Gotten slammed with data-charges on my RAZR

I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.

Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my wife's
logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change your
account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way. But they
are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.

Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
customer service or PR...<big sigh!>

Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
of this bit of stupidity on my part?


L8r all,
DB - Everett

---

› See More: Gotten slammed with data-charges on my RAZR

Just plain "Dusty" wrote:
> I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
> error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
>
> Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
> port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my wife's
> logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
> the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change your
> account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way. But they
> are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
> allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.
>
> Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
> customer service or PR...<big sigh!>
>
> Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
> of this bit of stupidity on my part?
>
>
> L8r all,
> DB - Everett
>
>


Let me see if I have this... you plugged your phone into your PC to
charge the phone's battery, then launch an internet shopping bonanza
using your phone has an internet gateway, and you exceeded your media
net limit?

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

At 27 Jul 2007 12:14:04 -0700 Just plain "Dusty" wrote:
> I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was
an
> error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
>
> Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the
USB
> port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my
wife's
> logon from an earlier connection.

So you do use data connections over cellular occasionally but don't havea
data-plan? You love to live dangerously!

> You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
> the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change
your
> account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way.

Sadly no. They don't automatically bump your voice plan up if you go
over your minutes, either.

> But they
> are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
> allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.


Sadly it's apples and oranges.

> Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
> customer service or PR...<big sigh!>


I'd be mad as heck as well, but I'm not sure they have any obligation to
reduce a bill because of user error. $1500 is what, 150MB? How long
were you connected without noticing? Is you celllar connection so fast
that it "feels" like your regular home connection?


> Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a
recurrence
> of this bit of stupidity on my part?

A) stop charging your phone via a USB port! An AC-to-USB power adapter
is a few bucks from Meritline.com- even cheaper on eBay.

B) If you don't want a data plan, switch to a provider that doesn't offer
a-la-carte data! T-Mobile for example, has relatively cheap unlimited
plans, and locks out data usage if you don't have one.

--

"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures or double
as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for all the bells and whistles,
but I could communicate better with ACTUAL bells and whistles."
-Bill Maher 9/25/2003

In article <[email protected]>,
Jer <[email protected]> wrote:

> Just plain "Dusty" wrote:
> > I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
> > error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
> >
> > Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
> > port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my wife's
> > logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
> > the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change your
> > account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way. But they
> > are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
> > allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.
> >
> > Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
> > customer service or PR...<big sigh!>
> >
> > Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
> > of this bit of stupidity on my part?
> >
> >
> > L8r all,
> > DB - Everett
> >
> >
>
>
> Let me see if I have this... you plugged your phone into your PC to
> charge the phone's battery, then launch an internet shopping bonanza
> using your phone has an internet gateway, and you exceeded your media
> net limit?

Sounds like a lot of image files <g>

--
To reply by email, remove the word "space"

Just plain "Dusty" wrote:
> I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
> error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.

John Navas will:

1) Inform you it was a billing error.
2) He uses his handset tethered to a computer quite often and has never
been charged for excessive usage.
3) You testimony is hearsay and therefore not provable.

In article <[email protected]>,
DTC <no_spam@move_along_folks.foob> wrote:

> Just plain "Dusty" wrote:
> > I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
> > error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
>
> John Navas will:
>
> 1) Inform you it was a billing error.
> 2) He uses his handset tethered to a computer quite often and has never
> been charged for excessive usage.
> 3) You testimony is hearsay and therefore not provable.

CHARTER:

This newsgroup is for discussion of anything related to Cingular, ATT,
or whatever they are calling themselves this month. If participation
starts waning, topics about other wireless providers, your pets, number
of cell repeaters you can see from San Jose airport, etc. are allowed.
Non-commercial For Sale and Want To Buy notices are permitted. Chinese
battery wholesalers especially welcome.

Appropriate articles:
* Drinking while posting and replying is encouraged to get a more robust
response from the more timid participants.
* Only posters who live in countries where the iPhone is not available
are allowed to complain about how bad Apple is and how sales are
plummeting.
* Personal insults or repetitive flaming (see drinking)
* Ringtone sales and downloads
* Biased articles and links to obscure blogs (slanted or misleading
articles to prove a point are encouraged)

Inappropriate (banned) articles:

* Motorola phones and FAQs.
* Off-topic (not directly related to barnyard antics)
* Binaries (except the good ones)
* Spam (unless MAF anti-spam ID has correct number of digits)
* Motorola advertisements, "infomercials," or announcements
* Auction notices for Motorola products (e.g., eBay)
* Motorola employment (help and/or position wanted) notices

MODERATOR INFO:

The group is run by experts who know a lot more than you.

Mr. Moderator wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
>> John Navas will:
>>
>> 1) Inform you it was a billing error.
>> 2) He uses his handset tethered to a computer quite often and has never
>> been charged for excessive usage.
>> 3) You testimony is hearsay and therefore not provable.
>
> CHARTER:
> * Personal insults or repetitive flaming (see drinking)

That was an endorsement, not an insult. heh heh heh

On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:14:04 -0700, "Just plain \"Dusty\""
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
>error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
>
>Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
>port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my wife's
>logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
>the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change your
>account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way. But they
>are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
>allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.
>
>Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
>customer service or PR...<big sigh!>
>
>Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
>of this bit of stupidity on my part?

Get an unlimited dataplan or have ATT disable "the Internet" on your
plan.

It almost never makes sense to have pay-per-kB on a phone, especially
if yor phone is "3G" where it can ring up charges fast.

The same thing just happened to my niece. As soon as her dad got her
a cellphone, I told him to disable the Internet or get a data/text
plan. I go "Call Cingular right away and disable the Internet. That
phone is 3G." He got the text plan, but didn't want to pay $20 for
the dataplan (he's very very tight).

So she gets this text message saying she can get "free ringtones" for
10 days, or something to that effect and starts sucking them down.
Well, the ringtones were "free" but the data to transport them to her
phone cost a ton. He gets a whopping $180 bill after only a week of
her doing this -- luckily he checked his bill online before the month
was up.

He called Cingular and pled his case like you and they refused to
budge. And why would they? That is probably a huge revenue stream
for them (i.e., idiots/naive new users racking up a huge data bill)
and they have no incentive to waive any of these fees.

The worst part of this story was as he whined about this I told him a
couple time, "You idiot I told you to call Cingular and disable the
Internet". That $180 he had to pay could have gotten his daughter
unlimited data/text for 4-5 months.

In article <[email protected]>,
Anon E. Muss <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:14:04 -0700, "Just plain \"Dusty\""
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
> >error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
> >
> >Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
> >port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my wife's
> >logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you "roll-over" into
> >the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd automatically change your
> >account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't happen that way. But they
> >are happy to charge me...no matter how little we use of our monthly
> >allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.
> >
> >Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
> >customer service or PR...<big sigh!>
> >
> >Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
> >of this bit of stupidity on my part?
>
> Get an unlimited dataplan or have ATT disable "the Internet" on your
> plan.
>
> It almost never makes sense to have pay-per-kB on a phone, especially
> if yor phone is "3G" where it can ring up charges fast.
>
> The same thing just happened to my niece. As soon as her dad got her
> a cellphone, I told him to disable the Internet or get a data/text
> plan. I go "Call Cingular right away and disable the Internet. That
> phone is 3G." He got the text plan, but didn't want to pay $20 for
> the dataplan (he's very very tight).
>
> So she gets this text message saying she can get "free ringtones" for
> 10 days, or something to that effect and starts sucking them down.
> Well, the ringtones were "free" but the data to transport them to her
> phone cost a ton. He gets a whopping $180 bill after only a week of
> her doing this -- luckily he checked his bill online before the month
> was up.
>
> He called Cingular and pled his case like you and they refused to
> budge. And why would they? That is probably a huge revenue stream
> for them (i.e., idiots/naive new users racking up a huge data bill)
> and they have no incentive to waive any of these fees.
>
> The worst part of this story was as he whined about this I told him a
> couple time, "You idiot I told you to call Cingular and disable the
> Internet". That $180 he had to pay could have gotten his daughter
> unlimited data/text for 4-5 months.

All the carriers do this.
They do it with land-line long distance, too. Try calling Canada from
the U.S. using ATT and not changing the default long distance.
I had the 10 minute $35 phone call.

--
To reply by email, remove the word "space"

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> Todd Allcock <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I'd be mad as heck as well, but I'm not sure they have any obligation to
>> reduce a bill because of user error. $1500 is what, 150MB? How long
>> were you connected without noticing? Is you celllar connection so fast
>> that it "feels" like your regular home connection?
>
> Go back to his original post. He wasn't USING the connection, he was
> CHARGING THE PHONE.
>
> Still not sure how his wife's logon managed to transfer that much data
> while he was on his logon merely charging the phone.
>


Sounds to me like his phone ended up being just another network without
him knowing. Some PC software will attempt to auto-logon and use any
network they find - whether intentional or not. Then, if this "new"
network connection is usable...

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> Go back to his original post. He wasn't USING the connection, he was
> CHARGING THE PHONE.

Actually, he said he was charging his phone and his dialer program was
actuated my his wifes computer. Sounds like he has the phone's connectoid
set for ICS and set to allow other computers to run the dialer on demand.

i cant believe that you did not see a speed change compared to your home
internet. It is VERY obvious that phone speeds are slower. Media Max 200
includes unlimited internet with 200 text messages a month for about $20.
Surf on the phone or plug it into your computer, unlimited internet.

AT&T is all about money, True! that is why it is called a business. If you
owned stock in a company that kept giving money back to customers how happy
would you be? It is not their fault that you had a program already running,
how could they know?

Now, if you hit the media net button on your phone by accident and
discovered the charges later I have seen them take the charges off, ONE TIME
ONLY.


"Just plain "Dusty"" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I just got my bill for this month and found out that what I thought was an
>error, is in fact a charge that I'm gonna hafta pay.
>
> Apparently I hooked my phone up to my computer to charge it (via the USB
> port) and the proggy that connects to the internet was running on my
> wife's logon from an earlier connection. You'd think that as you
> "roll-over" into the megabuck charges area of usage, that they'd
> automatically change your account to include that usage. Nope. Doesn't
> happen that way. But they are happy to charge me...no matter how little
> we use of our monthly allocation and how many roll-over minutes we have.
>
> Apparently they have more need for that $1500 than they have for good
> customer service or PR...<big sigh!>
>
> Any good recommendations on services to change to, to prevent a recurrence
> of this bit of stupidity on my part?
>
>
> L8r all,
> DB - Everett
>

Anon E. Muss wrote:
> That is probably a huge revenue stream
> for them (i.e., idiots/naive new users racking up a huge data bill)
> and they have no incentive to waive any of these fees.

Indeed it is, as per conversations with their data departments.

At 28 Jul 2007 07:03:30 -0400 Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

> Go back to his original post. He wasn't USING the connection, he was
> CHARGING THE PHONE.


I realize that, but I interpreted the story to man that the data transfer
happened while using the computer while the phone was still connected and
charging.

> Still not sure how his wife's logon managed to transfer that much data
> while he was on his logon merely charging the phone.

Exactly- that's why I assumed there was some use during the charging
period.


--

"I don't need my cell phone to play video games or take pictures or double
as a Walkie-Talkie; I just need it to work. Thanks for all the bells and whistles,
but I could communicate better with ACTUAL bells and whistles."
-Bill Maher 9/25/2003

"prc2u1" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>i cant believe that you did not see a speed change compared to your home
>internet. It is VERY obvious that phone speeds are slower. Media Max 200
>includes unlimited internet with 200 text messages a month for about $20.

My 3G phone download bandwidth tests at 2MB, compared to 3MB for my Time
Warner cable connection. The upload is actually a little faster on 3G
(limited to 256kb/s on TW). So in reality you may not notice a difference.