Rogers problem (100$+ data wireless bill)
 

Alright,

So here I AM, stuck with a whopping 100$ data wireless bill I think I shouldn't even be paying, let me tell you.

I remember the same incident with Rogers, about 2 years ago, where they actually credited the amount because it was a 1st time offense.

The second time, (which is now), I realized I had mistakenly accumulated some data off of my phone without knowing, and phoned them immediately. They said that since this is the second time, they cannot credit the amount. However, they DID say that they can cancel the data transfer on my account, which is good.

I asked them how much money would I be owing after the phone call, and they said $17, which is reasonable.

TODAY, when I received my phone bill, I realized it racked up a total of 100$ in data wireless charges. WTF! What ever happened to the original 17?

Can I call them and complain? What do you think they'll do? Should I walk in to their retentions centre and complain? or should I call them again?

Call them and talk to their CSR. If that doesn't work, talk to someone who can actually help like a supervisor or another department.

I don't see the HUGE deal here, they said one thing and if you explain it to them, I'm sure they'll correct it or make some kind of correction. People make mistakes all the time and perhaps the person you talked to didn't follow up or the message/note got left out somewhere.

Just curious, how do you unknowingly rack up so much data?! hahaha

google g1:
1. you have to have a gmail account or else you can't use the phone (so when you log in, guess what, data goes through)
2. not only once you sign in, all your sim contacts are transferred to your gmail account (guess what, data goes through)
3. I didn't know when I made a calender entry, it gets transferred to your gmail account (guess what, data goes through)
4. sometimes I hit a dead zone in my WiFi area and guess, what, data goes $!$@R through! without telling me.

(fortunately, after an update to the latest firmware, it now has the option to cancel contact/mail/calender transfers to your Gmail account, but t'was too late =( )

So G1 users: be on a data plan or else you'll get F$$!$ over charges within your first 10 minutes of using the phone guaranteed

The one thing I could think of its probably because when u called it was part of your cycle and things aren't billed yet so probably why the difference in price

y didnt u just block ur data? just get a frd who has data account to activate it for u the frist time and ur set.

Rogers TIP:

1 - Always ALWAYS get a "interaction" number & Rep name.
2 - Ask the Rep to read back the account comments.
3 - Write it down, if you have any issues, quote that interaction# , and let rogers deal with it.

doing these 3 things , have saved me countless headaches. I have a "rogers note pad " that goes back to October 2007.

I phoned in and..
 

Well, It looks like that because it's a second time offense, I cannot be credited whatsoever.

Here's the breakdown of the data:
Mon Jun 29 - 815KB - $18.15
Tues Jun 30 - 134105KB - $81.85

I even gave her a story how I "thought I was on WiFi" but when the Wifi spot was shut down, I was automatically browsing through 3G (watching youtube video) without me knowing. Now WTF! I even asked for a little bit of a reduction before I canceled my data roaming charges, and they wouldn't even shave off some ice for me... argh.

Just ask if u can pay for data for one month as if u had it instead of paying for the full 100

Awesome. Called to negotiate this deal. They said that it's doable, and saved my ass from paying 78 dollars... at least this was better than the call before hahaha

Cool, but do note that your G1 doesn't have 3G (it runs 1700 AWS for T-Mobile USA) here. Just so you know. :p

glad it worked out for u

Congrats that it worked out for you.. i dont understand why it didnt happen to my G1 though.. i never got charged. maybe it'll be on the next bill

There's a reason why Rogers pushes for users to get a data plan when buying a smart phone.
The G1/Dream is a smart phone, and Smart phone OSs are designed to be used with a data plan. Wifi is only there as an added convenience (speed, secondary connection), and the OSs are not meant to be used with Wifi as a primary connection (especially the Android OS).

Without a data plan, you've already lost the main reasons users buy a smartphone: push email, on the go instant messaging, instantly share videos/pictures, etc. If you're waiting for a wifi hotspot to do all these, then you might as well whip out the netbook/laptop.

Anyways, to save you future headaches, just remove the APN in the data settings:
Settings -> Wireless Settings -> mobile networks -> access point names -> put something fake like "fakeapn" in the APN box.

and since you don't need OTA data, you might as well save some battery:

Disable 3G: Settings -> Wireless Settings -> mobile networks -> check "use only 2g networks"
(this setting will stop the phone from constantly searching for a 3g connection....especially since the main benefit to 3g is faster data speeds)

Disable "Always on data": Settings -> Wireless Settings -> mobile networks -> un-check "enable always-on mobile data"
(this will stop it from always looking for your "fake apn" setting)

all smartphones should have either:

1- ask for your permission to call/data out each time

2- have a switch to turn on/off data transmission

3- have a switch to let your phone auto dial out or restrict it.

its BS that the consumer has to pay for the retarded programming of a smartphone, especially if these are not widely known features.

unless however the store tells you at the time of purchase AND disables data transfer should you request it.

people that dont want a data plan shouldnt even need a smartphone, it defeats the purpose of the phone, whether its expensive compared to other data plans in other places is a different story but the fact that they dont "need" one when using smartphone is bs

It's called an iPod Touch.

pocket Excel or Word doesn't require data, phone calls don't need data. games mostly don't need data. the camera doesn't need data. watching a movie doesn't need data.

i like the features of a smartphone. whether or not i use all of them, is user dependant.
i don't use email or send pictures of cats playing pianos to my friends.

my civic can go over 230km/h but i don't use all the power. however its nice to know if you NEEDED the added features, it would be there :)

would you say a laptop was useless without a wifi connection? of course not. however, is it being used to its full potential? probably not.

Don't forget the full keyboard for texting without having to use a shitty phone (LG Neon)

those features can all be done with a "dumb phone" (maybe not excel/word, but trying to view excel/word files on a smart phone is hopeless anyways...creating one is even worse)

I think the point is a lot of people think they need a smart phone, when they don't....and by not getting a data plan, they are essentially using a smart phone as a "dumb phone".