If you own an IPHONE and take it on a cruise.....Please read!

[SheriNtexas]

Or perhaps the smart consumer would actually call and ask about rates if they are leaving the country?

 

The same goes for those that don't call their credit card company and let them know there will be some international charges so there aren't any problems.:)

 

Consumers seem to bask in the fact that they are uneducated when it comes to spending their money and when a problem arises they blame the company instead of taking responsibility. A perfect example are the people who had ARMS and are now screaming and defaulting on their loans. Did they not understand what the word "adjustable" meant?:rolleyes:

 

 

True!:D

[Desertbelle]

Or perhaps the smart consumer would actually call and ask about rates if they are leaving the country?

 

Please read my post again, I DID call and find out the rates and switched to the International Plan. Unfortunately, no one informed me that even when my phone was turned OFF I would be running up $.99 per call charges, every time someone called me and the call was diverted to my voice mail....to the tune of $600.

 

BTW, AT&T didn't adjust my bill at all even though I have been a loyal cellular customer for more than 15 years. Talk about poor customer service. All I got was a "Sorry, the person who turned on your International Plan should have explained how the voice mail worked while you are out of the country." Gee, thanks. :rolleyes:

[Bakincakes]

Please read my post again, I DID call and find out the rates and switched to the International Plan. Unfortunately, no one informed me that even when my phone was turned OFF I would be running up $.99 per call charges, every time someone called me and the call was diverted to my voice mail....to the tune of $600.

 

BTW, AT&T didn't adjust my bill at all even though I have been a loyal cellular customer for more than 15 years. Talk about poor customer service. All I got was a "Sorry, the person who turned on your International Plan should have explained how the voice mail worked while you are out of the country." Gee, thanks. :rolleyes:

 

I hope you switched service then.

 

I travel out of the country every month....I guess I am just used to asking the right questions. I can understand how someone might not know just what to ask and of course the service provider is happy that they don't.:rolleyes:

[derftegel]

I'm on a cruise and on vacation. The phone stays home! :D

[Mark_K]

Some 17 year old moded the Iphone for use with any service.

Not any service, it still has to be a compatible signal type, which in the US is pretty much just T-Mobile.

[Sue L]

Not any service, it still has to be a compatible signal type, which in the US is pretty much just T-Mobile.

 

 

I thought I read that he got it to work on Verizon, I could be wrong but that is the service we have and my son got all excited at the prospect.

[cot427]

Thanks for the info. My cousin's IPHONE is getting shipped on Monday so she can get it then. I will telll her to leave it at home, or else she will end up paying a hefty fee.

[Mrsg324]

I don't see how the charges would go through if you left the phone off. If you leave it off & turn it on at port, then I could see the updates going through & charging but if you leave it off, turn it on when you get back to the states, then it would register in the states to do the updates.

[vermonter16]

I'm glad that I don't own an i-phone let alone a cell phone! One less headache I have to deal with...

[Michelle1234]

Sue L,

 

Thank you so much for posting this! I have an iPhone and could have gotten hit by this. The iPhone is wonderful! However it does have a few quirks that would make it easy to get caught by this sort of thing. First of all it does not have a user changable battery. My understanding is that to replace the battery you have to send it back to Apple. If you do take it out I think it voids the warranty.

 

The iPhone does not come with a manual. When you open the box there is no explanation of the switches. It isn't too hard to figure out which one turns it on but what isn't obvious is that when you hit that button to turn it off it doesn't really turn off. It is in a sleep mode where it can get updates so it is relatively current when you turn it back on. This is one of the things I love about it. To turn it off you need to hold the power button down until a red bar appears. I would imagine that most people don't know that since nothing that comes in the box with the phone explains the switches. I have not once turned mine off since I got it. The battery lasts a really long time so there has been no need.

 

I like the suggestion to switch it into airplane mode while out of the country. That will likely work and allow you to avoid the roaming charges while still accessing the other (non-data transfer) functions.

 

Thanks again!

Michelle

[DD]

Thank you for posting this. It is great info and very timely! I just bought a BB8830 that I planned on taking with me on several European trips, including 2 cruises. Now I'm a bit unsure! I will have unlimited data worldwide (except Japan & South Korea) but the whole voicemail thing concerns me. Yikes, I think I'd have a stroke if I came back to that kind of bill.

 

For the poster who thinks that the solution lies in just asking the right questions of the phone company, I say, HA. Dealing with a cell phone company is like dealing with the guy who plays 3-card Monty. I can not even begin to describe the amount of misinformation I got from different cell phone reps when I tried to shop for this phone. Even calling the company directly led to multiple mistakes in what I was quoted. It doesn't matter if you keep a log with names/dates. Ultimately, the best the phone company will do is say, "Sorry, we see that you were told this on such & such a date by an employee named X but he/she was mistaken/misinformed." Literally, they could pull up their records and see what I was told and STILL they wouldn't honor it. So, I don't have a whole lot of faith in anything they tell me.

 

There are only a few things that I hate to shop for and let me tell you, I'd shop for a car over a cell phone & cell phone plan anyday. In fact, I'd choose to go to the dentist for a filling over shopping for a cell phone plan!

[EmpressofPurple]

I do appreciate my fellow Cruise Critics who have some empathy for people who don't have time/understand 6000+ word find print contracts and/or don't "know the right questions to ask" of frequently misinformed customer service reps... and don't parade their superiority over those who have been harmed.

 

I went on an RC cruise last year, called my cell provider, signed up for their international plan to have lower rates in each of the ports, knew about the onboard charges... but they neglected to mention that if you called while still onboard the ship even though you were docked in a port, you would be billed at ship rate not at the port rates... and also had the same forwarded-voice-mail-billing problem as noted by another poster.

 

Thought I was being so smart to call in advance and check on the charges... I certainly didn't "know the right questions to ask" about voice mails being forwarded to my phone at roaming rates (?!?!?) -- who would even have thought of this? I just told my kids not to answer any calls, didn't know they had to SHUT OFF the voice mail feature altogether in order to avoid charges.

 

The iphone has so many new bells and whistles, I wouldn't BEGIN to know what questions to ask about whether I would be charged for certain services differently overseas (especially for functions that occur even when the phone is off) -- I probably wouldn't even know how to access most of the features to begin with; I'm sure I under-use the phone I have now.

 

(Although it was interesting to hear from the one unsympathetic poster that he and his wife had to have non-photo-phones for their sensitive jobs... and couldn't find one over-the-counter, had to be a special order! Wow, no more plain vanilla phones...)

 

Although I didn't try to get my charges reversed in this case (though I certainly would have if it was in the thousands of dollars, out of necessity) I certainly have had enough experience in my life of instances in which I have suffered due to no fault of my own that I do not judge those who aren't smart enough to not live in a city below sea level... don't drive well enough to avoid a car accident... etc. etc. etc. There are many times where all the foresight and intelligence and careful planning cannot prevent a difficult and painful outcome; a bit of kindness and understanding goes a lot farther than judgment and feeling "that would never have happened to me"...

[lilmisstramp]

WHAT is with all the iPhone hate??? The phone rocks, I love it. It pretty much is the coolest thing around. The only problem I have with it is that I am constantly stopped on the street to give iPhone demos by random dudes.

[Sue L]

WHAT is with all the iPhone hate??? The phone rocks, I love it. It pretty much is the coolest thing around. The only problem I have with it is that I am constantly stopped on the street to give iPhone demos by random dudes.

 

 

Maybe it's me but I haven't seen anyone post that they hate the Iphone. I just put this up as a warning so the same thing doesn't happen to them. Believe me if they offered it for Verizon, my husband, son and daughter would have already gotten it.:D

[Keen Kruiser]

Get a TRAC phone. No frills. Prepaid minute card. No problem, mon!

[spongerob]

Excellent heads up post Sue L, thanks for bringing it to the boards' attention. I wish I could be on the jury for the one guys class action lawsuit, if I had my way, he'd be tossed out of court with prejudice. What an ignorant excuse, most people don't read their contract, so it's AT&T's fault.

I have to disagree on this point. This statement from the contract, "The 6,707-word terms and conditions document on the AT&T Web site says: "Substantial charges may be incurred if phone is taken out of the U.S. even if no services are intentionally used," is patently ridiculous. That's like a restaurant saying that they can charge you even if you don't come in and order anything.

[DD]

I'm a bit irritated by the way some posters seem to imply that they were smart enough to ask the right questions and the rest of us just aren't. Well, you know what? Dealing with the cell phone company is one of the most difficult customer-service scenarios out there. Every person you talk to gives you a different answer and they often contradict each other. Even if you get someone's name and extension and have complete notes on what they told you AND even if the next customer service rep can verify those same facts of the conversation by reading the notes in your account, they STILL don't stand behind what they say. The best you'll get is a "Sorry that our representative misinformed you. We don't know why he/she did that." So, it's more a case of luck if you get the right answers to the right questions than it is a case of knowing what to ask.

 

I just emailed a question to my cell phone company. I'm tired of getting misinformation. At least this way I'll have it in writing even though they still will probably have some fine print that says they can disavow any responsibility for misinforming me. Here's what I asked them. I went out of my way to be overly retentive, overly clear in what I'm asking. I asked the same question repeatedly so there could be no question as to what I'm asking. Any bets on if I'll get the correct answer? Here's my question that I emailed:

 

Please answer this question from a technology-newbie. PLEASE ANSWER ME VIA EMAIL ONLY. I have to get this resolved before I leave home in the beginning of October:

 

I just bought a Blackberry 8830. I would like to take it with me to Europe and then also on a cruise. If I add the unlimited international data plan for $20/month more (on top of my existing plan that gives me unlimited data in the US), does that really mean that I will not have any additional charges for using the BB for email & web surfing when traveling internationally? Does the $20 really cover EVERYTHING as far as email & web surfing when I'm traveling internationally? I know that I would have to pay per minute for any voice calls rates ranging from $0.99 to $1.69 per minute but can I use my Blackberry to have unlimited access to email and web surfing when I'm traveling internationally without per minute charges or roaming charges or any other charges whose name I do not know?

 

What about on the cruise? We will be on the Queen Mary 2 transatlantic. Cruise lines often have their own high-priced cell services--sometimes, when pulling out of port, you can't tell if you are just using minutes or if you are hooked into the cruise line's high priced service. I learned this the hard way on my last cruise--1 call just used my minutes, the next call was like $4.99 a minute and my phone display did not indicate any change.

 

If I turn the blackberry power off when I get on the ship and do not turn it on again until I'm off the ship back in the US, will I incur any charges? I read a horror story in the paper about a guy who incurred almost $5000 in i-Phone charges on a 1 week cruise because he got charged everytime the phone downloaded, even when it was turned off, even when he was sleeping! I don't want to find myself in that situation. If I turn the BB power off while on the cruise, can I be positive that I will not have any charges for the time that I'm onboard the ship? PLEASE ADVISE! Thanks!

[FitzLA]

Never mind the fact that they just dropped the price 200$ and will only credit back the money if you bought it in the last 3 weeks and only 100$ of it if you bought it before that.:eek:

 

You can actually only get $200 back if you bought in the last 14 days of the price being lowered. 14 days in the return policy. But if you bought before that, you get a $100 store credit. So you are not really saving any money cause you have to spend it in the Apple store. Doesn't bother me though. $100 credit is better than nothing. I love my iphone and would pay $600 all over again. And I am just gonna use that $100 credit on an itunes gift card. I just bought the new 80 gig ipod too, so I have lots of room for new songs.

[FitzLA]

I would imagine, though I don't know for sure, that you could avoid this problem by turning the phone on airplane mode, and turning it off completely. But I must say that I am now afraid to take mine on a cruise with me. Hmmmm.

[kiyasmom]

unbelievable-hey Sue where on long island r u from? My parents are in wading river. Thanks for posting this! Angel

 

 

Hi Frankiesmom! I'm in Rochester, too! Right by the zoo!

[Micknmin]

Dealing with the cell phone company is one of the most difficult customer-service scenarios out there. Every person you talk to gives you a different answer and they often contradict each other. !

 

Isn't that the truth!!!! My daughter and her husband were going to St. Lucia and contacted their cell phone company (Verizon) to see if they could add international calling to their phone. They were told that the phone would not work at all in St. Lucia. So I told her that she could borrow my Cingular phone for her trip if it could get service down there. I called to find out if it would work, and they assured me that Cingular service did work down there. The representative told me that she was very surprised that Verizon told her that their service wouldn't...and kind of made fun of Verizon's clueless representatives. Well, guess what? She gets down there and there is no cell service for either Verizon or Cingular down there!!!! So, it appears that the Cingular rep was the one that was clueless and not Verizon!

[Happy ks]

I'm a bit irritated by the way some posters seem to imply that they were smart enough to ask the right questions and the rest of us just aren't. Well, you know what? Dealing with the cell phone company is one of the most difficult customer-service scenarios out there. Every person you talk to gives you a different answer and they often contradict each other. Even if you get someone's name and extension and have complete notes on what they told you AND even if the next customer service rep can verify those same facts of the conversation by reading the notes in your account, they STILL don't stand behind what they say. The best you'll get is a "Sorry that our representative misinformed you. We don't know why he/she did that." So, it's more a case of luck if you get the right answers to the right questions than it is a case of knowing what to ask.

 

 

Isn't this the truth!!!

 

My sons phone had to be replaced a couple of weeks ago, I went in person to do it. The agent told me I didn't have the service my bill indicates I have, I didn't have text messaging, replacement insurance... blah, blah, blah.

 

I looked closely at my billing and I do have all the stuff I knew I was paying for, I'm so glad I didn't listen to him and have him add it to my account again.

 

The absolute worst part is when there is a rebate, actually getting to use it. I'll try (again) to have it applied to my account, that usually doesn't work. It doesn't work at a pay point unless the amount is exactly what the card is credited for. The easiest way I've used the stupid rebate cards is to go to Nordstrom, buy a gift card with the rebate card, then use the gift card to shop. I've even trashed some because they were too difficult to redeem, even trying to apply it to my bill in person, by phone or online.

 

The worst part of cell phone company customer service is the uppity attitude of their customer service and sales agents, they figure that we should all know about cell phones, how to use them and the fine print on the contracts. You try to ask simple questions and you can almost hear them rolling their eyes on the phone, they don't even try to hide it in person :mad:

 

I think they hide underground and think up ways to make us feel stupid. Kind of like fashion designers can't wait until next season to produce different looks to make women look ridiculous.

[crisndeefromde]

Thanks for the great information Sue. I am right there with you about them being in the household already if on Verizon but that doesn't look like it will be anytime soon. It is a different type of data system than Cingular although I have a sneaky feeling that they are in a warehouse somewhere for Verizon users ready to go when the ante is upped!

 

We never have incurred these issues with Verizon and our treos. Usually don't have service in the islands and when we did and did recieve email we never incurred big charges.

[Sue L]

Thanks for the great information Sue. I am right there with you about them being in the household already if on Verizon but that doesn't look like it will be anytime soon. It is a different type of data system than Cingular although I have a sneaky feeling that they are in a warehouse somewhere for Verizon users ready to go when the ante is upped!

 

We never have incurred these issues with Verizon and our treos. Usually don't have service in the islands and when we did and did recieve email we never incurred big charges.

 

 

From what my son said, major techno geek, the talks to distribute through Verizon with Apple did not go well and basically fell apart so not sure if we will see it anytime soon. On the Today Show on the day they came out their tech guru was on and basically said if you live in the NY area where AT&T coverage basically sucks that you shouldn't go out and buy it. I was really surprised how direct he was with the answer.

[Phullcourt]

AT&T has an exclusive 5 year contract with Apple, so you won't be seeing the iPhone from other carriers any time soon. That being said, I currently have a post on a popular cellphone forum regarding the best plan of attack for taking your iPhone with on a cruise, the consensus seems to be to leave the phone in airplane mode or to totally remove the sim card to avoid any outrageous international data charges. As I'm leaving on AOS in a couple of weeks I really need to find out the best way to carry it with me.