I refuse this offer that I cannot refuse!

[mathnerd]

I'm somewhat amused that while I was reading this thread the text that I'd reached 50% of my data limit came through.

[RootedPhoenix]

He has a prepaid phone and his calls are regularly interrupted with an automated message stating how much of each he has, then it hangs up the call.

Good grief. How do I make sure I never sign up with those guys?

[Aragarthiel]

Good grief. How do I make sure I never sign up with those guys?

He has Straight Talk. Strangely, I have Tracfone, which I'm pretty sure is the same company (or something like that), and it never happens to me.

[taxguykarl]

I'm somewhat amused that while I was reading this thread the text that I'd reached 50% of my data limit came through.

Talk about timing

[wolfie]

While I agree with sending texts at certain percentages of call/text/data usage, my husband's provider takes it overboard. He has a prepaid phone and his calls are regularly interrupted with an automated message stating how much of each he has, then it hangs up the call.

Sounds like they originally had an automated "You've run out of minutes" message, and someone re-used the code to provide reminder messages - but failed to take out the auto-hangup (which would be valid when telling the person "you're out of minutes", but NOT valid when telling them how much they have left).

A PROPER implementation would be to "flag" during a call that they're due for a warning message, then when they try to make their NEXT call look up the actual numbers (call might be long enough to take them past another warning threshold) and give the message before dialing the number they requested.

[Cai1987]

I love having Straight Talk for this exact reason. I pay my money, I get my minutes/data/days of service - when they are up, the phone turns off. No penalties, no charges, no problems.

Don't want to pay extra? Get a prepaid plan.

[EricKei]

Funny you should mention ST -- Mom and I both use that. I just helped her set up a wi-fi hotspot from them earlier today (found a refurb unit for $15 instead of the customary 70-80!). She so happyyyyyyy ^_^ She's been trying for months to get internet access from her house; her landlord's been jerking her around for months and finally decided not to do it, and Death Star and/or satellite even came out to do an install, saying that her location would work just fine...then they gave up because she's back in a rear apartment behind the LL's house, far enough into the woods that she can't get a proper signal at all. And yet, ST's signal is 4-5 bars consistently x.x

Plus, it's $15 a month for 1GB data...which she is not likely to ever even get close to using. About a third of what she had expected to pay.

[manybellsdown]

Here my phone company will let me go over data limit free BUT when my limit is reached they cut the speed way down.

That's what mine does: unlimited data, but only X amount of 4G. If I use that up, the speed drops. It doesn't usually happen unless I've spent a lot of time somewhere without wifi.

[Sapphire Silk]

Hmm. I have T Mobile, with unlimited data on their system, limited if I'm roaming. I get one, unobstrusive text letting me know how much data I have left when I'm about to hit my limit if I'm outside their service area.

Never occurred to me to tell the csr that I don't want to pay extra for data on someone else's network, and to just take that charge off my bill.

Oh, wait! I'm not a Sucky Customer!

[otakuneko]

I probably would've just shut off his data. The overage charge would still be there, but that's later. Oh, I wouldn't tell him I cleared it, just that he wouldn't be incurring any more overages.

[panamared]

The fantasy would be to tell him

"You're just being cheap, are you that poor? If so maybe you don't deserve our service"

Being poor isn't a bad thing; being a bitchy cheap freeloader deserves loss of service.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Hmm. I have T Mobile, with unlimited data on their system, limited if I'm roaming. I get one, unobstrusive text letting me know how much data I have left when I'm about to hit my limit if I'm outside their service area.

Never occurred to me to tell the csr that I don't want to pay extra for data on someone else's network, and to just take that charge off my bill.

Oh, wait! I'm not a Sucky Customer!

I'm paying 101 and some change every month for 2 smartphones w/unlimited talk/text and 3 GBs data (IIRC, it was just doubled a few months back w/rollover.) I think for all that I get the most bang for my buck, so I'm not going to complain.

When I'm at home, I'm connected to my home wifi . . . so far I've not went over and gotten a text from Death Star that I'm about to go over my data (used to back when I had a small per minute plan . . . just about every month. And if it wasn't the data, it was the minutes.)

So I did this trick: checked my account online and talked w/a customer service rep about a mobile share plan that fit both my needs and budget. Took only a few minutes and I don't have to worry any more about going over on minutes or data or anything else.