You want HOW MUCH credited?

[TWOLF]

I am not joking about this. This woman called in because her son was traveling and got a billing for several thousands of dollars in roaming. He was traveling out of the home area and has been for quite awhile. She never bothered to check her plan and felt we should cover her. The bad thing is she changed her plan and the company covered her.(correction) It was an agent calling in with the mother in the office.

[taxguykarl]

Several thousand?!! Did this kid go around with the phone growing out of his hand or something?

[TWOLF]

I guess her was traveling at the time and was living in another city, but was moving again soon so they couldn't get him a local number/plan.

[freeatlast]

In early 2007, I spent a week in Tucson with my parents. I made and received a few calls on my cell phone, but didn't think anything about it because I was sure that the last time I got a new plan, they told me there would be no roaming charges. Sure enough, when my bill came it was about double due to roaming charges. Even checking the voice mail messages I kept getting from my brother cost me. I called Cingular to ask about it, and before I could even ask, the agent said that she was going to credit off all of the roaming charges. I was shocked. I was going to ask to have them credited, maybe remind them that my contract would be up in a few months. But they did it without my even asking. That was great customer service.

[Wembley]

Also, international roaming and cruise ship roaming can be obscenely expensive too... I've seen situations where if you even turn the phone *on* you're hit with fees in some countries.

What many of my customers never seemed to understand was that when you go to a foreign country (and yes, Canada IS a foreign country!) that you are subject to the rates of the carrier you happen to be on... plus local fees, taxes etc, and any ong distance charges too. If the wakka-wakka wireless company of Pango-Pango wants to charge international roamers the local equivelent of $50/minute, well, they can... and it will end up on your bill when you get home!

Not to mention, when you're on a foreign carrier, your "bucket" of minutes and text messages usually don't apply either!

The best thing to do if you're going to a foreign country is to get a prepaid SIM when you get there. If you're gonna be on a cruise ship, get an el-cheapo prepaid phone (like the $20 tmobile or go phone from walmart) and that way you avoid the surprise bills!

I'm sooooo glad I'm no longer in the cellphone biz!
-Wembley

[Kiwi]

We ploughed through $250 canadian in data charges during K's 5 days in Paris/ London last year.

It was totally worth it, it made getting around both cities much less painless.