Cingular cell phones beware!

[ColeandAbby]

Same here. I take everyone who I need to be concerned about on the cruise with me. Anything else that happens can wait until I get back!

 

I wish I could take my mom on our upcoming cruise. Her health will not permit. I wish I could turn off everything in the world while I am gone. I will worry about her and just pray that she remains safe until I reach home........

[cohusker]

...and you can have your opinion that CDMA stinks, but it the most used and prevalent technology out there, far outweighing GSM towers, I use both, one for work and one personal, and have never noticed a difference and I travel extensively for work and play.

 

This is correct for North America. CDMA is found just about everywhere since it WAS the only technology available for the 800 MHZ band. Europe is all GSM due to dumb laws that make CDMA virtually illegal (the Europeans don't want to give U.S. corporations money...which is also why China is developing thier own technology since they don't want to send money to Europe or the U.S.)

 

It used to be only analog roam was available all over the Caribbean for us CDMA users but now all the islands (Bahamas, Cayman's, etc) are starting to do CDMA overlays to their GSM network due to all the tourists from North America with CDMA phones.

 

CDMA and GSM could be called "base" technologies. Sprint and other CDMA carriers have rolled out 1XRTT technology years ago and now EVDO is the main thing out there now. While GSM have rolled out EDGE (which is what all the Sprint commericals are about now...you know the download speed commerials) and are currently deploying UMTS.

 

Soon, CDMA and GSM may "merge" into WiMax but that is just speculation at this point...

 

Oh, how do I know all this? I'm a computer engineer and it is my job working for a major telecommunications company. :)

[e27insc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSaunders

I sailed on the AOS for Thanksgiving week (southern Caribbean) with my husdband and two boys (14 and 16). We have a really wonderful time....

 

Today I got my cell phone bill. We have Cingular, and my 16 year old son apparently had some really great chats with his girlfriend back in the US to the tune of $600! He says that he did nothing special! When we boarded the boat in Puerto Rico, he thought it was really cool that his phone was working!

 

Does anyone know how this could happen? I read some posts stating that you had to call Cingular and have international roaming turned on.. (which I would never do for a child!). I never saw anything on the cruise about using cell phones, and any costs associated with them while out to sea! This looks like a huge scam to me!

 

Any suggestions for how to get Cingular to drop the charges? Has this happened to anyone else and were you successful at getting the charges dropped??

 

Lets wake up! I work for a cell phone company not cingular customer service gets calls like this every day saying well I was not told or I did not know . Call your company before you leave !!!! None of this well I did not know PAY YOUR BILL IT IS HIS FAULT . You should have called customer service and ask if you did not know . Any why you would let a 16 year old have a phone .. Every heard of prepay !!!! And make sure that he can handle a phone before you get a 600.00 because he is not mature enough to handle it. Sorry to be so mean but let wake up it is your falut pay the bill do not try to get out of it sell his stuff put him to work and he will not do this in the feature.

[mrdood]

This is correct for North America. CDMA is found just about everywhere since it WAS the only technology available for the 800 MHZ band. Europe is all GSM due to dumb laws that make CDMA virtually illegal (the Europeans don't want to give U.S. corporations money...which is also why China is developing thier own technology since they don't want to send money to Europe or the U.S.)

 

...good info, yes, I mean't the US only, in Europe I could not even get a signal on my CDMA phone, but DANG my T-Mobile GSM phone got service almost everywhere, only on the TGV train in the rural area north of Marseille could I not get service...

 

I do wish everyone could come to common standard...

[Guest scfjjb]

Given that neither I nor my son had a clue that this was international roaming, I would have trouble telling him tough luck buddy, get a job (he has one), hold a garage sale(we only have cars in our garage), (or rob a bank!) to get the money to pay for it! Those who suggested that probably had kids that ran away from home when they were 16!!

 

Guess this is the answer.

[mrdood]

Who said this? Not I. No one here said that.

 

You did :confused: - see below... Nextel has migrated to the CDMA network since it's acquisition by Sprint in 2004/2005...

 

Sorry if you felt it was a stretch, but it is not, and a good point is if you don't have personal experience, you probably should reserve judgement as you have not used it personally, but just my opinion:) :)

 

Many of our friends use Nextel for their business needs but it's a totally different network and stinks most of the time from what I've heard.

[Ocean Boy]

I wish I could take my mom on our upcoming cruise. Her health will not permit. I wish I could turn off everything in the world while I am gone. I will worry about her and just pray that she remains safe until I reach home........

I am very sorry to hear that. I am very fortunate in that I have been able to take my parents along on every cruise that we have gone on. I, too, would not be able to comfortably just escape from the world for a week if I didn't have them with me.

[Iamthesea]

Lets wake up! I work for a cell phone company not cingular customer service gets calls like this every day saying well I was not told or I did not know . Call your company before you leave !!!! None of this well I did not know PAY YOUR BILL IT IS HIS FAULT . You should have called customer service and ask if you did not know . Any why you would let a 16 year old have a phone ..

:eek: If most 16 year olds didn't have phones, you might not have a job! LOL Just kidding!

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

:eek: If most 16 year olds didn't have phones, you might not have a job! LOL Just kidding!

 

LMAO!:p:p:D Heck, my kids are 13 and 16 and both have had their own cell phones for 2 years now. Of course, I have always been very clear to them that they must stay within their plan limits or anything over and above that is their responsiblity to pay for. No problems yet and as long as it stays that way they keep their phones.:)

 

Sandie

[Blazer2]

I can't believe how nasty most of you people are responding to this woman. It's easy to say, make him pay, etc.

 

When we arrived back in Los Angeles, but still on the ship, we called voice mail for messages and made a few calls. We freaked out when we got our bill, as we were routed thru Bermuda of all places. Like poster, we did not have international and couldn't believe it.

 

When we called Cingular, and asked why the charges, we pleaded ignorance, and they FOR A ONE TIME ONLY, credited us.

 

So poster, give them a call and plead your case. You have nothing to lose.

 

 

When we used our cell phone in Hawaii, we had no problems like this from the ship. Also arriving back in Boston after a cruise, and Florida, mde calls from the ship, nothing.

 

I like this forum, but I am constantly amazed and how judgmental most of the responders are.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

 

fierysand - What type of service do you have? I leave my phone on and charged, but cannot receive any voice mail unless I have service. I have that "locked" roaming thing .

 

I think we can all thank the OP for posting her story because this will "serve as a warning" to all that are unfamiliar with how cell phone service works. I know I have learned some new things today!

Hi! Sorry I just saw this post. I have Rogers which is a Canadian provider. My phone that I have now has an airplane mode so that other functions of the phone can be used but no imcoming or outgoing calls can be placed without turning off the airplane mode. Unfortunately my provider does charge for unaswered calls that go to voicemail but that is probably because it is a Canadian company and I'm dealing with international roaming rates whether on the ship or on land in the US. The problem was that my phone had service on the ship and that is why the missed voice mail calls were billed as the phone was roaming. I knew that I'd have to pay roaming fees if I made or recieved a call but didn't know that I would be billed for unanswered calls. After reading your post I just took a closer look at my phone and YES, it does have an option to block incoming calls when roaming.

 

I for one though am certainly glad that the OP posted this thread as it has enabled me to find a solution to my roaming issues. I was able to get a Sim card with a Miami based phone number from Cingular as they use GSM phones and it will work in my Rogers GSM phone. Now I will simply have to place the Cingular Sim card in my phone when I travel to the US and I will no longer incur roaming fees and only have to pay for calls that I make or answer on the ship.

 

Blazer2- Yes I agree with you. Its very easy to not realize the costs involved with roaming. Personally I would not make my son pay for the bill since he didn't realize that he was incurring roaming charges. I would however make him pay if knew of the costs but did it anyways. The first time I cruised I incurred roaming fees and I didn't even answer my phone. I'm with Rogers (a Canadian company) and it never crossed my mind that I had to pay for calls that I didn't answer. I called my provider and they explained to me how their system worked and I accepted that I was on the hook for the charges but they were nice enough to give me a one time credit of half of the roaming charges on my bill. I was happy with that and now I always call when I have questions rather than just make wrong assumptions. Cause what I think isn't always the way it is.;):p:D

 

Sandie

[Ocean Boy]

I for one though am certainly glad that the OP posted this thread as it has enabled me to find a solution to my roaming issues. I was able to get a Sim card with a Miami based phone number from Cingular as they use GSM phones and it will work in my Rogers GSM phone. Now I will simply have to place the Cingular Sim card in my phone when I travel to the US and I will no longer incur roaming fees and only have to pay for calls that I make or answer on the ship.

I could be wrong about this but I believe this is a case where you have to make sure you get your phone unlocked before it will function with a sim card from another company. You have to get the unlock code from your main service provider. Some companies do not use locked phones and those will function with a different sims card without doing anything special to it. Just something that you might want to check out.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

Hi Ocean Boy! Yes you are correct. I posted the info about the unlocking codes on another thread but forgot to on this one. When I called Rogers they said that the phone will either work immediately or will ask for a PUK or PIN code to unlock the phone. They gave me both codes in case this happens. This is a great solution for me and I thought that it may also help others who are travelling from outside the US so thats why I posted the info. The roaming plans that Rogers offers are expensive and are based on your billing cycle rather than the dates that you are away so sometimes you are required to subscribe for two billing cycles to cover your vacation dates.

 

Sandie

[willysgrandma]

I can't believe this discussion is STILL GOING.

 

 

NEW TOPIC

 

I keep coming back to see if the OP has called Cingular to try and get a partial refund of the charges.

[Tahoestarr]

What cracks me up is the number of people I see using their cell phones on board...lol...surprise!!!!

[beachchick]

Given that neither I nor my son had a clue that this was international roaming, I would have trouble telling him tough luck buddy, get a job (he has one), hold a garage sale(we only have cars in our garage), (or rob a bank!) to get the money to pay for it! Those who suggested that probably had kids that ran away from home when they were 16!!

 

Guess this is the answer.

 

A few things. If your son is old enough to have a cell phone, he is old enough to understand how the costs work. Why didn't you check with RCI to see how the cell service works? Or why didn't you call your provider to find out how such calls would be handled? You made assumptions that are not the responsibility of either the cruise line or your cell service. Is there some reason he cannot earn the money to pay this bill? Aside from the fact that you don't want to pay it at all, if you don't want him to pay it, then it is yours to pay.

 

And as for your last nasty comment. Why would you think that teaching teenagers responsibility and the financial lessons of the real world would make make them run away from home? Maybe yours would, but I don't know your or him, so I couldn't say. I will tell you that when our DD ran up a $300 long distance phone bill to her GU (geographically undesirable) boyfriend, we made her pay the bill. Sure, she wasn't happy to have her "fun" money from her part-time job go to pay for her phone bills, but she did it. Just like she didn't enjoy doing her share of the family chores or having a curfew. Yet amazingly, she learned some hard lessons, didn't run away from home, and is a delightful woman.

 

beachchick

[VernRDH]

This has been a strange, strange ride.:D

 

To the OP:

 

As others have stated, ignorance is not an excuse. Your son ran up the bill, then HE should be responsible for paying it. Simple. Tough love and all that. He will be a better person for it. And I will guarantee that in time, the girl he spent $600 talking to he will no longer be talking to. Young love can be a fickle thing.:D

 

To others who have had a heated debate over cell technology, I have to say I learned more about cells than I ever really wanted to know.

 

As for myself, we take our phones with us and use them while still in departure port (MIA, FLL etc) and once we return to said port. We don't even turn them on while on board. I HAVE NO INTEREST IN TALKING TO ANYONE AT HOME. Unless my house burned down or someone died, I don't want to deal with ANYONE from home while on my cruise. The person I talk to the most on my cell is DH but since I have to take him with me on the cruise, I don't need the phone.

[Dockman123]

This has been a strange, strange ride.:D

 

As for myself, we take our phones with us and use them while still in departure port (MIA, FLL etc) and once we return to said port. We don't even turn them on while on board. I HAVE NO INTEREST IN TALKING TO ANYONE AT HOME. Unless my house burned down or someone died, I don't want to deal with ANYONE from home while on my cruise. The person I talk to the most on my cell is DH but since I have to take him with me on the cruise, I don't need the phone.

 

And if you house burned or if someone dies there isn't much you could do at that point anyway so you may as well enjoy the last few days of your cruise.

[forpaws]

We cruised in mid-August, and when I got my December Cingular bill in, I was just now charged for a 4 minute phone call to the tune of $39.96.

 

The first night at sea I had to call my oldest nephew's parents to get some "rule enforcement" issues worked out. I loved it that I had to pay nearly $40 because my nephew couldn't behave. :rolleyes:

 

I thought it was interesting that it took nearly 4 months for it to show up on the bill.

[amarillocruisecat]

LEAVE YOUR FLIPPIN' CELL PHONES AT HOME.

 

How's that?

Amen! Can I hear a Hallelujah from the chorus?

[Iamthesea]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Hallelujah! Hal le lu jah! :D

[mohavemommy]

My rule...

 

I use my cell phone while driving to and from the port. When I get on the ship I shut it off and it gets put away. It does not get turned back on until I am on my way back home.

 

I do check my email usually twice a day from the ship... and at $.50/min it is MUCH cheaper than a call. If anybody needs to get in touch with me, they can do it that way.

 

I do not agree with the cell phone signals on the ship and wish the charges were increased to $9.50/min just to curb the use. I for one do not want to listen to somebody else's rude cell conversation while I am on vacation.

[biomedbob]

It's a vacation! No telephone! If you think you're indispensible, wait until you die! :)

[MszKitty]

And if you house burned or if someone dies there isn't much you could do at that point anyway so you may as well enjoy the last few days of your cruise.

 

I so agree with that comment. 2 personal experiences come to mind. 1st one, (before we even had a cell phone): While we were on a 4 night cruise my, then 76 yr old, Mom back home had a heart attack (she did survive and she's doing well at 86 yrs old!) I didn't know about it until we got off the ship and my brother was there to pick us up instead of my mom. At first I was a bit upset that my brother didn't call the ship and leave a message for me. But then I realized that he had my best interest at heart because there really wasn't anything I could do out in the middle of the ocean. And he's right, what could I have done but constantly worry?

2nd experience happened about 5 yrs ago. This time it was my husband's father back at home. It was a 3 night cruise and he passed away on the first night. Family didn't call us until we got into port because, again, what could we have done?

 

We now take our cell phones, but they are turned off from the minute we sail, until the minute we dock at the end of the cruise.

[bplazo]

A few things. If your son is old enough to have a cell phone, he is old enough to understand how the costs work. Why didn't you check with RCI to see how the cell service works? Or why didn't you call your provider to find out how such calls would be handled? You made assumptions that are not the responsibility of either the cruise line or your cell service. Is there some reason he cannot earn the money to pay this bill? Aside from the fact that you don't want to pay it at all, if you don't want him to pay it, then it is yours to pay.

 

And as for your last nasty comment. Why would you think that teaching teenagers responsibility and the financial lessons of the real world would make make them run away from home? Maybe yours would, but I don't know your or him, so I couldn't say. I will tell you that when our DD ran up a $300 long distance phone bill to her GU (geographically undesirable) boyfriend, we made her pay the bill. Sure, she wasn't happy to have her "fun" money from her part-time job go to pay for her phone bills, but she did it. Just like she didn't enjoy doing her share of the family chores or having a curfew. Yet amazingly, she learned some hard lessons, didn't run away from home, and is a delightful woman.

 

beachchick

I have to agree with you. When you make a teenager act responsible they grow into a responsbile adult.

 

I wish they had a higher rate charged for cell phones. Maybe we would see less use of them things.