If you dislike handing your credit or debit card over to restaurant employees and letting them wander off with it for a while, you’re not alone, and that’s why some restaurants are experimenting with mobile pay-at-the-table technology.
wireless
Should Airplane Passengers Be Allowed To Make VoIP Calls?
By 9.30.09
Until now, airplane cabins have been blessedly free from idle phone chatter thanks to FAA regulations. Now, thanks to the introduction of wi-fi on commercial flights, it’s time to ask: should passengers be able to use Skype, Google Voice, or another VoIP service of their choice to make phone calls in the air?
No Palm Pre For Verizon Wireless?
By 9.25.09
If you’ve been holding out on a phone upgrade or carrier switch until the Palm Pre comes to Verizon, you may need to give up the dream. The carrier has “reportedly ditched plans to offer the Palm Pre early next year,” says PC World. Apparently poor sales of the device at Sprint, combined with Verizon’s interest in upcoming Blackberry devices, killed any enthusiasm the carrier once had. Update: The no-Pre rumor may be false, according to these two analysts.
Spread 'Em, Wireless Companies — It's Time For An FCC Probe
By 8.24.09
Back in July, Consumer Reports revealed that the FCC would be taking a long, close look at cell phone companies, and this week it’s finally time for that probe.
T-Mobile's Backdoor Exclusivity Prevents You From Using Old Phone With AT&T
By 7.9.09
Reader Greg accidentally ran his iPhone through the washing machine. Whoops. Luckily, he still had his old BlackBerry from his days with T-Mobile, so he swapped in his AT&T SIM card to the BlackBerry and fired it up. Unfortunately, his BlackBerry was still locked by T-Mobile, and they didn’t feel like helping a former customer.
AT&T Wireless Customer? Turn Off Phone Purchasing Power To Prevent Unauthorized Charges
By 6.3.09
If you’re managing cellphones for a family or your parents, or let’s say hypothetically you have a boyfriend who says he reads Consumerist but really he doesn’t or else he would have known better, you’ll probably run into stupid subscription and content fees from time to time. You know how people are when it comes to fake “free” offers.
Man Downloads Movie While In Mexico, Receives $62,000 Wireless Bill
By 4.28.09
If you’re going out of the country for more than 15 seconds, don’t forget to turn off, remove, leave at home, freeze in a block of ice, disable, or otherwise render unusable your wireless card. Above all, do not download Wall-E for your nephew to watch on your computer. Unfortunately, we do not have any more details about what was going on here, because Clark Howard apparently has to get back to his NASCAR pit.
AT&T Supervisor Takes Back Refund Offer Because You Dared To Question Her
By 3.31.09
Claire was told the wrong thing by an AT&T Wireless rep regarding international long distance, but when she called back to sort things out, she came up against the Nurse Ratched of the AT&T call center—a woman who refused to give in, or offer any help at all. In fact, when Claire finally admitted defeat and said she’d accept the credit that had been offered to her, the supervisor refused. Apparently Claire only had one chance to accept that and since she said no, it was off the table.
"Velveteen Rabbit" Robocallers Pay $25,000 To Settle Lawsuit
By 3.27.09
Verizon Wireless has settled its lawsuit against those telemarketers who were phonespamming thousands of people back in February to promote a kids’ movie. Feature Films For Families has agreed to pay $25,000 to Verizon, which will be donated to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH).
Verizon Wireless Sues "Velveteen Rabbit" Telemarketers
By 2.26.09
Hooray for Verizon Wireless! Wait, what? The cellular carrier has just filed a lawsuit against Feature Films For Families for illegally telemarketing. Specifically, they’re accusing the company of using an auto-dialer to cold call hundreds of thousands of Verizon Wireless customers earlier this month, which is illegal according to NJ state laws (where the suit was filed) and the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Verizon Wireless Accused Of Wrongly Billing NY Customers State Tax
By 2.25.09
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Verizon Wireless accusing it of passing directly to customers a “metropolitan commuter transportation district” tax that the company was actually supposed to pay. Albert Levy, who filed the lawsuit, points out that Sprint has never charged the tax to customers. Verizon Wireless calls the accusation “silly,” and says they’re billing it correctly. Perhaps not surprisingly, the actual wording of the tax law leaves the matter up in the air.
Sprint Loses Another 1.1 Million Customers
By 2.19.09
Wondering why Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has time to wander around NYC telling people about Sprint products? Well, it’s apparently come to that. Sprint has lost another 1.1 million customers.
AT&T Employee Misleads Customer, And Now He's Trapped In A 2-Year Contract
By 2.13.09
A little over a month ago, Mark gave up on his GoPhone SIM, went into an AT&T store with his iPhone 2G in hand, and signed up for a new two year, post-paid plan. The sales rep promised Mark that his corporate discount would apply, and instead of a contract presented just a receipt. Now AT&T is saying there’s no corporate discount on an iPhone purchase—even though he didn’t buy an iPhone, just the service plan—and that he can’t cancel now without paying an ETF because it’s past the 30 day mark.
By 2.6.09
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T-Mobile came in first in a J.D. Power and Associates study of cellphone customer care performance, with 755 out of a possible 1,000 points. Actually, though, all the carriers came in above the 700 point range except for Sprint, which was in the 600s. [RCR Wireless]
AT&T Improves 3G Coverage At The Cost Of EDGE Service
By 1.3.09
AT&T is encouraging its customers to upgrade to the faster 3G network—by downgrading their older EDGE service.
By 11.5.08
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The FCC has given the green light to the Verizon/Alltel merger. Alltel brings 13 million new subscribers to Verizon, dethroning AT&T as the number one wireless carrier. [WaPo]
Wireless Carriers Tell Senate: "Text Messaging Rates Have Dropped, And Your Queries Have Led To Lawsuits Against Us!"
By 10.14.08
The national wireless carriers have responded to the Senate’s request for information on why its text-messaging fees have doubled over the past three years. Their collective response: they haven’t gotten more expensive, they’ve gotten cheaper—and your public suspicion of our business practices has led to lots of class action lawsuits!
Woman Donates Cellphone To Charity, But It Ends Up On Ebay With Personal Info Intact
By 9.15.08
People! Always wipe your cell phone before you sell it, give it away, or trade it in. Do not assume or expect that someone else will do this for you! This was just one of the mistakes that led to Rachel Swanson being called by strangers several weeks after she thought she donated her old phone to charity. But the store that handled the donation, and the company responsible for actually processing the donated phones, screwed up their parts, too. Here’s how it was supposed to have work, and what you should always do before donating your phone to any organization.
