Shoutbox

quote:

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http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/07/08/text-messages.html

Cellphone users with Bell and Telus are going to have to fork over a little more to receive incoming text messages under new pricing plans slated to roll out in August.

    'Oh baby, when my contract's over, I'll be long gone, for sure.'—Debra Messinger, consumer

Under the new plans, customers will be charged 15 cents to receive incoming text messages, including uninvited spam messages. Previously, customers without text plans were only charged for outgoing messages.
[...]
"A 14-year-old kid gets 30 Happy Birthday messages and gets saddled with the bill, for example."

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This implies that people with no text messaging plans, who are already being charged 15 cents to send each message, will also have to pay the same price to receive the messages. Personally, I think this is Bell and Telus' method to gain some money because Rogers is the only company hitting the streets with the iPhone.

The NDP started a facebook group as well as an online peition that can be reached here and here respectively.

You can Digg it here, or you can see more information here and here

Paying for received messages is evil, no matter how you look at it. Why would i have to pay because someone else sends me messages i didn't ask him to send?

I don't think any provider here in the Netherlands charges for received messages, if mine did i would switch immediately .

I'm honestly suprised to see that it's bell and telus; two different companies going for the same price.

Yet, I still don't think it has to do with the iphone problem; I think it has to do with their other phone companies providing free texting or better plans for it.

For example; bell owns SoloMobile; who if it is still as it was 2 years ago; offers free unlimited texting on all contracts. Telus got Koodo mobile that lunched not long ago; also offering unlimited texting for a small fee. I think they're trying to get the money they lose in the sub-companies by the big company one.

In Australia we don't get charged full stop for receiving text messages. It works well for the consumers and phone companies.

If it's true (what with media selectively stating some facts and omitting others), then that's pretty ridiculous - I don't believe anyone would stick with their services for long.

quote:

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Originally posted by High Speed Chaser
In Australia we don't get charged full stop for receiving text messages.

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Not for standard messages anyway. It's a different story if you subscribe to those dodgy services advertised on TV and elsewhere (not speaking out of experience)

Really unfair, because you can't control if you receive texts or not.

Calls however, you can. And so they charge for incoming calls (for the basic plans). That I think is reasonable.

Good thing I use Fido though I wonder what's going to happen to the "free" online texting service that Bell provides?

I just invited every Canadian I have on my friends list on Facebook to the group.

It's a rip off, and considering it costs them nothing to as well, the profit margins from mobile phone companies are around 300-800% per text.

The EU has started to crack down on companies over-charging in Europe, and I don't think we will see that happening here.

If you think about it i could hate someone and send them 100 messages and they get billed They should get an option to receive this text or not.

That's ridiculous.

LOL, bell.

Bell are pretty much the dirtiest most evil company ever, they will do anything to take every penny out of your pocket.

I've been using Rogers and they're fine, never face any issues at all.