So I have spent the last hour on the phone with my mobile company, Verizon Wireless. 
I had called them last month to find out why I am getting billed for my text messages (SMS). They have these plans that you can buy if you send an over abundance of SMS messages.
So I thought that was a good idea for me because Neeraj and I have been doing that a lot lately so I would save money. So then in June when I called, the customer service guy was really helpful and took the extra charge of text messages off for that bill and then got me enrolled in some international text messaging plan. So I was psyched, I had 500 text messages for only 5 bucks!! Totally enough for me! 
Now I got this month’s bill. I was charged 40 bucks for only text messaging!!! What?!? 
I went over on text messaging??? Not possible. Well, I was right, it was not possible. I was billed for EVERY freakin’ message! I was not a happy camper. 
So I called their customer service. So the lady I talked to didn’t know what the heck she was talking about. First, she gave up and just told me that I will give you the credit. Then she noticed that it was international text messages that I had sent and told me that they don’t have international text messaging plans. So then I explained my story and she re-checked with technical support and told me that no, they have no plans.
So I was mad. 
Then she told me that each text message sent and received would cost me 25 cents! The norm for domestic is 2 cents for received messages and 10 cents for sent messages. Well again I was not happy and explained to her that I just made international text messages. She said that she couldn’t anything other than take the 40 bucks off my current bill and then the 5 buck SMS plan. 
I got off the phone and went online to my account on their website. I checked and saw that I was only being charged 2 cents for receiving international messages. I called them AGAIN. Talked to ANOTHER lady and she was even MORE clueless. She put me on hold for 10 mins as she found out about this stuff. She told me that they had no plans for international text messaging and that it DOES cost 2 cents for receiving and 25 cents to send international.
I said, “You are telling me a global, million-dollar company like Verizon doesn’t have international text messaging plans???? 
What are they thinking?” She said, that yes it is true and they might get it in the future. There is just no demand for it right now. Ughhhhhh…..:no:
So I got nowhere. Now, what the heck am I going to do??? I can’t be charged 40 bucks every month for this. So when I talk to Neeraj tonight we will have to come with some plan. I don’t mind him sending me a message but its going to be costly for me to send. HOPEFULLY I will be able to send through email and he will get it on his mobile. We will try that tonight. 
I am not happy. Am I living in America or some gaon??? :irked::evil:
Alvida. Time for “Astitva: Ek Prem Kahani”, my favourite serial! Something good better happen in the show!
Jai Mata Di.
ha bhagwan…aap bhi serials dekhte ho
:banghead::banghead:…those soap operas are such emotional drags hehe..i keep annoying meri ma to stop watching them heheh…but hey! that sucks…about the sms…im sure u can somethingl ike 10 bucks on line and get lots of sms’s free…
haan of course..main dekhti hoon..par basically Astitva and Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. Par I like these two…they seem more “realistic” than any of the others. Tumhari mummyjee kaunse dekhti hai?
I am trying with the SMS. Hopefully kuch mil jaayega
ARRRGHHHH
& I thought only Oz sucked when it came to mobile phones. Thankfully we are not charged anything for receiving msgs. I thought no one charges to receive, but this is the first time i’ve heard that Verizon charges.
Outgoing SMS here too is 25 cents, be it domestic or international, and there is no SMS plan here too. I’m charged nearly $1 to make a local call here for a minute, and charged about $1.30 to make an international call to bombay.
Instead of making local calls from my cell phone, i’d be better off if i made international calls to the US coz they costs only $0.17/ min.
India, here i come !!! Orange rocks my world. 50p per min to cellular, and Rs1.20 to land lines. How cool is that?
Soap Opera changes to Simple Object Access protocol. yeh technology kabhi nahi chodegi humme na.
Poonam, you might consider changing the ACROYNM color, coz it blends with your comment bg.
Bahut sahi kaha tumne Monty!! I will change the color right now. Thanks man
And I am going to get rid of this SOAP…behkaar..:wink: Neither of us will ever use the word referred to the technical term!
Don’t you have phone cards in Australia? Like if I call from landline to India its 30 cents to a landline and around 40 cents for india cell phone. But if I use a phone card (like from phonecardonly.com – one of my links
) then its much cheaper…around 6 cents per min for india landline and 11 cents to india cellular. Its just the quality is a bit difference…and you have to keep on buying phonecards!
Haan SMSing sux in US!! ughhhh.. Neeraj right now has Airtel, is Orange better than that??? Lemme know. We have many problems with signal..shayad kyon ke woh Goregaon main hai..maloom nahi. But which is the best in Mumbai? Orange? Are there differences in rate as well and what about voicemail? Is that free everywhere? I always have soooo many questions
Orange & BPL are the oldest and the most popular in bombay. Airtel is compartively new, and i personally dont like it.
Yes all operators charge the same, salla koi competion nahi hai ;)
What about Voice mail? Its not free for sure, btu then nothing is expensive also in India.
There are calling cards in Oz, but been a while since i used them, too lazy to go and buy them, cell phone zindabad but then i havent spoken to saloni for long hours too. Earlier when i used to buy calling cards, we used to talk thoda long, but basically i hate talking for long hours on the phone
Just noticed your comment again, voicemail free everywhere,do you mean in each country? It differs from company to company & frm country too. Dont remember the rates in india lekin here it is 5cents per message left on voicemail and 16.5 cents/30 secs to retrieve it so comes out to be quite expensive at the end.
Keep the questions coming :D
$1 for an outgoing call. that is about 46 rs. for a min..!!!:shock: And, I thought that talktime is expensive in India.. hehe
Don’t know about Mumbai, but Hutch in Delhi(aka Orange in Mumbai) charges about Rs. 49 a month, for unlimited SMS..
Yeh to kuch bhi nahin hai.. When I was in Bangalore, SMS was free… bole to ek dum free.. I used to send about 100 SMS a day.. hehe… vitually used my mobile as a chat client… hehe:rotfl:
Voice mail costs about 3 rs/min to retrieve a message. No charges for leaving a message though.
[Monty] Mere ko laga ke shayad competition nahi hoga.
You have to pay to check your voicemail?? There has to be some irony in that. Checking your voicemail in US only deducts your minutes. So if you use 2 mins to check your mail, that’s all that gets deducted from your monthly minutes balance.
Tusi jyaada dher baat nahi hondi phone pe? Ki ho jaata hai?
[Manpreet] Abhi abhi main Neeraj ko kah rahi thi ke SMS should be free!!!! Why are they charging us for this? Aur aaise kaise Bangalore main kaise free and not free anywhere else??
Hmm…the unlimited SMS thing is interesting point. I am going to find out if that is true in Mumbai. Shayad apun ka problem solve hoga us main. Right now the solution for us is: LESS SMSing.
I can SMS him through email by using his number@irisme.net (every cell phone has an email id of some sort). So that solves most of our problems.
I still don’t understand the whole voicemail charging thing. Kuch sahi nahi hai.
Only Hutch offered free SMS was free Bangalore. Actually, it started it operations recently.. so to woo the youngsters/IT professionals etc, they offered free SMS service… And, this promotional offer DID work… But, after some time the SMS traffic increased so much on the Hutch Network, that they had to start charging 30 paise for national SMS.. but local SMS is still free ;)
That’s pretty good yaar….aur phir 30 paise bhi kharaab nahi hai, hain naa?
Poonam, i dont like talking on the phone for long hours yaar. i get bored :) hehe!!
And your question ke why bangalore mein free SMS, every provider has different airtimes rates and schemes in diff cities.
In bombay, orange charges Rs49/- each month and you are charged 30p for SMS i think, otherwise the rate is Re1/- per SMS(local) and rs2/- for national, and Rs5 for international.
have a look at the orange website
Today, Idea Cellular (Pune) slashed down it rates for SMS… just 30 paise for National SMS, and 10 paise for local SMS… Now, waiting for AirTel to do the same
Sahi bata?? Ki gall ki tusi ne!!! Wah wah…main Neeraj ko kahongi ke woh pata kare!!
:hyper: Thanks man for the info! 
Monty Bhai – sorry yaar maine Manpreet ka message par pehle respond kiya!
I checked out Orange’s site and really liked their plans. I told Neeraj about it so we will see. I have been telling him for quite some time to switch out of Airtel.
Kya India main bhi ab yeh funda aa gaya hai ke if you switch from one company to another, you get to keep your phone number? Yeh funda abhi recently USA main shuru hua hai and I think its a good one!
Nopes. Aisa koi funda abhi India mein nahin hai. But, it will be great if they introduce this thing here as well.
Hmm…lagta hai apun ko hi mobile company kholni padegi aur yeh funda ko shuru karna padega… kya lagta hai?
:wink::lol: 
Great idea
Poonam, you take care of the investment part, and I will take care of the profits thingy
Aacha Manpreet jee???? Apun ko kya khacha khiladi samaj ke rakha hai? Punjaab ki kudi hoon…bolle toh bahut tej
Haan..toh let’s do this. 3/4s investment you do, 1/4 investment I will do, 3/4′s profits mera and 1/4 profit tumhara..bolle toh manzoor?
:wink:
Abhi company start bhi nahin ki, aur ladai ho gayi.. hehe
hehehe.. no ladaayi. Apun ko aapse punga nahi chaiye
I can help you out if your interested. I work for T-Mobile and we have international data plans. Send me an e-mail if you want more info
Thanks Brian for leaving a comment, but unfortunately T-Mobile is not available in my city, Morton.
My friends with T-Mobile don’t get reception @ my house. Put up a tower, and we have a deal. 
Verizon has a reliable network but horrible features.
hey poonam.
if neeraj has Orange sim card (if he has shifted fr airtel) then u can send a txt on his cell via email…
eg: 9820096250@orangemail.co.in
if u were to send a mail to this num i would get it as a txt on my cell… ofcourse u dont write pages but a small decent msg n viola i get it… + u can send as many as u want n it wont cost ne of u nething since recieving is free here… ah one more thing always send txt mails n not html…
is neeraj aware of this ? it used to work with bpl also but not ne more…
well goood enuf reason for neeraj to change ? :P
Thanks for the suggestion Kunal, but Neeraj is content on staying with Airtel. He really likes their service.