For the last few weeks it hasn’t been unusual to see AT&T among Twitter’s trending topics — following its disappointing performance at WWDC and the activation issues with the iPhone last week, the carrier hasn’t exactly been garnering positive reactions from its legions of Twitter-using members. Today, it’s reached the top spot on Twitter once again, and, once again, AT&T is the target of waves of contempt.
The source of the recent flurry of AT&T tweets is Adam Savage of MythBusters fame, who tweets that for “a few hours of web surfing in Canada” he was charged a whopping $11,000. AT&T is apparently claiming that Savage managed to download 9 gigabytes in Canada using his USB data connection (which he calls “frakking impossible“). What’s worse, the customer service rep Savage was dealing with was apparently a bit loose with their decimal points, telling Savage that “data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb”. Read that again — there’s a couple orders of magnitude difference there.
Now Twitter is in revolt. With over 50,000 followers Savage has a pretty loud voice, and his outraged tweets certainly resonate with a broad audience. In the end, he’ll probably get a pass from AT&T — nobody wants to mess with a man who blows things up for a living. But it’s clear that AT&T needs to work on letting its customers know when they’re spending exorbitant amounts of money on data charges. An AT&T spokesman says that any phone taken abroad that begins racking up excessive charges will automatically receive an SMS alert, but apparently there are no such mechanisms in place for members using the increasingly popular USB wireless connections.
Update: The issue has been resolved according to this tweet sent by an official AT&T Twitter account.
Update 2: You can in fact receive alerts through SMS messages sent to your LaptopConnect device, which will appear in the associated software on the computer. AT&T also says that it often Emails the account on record and sometimes calls the account.
Something similar happened to me in Europe. I was billed a whopping ~$1000 for probably about an hour of web surfing on the edge network.
After calling the CS, I got it brought down to a lot less, though.
Jason:
Apparently AT&T gave him a free pass on it because he had 50K twitter followers: http://twitter....atus/2351864192
.015 cents hehe … people can’t do math anymore…
His job is to shout, he got a chance. Simple
Of course there has been collateral damage, but he’s probably going to get offline soon as they cut down the bills to normal
Right Cem! and AT&T is counting on it, they another sold 9 Gig for $11.000, congrats!! it’s very clever…
AT&T = A BOOBY TRAP COMPANY
ATT isn’t the only carrier with reps who don’t understand decimals. Here’s an amusing story from somebody who had the same issue with Verizon, trying to convince them that $0.002 was not the same as 0.002 cents
http://consumer...ow-how-to-count
Most carriers allow unlimited use options by paying a premium Tmobile charges 20.00 amonth extra for unlimited data out of US; and let’s you prorate for time away. So I can pay $5.00 if I am there only a week. ATT has a similar option but I think charges an extra 60.00 a month for unlimited internatioanl, and doesn’t let you prorate.
AT&T does not have an unlimited international data plan. $25 for 20mb, $60 for 50mb, $120 for 100mb, $200 for 200mb. It’s highway robbery. Their economies of scale are so out of whack.
Actually, their international plan is prorated.
I signed up for the $24.99/20 MB plan since I was was going to be in Europe for a couple of weeks and it only cost me ~$7.
Then I canceled the plan.
It is true that if you don’t sign up for a plan it’s ridiculously expensive. In fact they show a sample calculation of how much it would cost without the plan and it is outrageous.
My guess is that Mr. Savage didn’t bother to figure out what the data roaming charges would be.
Don’t buy a first-class seat on a plane without looking at the bill and then complain when you get the $7,000 bill.
Sounds like a bit of a whiner to me.
A bit of a whiner?
If you get a company rep telling you .015 cents is the same as .015 dollars what would you do? Drop on your knees and thank your TelcoOverlord for its incompetence?
World needs more “whiners” and less sheeple.
srslynow
yes they’re morons. But they said “.015 cents or a penny and a half…” so he knew the unit was dollars.
How can you say “he knew the unit was dollars” when the CSR gave him two completely different answers in the same sentence?
I did the same as you, came back from vacations and had a $500 bill. ATT claimed I never purchased that plan. Where are the “recorded calls” when you need them.
At the end I did not have to pay. But that took some of my valuable time (in which I could have surfed techcrunch).
That happened to my friend as well, when we were abroad in Japan. She had signed up for an international plan so she could call her family at a lower rate, and ended up with thousands of dollars charged because they claimed she had no plan, despite them having paperwork to prove it.
It got settled in the end, but the point is they don’t keep careful records and end up charging people who don’t actually owe it, leading to massive hassles.
I would love to hear more about this T-Mobile unlimited international plan, because I certainly can find no evidence of it anywhere on the T-Mobile site. When I go to Japan or the UK, T-Mobile is always happy to charge me per-kb data charges, so if you could let me know how to get unlimited data in Japan for $20 on my next trip, I would really appreciate it!
Sounds like AT&T is as good at math as verizon:
http://verizonm...h.blogspot.com/
$11,000 is a lot of keyboard cat videos.
By AT&T’s math, I think $11,000 works out to around 3 keyboard cat videos.
That’s what these guys are cookin’
http://www.free...net/freemyphone
It’s pretty absurd math and this is just the kind of thing AT&T needs to generate love with the new FCC… and if even Adam is sated, what of the others that may not be in their wake?
It’s something you might expect to see on Penn & Teller vs. Mythbusters.
I agree that ATT and every other cell carrier is robbing people with absurd rates but what ticks me off slightly is that Adam since he is popular/celebrity/on TV will probably pay nothing. However I wonder if the average joe would get the same luxury or get stuck with the bill.
that’s why there’s a revolt with a celebrity at the helm.
Moved here, ordered internet service, spent two hours on the phone before they realized they didn’t connect it, waited another week, got spotty service, closed account and sent back modem with their label. Paid $150 for that — somehow they never received the modem. Die AT&T!
att needs a smack down, they want to charge me $55 dollars/ month for a tethering plan for my blackberry bold, i have an unlimited data plan – how is hooking it up via a mini usb to my laptop not considered data? because it’s allowing me to view it on a larger screen at slow speed? bah!
Anyone know how long the iphone is in exclusive contracts with att? – wouldn’t mind switching.
Jeff, the iPhone can be used for tethering for free, just go to http://help.benm.at and set it up. No jailbreaking needed. I am amazed about the tethering charges carriers steal from people.
He has a Blackberry and not an iPhone, which that site applies to.
There are however equivalent programs for the BlackBerry. I think one is called TetherBerry. I don’t use them personally, Rogers is a total ripoff in most regards but tethering is included.
It’s been perfectly possible for quite some time to tether the iPhone, but if ATT catches you (due to ‘excessive’ data usage) they CAN analyze the packets to determine you were tethering, and you are likely to face paying full price for ALL of the data, as well as having your account terminated (and of course paying an early termination fee)
are you speaking from experience?
Reminds me of a very similar Verizon incident:
http://verizonm...n-customer.html
Jason
Adam shoulda got a MAXroam
if Adam or any of your readers want to save money on Voice/Data roaming here is a special discount code “tweet”
The carriers will never play ball with their consumers and if they reduce Adam’s bill due to his popularity it will create a precedent which their billing department will regret for years to come
Dear Jason,
This is true. thank you for this excellent topic.
I.M. Marketer
http://myhotstartupishot.com
Sprint did the same thing to me. They decided to take the unlimited data service off my phone without telling me. As a result I was charged over $2000 in data fees. You did not want to be on the receiving end of those calls to their so called “customer service”. After months of fighting with them, I have finally gotten a refund. But, I expect more weird charges, since they keep making changes to my plan. Apparently they’re incapable of just giving their customers the plans they ask for and then just leaving the plan alone
With a show like MythBusters, I’m sure $11,000 is $11 to Adam.
Apparently you are implying that Adam Savage earns around 1.000 times any normal employee? $30-40 million a month?
Ok, now I really want to work in Television!
I never realised normal people make $30-40,000 a month. I’m getting screwed apparently.
Are you suggesting that the “average employee” makes 30-40 thousand dollars a month?
50,000 follows and probably 0.5% are active… UNLEASE the 250 “masses” for the revolt!!!
I think you are missing the point. How many ‘Techcrunch like’ blogs not to mention news outlets and hardcore-fans that yap about this?
50k followers is nothing compared to a TC post, and the followers of the show/person.
@donttrythis “Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn’t my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem.”
Not that this excuses anything. Just thought you would like to know.
http://www.thom...le-data-access/
I was on the ITAC board of governors before I renounced my Canadian citizenship. Rogers/AT&T is part of a mafia that works with the minister of public works. Around then the minister of public works was Alphonso Gagliano of the NY Bonano crime family.
The liberals in Canada, and now the conservative party had a really bad problem with the Sicilian mafia. Instead of dealing with it, they signed them up to work for them.
Monopolies run rampant there because of this and other reasons.
Adam has no hope of stopping this. They couldn’t even get rid of the Queen. She is the leader of the country and her crown corporations are as corrupt and useless as she is.
Canada is not America, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you will not want to visit.
There is NOTHING you can do, short of a revolution. They need some kind of Canadian Che or something, because that country went straight down the sh1tter.
Umm. I’m still in Canada and everything still looks the same. SMELLS the same too. BTW I love the Queen. So long as the Monarchy exists, those separatists in Quebec will not dare try anything! Oh, and don’t come whining back to Canada for any reason, ever. You can rot down there with Conrad Black. LOL.
ok, I will rot down here with Conrad Black then Mr. Canadian.
Thanks for making sense of it all with your superior Canadian logic.
“So long as the Monarchy exists, those separatists in Quebec will not dare try anything!”
You are so wrong about this. I kept silent long enough.
Once you get rid of the Monarchy, declare independence and jail the governor general for treason against the people,
THEN, you can enforce a REAL first amendment. Not like the phony pseudo freedom of speech you have in your charter of rights and freedoms, which limits free speech then goes on to alot language specific rights to provinces.
With a real first amendment, true freedom of speech, Quebec law 101 will be immediately invalidated, and without being forced to, separatists will soon speak English and no longer want to separate. That is what happened in Louisiana.
Most separatists do not want to speak french and feel left out of most everything, but are forced to by draconian powers given to Quebec by the Queen in the Quebec Act.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Act
Everything bad in Canada was instantiated by a British Monarch over the course of it’s history.
I misstated, the Quebec Act powers were not the Queen, but the British Monarcy in general. The rest is accurate.
That is so nuts. You shouldn’t have left. We have free psychiatric care.
I hear Louis Riel got a whole lot of that psychiatric care when he went back to compassionate Canada.
Bitter cold + bitter people + sleezy government = unattractive.
sorry, have fun up there by yourself. Louis should have stayed here.
Blah blah blah Chris. This is an AT&T issue. AT&T isn’t Canadian. Read things carefully before letting the crazytalk spigot open.
http://en.wikip...Rogers_Wireless
When you roam in Canada, you are under the Rogers network. They also own Fido, their only GSM competition there.
They “lobbied” hard to keep control of the spectrum for themselves.
lobbied often = bribery and coercion in the banana parlimentary monarchy of Canadia.
You should know that by now if you live amongst the Frenchophones. They actually do pay outs to the biker gangs up there with your tax money under the table. Not something most people want to support.
Rogers also resells it’s wireless, internet and telephony services to videotron. Both videotron and Rogers have to “lobby” hard to keep any competition from getting permits or spectrum.
You should also know that the govt of Canada gives Rogers hundreds of millions of dollars per year to produce “Canadian Programming”, meaning programming that is broadcast in Canada, but may not have any Canadians involved with it, or featured in it.
Govt of Canada also funds Rogers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year by subsidizing handsets.
Even though the company says it’s profitable.
They did the same with GM through Export Development Canada, until the execs there, the good friends of the ministers took all the cash and left the company bankrupt in Ontario.
That is your country in a nutshell. The french are worse than that even.
The thing that I find really aggravating about TC is that if you disagree with Mike or MG in the first hour of a post your comments will be censored. But spew xenophobic comments and they’ll remain here forever. It’s sickening.
You stopped going to school at what… 8… 9? This is scary
Not at all. Most people in Canada have no idea how their own government works, or should I say doesn’t work.
That’s why they are so happy, they’re ignorant.
Americans are very educated in contrast.
If Canadians were educated the largest employment sector in Canada would not be lumberjacks.
http://www.stat...07055-eng.htm#2
“n 2006, the sawmills and wood preservation industry sustained more than 54,400 direct jobs across Canada. In addition to direct jobs, it generated significant economic benefits through the support of indirect jobs. It is estimated that an additional 90,600 jobs in other industries were related to the wood industry.1 So altogether the industry provides over 145,000 direct and indirect jobs.”
Most all of the Canadian bailout money went to:
A. General Motors in Ontario illegally through Export Development Canada
B. The lumber industry where Canada subsidizes stump fees, and then complains when the US tries to recollect fees to even the prices with the US lumber industry.
In less than 100 years Canada will cease to exist. People are so dumb there and getting dumber every single day that the country is bound to implode.
Did I mention that the US exiled all the loyalists there during the revolutionary war? Well, now I am.
That “bailout” money was EI money that small business paid through the nose. The same workers compensation in the USA costs 10 times less.
Employer side of EI and provincial is the worst rip off in the history of North America.
Are you a construction company with high risk? A small software firm where the only possible accident could be a paper cut?
You pay the exact same workers comp starting at 5k per month and goes way up on a steep curve.
For all the grief, the b1tches at the ministries, who were appointed, not elected, some by the Queen herself, gave the money to their executive friends who promply took it, and declared bankrupcy.
Nice eh, aye, heyyyy????
Ou est leur cheque du le bien etre SOCIAL my AMI ???
Do you not-ed understand-ed DIIIIIEEEEEESSSSS???
I have seen enough smelly pseudo frenchies for the rest of my life.. YUK. Too psuedo french to live, to afraid to die.
I say turn Quebec into the new Area 51, testing and all. Massive radiation couldn’t make the people there any dumber.
This is dumb Chris; you hear “Canada” and so you want to tie up everything to the country that you can. Basic facts Chris: Did Rogers send the bill or was it AT&T ? Did AT&T charge their usual roaming charges ? Then frankly it doesn’t matter whose network they were on. What they charge AT&T isn’t what AT&T is charging their customers. This is a non-issue, no matter how hard you try to tie it up.
I’m still surprised you are out like a KKK gang on a virgin hunt about Canada three years after the Gov’t turned you down for funding a project that they obviously weren’t crazy enough to fund. Where’s that project now Chris ? Where’s that billion-dollar exit ?
About being part of the ITAC Board of Governor: dude, all you need is a pulse. Every “top” employee from any member company is on the BoG. You ran a one-person business. Thus you qualify. How’s that for a fantastic call to authority ?
It’s rogers GSM network which was subsidized by the federal government. Rogers is charging the large roaming fees for data. Period.
They are allowed to do so with zero competition because the MPs are weak and coerced.
Read up on Chuck Cadman
http://www.nati....html?id=341363
He was one of the only people who said no, and was brave enough to write about it publicly. I guess he figured he was going to die anyhow.
You live in one of the worst places in North America. They say Carlos Slim is bad, but he has NOTHING on Canadian telecom.
Every time somebody tries to address the problem X, Y random Canadian will try to change the topic.
Look the problem in the face and kill it.
I’m sorry, I misstated, his wife wrote about it publicly, not him.
He was ill at the time and I can see why he didn’t want to talk about it.
The point being, most of these situations are never talked about and the few times they are family members have to do it because people are afraid.
That’s Canada. But it shouldn’t be. You should be throwing rocks at those people.
Or here’s an idea: a fixed price for the phone service, no matter where you are.
That one is right up on the corporate priority with the “fixed minimum wage no matter where you are”
Not only would execs lose their bonuses, they would lose their 7 figure income as well.
That’s the stupidest thing I have ever hear. Clearly you do not understand macroeconomics.
Fixed-price service exists; sat phones are equally blood-curdling expensive no matter where you are.
Stop watching smash lab on your laptop.
The problem here is people feel they HAVE to go with one of these customer snarly math challenged companies or be left out of the shinny tech toy revolution. Bullocks.
And sure a Mythbuster TV celeb is probably going to get the nice nice treatment from AT&T once it realizes it has pissed off a user with tons of connections(thus rippling bad press) but honestly that should be salt in the wounds to the fundfooder users who barely get 3 listeners to their Serenity podcast or 4 clicks a month to their Lego Fetish site….or even folks who are just folks.
Money talks, take it for a walk. Demand better service by launching a Denial of Servitude…work at making your contracts livable rather than the type of things you feel you HAVE to sign on to with your nose firmly pinched.
If they require you to pass a credit check, you require they pass a math test…at the very least.
Instead of tweeting about it why doesn’t he address the topic head on and “dispel the myth” on mythbusters?
Given the brouhaha over his statements about the infamous RFID episode idea, I doubt is Discovery Chan is going to let them take on myths about Telco services.
This does not mean people should not testify loud and strong about the craptacular services they get from the MonthlyBill toting overlords.
I worked for AT&T for a few months in ‘06 – ‘07, hated them just as much then as I do now… give me another carrier like T-Mobile any day! oh and yes, I’m following @donttrythis also
t-mobile? are you serious?
AT&T once charged me $700 for data charges in Europe… after I called and their customer service rep assured me that my data roaming package included all of Europe. They wouldn’t take off the charges. Very disappointed in AT&T.
Mr. Savage really ought to think about bringing his own porn with him when he goes to Canada.
I flew into Edmonton, Alberta last week. Within 2 minutes of turning on my iPhone I got a text from AT&T warning me that my unlimited long distance and data package did not apply internationally. Phone calls would be charged at $0.79/min, and Data at $15.36/MB. It advised against turning on data roaming, which I followed and had to resort to Skype off my laptop for the trip
AT&T waived my $500 fee for checking my email when I visited Montreal but only after I cried like a girl about it…..
I can’t decide if the Mythbusters show is cool or annoying though.
I had a similar issue with AT&T and it comes down to probably the same with any business that you’re obtaining services from- you have to be willing to be tenacious and fight against some of the jacked up things they do.
And their text alert for activity that’s unusual for your account…would be nice if they actually did that. The times I’ve gone way over, I got a mailing long after the overages happened asking to talk to an AT&T rep to discuss changing plans.
AT&T offers SMS service for USB wireless devices through their connection client, AT&T Communication Manager. There’s no charge for Admin messages sent to the device.
Also, they have precautions in place now where they temporarily suspend an account that exceeds it’s data limit. I believe this is for individual customers as well as business customers.
Anyone knowing they are not in the US and don’t have an international data plan should know they are going to be charged roaming fees.
wtf do u work for at&t or somthing?
Yuh, wtf indeed. This is so 80s.
Computers are for Internet surfing, Telephones are for well Telephone Calls, when will people understand that?
Umm.. welcome to the 21st century? By your token I shouldn’t use skype because it’s not a phone.
Technology move -closer- to universal properties, not further away. New phones aren’t just telephones. They are portable computers with or without a reasonable interface.
@BNC – before you comment, perhaps you should read. Adam clarified almost 3 hours ago that it was a USB Mercury Connect Modem http://twitter....atus/2349337674
Also, he won.
Sweet!
Are the rates absurd? Yes.
However, do you buy an axe, and then sue the company when you chop your leg off? No. People are idiots and need to take responsiblity for themselves.
Yes, I work for AT&T, and couldn’t care less about our policies. I am just tired of hearing babies complain over something you should be smart enough to be aware of.
“…and couldn’t care less about our policies”
you will go far in life Marcus.
The iPhone is a computer.
Problem solved! Adam writes, “Today the tweeps became twoops. Just got off the phone with AT&T and they’ve taken care of everything to my great satisfaction.#twitterrules”
I have an idea, how about people start taking responsibility for their actions? This isn’t about AT&T. If you are signing up for ANYTHING, know what you are getting into. Don’t cry about it after you use up the services then don’t want to own up to the bill.
Why the heck would you deserve a warning text message? How about you have half a brain and look to see what services you are paying for every month before you start burning it up in a foreign country? I don’t remember seeing a map of foreign countries being displayed on any cell carriers national coverage guide as included.
Absolutely ridiculous.
“I have an idea, how about people start taking responsibility for their actions? This isn’t about AT&T. If you are signing up for ANYTHING, know what you are getting into. Don’t cry about it after you use up the services then don’t want to own up to the bill.”
What about the lack of competitive rates?
If companies use fine print to deceive the public, shouldn’t that mitigate their responsibility?
Unreasonable contractual details are the norm for Canada, and no one does anything about it, because the entire governing body of the country is completely corrupt.
What kind of country censors software that’s not produced in French? Or makes it illegal to have your street sign in Chinese in the middle of China town? Or tells a community of English people that they have to build French schools and send their kids there in French or else they have to send them to private school?
How did an insane drunk like Ralph Klein ever become the prime minister of anything?
You’re dealing with a very foreign country here, and just as with Carlos Slim in Mexico, Canada has some extremely lowered expectations.
Your retarded.
The problem here is not the outrageous prices or the fact that he used a lot of data.
The problem is that he was quoted 0.015 CENTS/kB whereas the actual rate he was charged was $0.015/kB.
0.015 cents/kB * 1 Dollar/100 Cents = 0.00015 Dollars/Kb
These fucking retards should learn how to understand basic math.
“.” does not mean it’s cents instead of dollars.
actually that wasn’t the problem. he knew exactly how much they were charging. yes, they are morons and said “.015 cents” but they also followed up immediately with “or a penny and a half”. not a whole lot of room for confusion at that point.
I’m 17.5 (no, not 17.05, AT&T…) and I have never had a cellphone, nor will I ever consider contracting one until I can get an iPhone plan with unlimited data for $20/mo. (I could live with 0 SMS messages and only 200 phone minutes though, no problem.)
you’re so cool!!
Recently bought a laptop connect card from ATT. $60/month for 5 gigs. I asked the guy what the overage rate was, and was told it was “12 cents per kilobyte”. I pointed out that if I used 10 gigs instead of 5, my overage charge would be $600,000. He said “I hear of big bills a lot”.
Got a manager to come over. She assured me that the overage rate was only “2 cents per kilobyte”. I explained to her that it still meant going from 5 gigs to 10 would result in a $100,000 bill. She said “I hear of big bills a lot”.
I knew they were wrong (and that I’d never touch 5 gigs on there anyhow), but I couldn’t get anyone in the store to verify it. I “signed a contract”, but no one could show me a copy of the contact. Very odd.
For the record, the rate is $0.00048/Kb (or about 1/20 of a cent per). It’s still a horribly outrageous rate, but at least I won’t have to take out a second mortgage if I go a bit over.
AT&T needs to be chopped up into little pieces again. It’s trying to buy back all of its parts to become a frankenstinish behemoth and suck their customers dry. They need to be humbled by the FCC. Not just them, all wireless carriers, telcos and cable companies. It is a disgraceful situation in the US.
Oh God, CrazyCanadianChris is back… just my 0.015c worth
Oh God, CrazyKboy is back… just getting personal instead of discussing content again.
Here’s something else that’s kind of crazy.
Why not buy one of the tunnels from the pot dealers that goes underground from Washington State to BC, and put up a website that let’s Canadians buy items at the real American price without paying any brokerage fees or 35-50% tax.
Once somebody places an order, put it in a cart and drive it with an ATV through the tunnel to BC, then ship it to it’s destination.
To add to the freedom from unfair tariffs imposed by govt of Canada, it would sting Quebec law 101, because all of the labeling would be in sweet, sweet American English.
That’s what John Hancock used to do to the British Commonwealth in America, and it worked out great.
If the govt of Canada won’t stop the pot smugglers what are the chances they’re going to stop a website that sells books, SLR cameras and kitchen items in an online store?
Eventually they would be forced to give up their ways.
“brokerage fees or 35-50% tax”
that should read:
without paying brokerage fees or 35-50% import tariffs
That’s how Americans defeated the commonwealth here. I bet it would work in Canada too.
OK, I haven’t said anything crazy yet, I don’t think. Just stating facts.
Now I will say something crazy. Forget Iran and nuke Quebec. They are infinitely worse then any extremist muslim.
There, I hope that fits your bill. The day I see one again in hell 10,000,000 years after I die, will be far too soon.
AT & T charged me for a modem I returned in college, I even gave them the receipt from returning it. $250 later I will never touch AT &T, the #1 reason I don’t have an iphone.
Canada has crazy data rates, if you buy a prepaid sim from Rogers when you are visiting, they charge 5 cents a kilobyte for data!! That is $51.20 a megabyte!!
Potentially his bill is correct, if kb is kilobits and we assume 0.015 cents/kilobit is the correct charge … 9 * 1024 * 1024 * 8 * 0.015 = 1,132,462.08 cents = $11,324.6208 – either need to check that they mean kb = kilobytes, if assuming the 0.015 cents per kb is correct.
If kb is kilobytes and we assume 1.5 cents/kilobyte is correct charge … 9 * 1024 * 1024 * 1.5 = 14,155,776 cents = $141,557.76 – TBH an equally unfair charge.
I don’t think the either charge is reasonable in the legal sense of the word for 9 GB of data transfer.
More people should revolt against the carriers for their exorbitant charges. They should be jailed for charging extra fees for text messaging when a customer has already signed up for the unlimited data plan. And charging a monthly fee for tethering a laptop to your cell phone is yet another form of corporate robbery that far too many people permit.
I’ve had a so called smart phone for years, but dropped my data plan entirely about 1 year ago because it goes against the grain for me to make these execs get rich when the service is crap and the customer service is worse. I had to fight with Verizon to cancel my data plan — they tried telling me that I couldn’t cancel my data plan, but I made a huge ruckus in the store for all the times I had been ripped off, and they immediately changed their tune. It was a difficult transition, and I still fight the urges to go back, but my bank account is growing, which is never a bad thing.
But it is not only the cell phone carriers that are ripping off customers, so many companies are doing it because people simply allow it to happen. There is a toll road where I live in VA that in the last 10 years has gone from $1.15 each way to $4.50 per trip, and recent correspondence from the company stating even sharper increases are on the horizon. For those of you that are mathematically challenged that is a 400% increase in 10 years. Did your salary increase by 400% during any 10 year period of your career? Who in their right mind would pay $9 for a round trip on a 5 mile stretch of roadway you ask? Thousands do it every day and that is why the owners keep raising the rates because even when they do the people are hooked and simply don’t leave or complain.
Go forth and revolt against the corporate pirates that are stealing your hard earned loot!
Savage changed his tune pretty quickly. I’m guessing AT&T kicked a few freebies his way in order to get him to post glowing praise toward them since he has “so many followers” on Twitter.
I need to recheck the fine print on my contract with AT&T. I thought it was no roaming or long distance charges through US and Canada. Perhaps that doesn’t apply to data transfers? Of course, I haven’t been to Canada since I was 4 anyway……
I find it funny that people talk about breaking up AT&T again. THIS IS NOT AT&T: AT&T cellular died years ago and was bought out by Cingulair, who later re-branded as AT&T because they thought that had better name recognition. AT&T flubbed a CRM install and it tanked their customer service, and they died. It just happened that the two companies used the same cellular technology (GSM or whatever) and a merger was possible. Sadly, Cingulair’s customer service was really no better than AT&T’s, so you’re still dealing with a sad and lonely monster.
I use Alltel. Driving to work a week ago I got a text message saying that my account had high usage and I needed to call them. My wife had just spent a week on the other side of the country, her cell is an additional line on my plan. We spent a lot of hours playing WoW and talking while she was gone, and I didn’t know she was roaming. $600 worth of charges. Alltel saw the problem, contacted me, and offered me a plan upgrade for $20 that gave me unlimited nation-wide roaming, and that by doing it, it would be retroactive and I wouldn’t be hit with a $600 phone bill.
THAT is customer service. I don’t know what AT&T provides, but it ain’t customer service. Cellular service in the USA has always been hideously monopolistic compared to a lot of the world, and somehow they get away with it. Hopefully that will change some day, probably the same day that I can easily buy an iPhone from an Alltel store and not have to deal with AT&T.
“We spent a lot of hours playing WoW and talking while she was gone, and I didn’t know she was roaming. $600 worth of charges.”
Our plans include the whole United States. So you can use Skype to make all your long distance calls, either using your “local” minutes with the G1 or wifi if you’re on the iPhone.
Tell your wife to use Skype on her mobile instead and you should see a 100% reduction. The only thing the Canadians could do about it is block Skype connect phone numbers, which would be ridiculous and insane in the USA, but who knows with Canadians. They’ll probably do it. They blocked TiVo because they couldn’t sell enough videotron/rogers DVD recorders. They blocked car pooling in Ontario because they labeled it as a plan to put the privately owned bus companies out of business.
Every time you send a gift or a Canadian person dares to try to get a cheaper price from the US, customs Canada enforces a 35-50% tariff on items from outside Canada to force people to buy from local merchants. Then they force an automatic $50+ customs broker charge which you have little to no control over.
If you dare buy outside of your province to avoid interstate tax, they will harass the merchant to charge you sales tax for a province that they don’t even collect for and charge you GST, which is federal sales tax on top of that.
In most all of the USA there is NO INTERSTATE TAX.
Again, tell your wife to use Skype, but you should be aware that there is a pattern. Even the stuff that people are forced to accept as legitimate in Canada is not legitimate. 40% of Canada’s revenue is based on people sending their Canadian relatives gifts and the federal government then raping them out of a pleasant surprise. And that’s what they consider as legitimate. Their “illegitimate” dealings are EXTREMELY bad in contrast.
Oh, BTW, a new bill is coming to Canada, which will be signed into law by Canada’s beloved Queen which will force ISPs to give your name and address along with TCP packet info to private companies with no warrant or court order.
It is apparent from reading this that most people in the US have no clue about Canada.
Expecially the ones talking about corrupt businesses and government. Hello people, have you looked into a mirror lately. The US almost killed the world economy lately.
As an FYI, the Canadian banks came through almost unscathed. The IMF is using Canada as the poster child for fiscal responsibility.
@orji – you have your facts wrong, so wrong you should be embarassed.
The “”Queen” is a figurehead, nothing more.
There are no duties as you describe. They are “brokerage charges” levied by the carriers. If something is imported via the postal service, there is a $5 handling charge and the applicable taxes. That’s it. Canada Customs doesn’t do it.
As for inter-province taxes they are only applicable if the business is registered to operate in that province where the goods are shipped to. The GST “National Tax” is different as it applies across the country.
As far as the ISP thing goes, at least the government is being up front about it unlike the US which simply taps everything on the Internet.
I spend a lot of time in the US on business. The lack of awareness I have seen regarding your largest trading partner is astonishing. I love the US, but man are a lot of you naive when it deals with things outside your border.
Further, this whole thing was started because an American compnay “gouged” one of its customers. Canada had nothing to do with it.
The “”Queen” is a figurehead, nothing more.
Very untrue. Look at justice.ca and you will quickly see a flurry of lawsuits against the Queen, because the government operates under her jurisdiction. All the crown corporations are HER’s.
She HAS THE LEGAL RIGHT, to seize your home and property as you are her subject.
http://www.cic....it-ceremony.asp
“I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”
All govt employees of Canada have to re-swear a dying allegiance to her and swear to protect king and country.
“There are no duties as you describe. They are “brokerage charges” levied by the carriers. If something is imported via the postal service, there is a $5 handling charge and the applicable taxes. That’s it. Canada Customs doesn’t do it.”
There are in fact 35-50% import duties on all items not manufactured in the US, or Mexico even if they come from those countries.
Techcrunch only allows 1 link per post so look this one up. I sure did. I paid these fees. I know them well. If you do import something manufactured in the US under NAFTA, it requires thousands of dollars in paperwork to complete defeating the purpose entirely.
“As for inter-province taxes they are only applicable if the business is registered to operate in that province where the goods are shipped to. The GST “National Tax” is different as it applies across the country.”
Not true. Buy something from Tigerdirect.ca or Newegg.ca which are not registered in Quebec or BC, and you will have to pay the Quebec and BC tax. I am just using this as an example as this applies to ALL companies that are not registered in those provinces.
Even a federally registered Corporation has to abide by these ridiculous interstate tax laws.
“As far as the ISP thing goes, at least the government is being up front about it unlike the US which simply taps everything on the Internet.”
They do have fiber taps on the internet, but they are not monitoring for piracy or invading privacy, they are monitoring for terrorism against the United States of America.
“I spend a lot of time in the US on business. The lack of awareness I have seen regarding your largest trading partner is astonishing. I love the US, but man are a lot of you naive when it deals with things outside your border.”
I ran a small business in Canada with 15 employees for 3 years.
“Further, this whole thing was started because an American compnay “gouged” one of its customers. Canada had nothing to do with it.”
Unreasonable automatic brokerage fees are allowed by the government, as are monopolies on radio spectrum band in Canada.
Videotron and Rogers are the only 2 large cable companies for a reason. The government of Canada wasted all of it’s Export Development Canada money on GM for a reason. Alphonso Gagliano, and others who I won’t name, who otherwise should have been portrayed in an episode of the Sopranos were in charge of various ministries for a reason. He was in charge of public works in Gatineau and gave contracts out to friends.
Later he got a 1 million dollar grant from farm credit canada to open a vineyard in Quebec. He knows nothing about farming. Then the FBI got on the case of the Canadian mafia and he ran away.
Look all of this up in Google. The sponsorship scandal, the airbus scandal, the cadman 1 million dollar insurance sceme are nothing. They almost never, ever get caught because nobody in Canada really cares.
None of what they do ever comes out in the press up there.
You are EXTREMELY naive. Most of it is not a government, it’s a gang. Including the RCMP.
I probably shouldn’t get into this also as it is off topic, but have you ever wondered why your gas costs twice as much as mine even though Canada has the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world?
http://www.oils...nds.alberta.ca/
The total cost of taxes on fuel in Canada is 35%, but the tax on the actual fuel which produces that 35% is about 55% total.
So if you buy $1 of gas, which doesn’t even by you a 1 liter or 0.26 gallon of gas, you would be paying 0.65 for the gas, and 0.35 tax on the gas.
So for 0.65 worth of Canadian gas, you are paying 55% tax which is 0.35.
Usually in countries that are oil rich, the gas costs little to nothing, but in Canada, they need the money to fund their luxurious government expense accounts, and their friends through various crown corporations.
It DOES NOT go into health care at all. There are SOME transfer payments that happen between the provinces and the federal govt, but most of the money is wasted on the luxury of the ministers and their business partners.
“which doesn’t even by you a 1 liter”
should be
which doesn’t even buy you a 1 liter
sorry, I am in a hurry, I should have spell checked.
When I got the first iPhone, I called AT&T before a trip to Canada to understand the charges I would get when using my phone. When I came back and got my bill, I had a horrendous bill, compared to what I expected. When I called AT&T, it turned out they had not given me correct information. They ate the $1000 in fees. While I was happy they made the charges go away, how many folks just go ahead an pay that stuff, no questions asked?
I doubt many people pay $1k in unexpected fees with no questions asked.
New show idea perhaps?
Hey guys:
Can you please follwo me on tweeter? Because my bill is gonna be huge next month and I need an excuse to get out of it. But I don’t have a TV show. So if I get 50K followers, I’m good.
George Meredith, you are a moron. You “UNLEASH” the masses, as in unleashing a dog – you do not stop leasing them…
How hard can it be to rob people? They just tried to rob the wrong one, hehehe. Over here, 1MB data outside the country costs €29, can you imagine?
Apparently I need to get real popular on twitter to avoid data roaming charges? Instead, I could also consider going offline completely??
AT&T (and all other carriers) suck. They mask charges, they bill incorrectly, they do everything they can to get any amount of money out of us.
So far, my $79 a month plan has cost me $450, $375, and $135.
If we didn’t need cell phones in this modern information age, then we would have some power over them. Instead, we are at their mercy.
The Executive complaint division of AT&T number is 1-866-557-1575 if anyone needs it.
A very great story by Philip Ling of Canwest News Service in Canada. Looks like he got an interview with Adam Savage, too. Look at this reaction!
Check it out:
http://www.cana...1348/story.html
MythBuster uses Twitter to fight $11,000 phone bill
By Philip Ling, Canwest News Service
“Any notion that social media can’t effect real change has just been dispelled by a man who makes a living shedding light on half-truths.
Adam Savage, the co-host of the popular TV show MythBusters, has solved the problem of the unfathomable $11,000 cellphone bill he got while travelling Canada.
This time, instead of using science to find the truth, Savage turned to his Twitter account…”