Post #396,892
12/5/14 2:54:48 PM
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Why do they make it so hard to give them my money?
I've got an AT&T plan. The two years is up, so I could switch without paying anything. It's got unlimited voice because I use it for work.
I've got a wife and daughter who already have Virgin Mobile plans, each with only 300 minutes of voice but unlimited text and data, because that's what they use. I'd like to switch them onto a family plan, as well as add a fourth line for the next kid with a new device.
Seems pretty easy, but their site is a freaking nightmare. The way the plans are described I can't tell what I would pay. I tried their live chat and the ESL dropout who was "helping" me couldn't do any better than cutting and pasting from the site I was already reading.
They break each plan up into so many different fees and charges that I can't tell what applies to the first line or to all the lines, what are one-time and what are monthly.
I really want to give them my money, but they can't tell me what I will get for it. Fuck 'em, I'll put the third kid on Virgin Mobile and be done with it.
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Post #396,893
12/5/14 4:04:06 PM
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AT&T is pretty bad
Their site has always been a nightmare. Slow as fook as well.
Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #396,896
12/5/14 5:41:59 PM
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Verizon's site is not any better.
I had a heck of a time trying to set up "auto pay" on my wife's account.
They may want to drive you to a store. Or, more likely, simply incompetent.
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #396,898
12/5/14 5:54:12 PM
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I would believe "push you to a store"
They advertise "web only" prices, those are the prices in their ads. But just try to sign up for one.
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Post #396,907
12/6/14 6:25:12 AM
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I think it's an American thing
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Post #396,909
12/6/14 9:28:00 AM
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So, who is advantaged by the website obfuscation?
The salesperson at the store you wind up using! And of course, the phone company.
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #396,911
12/6/14 10:34:05 AM
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Yup.
The big American telecos don't want you to know how much your plan will cost. They want to draw you in with a 5 second description - "20 GB for your whole family for $160/mo! What a bargain!!11" then have you sign the 2 year contract and, when it's too late, you find out all the extra fees and taxes. While it would cost them less to have people use the web site, they can't sell the $50 cases and $25 screen protectors and $100 earbuds and $100 "starter kits" as effectively as a guy or gal working on commission at a store... I was amazed when I signed up for my plan at T-Mobile. I did it over the web. I got the $30 month-to-month plan (at the time it was 2 GB of data, 300 minutes, unlimited text - I think the data is "unlimited" now). It was hard to find on their web site, but once I found it, it was painless. The actual amount I pay every month is ... $30.50. When I was on Sprint, the headline number was before all the various taxes and fees that added another $25 or so a month... The CFPB really should crack down on the big cell phone companies. It's deceptive marketing, pure and simple. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #396,921
12/7/14 4:15:57 AM
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Freedom, I guess.
Over here, pulling that sort of shit (headline figure that's not actually doable) would get you into all sorts of interesting and expensive legal trouble.
One thing the Great American Experiment is teaching us is the not-new-to-us-over-here lesson that large companies will do absolutely anything they can, right up to the very outer limits of the law, to get your money. You cannot rely on them to Do The Right Thing, and so if you want them to do something (say, honestly advertise what it costs to get a mobile phone and a plan from them), you've got to legislate those motherfuckers right in the face.
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Post #396,929
12/7/14 6:08:50 PM
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And Americans don't like that sort of legislation.
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Post #396,932
12/7/14 9:04:12 PM
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Indeed: most seem to have caved to the proposition, re 'GMOs' and similar:
That Corps should have a perfect Right to conceal from (very many who have evidenced their disagreement): simply, whether? or Not? some alleged food-like substance "contains GMO material".
Really: (as in Oregon, where the vote was too close to decide sans recount ... I think DowSanto won, last I heard) these people, obviously influenced by BigAg $multi-M slick disinformation: voted to be Un-Informed of W.T.F. they would next be eating. By the tonne: world's larges medical beta?
Can anyone not-Murican imagine such a tribe? (OK Jonathan Swift did, and now that brutish-creature is a huge Corporate icon. Clearly Muricans suffer from low self-esteem.. beneath all the bragging.)
Square One ... if only one could go back there.
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