1001 Questions about Taking cell phone to U.S.

[Devils'Advocate]

I currently have an iPhone with the 6GB data plan. I plan on taking the phone to Phoenix/Vegas with me. Now I just went over to the Rogers store and the only somewhat helpful attendant put the $10 data roaming plan onto my existing data plan. So as I understand it, I can use my whole 6GB while I'm traveling around the south western states. So I can move up the rankings of "Own This World" for only $10? Sounds good to me. Almost too good to be true.

Now the other concern I have is voice. I'll want to make some calls back to Ottawa and to Nova Scotia, plus I know that I'm gonna be getting calls from both places. Now from the way the attendant explained it, I can pay $40 and get 70 roaming minutes. Now I don't get "roaming minutes"... is that just time that I spend on the phone, both for incoming and outgoing calls? So if I left my phone on for the whole week and made no calls out and received no calls there would be no roaming charges?

From what the attendant was telling me was that roaming only allows you to use those 70 minutes for local calls so she recommended that I buy the 70 roaming minutes and then buy a calling card for calling back to Canada. Which doesn't seem to make any sense since most calling cards require calling a 800 number which are restricted from the roaming minutes. So I'm totally lost here.

Also, text messages are $1 per message, incoming or outgoing. Since I can't control who is texting me I could pile up a massive charge on these things. Is there a way to block text messages while I'm in the U.S.?

[Azure]

$1 per text message?

Someone is ripping you off. Even WITH roaming, I can text in the US/Canada for no additional cost provided I have a unlimited plan with Telus.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

I currently have an iPhone with the 6GB data plan. I plan on taking the phone to Phoenix/Vegas with me. Now I just went over to the Rogers store and the only somewhat helpful attendant put the $10 data roaming plan onto my existing data plan. So as I understand it, I can use my whole 6GB while I'm traveling around the south western states. So I can move up the rankings of "Own This World" for only $10? Sounds good to me. Almost too good to be true.

Now the other concern I have is voice. I'll want to make some calls back to Ottawa and to Nova Scotia, plus I know that I'm gonna be getting calls from both places. Now from the way the attendant explained it, I can pay $40 and get 70 roaming minutes. Now I don't get "roaming minutes"... is that just time that I spend on the phone, both for incoming and outgoing calls? So if I left my phone on for the whole week and made no calls out and received no calls there would be no roaming charges?

From what the attendant was telling me was that roaming only allows you to use those 70 minutes for local calls so she recommended that I buy the 70 roaming minutes and then buy a calling card for calling back to Canada. Which doesn't seem to make any sense since most calling cards require calling a 800 number which are restricted from the roaming minutes. So I'm totally lost here.

Also, text messages are $1 per message, incoming or outgoing. Since I can't control who is texting me I could pile up a massive charge on these things. Is there a way to block text messages while I'm in the U.S.?

I'm in Arizona right now and picked up a roaming data plan as well. It cost $50 though. I hope I wasn't ripped off.

You're going to have pry these Own This World territories from my cold dead hands.

[Temporary_User]

Whenever I travel I turn my phone on to airplane mode. Then it is pretty much an itouch. Try and find some wifi if you need data.

Have you thought about a pay as you go phone option while down there?


Also I hate Rogers, I went to them before Telus had the iphone, I used to be with Telus. Rogers is a total ripoff for texts. $0.25 to send a text to the USA if you're in Canada and as already mentioned pretty much $1 to send/receive while down there.
Telus is unlimited for free.
I hate how I have to really decide if it's worth it to send a text to all my friends down in the states. Complete garbage. switching back to Telus as soon as I can.

[Devils'Advocate]

Well, airplane mode would mean that KTrain's territories would be safe.

I'm completely pissed off right now. The girl I was talking to at the Rogers Store was touting the Rogers "One Rate Plan" where you can use your existing data bucket (6G for me) in the United States for only $10. So I said sure thing. Which as I said in my original post seemed too good to be true.

What she REALLY put on my account was the "Data Roaming Add-on" which is actually $1 per MB. So if I used my 6GB while in the US, I would have come back to a $6,000 bill.

The "One Rate" is not available on the 6GB plan and I can't afford $1/MB, so I think I may end up going with the airplane mode.

KTrain: There is a $50 data travel pack which gives you 25MB. How quickly would I run through 25MB using just your game? An hour? 8 hours? 25MB seems incredibly tiny compared to the 6GB I have here in Canada.

[transplant99]

I would of just waited til you got to the US and bought a pre paid phone...if you dont need web access you can get them for 10 bucks now, put in a 20 dollar card and you would be good for at least a week or 2 as far as texts, voice and calls. Just call the numbers you needed to stay in touch with (so they ahve the #)while gone when you activate it and away you go.

[Azure]

I'm pretty sure Telus doesn't have ridiculous plans like that.

Although I'm not sure. I know the texting is unlimited if you have an unlimited plan. US or Canada.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Azure

$1 per text message?

Someone is ripping you off. Even WITH roaming, I can text in the US/Canada for no additional cost provided I have a unlimited plan with Telus.

Texting has nothing to do with data plans.

Turn off data when roaming, and you can still send SMS.

And as long as you have an extra texting plan of some sort with Telus, you can text for free while in Canada, US, Mexico..at least on the CDMA network side anyways.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by browna

Texting has nothing to do with data plans.

Turn off data when roaming, and you can still send SMS.

And as long as you have an extra texting plan of some sort with Telus, you can text for free while in Canada, US, Mexico..at least on the CDMA network side anyways.

I was talking to my Telus representative a while back and she said it was possible to get data plans for the US. Or pay $20 or something and your data works down there at no additional cost.

All in all, with texting, data, voice, Telus has a lot better options than Rogers does.

[Yeah_Baby]

When I put my iPhone into airplane mode it becomes an iPod touch. What is an iTouch?

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Azure

I was talking to my Telus representative a while back and she said it was possible to get data plans for the US. Or pay $20 or something and your data works down there at no additional cost.

Well, just like my Rogers attendant in my original post, your rep was lying.

They have the "US Data Pass" which is exactly what Rogers put on my account. The $1/MB deal. Which isn't a deal at all.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

When I put my iPhone into airplane mode it becomes an iPod touch. What is an iTouch?

[bossy22]

Originally Posted by Azure

I'm pretty sure Telus doesn't have ridiculous plans like that.

Although I'm not sure. I know the texting is unlimited if you have an unlimited plan. US or Canada.

Not true with the iphone anymore. I have an iphone with Telus, and an unlimited plan. Before March, it was free, but now I pay 60 cents per message, incoming and outgoing. Telus just recently changed their roaming policy on the hspa phones. It's still free with the cdma phones because Telus has an agreement with Verizon. Since Verizon doesn't have hspa, it's 60 cents per message.
This was huge when I got my iphone, and the reason I went to Telus. I have a place in whitefish and spend alot of time down there. Now, since I have wifi in my cabin, I use meebo for msn and I use textplus to send sms. I can't control what people send me, but I always respond using textplus, so that takes the conversation over to data. Problem with that is, I have data roaming turned off, so it only works in my house.

[Azure]

Thats interesting.

I got my Droid a couple weeks ago and they told me it was still free US/Canada with the unlimited plan.

[Devils'Advocate]

Okay, I think I have things sorted out.

#1) Despite *THREE* Rogers reps all telling me that I was now on the One Rate plan and could use my 6GBs in the United States, I called their customer support and they tell me that, no, that is not the case. I have the "US data roaming option" which is $1/MB. I'm incredibly pissed off. I could have gone to the US, used my 6GB and come back to a $6,000 data roaming bill despite *THREE* reps all telling me it would cost nothing but the $10 for the One Rate package. Everyone says that Bell customer service is worse than Rogers... I can't see how that is possible. If I got a bill for $6,000 I would lose my house... I don't know where I would come up with $6,000 on the spot. I'm going to the manager of both places that I went to and put up a stink. I was smart enough to QUADRUPLE check... how many others do they hoodwink with this scam? Tell people that their data is going to be free and then they come back to thousands of dollars worth of charges? And it would be my word against theirs... Am I allowed to record conversations with their people? That's probably illegal, which is key to their scam. God I hate Rogers to no end.

#2) With the $40 voice travel pack, I get 70 minutes of talk time anywhere in North America. Or at least that is what four of the representatives told me. I don't know if I should call for a fifth opinion.

[photon]

If you get that kind of advice from a phone rep, I always get their name as well. "Bill Smith told me such and such" sounds like a lot better defense than "Some guy on the phone said".

Plus half the time if you ask their name they'll all of a sudden put you on hold to double check what they are saying lol.

I purchased travel pack for 70 minutes of airtime when I went to the US in January, worked perfectly.

Still had to wardrive a neighbourhood a few times to use my GPS tho

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by photon

... always get their name as well.

I have exactly that.

Suad and Sam at Rogers Wireless Express.
Colton from Rogers Plus (Store 5455).

Still would have been my word against theirs.

Thanks for the info on the minutes. I'll take your word over anyone from Rogers at the moment. Though I'd likely take Iraqi Information Minister's word over that of anyone that works for Rogers.

[Azure]

So call their customers support number and report them for lying.

[Devils'Advocate]

Somehow I don't think their customer support line will care. Perhaps if I write a letter to customer relations, and it catches the eye of a manager, then they will see that these people are promoted immediately.

[Azure]

Or that.

Seems like they were intentionally lying, or are extremely stupid.