How 10 Minutes of Cell Phone Use Can Cost $187
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Technology
When Mitchell Brown's cell phone bill arrived this month, the total was so high he did a double-take a
nd immediately started a line-by-line examination of the charges.
"There was nothing weird with the land line or Internet usage, but then I got to the wireless page and there was a charge of $187 for a roaming access charge," the Toronto journalist told WalletPop. "That's all it said: no explanation, no dates, nada."
A call to Bell got him transferred to Bell Mobility, where a representative told Brown that someone had used a smart phone on three separate occasions on Jan. 30 while travelling in the U.S.
Turns out that Brown's wife Michelle Scrimgeour-Brown had gotten lost while on a shopping trip in Buffalo with some friends. Just as she would have done in Toronto, Scrimgeour-Brown had tried to use her phone to access Google Maps. The session timed out three times. The three Internet sessions referenced by Bell were actually three unsuccessful attempts to access a map.
"We're basically talking about 10 minutes of access costing us $187," said Brown.
"How could a few minutes of phone surfing possibly cost almost $200?" Brown had asked the Bell Mobility representative.
The rep was sympathetic, Brown recalled, but couldn't do anything about the charge. Bell doesn't own the infrastructure south of the border, so when a Bell subscriber uses the Web on a smart phone outside Bell's territory, it has to charge a fee to cover the cost of users accessing the Internet in the U.S.
It was an expensive way for the Toronto-based family to learn to turn off roaming when outside their cellular carrier's territory. "Michelle was mortified," said Brown. "She didn't know."
"Funny how Bell doesn't put THAT in their ads," said Brown. "Don't you think it would be nice of them to let you know how much it costs before it's on your bill?"
Complaints about cell phone companies topped the list of complaints made to the Better Business Bureau last year, and billing was so confusing that in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission is asking for help in advising cellular companies on how to simplify their bills.
The lesson? "Paper rules," said Brown. Paper maps, that is.
But turning off roaming when you enter the U.S. may not be enough to avoid such errant charges. When travelling near the Canada-U.S. border, your phone may temporarily switch to a U.S. carrier's network without you knowing it, said WalletPop's tax and technology blogger Terry Fong.
"I was once charged $25 for a 20-minute call that should have cost $4 because I made the call while on a train from Montreal to Toronto," he said. "I was off the Rogers network when I made the call."
Data costs can be even more expensive, Fong noted, especially if the network is not your carrier's U.S. partner.
Read what Fong says you need to do to prevent something like this from happening to you.
nd immediately started a line-by-line examination of the charges."There was nothing weird with the land line or Internet usage, but then I got to the wireless page and there was a charge of $187 for a roaming access charge," the Toronto journalist told WalletPop. "That's all it said: no explanation, no dates, nada."
Turns out that Brown's wife Michelle Scrimgeour-Brown had gotten lost while on a shopping trip in Buffalo with some friends. Just as she would have done in Toronto, Scrimgeour-Brown had tried to use her phone to access Google Maps. The session timed out three times. The three Internet sessions referenced by Bell were actually three unsuccessful attempts to access a map.
"We're basically talking about 10 minutes of access costing us $187," said Brown.
"How could a few minutes of phone surfing possibly cost almost $200?" Brown had asked the Bell Mobility representative.
The rep was sympathetic, Brown recalled, but couldn't do anything about the charge. Bell doesn't own the infrastructure south of the border, so when a Bell subscriber uses the Web on a smart phone outside Bell's territory, it has to charge a fee to cover the cost of users accessing the Internet in the U.S.
It was an expensive way for the Toronto-based family to learn to turn off roaming when outside their cellular carrier's territory. "Michelle was mortified," said Brown. "She didn't know."
"Funny how Bell doesn't put THAT in their ads," said Brown. "Don't you think it would be nice of them to let you know how much it costs before it's on your bill?"
Complaints about cell phone companies topped the list of complaints made to the Better Business Bureau last year, and billing was so confusing that in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission is asking for help in advising cellular companies on how to simplify their bills.
The lesson? "Paper rules," said Brown. Paper maps, that is.
But turning off roaming when you enter the U.S. may not be enough to avoid such errant charges. When travelling near the Canada-U.S. border, your phone may temporarily switch to a U.S. carrier's network without you knowing it, said WalletPop's tax and technology blogger Terry Fong.
"I was once charged $25 for a 20-minute call that should have cost $4 because I made the call while on a train from Montreal to Toronto," he said. "I was off the Rogers network when I made the call."
Data costs can be even more expensive, Fong noted, especially if the network is not your carrier's U.S. partner.
Read what Fong says you need to do to prevent something like this from happening to you.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
3-20-2010 @ 2:10PM
W.Palmer said...
A further impediment to North America is the 2 different technologies, CDMA and GSM.
CDMA is the most prevalent in Canada and US.
GSM is the world standard.
It requires a SIM card, and you need a 4 band phone, which, if you are traveling you simply buy another SIM for the area or country that you are in and make calls at the local costs, with a different number, but the North American companies are ahead of you there and sell only locked phones that will only work on their network. It is very easy to unlock a phone, an average cost would be about $10.
If you have CDMA phone then you are stuck with your cell provider and their userous charges, it does not have a SIM card. Outside of their range the phone is a "brick" except for roaming and useless outside North America.
Obviously the companies are in no hurry to relinquish this obsolete but lucrative system and is more or less exclusive to North America. They have total control and so far have corralled the GSM system to Fido and AT&T. Any new providers, Virgin, Solo etc: can only sell time to CDMA phones. Hence no movement in costs and features. The breakthrough if it ever comes will be GSM but Rogers bought up Fido a long time ago and put an end to that nonsense.
But at least we are better off than Japan they have their own system entirely and nothing else works there.
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 3:42PM
Peter said...
Cell phone costs are ridiculous. The worst cost is the data. If you can prove you are paying for internet at home/work, you shouldn't have to pay for data. You should have unlimited calls anytime with the phone. $70 a month for 250 minutes/month (6 hours 10 minutes) with free calls after 9 and weekends is a joke.
Are we going to be charged for the air we breath too? We already pay for air at the gas station.
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 3:56PM
W.Palmer said...
To charge for GPS is absolute robbery, The phones now are capable of receiving GPS radio frequencies. With the right nav app, and there are many to choose (you must jailbreak your phone first, very easy to do) you can use this free worldwide.
The secret to all this is buy an unlocked 4 band GSM phone. with a Windows or Android operating system. HTC are probably the leaders, iPhone is good (GSM) but Apple control the device and, to a large extent, what goes on it.
It is the North American providers that are suppressing all the technology here, TV, Internet, and Cellular. Europe and S.E.Asia are light years ahead of us.
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 4:02PM
Sarah said...
Three years ago I took my Bell cell phone to the States. I checked my email once (big mistake) and my bill was $1850. I was 18 years old. There was nothing I could do... over the next year and a half I paid that bill. There should be some way to prevent the company from charging people for this.
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 7:49PM
TM said...
Pardon my language, but Canadians gotta wake the !$#% up and stop being so lax when it comes to crap like this
FACE IT WE ARE BEING RIPPED BY THESE GREEDY SO CALLED CELL COMPANIES!!!
The US has alot better rates and plans....Even tho some ignorant Canadians claim that the US wireless industry has a monopoly too
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 9:00PM
Gail said...
When I go to the US, I buy a cell phone there. This winter I paid $29 for the phone which included 300 minutes anywhere in Canada and the US. The minutes expire after 2 months unless you add to them. I will probably let them expire and add to it next winter. I bought this phone in Wal Mart but saw it at Big Lots for $20 with the 300 minutes. The minute charge works out to about $.15/min. This is the way to go. I used it for 5 weeks and still had about 125 min. left when I came home.
Reply
3-20-2010 @ 9:07PM
Scott H. Mcintosh said...
SUPPLY & DEMAND
ask yourself, Do I really need this?
Reply
3-21-2010 @ 2:02AM
jack said...
why not make it law that a pop up comes up and say do you want to raped by cell phone company??? no vasseline?
it's pethetic but you let them get away with it, jail them all!! start with telus :) maybe they are in training to become politcians??
Reply
2-05-2011 @ 8:33AM
Brian Wm. Burnett said...
Just another one of the many reasons why I do not use a cell phone or own one.
I have a GPS and actual road maps to get me where I am going. As for checking e-mails etc., that can wait until I get back home.
Reply