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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 8:11:03 GMT -5
I just opened my Verizon Wireless bill and noticed that the cost for text messages has risen 33%. They used to cost 15 cent per message, now it is 20 cents. I very rarely text, maybe one or two per month. Anyone outraged by this?  |
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Post by cytoglycerine on Feb 12, 2011 8:16:39 GMT -5
That does seem like a rather steep cost to send a single text message...My carrier still charges 15 cents.
What really gets me is when they charge you to RECEIVE a text message, but give you no way to refuse the receipt of the message, so you are literally being charged for something you can't control. What's to stop someone who's angry with you from totally text message bombing you and driving your bill up sky high??
I used to be with Ma Bell when you only had to pay to send messages. When they brought in a pay to receive policy, I dumped them immediately.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2011 8:17:08 GMT -5
I would think that the price is determined by what is in your contract..
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 8:20:36 GMT -5
What really gets me is when they charge you to RECEIVE a text message, but give you no way to refuse the receipt of the message, so you are literally being charged for something you can't control. What's to stop someone who's angry with you from totally text message bombing you and driving your bill up sky high??
Yes, and also advertisers.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 8:21:15 GMT -5
Why are you outraged? Prices go up. Snerd, chill.... this is a spoof......  |
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Post by cytoglycerine on Feb 12, 2011 8:24:42 GMT -5
Why are you outraged? Prices go up. Snerd, chill.... this is a spoof...... Aww drag - And here I thought we were actually gonna sit here and rag on the evil phone companies!! *slightly disappointed*  |
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 8:25:53 GMT -5
Aww drag - And here I thought we were actually gonna sit here and rag on the evil phone companies!! *slightly disappointed*I can edit that message??? 
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 12, 2011 9:19:25 GMT -5
What's sad is that texting costs these companies nothing so it is pure profit.
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 9:27:52 GMT -5
What's sad is that texting costs these companies nothing so it is pure profit.
You are incorrect on that.
Anyway, texting is a service they are providing to the public. A service the public wants.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 12, 2011 9:38:32 GMT -5
Really? Cousin works for Verizon and was told that so I figured since she was an employee, she should know. I'll have to tell her she is wrong.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 12, 2011 10:22:18 GMT -5
What's sad is that texting costs these companies nothing so it is pure profit. If you say texting costs them nothing, then you could argue that voice calls cost them the exact same: nothing. Of course, that is not true. The network of towers is not exactly free, and is kind of needed to provide the service, right? Just one example of costs. It's similar to arguing that the car dealership should fix your car for free because it only takes the mechanic an hour, and the dealership pays that mechanic anyway, so it does not really cost them anything. Or does it cost something?  |
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Post by justwhoever on Feb 12, 2011 10:26:48 GMT -5
That's why I love the pre-paid. $45 for everything unlimited. Aww it's so sweet to not be bound by some contract.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 12, 2011 10:55:08 GMT -5
That's why I love the pre-paid. $45 for everything unlimited. Aww it's so sweet to not be bound by some contract. I am using prepaid as well since we are not big time cell users. I paid a total of $420 in December of 2008 and nothing since. The phones and minutes will last us until late 2012 with no additional charge. That is for three phones, two on the Verizon network, and I leave a AT&T phone in my truck at all times for optimum coverage ....  |
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whoisjohngalt
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Post by whoisjohngalt on Feb 12, 2011 11:03:44 GMT -5
I can't even be a part of this conversations, I've never texted in my life  Lena |
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Post by hawkeyes2001 on Feb 12, 2011 11:25:46 GMT -5
I have verizon and I thought texts were always 20 cents. It is more if someone texts a pic. something like 40 cents.
We don't text a lot so our text charges (between two phones) run us $1-3 per bill. Their least expensive texting package would cost us $10 more a bill.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Feb 12, 2011 11:30:52 GMT -5
The price per text with my company kept going up as texting got more popular. I've had texting packages for a long time now so no idea what is up to per text. When you signed the contract if you opted to just pay for what you used they'd say it was $0.15, $0.20/text whatever. And then about once a year you'd get a message on your bill that the rate was going up to $0.20, $0.25, etc.
I have a prepaid phone from at&t for the complex gate. Requires a local number and I had no interest in changing the number I've had for 7 years. Costs me $25/quarter to refill it. That was the cheapest option I found. I get spam texts on it and they cost me $0.25. You can block all texts with at&t but I figure as soon as I do that something will happen with battery dying on other phone or not having service, etc.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Feb 12, 2011 11:31:51 GMT -5
I'm not a huge fan of texting, but we opted for the texting pkg a while back. It's the best way to communicate with the grandkids. Mainly texting helps us stay within our minutes allowance. We have an older (cheap!) plan that gives us 300 minutes for 39.99. If we go over, it's .30 per minute.
Before we got the texting pkg (250 msgs/ $5) added, we'd sometimes go over the 300 and it got expensive fast!
It does annoy me that something that uses so little bandwidth costs as much as it does.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 12, 2011 12:01:58 GMT -5
We don't have texting on our plan, since neither of us text. I do receive a few texts though, but the price has always been 0.20 each as long as I've had this plan. So in all, it's cheaper for me to pay the $1.00 in texting for the 5 texts/mo my boss sends me, than to pay the $10 for the unlimited texting my plan charges.
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Elizabeth
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Post by Elizabeth on Feb 12, 2011 12:32:07 GMT -5
I have unlimited texting for $5.99/month and it includes 3 phone lines. Between all of us, thousands of texts are sent. It took me one bill of overages to make that switch.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 12, 2011 12:59:24 GMT -5
Are you guys sure you are being charged for incoming text messages if you just delete them instead of opening and reading the message? That does not make sense to me.
On my prepaid phones (Verizon and ATT as carriers), text messages will deduct 0.3 units. As I paid just under 6 cents per unit, that makes a text message cost just under $0.02 (< 2 cents). I get junk messages sometimes, but if I just delete it without opening it, no units are deducted. That, btw, is another nice thing of prepaid: you can see the cost and what is happening right there, right then on your phone ....
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 13:36:24 GMT -5
Really? Cousin works for Verizon and was told that so I figured since she was an employee, she should know. I'll have to tell her she is wrong.
I seriously doubt your cousin has any clue of Verizon's cost structure, and how fixed and variable costs are allocated to revenue streams.
Perhaps you can tell us what this cousin does for Verizon?
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Post by Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ on Feb 12, 2011 13:37:18 GMT -5
It does annoy me that something that uses so little bandwidth costs as much as it does.
It is more than band width involved.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 12, 2011 14:39:43 GMT -5
It does annoy me that something that uses so little bandwidth costs as much as it does.It is more than band width involved. That's true. Still, with my tracfone, a text message costs less than 2 cents. I have one on the Verizon network, and one on the AT&T network. The cost is the same on both, 0.3 units, and a unit cost me under 6 cents. That IS quite a bit of a difference compared to 20 cents for the exact same service: a text message. And I am sure tracfone takes their little share out, too, considering that Carlos is the richest man in the world! ;D I mean: nobody seems to be going broke even at those rates. |
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 12, 2011 15:22:35 GMT -5
Sales
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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2011 7:33:07 GMT -5
DH disables text mesages for our phones - mostly because he sees them as useless and a waste of money. I asked him how I was supposed to send him a quick message without texting, and his solution is to send a direct-to-voicemail message.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Feb 13, 2011 11:23:25 GMT -5
DH disables text mesages for our phones - mostly because he sees them as useless and a waste of money. I asked him how I was supposed to send him a quick message without texting, and his solution is to send a direct-to-voicemail message. That works if you have plenty of air minutes. Our plan uses minutes to retrieve VM messages, so, for us, texting saves us airtime. |
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Feb 13, 2011 11:25:33 GMT -5
DH disables text mesages for our phones - mostly because he sees them as useless and a waste of money. I asked him how I was supposed to send him a quick message without texting, and his solution is to send a direct-to-voicemail message. That works if you have plenty of air minutes. Our plan uses minutes to retrieve VM messages, so, for us, texting saves us airtime. You can always retrieve VM's for free from a lindline, right? Of course that doesn't work when you are not at home and the message is important, but in many cases .... |
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Feb 13, 2011 12:38:28 GMT -5
It does cost you to recieve texts even if you delete them without reading them.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on Feb 13, 2011 12:40:30 GMT -5
does anyone use the Google Voice app for texting? I'm curious as to how it works and whether it could substitute for Verizon's texting plan.........
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Feb 13, 2011 12:49:59 GMT -5
does anyone use the Google Voice app for texting? I'm curious as to how it works and whether it could substitute for Verizon's texting plan......... We use AIM to text people on their cell phones, from our computer. It is free for us then and their replies come up on my AIM like an IM. The people prefer to be texted so I figure they are fine with the cost. It was so simple to set up even a 45 year old could do it. |
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