Text 8968, 80 rader
Skriven 2010-07-01 11:16:28 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
   Kommentar till text 8954 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Cellphone woes
======================
Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Wednesday June 30 2010 at 17:56:

RW>>> You pay for a lot of things; cell phones, extra minutes, taxes,
RW>>> etc.. But you don't pay for airtime directly...
RB>>                                      ^^^^^^^^

[...]

RB>> The "extra" was your addition to what I wrote, which was that you pay
RB>> for incoming calls as well as outgoing ones.

RW> Which isn't true, as my billing statements prove. Your point?

That you don't know what you're talking about and even admitted that above, but
have such a short span of attention that you forgot your own quote by the time
you wrote the above sentence.

RB>> You pay for the cellphone communication package - and that includes
RB>> the air time for _incoming_ calls.

RW> And you do the same. i.e. you also pay for air time.

Not on received calls like you do.

RW> But the worst part of your service is that your minutes must be
RW> purchased in advance and they expire some time later.

We don't buy "minutes" here at all, as the SIM cards just have a certain
balance if they're the prepaid ones (many people also have contracts, where you
don't prepay), and nowadays the balance is generally good for as long as you
want to want to use the card - and if you don't want to use it anymore, the
balance is refunded.

You're confusing the American system with those in other countries again: I've
seen what lousy conditions the American prepaid SIM cards offer - extra-short
validity periods and then the companies keep any unused balance: we did away
with that in Germany around 5 years ago, when several providers were sued for
that kind of practice.

RB>> But the fact is not mentioned in the price you pay, or if it is, it's
RB>> sold to you as a "benefit" like '120 "free" minutes per month'.

RW> LOL! I pay for 400 minutes/month.

You pay even if you don't need or want the time. Nice system for the provider:
a guaranteed income regardless of whether you use the service or not.

RW> Then I'm given (free) 5000 minutes/month for certain times of the day
RW> and what I don't use, roll over to next month and so on until they
RW> roll off after 11 months (replaced by the current months roll over
RW> minutes).

Yeah, we've been through that "free" business before. Ever hear the old saying
that nobody has anything to give away? It's still true, and people who are
cautious always look for the hook in such "free" offers.

RB>> Which you wouldn't need if you didn't pay for them in the first
RB>> place.

RW> Unlike yourself, my cell phone is my only phone.

You do like to make assumptions, don't you? But OK, in this case you're right.
In Germany, the charges for fixed-line calls are _much_ lower than for any
cellphone rate (prepaid or contract), so only people who rarely call anyone
find it practical to do without a land line.

RW> It serves the purpose of a phone much better than having to pay for a
RW> land line, which you can't use a block away from your house.

True, but why would you want to except maybe in an emergency? I have several
cellphones with prepaid SIMs (no more than around EUR 5 on any of them) for
such use, and carry them when I'm outside the house (although I don't have the
phone switched on unless I make a call), but since the cost for a cellphone
call is around 7-8 times as high as with a land line, I certainly wouldn't want
to use a cellphone exclusively.

Cheers, Bob

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