Huge Phone Bills And Unsuspecting Customers; When Will Mobile Operators Communicate Clearly?
from the and-they-wonder-why-they're-so-hated dept
Just last week Consumer Reports was noting that mobile phone operators remained among the most disliked companies out there. There are any number of theories as to why this is, but here's a simple one: mobile operators are absolutely terrible at communicating with their customers. They make their customers feel stupid. They hide details in the fine print and make plans as confusing as possible. They add unnecessary fees. It appears that there's an inability or unwillingness for these firms to communicate clearly and honestly with their customers. It's so common throughout the industry, you have to wonder if the firms actually believe that this unwillingness to be straightforward with customers is strategically sensible.However, all it really does is cause more bad blood. Two recent stories highlight this. Up in Canada, Bell Mobility is getting some awful press coverage for sending an $85,000 phone bill to a guy who signed up for a $10/month "unlimited" mobile browser plan. Like many mobile operators who offer similar plans, this plan only covered browsing if it occurred on the phone itself. If you used the phone as a modem, hooked up to a computer, then a different data plan kicks in. However, it's quite easy to be confused, as from a customer's standpoint, it's hard to see how this is a different situation and the plan did say it was "unlimited." In cases like these, it makes sense for the operator to admit its error, ignore the bill and move on. Actually, it would make the most sense to change its policies or marketing materials to make this stuff clearer -- but that's unlikely to happen. So far, Bell Mobility has only offered to lower the bill to $3,243, rather than get rid of it completely. In a similar (but less extreme) situation, Chris Anderson had his iPhone shut off by AT&T after he accidentally rang up a $2,100 bill simply by traveling to China. As many others have noted (including in a NY Times article), if you take your iPhone overseas, it will keep trying to check email every few minutes. And, it will do so by getting on a foreign GSM network, which will have exorbitant roaming fees... all of which will happen without the user even realizing it. In Anderson's case, AT&T sent him a text message warning him of problems, but without providing many details or a convenient way to get those details.
The thing is, these sorts of stories have gone on for years, generating plenty of press attention each time. At some point, you would think that the mobile operators would recognize that they're not communicating the details of the plans very clearly to consumers and start to do something different. But that doesn't seem to be the way mobile operators work. Maybe they've just come to the conclusion that these news stories serve that educational purpose instead -- though, the fact that the same thing keeps happening again and again suggests that kind of education isn't working very well.
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Filed Under: excessive bills, mobile, phone bills
Companies: bell mobility
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A communications company unable to communicate with its customers.
Nice Work guys
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Re:
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Communications
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Instant Gratification
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Stupid.
The practices of cell phone companies to date have been nothing short of despicable, and they simply must change.
AT&T has gotten a lot better recently. I was explained all the terms up front regarding my plan. And since my phone is a Windows Mobile device, and I am a programmer, I can do whatever I want with it. Quite a perk, since so far AT&T hasn't even bothered to port their Communication Manager to it, so I can't tether it via standard means.
(which actually might be another perk, since they (for no reason) charge more money for tethering)
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Re: Stupid.
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you want honesty in marketing materials?
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When the Dust Storm Settles
I know, I purchased a new phone, but that was purely because CDMA services are on the way out and I wanted something more usable, but really I don't use the other features, such as Internet and television mobile broadcasting, because, really I don't find mobile television to be of interest to me.
But, just as any product of service becomes new to society, there will be plenty of dust storms and when the dust finally clears, you can expect to see cheaper rates, or un-hidden ones and a more informative and creative mobile phone service that provides a purpose to society and not just another entertainment venue.
Buyer and User Beware!
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deceptive marketing
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Its simple really
Until there is a good, effective choice in the market expect to get more of the same.
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Customers are stupid
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The Network Neutrality/Regulation Spin
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Dumb
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Help & Confusion
"In the meantime, have I provided you with excellent service?"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, and hope you will allow me the opportunity of provising excellent service in the future, and thank you for using Rip-Off Wireless."
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Mistakes
A system with over 15 millon clients, moving more than 4 millon dollars daily, with billions of transactions every day and more than 30 interconnected servers DID NOT HAVE a unique ID, yes im not kidding, if you recharged your card, there was NO WAY to uniquely identify that operation anywhere, so the way of controling is using human brain, same date, same account, SHOULD BE same recharge (hint: not always)
They provide you with a mixed pre/post contract, so you pay in advance for a certain limit and after that you have to use cards, the thing is that the cards are much more expensive by minute than the plan. PROBLEM? If you still had card credit when they gave you the money for the postpaid plan, the minute costed you the same as if using the card (thus robbing you about 40% of the money). SOLUTION? Manually identify these cases (up to 74hs later) and change the rates up.
So there you have, why they dont even try to comunicate it to you.
Regards!
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Re: Mistakes
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is Required
All of them advertise service plan rates that understate the true cost to the consumer. They create 'fees' (as pointed out by Techdirt and many others) that sound like government fees or taxes but are really just a mechanism they use to lower the advertised plan rate.
The government could stop the most egregious of these abuses by requiring companies to PROMINENTLY display all standard plan costs, fees, and taxes in marketing materials. The government should also require the mobile telco's to make publicly available on a quarterly basis the average cost customers were charged for each rate plan. The telco's should be required to provide an explanation of material deviations from the advertised rate plan cost. Should the average cost run greater than the advertised cost for two quarters then the telco's should be required to adjust their advertised plan rates accordingly.
Armed with that kind of publicly available data only the honest telco's could win and retain market share.
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Re: is Required
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Will Not Change
The providers won't change, they generate extra revenue from regular users who just get fed up and pay most of the extra small charges that show up. The large exorbitant $85K bills are there and published to scare off the little guy who thinks he's getting off lucky. Few of those monster bills are paid ... most are just using unused bandwidth anyway so there is no additional expense to the provider.
It's a scuzzy business of mass confusion where the confusion generates revenue.
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Contraindicated
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Comparison Shopping
- it makes it very difficult for customers to compare T-Mobile's price vs. AT&T, VZW, etc.
If every carrier said; "200 minutes, $20; 500 minutes $40". Or even simpler "10 cents a minute, $40 minimum", well then you would be able to compare one directly to the other and make a choice that didn't account for their "differentiation".
Carriers don't want to compete on price. That's commoditization. They want to compete on "Fewest dropped calls", "Best Network", best marketing, coolest devices, best services, who has exclusive AC/DC ringtones. By competing on these bases, they do not need to lower prices. So when you walk into a store, they will tell you all about AC/DC ringtones and best network, but they will not give you clear data to price compare them to the other guys.
A similar thing happens when you shop Costco. Have you ever noticed that brand name products at Costco have different model numbers than similar items sold elsewhere? That's because the manufacturers don't want you to compare the low costco priced item directly with the other model, so they add/remove a feature and rename the model. Now you can't price compare easily. The mfg. would rather you purchase the more expensive model at another retailer. It is deliberate disinformation and confusion. Not illegal at all, though, and a decent marketing strategy. The more informed a consumer is, the less is paid.
Now, on to bashing the consumers: you LCD knumbskulls consistently purchase all your products and services based almost exclusively on price. When a vendor tries to offer a better service at a premium, as American Airlines did with 5" more seat space in 2002, people will choose not to pay the premium. This is why meals, blankets, and peanuts are getting phased out on airlines.
Not only do cellular customers shop only on price, but they tend to shop mainly on the price of one thing: per minute of domestic voice calls. Therefore, the carriers compete on this one decision metric with low price buckets of domestic "anytime" minutes.
But since few people ever shop on the basis of a kb of data or minute of use while abroad, there is no competition for those.
Since people tend to shop only on domestic prices, there is no incentive for companies to offer better services. But there is an incentive to obfuscate the price so that we will focus a little more on "features". End result, we get what we want: crappy service at a confusing low price.
(BTW, the price IS low, we pay between 1/3 and 1/2 of what the rest of the world pays per minute of talking on the mobile phone.)
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I'm communicating
Wifi phones
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Some people just pay the less exorbinant ridiculou
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Common Sense...
If my billable amount/rate goes up more than 3 or 4 fold on my cell phone, I should get a call from a customer service rep. If it goes up beyond 10 fold, the offending part of the service should be disabled until contact is made with the customer. After all, in the end, all you do is pi*s off the customer and the provider still isn't going to be paid.
The provider should look at it as an opporuntity to show the customer they care and are looking out for them instead of showing they don't give a damn a sending out 4 and 5 figure bills.
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WI-FI is the solution
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fees and taxes
I had so much more money before mobile phones...........oy!
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Pass a Law to make Carriers absorb the unexpected
Carrier to eat that charge after a certain limit. (e.g. $200/month (unless explicitly approved).)
What you want is to force the carrier to tell the customer that he has spent, say $100, in charges. Then ask him: "Do you want to approve another$100?"
If the customer has to actively approve spending another $100, there will be no billing surprises.
This approach would solve the problem for the customer - on accidental huge bills. It would also solve the problem for the Carrier; no more upset customers with huge bills.
Why do the the carriers not do that now?
The answer, and I am only guessing, is that they get to collect a lot more of money from these mistakes.
The customer, rightly feels misled. The carriers could tell
then if the carriers had to eat the cost.
It is obvious that many people are confused by this
that the system is designed this way BECAUSE it is profitable for the Carrier.
The fix is to make the carrier pay the cost. Then they would think of a way to tell the customers.
I suspect that merely having a suggestion of this law would
cause the carriers to fix this problem.
How about it AT&T? No more annoyed iPhone users. Apple would be happy also. After all if the iPhone is a good product, you should not have to use deception and ignorance to make money.
How about it Canadian carriers? No more surprised customers with $58,000 bills.
Comments please?
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I don't understand why your mobile account is not like a credit card, that has a Maximum amt...once you exceed that amount in a month (or owe too much), you're cut off. Why is the Mobile industry exempt from common sense stuff like this?
Oh, and shouldn't Apple pay the bills for excessive foreign roaming charges? It's not the users fault, it's Apple's.
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OneBill
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