Effing Roaming Charges.

[Semperfi_dani]

SO..i went to the States a few weeks back. Unfortuneately because of a freak snow storm, i was more or less stranded in Minneapolis. I had to call home, i had to call my friend in NC...and so on.

I thought i had a package with Rogers that dealt with long distance phone charges...but also..read the fine print my friends.

My long distance bill without the romaing charges was about 100.00 in total.

But with roaming..my total cell phone bill was 850.00.

Consider it a lesson learned that when Rogers or any company offers and advertises how easy it is to use the phone from other countries to travel...just remember that that deal will not include Roaming charges.

 

[Kreskin]

That's incredible. The whole business seems like a convoluted racket.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: Effing Roaming Charge

Its fucking crap is what it is. I mean, there was this big freaking add that i saw by Rogers claiming it was that easy to make a call from wherever. But the roaming charges are what fucking kills you.

What is ironic that in the US, my friend can call longdistance with no charges (roaming or otherwise). All she has to do is dial the area code, but no 1 in front of it.

Here in Canuckistan, you have to dial 1 for all long distance calls and pay the charge. It pisses me off.

 

[the caracal kid]

RE: Effing Roaming Charge

the secret to rogers is call-originator.

i learned this after getting hit, but not as nearly as bad as you because I was on their digital one-rate plan (all calls are $.35/min no matter where in north america). Now they could still slam me with roaming IIRC if I recieved the call, but not if i originated the call, so I always took the call, got the #, and called people back (a PIA considering it was a 1-800 number on my cell).

Such is life, I guess.

I abandoned Rogers because they refuse to offer roll-over and per-second billing.

I agree with you that the canadian cell carriers are not nice to deal with in the least. I gave up on all three. It may seem inconvenient, but we as the user must express our refusal to accept crappy terms of service by boycotting these companies. So long as enough people tolorate the fleecing nothing changes.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: Effing Roaming Charge

Caracal...do you know if we as Canadians are allowed to go to external carriers like the US companies (ie Cingular, Verizon), that offer a far better plan, even with the exchange rate?

 

[the caracal kid]

RE: Effing Roaming Charge

you could probably get an american carrier as long as you have a US mailing address for the bill (the same way grey market satellite services work up here).

Be careful of what the plans are though. I can't imagine their international plans being too cheap since the biggest users are business people (that always pay the premium).

I am looking forward to VoIP mobiles taking off. Count on Bell/Telus/Rogers to play their usual games in slowing down such technology though.

 

[Kreskin]

If I didn't need a cellphone for work I wouldn't own one.

 

[sema4]

It definitely does make the eyeballs pop out of their sockets the first time you see roaming charges.

I'm sure there is some extra administrative cost associated with a carrier passing on a bill to another carrier, but it would be great if they could work together for the better of us end consumers.

The best thing some of us out-West types can hope for is for some mergers so that one company can cover a larger area.

 

[Riyko]

Re: RE: Effing Roaming Charge

Caracal...do you know if we as Canadians are allowed to go to external carriers like the US companies (ie Cingular, Verizon), that offer a far better plan, even with the exchange rate?

I don't know if this will help you any or not, but from what I know you can get T-Mobile up in Canada depending on the area you live in.