Cell phone rip off...($%^&$%&*!!! Teenagers)

[Bill, KD0HG]

I have read about this sort of thing happening..

My daughter has a new boyfriend.

She just ran up a $500 cellphone bill due to all of their text messaging the last month!

And there's no way to have the phone company block or warn users of extreme bills after a preset amount.

Using the US Postal Service would have been cheaper.

[k4kyv]

The exact same thing happened to me - even  down to the $500 figure, but they actually talked to each other on the phone.  She was away at university while he was still hanging out in town.  But that happened only once, and the bill served as her birthday and Xmas presents from her parents for that year.  A few months later, she figured out that the guy was a loser and dumped him.

[W2PFY]

I really must be old fashion. I just don't get the concept of text messaging. In some states they are outlawing driving while text messaging. Who knew that would be necessary?

So please help me, please explain a good reason for text messaging 

[KB2WIG]

 "" So please help me, please explain a good reason for text messaging    ""

Well, if yer a school kid, you can text and not interupt the teach.....


klc

[N0WEK]

You can have them turn off the texting feature (I've got Sprint, check with your company) and just leave them with a phone.

With kids these days that may be construed as child abuse though! 

[WB2YGF]

I have read about this sort of thing happening..

My daughter has a new boyfriend.

She just ran up a $500 cellphone bill due to all of their text messaging the last month!

And there's no way to have the phone company block or warn users of extreme bills after a preset amount.

Using the US Postal Service would have been cheaper.

I don't know what plan or carrier you have but AT&T will usually waive most of the bill in return for adding a text package to the line that covers the qty of texts in question.  This may be cheaper in the long run or you can just remove it later.  If they don't cooperate, ask for retentions and say your thinking about going to another carrier.

What carrier, and how many texts are we talking about?

[W9GT]

I really must be old fashion. I just don't get the concept of text messaging. In some states they are outlawing driving while text messaging. Who knew that would be necessary?

So please help me, please explain a good reason for text messaging 

I think it has something to do with the fact that kids are so used to using computers for emailing and instant messaging.  Texting is the natural extension to that on cell phones.  The cellular carriers love it.  It is a data service that is cheap to provide, yet they charge extra for it.

I never really got into RTTY or digital modes in amateur radio...always seemed a little tedious to me when I could use fone or CW.  Yeah, I know....CW??   But at least CW requires a little skill.  Perhaps with the the exception of those using keyboards and decoders.  
Indiana just passed a no texting or cell phones law for drivers under the age of 18.  Seems to me that the no-texting thing ought to apply to everyone!  Very hard to enforce anyway.  As far as cell phone use...some people just can't seem to drive and chew gum at the same time, let alone use a cell phone.  I have been using mobile radio for a long long time and I never felt that I was so distracted that I couldn't manage to drive carefully and safely.  Some people, however, get on a cell phone and totally zone out.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[Bill, KD0HG]

I really must be old fashion. I just don't get the concept of text messaging. In some states they are outlawing driving while text messaging. Who knew that would be necessary?

So please help me, please explain a good reason for text messaging 

Why do people use CW?

[kz0e]

Yup, they get in a mode where each sentence in an ongoing conversation is a txt, adds up.

When I first got my daughter a cell and was looking over the bill there was a $15 charge I didn't recognize so I called them, it was for unlimited txt'ing for the kid (fortunately).

me: $15 for txt'ing? How many txt's are included if you dont buy unilmited?
tmobile: 300
me: how many txt's did she do last month?
tmobile: 1400

I had no idea.

[W1RKW]

Verizon turned my texting feature off.  I complained that I was getting spammed.  One of the last spams cost $9.95.  I P&Med but they said I was still liable for the $9.95.  I capitulated then they did shut the texting off.

[Blaine N1GTU]

I really must be old fashion. I just don't get the concept of text messaging. In some states they are outlawing driving while text messaging. Who knew that would be necessary?

So please help me, please explain a good reason for text messaging 

this coming from someone who just "texted" everyone on this board 

[W2PFY]

Yer right, I did text everyone. I just tried it to my cell phone from my computer. Then I turned on the cell phone and read the message. It was boring. Next time I need to write a more interesting message. 

[K6JEK]

A recent Nielsen Research study showed the average number of text messages sent by teenagers is over 2000/month, about 80/day.  NY Times article about the study:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html?_r=1

The little devils can type blind so they send each other notes during class, hand in purse, reading with quick glances. This is good for cheating, too.

My niece, a high school math teacher, is vexed by this.  I found a jammer for her but then we discovered the penalty for using it is extreme, up to an $11,000 fine and a year in the slammer per offense.  Can you believe that?

Instead, when she finds the kids using them, she takes the phone and gives it back after class.  I recommended something more extreme.

[Bill, KD0HG]

OK...Verizon it was...3600 messages.
YIKES!

[WB2YGF]

OK...Verizon it was...3600 messages.
YIKES!

Ouch!  She/you would need the 5000 text package at $20/month.
If the guy is on Verizon, then she/you could get by with the $10, 500 text package because it includes unlimited Verizon to Verizon texting.

Of course, blocking texts altogether is the cheapest way out. 

[WB3JOK]

My niece, a high school math teacher, is vexed by this.  I found a jammer for her but then we discovered the penalty for using it is extreme, up to an $11,000 fine and a year in the slammer per offense.  Can you believe that?

They gotta catch you using it first... if it's in an out of the way place with no fingerprints on it, "who, ME"?

besides, I doubt the little darlings have the know-how to do a fox hunt for the jammer 

[Blaine N1GTU]

Well I think i am one of the few that feels kids do not need cell phones.
if there is an issue they can go to the office and have a teacher/principle/nurse call their parents.
funny how we all survived growing up without phones attached to our heads.
we went to the movies, the mall, dates... its amazing we survived!

[W1AEX]

Well I think i am one of the few that feels kids do not need cell phones.

Curiously, when I was teaching, the administration attempted to ban cell phone use by students inside the building during school hours. The kids grumbled a little, but they quickly accepted it. Surprisingly, there was a loud response by parents, who did not want to be cut off from their kids! After a number of confrontations with angry parents, the administration quickly backed away from the whole thing and lifted the ban. During my last 5 years of teaching, cell phones were becoming an ever increasing source of problems, especially with the built-in camera-video capabilities. Kids were finding themselves on YouTube when their friends would hold their vid-cam-cell-phones over the stall doors in the bathroom to "capture" them taking a dump. I would imagine that these things are pretty much a nightmare in the classroom at this point...

[flintstone mop]

WOW!! I thought that there was a pre-set limit option that would cut off the phone when  reached.
And cell phone cameras and texing are so useful for sending the answers to tests.

Fred
And the students interviewed thought that cheating was no big thing

Fred

[W1ATR]

Yeah, the whole texting thing isn't going to be going anywhere anytume soon. Best thing to do is put the kids on an unlimited plan and just let them have at it. I always thought it was silly and never figured I would bother with it, but texting does serve it's purpose. I'll be out on a job and walk up to some antique piece of junk that someone expects me to fix, I'll snap a pic and send it to a buddy whose out doing the same job and say something like "look at this POS". We do this back and forth a lot, probably way more than we should be, but it's much more convienient than picking up the phone.

I get my weather, email, and keep my sched on this Blackberry as well as read some forums like this one. Actually posted this from the WAP side. There should be a littke phone up near the subject line that shows me being logged in on the WAP.amfone site.

73 from the Crackberry.

[Bill, KD0HG]

That's the thing...The gadgets aren't really cell phones any more. If all they did was initiate and receive voice telephone calls, no one would want them.

Does anyone even manufacture such a thing today? No text, no photos, no recorder, no bling, just a phone.

Yes, I still have my 1-watt Motorola 900 MHz analog brick cell phone. It was finally shut off last year, but what perfectly clear phone calls it did. I sure got a lot of strange looks when I was talking on the thing...

[WA1GFZ]

Gee my daughter uses her phone all the time and pays for it out of her own pocket. Daddy doesn't write no blank checks.

[K1JJ]

http://www.landmark.edu/institute/assistive_technology/voice_recognition.html

I understand  the drawbacks of using voice recognition software as shown in the above link.  But I wonder why, in this day and age, VR software is not commonly used in addition to texting?

Is anyone here using it for simple tasks like dictating email messages? What were your results?  I figured by now, the 2001 Hal systems would be kicking ass...

T

[KD3CN]

Yup, I ran into this too when I added a phone to our plan for the teenage son.  My reason for adding his phone was his driving our car.  I did have the presense of mind to specify no texting on his phone, and also that it should only be capable of 'phone operation'.  It was Verizon.  Of course he managed to download software, games, ringtones, and even did text messages, all to the tune of about $400 the first month.  I bitched to Verizon about this, given that I specified no 'extra features' on the phone, and they took the charges off.

I guess my point is, if you tell Verizon that you don't want any non-telephony charges when you sign up, they'll take them off the bill.  And they did manage to disable all that crap on the phone eventually.

If you're going to let the kids use texting, make sure they know what it costs (and minutes for that matter).  If there won't be any control, get the 'unlimited' plan.

If the company tells you that the texts and minutes cost so much per, and the kid uses 3600, you just plain owe them.

They're not ripping you off, just charging for services you agreed to...

Karl

[WB2YGF]

If you're going to let the kids use texting, make sure they know what it costs (and minutes for that matter).  If there won't be any control, get the 'unlimited' plan.

Unfortunately, IMHO, that just teaches them gluttony instead of self control, but I come from a different age and family.  I'd be taken behind the woodshed if I dared make a single long distance call on the family landline.

I could never understand why my friend got a "teen line".  Even as a kid, I thought it was a pretty extravagant perc for a kid.  If he talks on the phone too much, reward him with his own line? WTF?

Guess times don't really change, just the technology.