Wireless Companies & "Preimum" Texting

[DurkaDurka]

Guys and gals: pro tip here.

lose your call messaging and display charges:

How? Subscribe to a free VOIP service which offers free called ID and Voice Mail. Secondary, forward your main number to the voip number, End result equals free voice mail and caller ID.

 

[JamesBondo]

Sorry if your feelings were hurt. I'm sure if you ask, someone has a tissue.
But you seemed to me to be making it sound like giving a phone company your SIN was normal. it's not.
that and you said "SIN number", which translates to "social insurance number number" which is just plain redundant. Kind of like Air miles reward miles. I'd give the idiots that came up with that one a negative rep too, if I could.

np, mate. I get it. Normally, You would seem too pedantic for my liking, but in this case I find it charming.

 

[55Mercury]

lol

well, it was purely for my own comic relief, but I'm happy if someone gets a smile.

 

[JamesBondo]

I am reminded of a comedian that said "Pedantic, I?"

 

[Dixie Cup]

Dixie, i think if you ask the following question " who took all legal and reasonable steps to prevent this bill from happening? And wh didn't?"
i think you will find your legal position is much better than the vendors.

dixie, did you provide your SIN number to the phone company? If not, then they are not able to file against your credit record. Some people think that everything affects their credit record but that is simply not true because you should not be passing out your SIN to everyone.

Absolutely not!! I do not give out my SIN to anyone. BTW, I did send ltrs to the credit companies - all that was required was my full name, address and date of birth. I asked them to record the info on my file.

 

[JamesBondo]

That is good to hear. You aren't in that bad of a situation if they should choose to play hardball with you.

 

[Niflmir]

Guys and gals: pro tip here.
lose your call messaging and display charges:
How? Subscribe to a free VOIP service which offers free called ID and Voice Mail. Secondary, forward your main number to the voip number, End result equals free voice mail and caller ID.

Both of those are free in Europe. Also, country wide calls are considered local and charged at the normal rate. The newest feature in Europe is the option of having a different roaming provider than the normal access provider when outside of one's nation.

The Canadian government really needs to force the MNO's in Canada to allow vMNO's proper access.

But yeah, VOIP is just all round better. I never use my phone provider's link so long as I can attach to a public wireless network.

 

[JamesBondo]

Hmmm, I am not sure that I understand why caller ID would happen at a VOIP line when the originating call is forwarded from a caller ID blocked line. And, if this is possible, then why wouldn't a stand alone caller ID box be able to pick up the information at your originating number. I am not trying to be arguementive, just trying to figure this out.

 

[Niflmir]

Hmmm, I am not sure that I understand why caller ID would happen at a VOIP line when the originating call is forwarded from a caller ID blocked line. And, if this is possible, then why wouldn't a stand alone caller ID box be able to pick up the information at your originating number. I am not trying to be arguementive, just trying to figure this out.

Because the VOIP provider acts like a service provider, and so gets forwarded all of the relevant information by the other operators in order to provide the service. Meanwhile, your service provider excises all the relevant information because you didn't pay for the service.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Ok - so I got a response from the Textdating place and they're offer of $750 seems to be it. They will have the cell phone provider "credit" my account for the $750.00. I'm willing to take it however, I am wondering how it will affect my negotiations with the cell phone provider. Interestingly enough, the dating service completely ignored my request as to how much of the $1.50 they received vs the cell phone provider, which is really what I want to know. But I thought if I pushed them on the issue they would renege (sp) on their $750 offer which I feel is better than nothing.

I also heard back from the CRTC and I had to email them as to what I thought was a reasonable "resolution" - I had already indicated that I was willing to pay 1/2 of the bill - guess I wasn't clear enough lol. At any rate, I also found out that I would have to agree to "abide" by whatever resolution the CRTC came up with. That, in itself, sounds ominous!!

 

[Niflmir]

Ok - so I got a response from the Textdating place and they're offer of $750 seems to be it. They will have the cell phone provider "credit" my account for the $750.00. I'm willing to take it however, I am wondering how it will affect my negotiations with the cell phone provider. Interestingly enough, the dating service completely ignored my request as to how much of the $1.50 they received vs the cell phone provider, which is really what I want to know. But I thought if I pushed them on the issue they would renege (sp) on their $750 offer which I feel is better than nothing.

I also heard back from the CRTC and I had to email them as to what I thought was a reasonable "resolution" - I had already indicated that I was willing to pay 1/2 of the bill - guess I wasn't clear enough lol. At any rate, I also found out that I would have to agree to "abide" by whatever resolution the CRTC came up with. That, in itself, sounds ominous!!

Maybe not so ominous. They just want their decision to be binding. Mediators will often ask for that, since they don't necessarily carry the force of law.

 

[EagleSmack]

I got hit with the $9.99 per month for getting a text that I have no idea why it was sent to me. I had to UNSUBSCRIBE to something I never subscibed to to make it stop.

I hate these scams.

The cable company did it once to me. I got a cable channel that I didn't ask for and was charged a monthly fee for it. When I questioned it they said it comes with the "remote control" automatically! They informed me that I could remove the channel if I wished and would not be charged again. But the fact is that every CATV subsciber that had a TV remote control got hit up for $6 that month or more if they didn't notice it.

 

[Dixie Cup]

I got hit with the $9.99 per month for getting a text that I have no idea why it was sent to me. I had to UNSUBSCRIBE to something I never subscibed to to make it stop.

I hate these scams.

The cable company did it once to me. I got a cable channel that I didn't ask for and was charged a monthly fee for it. When I questioned it they said it comes with the "remote control" automatically! They informed me that I could remove the channel if I wished and would not be charged again. But the fact is that every CATV subsciber that had a TV remote control got hit up for $6 that month or more if they didn't notice it.

Unbelievable! I know for us we weren't aware, at one time, that the prices were going up for the various TV packages until we got our bill. When hubby called up to challenge them because we weren't aware of the price increase, we were told that it was on the ebill that they sent us every month. My husband said that he checked the bill every month and there was nothing, only to be told that there was an obscure link that you needed to click on to get the "up dates" of what was happening. He was totally p'd fer sure and now every bill he clicks on that link to find out what's going on and we've since reviewed our "packages" to reduce the costs of some of the crappy channels we don't watch.

But its stuff like that - little niggily crap that they do that gets to you and one can't help but be frustrated and disrespected. The latter really gets to me - I don't feel valued as a customer and my options are limited because I think they're all the same.

The whole communication industry in Canada sucks and no one says anything about it. Everything is much more expensive than it needs to be and the CRTC makes things even worse.

sigh -

JMO.

 

[JamesBondo]

I am tempted to make all payments through my credit card, then use my credit card appeals process to fight any shadey deals that the cellphone company throws at me.

 

[Dixie Cup]

I am tempted to make all payments through my credit card, then use my credit card appeals process to fight any shadey deals that the cellphone company throws at me.

Actually, that's an excellent idea and one that I included in my letter to the CRTC. If someone wants premium text messages then use a credit card rather than a phone number - less liklihood of being scammed (unless of course your cc is stolen but then at least, as you state, you have an avenue to fight it).

JMO

BTW an update - our local troubleshooter on TV has already covered this issue - obviously I missed it. Wrote my MP to see where that'll get me...also mentioned the cc bit.

 

[Kakato]

Don't even get me going on this, I got hit with a $900.00 bill for texting with chick I only banged twice.

Should have got a hooker

 

[Dixie Cup]

The Provider got my letter and has called me. "course they're calling from Eastern Cda so I'm at work when they called. Called back only to find out their work day is from 9 to 4. (Must be nice), so they close a 2:00 pm my time. Have to call them back @ 7 a.m. Don't know what they will say but wish me luck! Hopefully it's something good.

My MP has forwarded my concerns to the MP who deals with Industry Canada so we'll see what happens there.

 

[Dixie Cup]

Well guys, Success!! The cell phone company is reversing all charges for txt messages! Yeah!! Persistance prevails and I'm a happy camper.

Incidentally, thank you for all the advice I received. I didn't even get a hassle from anyone about my spelling error in my FIRST ever Thread lol - I'll try not to be so nervous and do a better job of spell checking next time around!

 

[SLM]

Well guys, Success!! The cell phone company is reversing all charges for txt messages! Yeah!! Persistance prevails and I'm a happy camper.

Congratulations and good for you! It's nice to see persistence paying off for a change.

Incidentally, thank you for all the advice I received. I didn't even get a hassle from anyone about my spelling error in my FIRST ever Thread lol - I'll try not to be so nervous and do a better job of spell checking next time around!

Lol. Why on earth would you ever be nervous? Have you seen some of the goofy things that get posted on here sometimes?

You should post more often.

 

[Niflmir]

Well guys, Success!! The cell phone company is reversing all charges for txt messages! Yeah!! Persistance prevails and I'm a happy camper.

Incidentally, thank you for all the advice I received. I didn't even get a hassle from anyone about my spelling error in my FIRST ever Thread lol - I'll try not to be so nervous and do a better job of spell checking next time around!

Congratulations! You're an inspiration to all of us who have ever received outrageous phone bills. I'm really glad to hear they are reversing it for you.