now i know why cingular is changing its name to at&t. it is an attempt to hypnotise me into forgetting the $250 bills that i have gotten each month since i switched from metro PCS. that was probably a horrible decision on my part, i am now thinking. if they are wise they should change their address as well. their pricing and the detailed usage reports that i have just spent the last half hour poring over are deliberately and horribly confusing to the consumer (that means ME).
so, yes they better change their name. i wonder if i will feel less a sense of violation having my wallet raped by such a venerable institution as at&t. not likely.
is it any wonder that wireless carriers are so feverishly lobbying against municipal wifi? they have ME over a barrel (and i suspect you as well) and they want to keep it that way.
this whole thing is a shame, because with the exception made of my wireless internet being down for over a week, i really do like their services, and have been telling everyone i know how cool i think the features are. i am not exactly a power phone user, as a vast majority of my communication takes place here on the computer. $250/month for the level of my usage is A FUCKING INSULT. i don’t feel like wading into their financials to discover that i am right, so if anyone has a defense for their pricing structure, please leave it in the comments. (maybe i should have kept my shares of sbc, so i could feel like i was somehow getting a reacharound? ok now i am going overboard).
consider my zeal for municipal wifi renewed with fresh religiousosity! (CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?)
whatever. it’s sticker shock going from an unmeasured service to a measured one i guess. but the way it’s measured, and the lack of transparency and complexity of the rules are aggravating to say the least. i still have no idea when my nighttime minutes start, it isn’t on the website and i couldn’t get a service rep on the line (and looking at a very involved spreadsheet of my usage, it looks like nighttime is truly latenight). the truly deceptive thing (to me) is that i have paid extra for instant messaging, so i get 200 a month covered, but then they charge me one minute for every message sent and received. that seems really wrong to me. and they have chatbots sending me IMs as well. just like the airlines, i think the companies that behave like southwest will win out (every seat, or every minute costs the same), as opposed to the ones who gouge, errrrr have flexible pricing for service they think you are just going to expense (business class tickets, or daytime minutes).
why do i think that? because of moments right now, when i feel like i have been manipulated into spending a lot more on a service than i intended. “consumers”” like myself do not appreciate extremely complex contracts and pricing plans that are designed to cause us to spend more on service than we intended. i saw $65 or $70 a month, and instead have run $250 for two months. and it’s not like i’m sir talksalot. that’s not cool whatsoever…it feels dishonest, even if it is spelled out legally in the fine print. airtime is a fixed cost, so why am i being charged different rates at different times? because companies can. that makes me feel…used.
i guess it has been a slow day, ranting about a phone bill. i’ll just put that baby on autopay and never think twice about it.
UPDATE: i voiced these concerns when i spoke with a customer service rep this afternoon, and she cut my bill in half. i still believe they need to simplify things, but it was nice to see them take my gripes at least somewhat seriously.
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