A 'Roaming charges are rubbish' post

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › A 'Roaming charges are rubbish' post

groynk

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#111265 29-Oct-2012 10:28

We've all read the horror stories, so I try to be careful when going overseas. But my wife's (i)phone escaped my control last month when she went overseas before me.
iPhones hide the sim away a bit so she forgot to take hers out when she landed, she sent quite a few 80c txts, some by choice, some by certain apps inviting people via txt, but she was mostly using it as a wifi device.
What annoys me though is the call to a local (Brazil) number, that no longer exists, being charged $7 for a call that apparently lasted .01 minutes. When I tested it from a local landline it just sounded engaged.
At least the $30 p/mb data never kicked in, there is hope for her yet ;)
I know there are ways to avoid all this, but it is just so punishing, one misstep and you fall so deep!

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#708250 29-Oct-2012 10:33

Many countries charge for phone calls from the second you press "dial" - not from when it is connected.

BTR

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#708295 29-Oct-2012 11:45

It once again comes back to user error. Like you said you have heard the horror stories but your wife forgot so change the sim or enable flight mode therefore she was charged.

Roaming charges most of the time are worked out by the telco who's country are visiting, your telco just adds some margin to cover their costs.

freitasm

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#708300 29-Oct-2012 11:54

sbiddle: Many countries charge for phone calls from the second you press "dial" - not from when it is connected.

Not in Brazil though. Calls are only charged if connected.

gzt

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#708379 29-Oct-2012 13:00

Does 2 degrees send a roaming warning txt like telecom and vodafone?

SaltyNZ

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#708382 29-Oct-2012 13:02

gzt: Does 2 degrees send a roaming warning txt like telecom and vodafone?

Yes.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

pwner

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#708383 29-Oct-2012 13:03

2degrees does send warning SMS on arrival, or at least normally does.

2degrees also has real time charging both domestically and internationally so if you have spend control turn on your account it will not let you spend more than you have set.

the rest is up to the user, if you get charged for a service that your should expect to get charged for then you can't expect anything different.

Any posts are personal comments and not that of my employer

ajobbins

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#708405 29-Oct-2012 13:29

sbiddle: Many countries charge for phone calls from the second you press "dial" - not from when it is connected.

Yep. The USA for example. Who also charge for incoming calls too. A result of Bill and Keep if I understand correctly

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sbiddle

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#708434 29-Oct-2012 14:28

ajobbins:
sbiddle: Many countries charge for phone calls from the second you press "dial" - not from when it is connected.

Yep. The USA for example. Who also charge for incoming calls too. A result of Bill and Keep if I understand correctly

Not bill and keep, but the fact they use MPP (mobile party pays) rather than CPP (calling party pays). NZ uses CPP, along with most Asian and European countries. The main users of MPP are North America and some South Amrican countries. Singapore also uses MPP.

groynk

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#708436 29-Oct-2012 14:28

freitasm:
sbiddle: Many countries charge for phone calls from the second you press "dial" - not from when it is connected.

Not in Brazil though. Calls are only charged if connected.

At least some telcos (maybe all?) in Brazil don't charge for connecting to voicemail and hanging up, and even talking to someone and hanging up within a few seconds!

So I suspect this .01 minute charge was just international intersystem billing muck around. I sent a complaint, but not quite worth following up after no reply.

I know it can be viewed as user error, but again, I think the penalties for those errors are disproportionate.

Spend control saved me the first time I stepped off the plane with a smart phone, bleary eyed and bleary brained in some stop over country. I got the spend control limit text before the roaming welcome text! (one 30th of a mb X $30/mb = $1 spend limit!)

PS. Yes I am cheap, in case it isn't clear

webup

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#709051 30-Oct-2012 11:30

iPhones? those devices which were making bravado headlines that they account for the majority of mobile device web traffic stats....until the fanbois realised this was not actually a good thing as it meant their devices are data hogs and their apps are sending lots of data over their connection.

BadBadBadMonkey

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#709197 30-Oct-2012 15:17

groynk: At least some telcos (maybe all?) in Brazil don't charge for connecting to voicemail and hanging up, and even talking to someone and hanging up within a few seconds!

Don't you love paying a mobile toll rate when you phone somebody's mobile and it's out of range or switched off and you just get voice mail?

That'll be 60 seconds worth of mobile tolls mate, thanks, even though we didn't even connect you to the mobile you dialed.

groynk

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#709557 30-Oct-2012 23:31

BadBadBadMonkey:
groynk: At least some telcos (maybe all?) in Brazil don't charge for connecting to voicemail and hanging up, and even talking to someone and hanging up within a few seconds!

Don't you love paying a mobile toll rate when you phone somebody's mobile and it's out of range or switched off and you just get voice mail?

That'll be 60 seconds worth of mobile tolls mate, thanks, even though we didn't even connect you to the mobile you dialed.

No actually, I hate it! Haha.
My 'pet hate' even! (Or petty hate?)
I would absolutely jump all over a feature that let me avoid it. I'd Probably sacrifice up to um... three... yep three! features to get it too. Charge me more for the calls where I do actually talk to someone, halve my minutes, even call me names. Just don't charge me a whole 'minute' to listen to "hi, you've reach... click beep".

rayonline

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#712547 5-Nov-2012 20:12

In regards to another aspect of roaming.
For some time now Telecom and Vodafone have reduced the 3G rate to $10/MB, while to the same countries and there's many of them, 2 Degrees charges $30/MB. Is there a reason for this?

Asmodeus

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#712591 5-Nov-2012 21:38

Wow, who the hell willingly pays $30/MB?

nakedmolerat

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#712598 5-Nov-2012 22:01

Mobile data should be UNLIMITED

If some small poor asian country can do it, NZ telco should be able to do it

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