Cell phones are a scam!

[lightstar]

my work pays for my cell. . . .my son's is ~$40 month with AT&T

 

[coldmeat]

I pay $100/year for pre-paid. A $100 card doesn't expire for a year and I barely use my phone, so I guess I pay $8.33/month.

 

[AndrewR]

~$70 for two lines with 700 minutes from Verizon with a government employee discount ($80 without the discount).

 

[pontifex]

agreed, cell phone service is way too expensive.

 

[Cristatus]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
Prepaid
$15 every 12 months to keep my connection active (i.e. incoming calls/messages)
$.02 per minute/SMS

I buy minutes when I need them.

Since April 1st 2008,
Received calls duration: 05:04:56
Dialled calls duration: 00:10:37

WIN

What phone plan is 2 cents per minute??

One in India.

theprodigalrebel: are you with Reliance, by any chance?

 

[pontifex]

my plan is 39.99 but by the time you get all the fees and taxes, its almost 55.00

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I pay 55/month with my 15% education discount. It's basically the 39.99 Cingular 450 plan + $20 internet. It's what iphone people get really, except I have a Nokia N82. I use my cell phone regularly. I call people when I get out of class adn we meet up for lunch, or I text 1 quick msg during class and say meet where and when etc. It's useful. For those who say that you can't get why people use cell phones so much, it's because you have YET to realize the full potential.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: ranmaniac

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi

Originally posted by: newnameman

Originally posted by: Mojoed
Sprint
SERO Plan
500 minutes
Free roaming incoming and outgoing
Unlimited data
Unlimited texting
7pm nights & weekends
$30 per month

+1

+2

+3

+4 (but I have a 23% corporate discount on top so it is about $28 after taxes)

 

[DivideBYZero]

Unlimited everything and BlackBerry coverage. Free (paid for by company).

 

[venkman]

SERO FTW


everyone else is the suck.

 

[Synomenon]

Originally posted by: Reel

Originally posted by: ranmaniac

Originally posted by: IsLNdbOi

Originally posted by: newnameman

Originally posted by: Mojoed
Sprint
SERO Plan
500 minutes
Free roaming incoming and outgoing
Unlimited data
Unlimited texting
7pm nights & weekends
$30 per month

+1

+2

+3

+4 (but I have a 23% corporate discount on top so it is about $28 after taxes)

Nice. I had a 25% discount on top of my $30/month SERO, but after I was migrated to the new billing system they took the discount away. After reading the SprintUsers forum, it looks like this is happening to alot of people.

 

[Eeezee]

I pay $35/month after taxes for the Sprint SERO plan, that's 500 minutes, $5 for an additional 500 minutes if I go over (and then the price gets steep), free nights + weekends, free roaming, free long distance, voicemail, free calls to other Sprint phones, free dumbed down stupid Sprint internet thing, etc. etc. Okay, so I can't text message (those cost a nickel each, after a solicitor texted me I called the phone company and had them disable text messaging since I don't care about texting at all)

For a land line in my area, the only local phone company that provides service charges $25 / month, no long distance. Okay, so I'd save $10/month. I could get an answering machine to cover the lack of voice mail. For the extra bit I get all of my long distance covered (important for calling family and friends in other states) AND I get to carry my phone around with me.

I'd say I'm getting the better deal here. The internet thing is almost a waste, but if I'm EXTRA bored somewhere then I can always scroll through movie reviews.

Phone companies in America will screw you one way or another, but cell phones are a better deal than land lines. We're being charged WAY too much compared to the rest of the world, which doesn't make any sense, but I've learned to just deal with it in the cheapest way possible.

Edit: How did you guys get free text messages on your SERO plan? Text messages on mine cost a nickel each!

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: TruePaige
$30 dollars.

I'm on the Sprint SERO plan.

So internet / unlimited nights weekends / 500 minutes / etc..

The newer SERO plan users also have nights at 6 and text for free from what I hear.

Are those plans more expensive? I know you can have your "night" time lowered for like an extra $5-$10, from 9PM to 8PM or 7PM on the older plans (I have your plan, it's like $35 after taxes)

Free text would be nice.

 

[walrus]

$120 Three phones/lines unlimited text and pictures 1200 minutes

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: pontifex
agreed, cell phone service is way too expensive if you live in a box under a bridge.

Fixed

Cell phone service is a better deal than plain phone service.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

This is why you do prepay.

In the States I use a Tmobile prepay and $100 can last me 4 or 5 months. In Australia I use Vodafone and can get away with a $30 cap plan a month.

 

[0roo0roo]

text message prices are a scam.
wonder how much per meg the cost works out to?
"Turns out, we are. At 140 bytes per SMS (that's the maximum allowed) and 20 cents per message, doing some simple division gives you a truly crazy $1,498 per megabyte. And of course, it's double that if somebody actually responds to your message."
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/nu...art=6&comment_count=20

last time i saw this on a consumer protection program they mentioned it cost several times less to transfer data to the hubble space telescope. highway robbery

 

[potato28]

$30 a month, My 5 with unlimited texting. Bought the phone from a friend who unlocks them for $50. This is through Rogers too.

 

[shortylickens]

I got a TracFone and pay very little. Of course, I dont live through my phone like many people seem to these days.
Interestingly, I have recieved better phone service and better customer service through TracFone than through any other carrier.

Sprint sucks balls, despite all the commercials they run claiming to be superior (they are the Apple of cell phone service).
AT&T before the merger was alright. Cingular blue was shit. Havent bother trying them now that they are AT&T again.
Verizon was acceptable, but not worth the money. And they did tick me off a few times.
T-mobile was slightly worse than Verizon.

Lets face it, they dont value individuals as customers. If you're at a big company, and they elect to get a major contract with one of the providers you might get better service. If the company gets too many complaints from its employees they might take their business elseware. The carriers cant afford to lose those big contracts.

EDIT: I havent tried Sprint lately with their new single-rate, infinite usage plan. I'd like to see how well they are doing after the Nextel merge. Would also like to try one of those super-duper, heavy-duty Motorolas.

 

[jaqie]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I have recieved better phone service and better customer service through TracFone

Yeah, ever since they got class-action sued. I was with them before that, talk about nasty service and nasty charges. I will never use em again.

 

[imported_Imp]

$25 every 3 months pre-paid. I barely use it, but it comes in handy when I do. Got a huge backlog of hours so if anyone wants to call me and talk for 3 hours, it will be really helpful.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I got a TracFone and pay very little. Of course, I dont live through my phone like many people seem to these days.
Interestingly, I have recieved better phone service and better customer service through TracFone than through any other carrier.

Sprint sucks balls, despite all the commercials they run claiming to be superior (they are the Apple of cell phone service).
AT&T before the merger was alright. Cingular blue was shit. Havent bother trying them now that they are AT&T again.
Verizon was acceptable, but not worth the money. And they did tick me off a few times.

The Sprint SERO plan is awesome. The rest of their plans suck.

 

[Ctrackstar126]

Sprint:

1 line
5000 minutes
unlimited nights and weekends
unlimited text messaging
unlimited data
insurance

45 a month but I could take away insurance and pay 7 less but I usually have a PDA phone so its worth it.

 

[Extelleron]

I pay around $85/mo (including taxes, etc) for 3 phones w/ a bunch of minutes.

The cost is just insane, and I'm looking into getting prepaid phones once my contracts expire. Maybe for some people it is worth it, but I don't use nearly the amount of minutes I have.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Sprint
5 lines, 3 active phones
1000 minutes w/ 500 Text msgs
No Data transmission
$90/month

The two spare lines come off at end of the year and then I renegotiate the service.