Cingular to Charge International Text Messaging?

I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
(or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
find out.

My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
messages.

Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!

---

› See More: Cingular to Charge International Text Messaging?

All SMS messages should be charged to your plan before you get charge $.10
per message. It does not matter where the message is sent to, or received
from.
At least that's the way it works for me. I SMS overseas all the time and
I've never been billed over an above my plan. BTW, SMS only works to some
countries, not all.


"CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
> effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
> billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
> already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
> (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
> plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
> customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
> received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
> bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
> find out.
>
> My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
> will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
> going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
> subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
> expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
> inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
> more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
> messages.
>
> Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
> minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
> messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
> of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!
>

"CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
| effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
| billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
| already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
| (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
| plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
| customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
| received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
| bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
| find out.
|
| My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
| will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
| going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
| subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
| expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
| inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
| more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
| messages.
|
| Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
| minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
| messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
| of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!

Funny this post comes up today. I just received a mailing from cingular
advertising text messaging, and in the asterisk at the bottom ( 'fine
print') it includes the phrase "International messages not included". If you
would like, I will gladly scan and send to an email address for you So you
can review it and mention it to a customer service rep.

Was this an insert in your bill? I just received my bill a few days back
and no insert...

I've got the SMS package and am in San Fran...


In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (CALOi) wrote:

> I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
> effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
> billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
> already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
> (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
> plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
> customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
> received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
> bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
> find out.
>
> My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
> will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
> going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
> subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
> expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
> inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
> more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
> messages.
>
> Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
> minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
> messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
> of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!

Not an insert in my bill. I've gone paperless. Anyway, here is the
text message I got from Cingular:

"Cingular FREE msg: Beginning March 22, 2004 ALL international text
messages sent and received will be billed at your normal text
messaging rate."

The message is a bit confusing because I already have a text messaging
plan and I already know that any text message sent in excess of the
plan would incur a $0.10/message charge.


Yazzan Gable <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Was this an insert in your bill? I just received my bill a few days back
> and no insert...
>
> I've got the SMS package and am in San Fran...
>
>
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] (CALOi) wrote:
>
> > I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
> > effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
> > billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
> > already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
> > (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
> > plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
> > customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
> > received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
> > bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
> > find out.
> >
> > My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
> > will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
> > going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
> > subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
> > expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
> > inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
> > more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
> > messages.
> >
> > Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
> > minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
> > messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
> > of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!

I think we're seeing the end of the road here for plan-covered
international text messaging. I think SBC felt that its international
long distance voice services are facing tough competition with
Cingular's (also an SBC company) text messaging service. To sour the
milk a little, SBC may have decided to charge international text
messaging to "encourage" users to use international long distance
voice services and also to make up for "lost revenues" brought about
by international text messaging.

I do not want Cingular to charge me $0.10 for any text message that
comes from me abroad. That is going to be an uncontrolled item of my
bill. If somebody abroad were to mistakenly send me about 20 text
messages in a month, I would be charged $2 on top of my plan (plus
tax) and I don't want to pay for someone else's mistake.

We need to get hold of a Cingular/SBC rep to shed some light on the
matter...


"Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> All SMS messages should be charged to your plan before you get charge $.10
> per message. It does not matter where the message is sent to, or received
> from.
> At least that's the way it works for me. I SMS overseas all the time and
> I've never been billed over an above my plan. BTW, SMS only works to some
> countries, not all.
>
>
> "CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
> > effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
> > billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
> > already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
> > (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
> > plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
> > customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
> > received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
> > bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
> > find out.
> >
> > My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
> > will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
> > going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
> > subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
> > expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
> > inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
> > more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
> > messages.
> >
> > Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
> > minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
> > messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
> > of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!
> >

"CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

|
| I do not want Cingular to charge me $0.10 for any text message that
| comes from me abroad. That is going to be an uncontrolled item of my
| bill. If somebody abroad were to mistakenly send me about 20 text
| messages in a month, I would be charged $2 on top of my plan (plus
| tax) and I don't want to pay for someone else's mistake.
|

I of course don't know, but I would think that receiving an international
text message wouldn't hold any special pricing since it shouldn't actually
cost Cingular any more money than recieving a domestic text message. I can
see where sending one may cost them a little more though since they have to
forward it to an intl. service center, unless I am mistaken on how text
messaging works. For all I know they may just use some type of web interface
and it costs Cingular the same to text Alltel for example as it does
Vodafone.

Just thinking out loud here i guess <wink>

It was a lot easier in the PACBELL days. Five years ago, we had
unlimited nights and weekends that started at 7pm and text messaging
was unlimited too. It could reach the farthest reaches of the globe
where GSM is available.

Now, we are dumped with 5000 nights and weekends minutes and paid text
messaging whose reliablity is only guaranteed within the continental
US. Subscribers now have to subscribe to text messaging plans which
add to the monthly bill and international text messaging can only be
reliably sent to fewer countries and worst of all is in the verge of
getting charged.

Cingular has lost its competitive edge.


"Jason Cothran" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> "CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> | I just received an advisory from Cingular yesterday noting that
> | effective March 22, 2004 ALL test messages sent and received will be
> | billed at the text messaging rate. This is a bit confusing because I
> | already have a text messaging plan and all text messages I send out
> | (or receive from) either locally or abroad get counted against my text
> | plan before I get charged the standard $0.10/message rate. I called up
> | customer support to get a clarification on the text message I
> | received, but customer support is not aware of any changes on how they
> | bill text messages to me. Guess we'll have to wait after March 22 and
> | find out.
> |
> | My greatest fear is if I do get or send a text message abroad that I
> | will be charged $0.10/message ON TOP of my existing plan. This is just
> | going to be another way for Cingular to get some more money from its
> | subscribers and I don't like it. Cingular Text Messaging is already
> | expensive as it is when compared with TMobile, which allows 500
> | inbound and outbound text messages for $2.99/mo. That's five times
> | more text messages for $2.99! And that includes international text
> | messages.
> |
> | Cingular, please don't make me switch. I have a lot of rollover
> | minutes that could not even use up and I couldn't even overrun my text
> | messaging plan. Please do not make me switch to a competitor because
> | of this. I've been a subscriber for 5 years now!
>
> Funny this post comes up today. I just received a mailing from cingular
> advertising text messaging, and in the asterisk at the bottom ( 'fine
> print') it includes the phrase "International messages not included". If you
> would like, I will gladly scan and send to an email address for you So you
> can review it and mention it to a customer service rep.

"CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
|
| Cingular has lost its competitive edge.
|

Unfortunately as Cingular grows, they are getting more and more in Verizon's
mindset of 'So go somewhere else, we don't care'. As long as they keep
growing, which it appears they will be, in particular with the upcoming
buyout of AT&T, I don't really see it getting any better. Of course we do
still have choices. I for one don't see my self leaving Cingular anytime
soon though, as they have the best coverage in my area. For me, that is the
most important factor since the majority of my wireless phone usage is for
just that purpose, as a phone. T-Mo stands to attract some customers I think
in areas where Cingular is dominant and T-Mo is present since they have much
more competitve package 'feature' prices, in particular WAP pricing. But
unless something significant happens, I will be glues to the orange splat
for quite some time to come strictly for coverage reasons.

I agree that most users like Cingular because not only is the coverage good,
but rollover minutes are a great feature that nobody else offers. I really
need those rollover minutes some months, and I appreciate them storing them
up in the months that I do not use my phone. Plus, I like using the Infared
port on my 6340i with their wireless Internet to access the Internet on my
PDA. If I moved providers, I'd have to get a new phone and find one that did
infared, plus get the username/pass of the dialup server again.

"Jason Cothran" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "CALOi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> |
> | Cingular has lost its competitive edge.
> |
>
> Unfortunately as Cingular grows, they are getting more and more in
Verizon's
> mindset of 'So go somewhere else, we don't care'. As long as they keep
> growing, which it appears they will be, in particular with the upcoming
> buyout of AT&T, I don't really see it getting any better. Of course we do
> still have choices. I for one don't see my self leaving Cingular anytime
> soon though, as they have the best coverage in my area. For me, that is
the
> most important factor since the majority of my wireless phone usage is for
> just that purpose, as a phone. T-Mo stands to attract some customers I
think
> in areas where Cingular is dominant and T-Mo is present since they have
much
> more competitve package 'feature' prices, in particular WAP pricing. But
> unless something significant happens, I will be glues to the orange splat
> for quite some time to come strictly for coverage reasons.
>
>