Interesting comment in 'Sideswipe' today

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Interesting comment in "Sideswipe" today

Kyanar

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#60089 19-Apr-2010 10:32

Looking through Sideswipe in the NZ Herald today, I read this letter sent in by a guy who seems surprised that Vodafone determines a text message as "160 characters" (shock!)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sideswipe/news/article.cfm?c_id=702&objectid=10639214

"Anyone aware of the latest scam in telco world?" asks John Griffin. "I received an unusually high account from Vodafone yesterday and it appears the new way to make money is to define a text as a group of 160 characters ... those 160 characters are inclusive of all those spaces between words, commas, exclamation marks and the little space dots that you might use to indicate a pause ... so, that means Vodafone now splits your text into 160 character lots and charges 17 cents per grouping; 320 characters is two texts. Based upon an average word size of five letters that now means you get charged 20 cents for every text of 27 words. Now this old coot understands why teenagers don't speak plain English when texting ... you get stung for being literate."

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#320140 19-Apr-2010 10:40

I read that and my first thought was "well, you can't fix stupid"

For billions of years since the outset of time, every single one of your ancestors survived, every single person on your Mum and Dads side, successfully looked after and passed onto you life. What are the chances of that like?

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freitasm

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#320142 19-Apr-2010 10:42

"...you get stung for being literate."

Obviously you also get stung for making dumb comments.

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xpd

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#320145 19-Apr-2010 10:51

"latest scam" for what has been there all along..I was tempted to send a repose to that but thought stuff it...Im sure someone else would have already done so :)

Its also known as "short message service" , not "let me send you my life story via text".

90% of my texts never exceed 50 characters and thats including punctuation.

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freitasm

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#320149 19-Apr-2010 10:56

I think the reader also tries to make the point that Vodafone is charging for the empty spaces between words. And the punctuation marks too.

Unbelievable. Vodafone, have you no shame? :D

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johnr

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#320150 19-Apr-2010 10:56

Shakes head and goes back to work

sbiddle

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#320157 19-Apr-2010 11:08

One can assume the guy has possibly got a handset newer than ~5 years that handles multipart SMS and lets you type beyond 160 characters! Most old ones didn't.

User fail.

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#320159 19-Apr-2010 11:10

My head hurts :(
Regards, Nigel - VFNZ

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#320161 19-Apr-2010 11:17

The "elder" generation and cellphones dont mix too well.... my father complained that the phone I loaned him didnt work after the 1st week......... he couldnt figure out how to take it off keylock......... also he gave it back to me saying it was of no use to him because he had used all the credit. (Bang head on wall).

So... anyone need a 2D sim ? Only used a few times by a Scouser......... :-p

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simon14

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#320183 19-Apr-2010 11:57

This guy is an idiot.

Sad thing is, he'll likely never find out he was wrong.

Gamefreaks

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#320184 19-Apr-2010 12:00

Actually one of my co-workers has a ticket for this person :)

NonprayingMantis

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#320196 19-Apr-2010 12:27

If sideswipe didn;t have a history of publishing utterly retarded comments I would think this was trolling.

pageweon

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#320238 19-Apr-2010 14:21

you really just can't help some people
if you explained to that gentleman that this is the way that texts have always worked and that it was probably written in one of the many unread booklets he got with his phone .... he still wouldnt care

this is where a signature goes

eugeneykc

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#320382 19-Apr-2010 18:34

freitasm: I think the reader also tries to make the point that Vodafone is charging for the empty spaces between words. And the punctuation marks too.

Unbelievable. Vodafone, have you no shame? :D

Tomorrow somebody will complain Vodafone for charging him / her "talk time" when taking a breath between conversations.....

NonprayingMantis

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#320542 20-Apr-2010 09:19

from todays (not sure if this is one of you guys):

Colin Law writes: "The gentleman who 'reveals' a mobile phone texting scam may be horrified to know the company also charge calls by the minute or second regardless of whether you speak or not. A text message full of dots or spaces takes just as much resource to transmit as a msg ful of txt and lol. And more shock horror - an aerogramme is still $1.80 at NZ Post even if you only write 'I'm fine how are you'?"

johnr

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#320558 20-Apr-2010 09:34

NonprayingMantis: from todays (not sure if this is one of you guys):

Colin Law writes: "The gentleman who 'reveals' a mobile phone texting scam may be horrified to know the company also charge calls by the minute or second regardless of whether you speak or not. A text message full of dots or spaces takes just as much resource to transmit as a msg ful of txt and lol. And more shock horror - an aerogramme is still $1.80 at NZ Post even if you only write 'I'm fine how are you'?"

Link love?

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