify swallowing any new revenue? And will Google applications mean ads before making calls or sending an email? Also, Google already has some great (and totally free) applications out there for mobile devices—so what could they be offering through Verizon that's so special? More »
cellphones
