All I want in life sometimes is for AT&T to say, “Sarah, you have accumulated so many unused minutes and texts that your next bill is free, since we realize ‘rollover’ means nothing to you. Have a nice day.”
Next best thing: Restructuring of the entire wireless industry so YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE.
Els
on 10 Nov 08Isn’t that what pre-paid / pay-as-you-go is for?
SH
on 10 Nov 08I don’t think iPhones are offered the pay as you go option, and I also believe that the fees included in those plans ends up being way more than the $80 I pay each month.
Neil Kelty
on 10 Nov 08Sarah:
Be careful what you wish for, I could say the same thing about your products.
Say for example, that I only used 2 projects of my 3 project allotment for 3 months – does that mean that my next month is free?
And with Basecamp, there are “plans,” we don’t pay for what we use.
Stephen Glauser
on 10 Nov 08Less than two hours talk time in a month? Yipes. I think I talk that much on my cell a day :(
Els
on 10 Nov 08okay, didn’t know you were referring to an iPhone.
As for the price difference, I don’t know what it’s like in the US, but here (Europe), pre-paid basically means you pay for the phone separately, while monthly paid plans mean that the price of the phone is included in your monthly fee. Which is probably part of the reason they won’t give you any free months when you don’t use up your minutes. (and yes, here I can get an iPhone for only 1 Euro, if I take a 2-year contract for 45 Euros per month)
Matt
on 10 Nov 08I would say pay as you go is perfect for you put im guessing you an iFan with an iTurd and have to play by apples iRules and pay way too much for way to little.
Richard Crolwey
on 10 Nov 08Pay-for-what-you-use is how AOL worked 10 years ago. Since then, Internet connections have progressed, networks have matured and “unlimited” offerings are the standard. (I realize some ISPs really do need the quotes around “unlimited” but in spirit, there is one service level and that’s “unlimited.”) Mobile phone providers are increasingly becoming Internet providers that do voice, too, making the case for unlimited plans a perfect parallel to wired Internet connections.
Grant
on 10 Nov 08“Next best thing: Restructuring of the entire wireless industry so YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE.”
Even better would be a model similar to ISPs – pay for access to the pipe, use what you want. Won’t happen soon though. Cell phone providers are having a hell of a lot of fun charging people $0.15 to send a few bytes of data. Imagine if we paid for an album on iTunes at that rate…
John
on 10 Nov 08My minute usage is pretty similar to yours. (And it’s a family plan too).
I could always pull a Jim and Pam and make a few 8-hour calls, but having all those extra minutes is somewhat reassuring. I don’t know why.
GeeIWonder
on 10 Nov 08I don’t think iPhones are offered the pay as you go option, and I also believe that the fees included in those plans ends up being way more than the $80 I pay each month.
But that’s what you were asking for, and you’re the one who chose the iPhone, right?
The wireless industry has a bunch of PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE options. There is a choice between subscription and non-subscription type plans, and just as with everything else, you pay less per minute when you buy in bulk—even if you don’t use them all.
If you don’t like the implications of your choices, change your choices.
David Andersen
on 10 Nov 08I think what Sarah is saying is that she’d like large quantity price at the low quantity usage level.
Oh those pesky trade offs.
Glen Barnes
on 10 Nov 08@Neil Kelty: My thoughts exactly. The reason we have plans is so that we don’t have to think about the cost every time we pick up the phone. Imagine being charged for every TODO item in Basecamp and every contact in Highrise – It just wouldn’t work. Just be thankful that in the US you actually have sane data and calling plans for a reasonable price.
Mike Rundle
on 11 Nov 08Totally agree here. I have an iPhone and rarely use it as an actual phone, so I have nearly 5,000 rollover minutes that will never get used.
Another idea that I’d be down for: donating my rollover minutes to someone who went over. There should be a worldwide rollover minute lending site that lets you tell the world your sob story (“my teenager daughter’s boyfriend in Australia is killing my wallet!”) and then either you can directly give them your minutes, or they can purchase it at 1/10th the rate AT&T/Cingular would’ve charged them.
emiliano
on 11 Nov 08All I want is to have that kind of information with my provider.
Sam
on 11 Nov 08@Mike Rundle:
What a great idea. Donating unused rollover minutes to others is just phenomenal.
@Everyone else: I don’t think Sarah put it across just right here, but I think we all feel the pain she’s talking about.
When you go OVER your minutes, you give them LOTS of money, but when you go UNDER your minutes… where’s the credit? Feels unfair, everyone hates it, and “rollover minutes” is not the solution.
Chris Vincent
on 11 Nov 08What incentive to the wireless companies have to restructure their prices? Customers accept it right now because there is no alternative, and they would probably make considerably less money to switch to a fair system.
It’s basically the same as gouging prices, except it’s done in a sneaky way that flies beneath the radar of the spirit of the applicable laws.
The only way to break it is for one of the prominent mobile companies to start providing a fair plan, but they would be taking on a lot of risk to do so. Perhaps they would gain many more customers in the short term, but in that scenario the other companies would have to follow and thus the customer base would probably even out again and the entire industry would be left making less money and would be gunning for that one rogue company that ruined the party for everyone.
And here we see another example of how greed makes the world go round (or stop spinning altogether).
Chad G
on 11 Nov 08I hate to be the one to say it, but isn’t this how companies can afford to make things cheaper for everyone? Let’s ignore text messaging at 15 cents a piece. I get 10mb download speeds with my DSL. If I ordered a T1 line, it would cost 10 times as much, and would be a tenth of the speed. DSL is cheap because I am paying shared access to a big pool of resources.
Free roaming between US cell towers is possible for the same reason. Everyone’s paying $40 or more a month, but some people don’t use very many minutes. That’s how they can afford to pay the roaming tower provider 60 cents or more per minute and still come out at a profit charging the equivalent of 10 cents a minute.
For now, I like it. If I had to pay per gigabyte on my Internet connection, I’d have to say goodbye to Hulu, Bittorrent and VoIP.
Anonymous Coward
on 11 Nov 08I have the same problem as Sarah. I never wanted the iPhone for the phone part. I considered the iPod Touch but finding a reliable Wifi connection is not always an option. I’ll willing to paid for the flexibility. Staring at all those unuse minutes just leaves customers with a sense of regret.
nowayjose
on 11 Nov 08“PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE” – no thanks, I’d prefer my cell phone company bill me just like the internet, land line, and cable TV companies do. flat rate – use all you want.
Ken Mayer
on 11 Nov 08The US lives in a regulatory backwater. When I travelled in Asia (Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan) I bought a cheap pay-as-you-go phone as I soon as I cleared customs. I could use the “minutes” for calls (relatively expensive) or texting (relatively cheap—used it all the time). I could transfer minutes to my wife’s phone (for a 1% transfer fee) when her phone was low. I could pay for stuff by sending the minutes to a shop keeper (I was low on cash and need it for cab fare). I could buy in bulk and get a cheaper rate. If I was rich enough, I could have my account auto-charge my credit card. It scaled up and down the economic ladder. No monthly billing reports the size of Architectural Digest. No obscure rate plans or contracts. The tariffs fit on the back of a credit card. A lost cell phone cost me US$20, plus a new sim-card. It was joy.
GeeIWonder
on 11 Nov 08@Sam:
If their was some ability to redeem the unused minutes, then the subscription fees would be much, much higher.
Just like 37signals, just like National Geographic, just like the dairy, the cellphones have to plan/pay for the capacity to carry the needed volume.
Chris has got the right idea.
GeeIWonder
on 11 Nov 08Sorry, Chad has got the right idea. And yes I know, there, not their.
SH
on 11 Nov 08Even better would be a model similar to ISPs – pay for access to the pipe, use what you want. Won’t happen soon though.
That is brilliant.
Another idea that I’d be down for: donating my rollover minutes to someone who went over.
That is brilliant-er.
J
on 11 Nov 08Even better would be a model similar to ISPs – pay for access to the pipe, use what you want. Won’t happen soon though.
Sarah: I don’t think you’d think that was brilliant when you got the bill. You’re probably a very heavy internet user being online working at an online company. Download a couple movies per month on iTunes, a few albums, and the daily accumulation of lots of web traffic and your bill might be sky high. Think about your heating bill in the winter – probably sky high cause you are using more gas, except that with the net you are probably always using it.
Tim Jahn
on 11 Nov 08I agree with you to an extent. My bill is similar to yours with tons of unused rollover minutes. At a time when I used my phone as my business phone on a more regular basis, these rollover minutes were way more welcome as they came in use more.
They definitely shouldn’t have the rollover minutes expire though.
mart
on 11 Nov 08Nice interface for the billing though – try making sense of the O2 bill in the uk :(
At least you can see right off what you have allocated /used/rolled over. No obscification which telco’s seem to be unbelievably good at.
But back on topic ;)
I still say it follows the same principle that so many businesses use: gyms, 37 sig’s, golf clubs whatever. You pay a fee that fits your anticipated usage then if you don’t use it – then adjust it. But the fact that most people under-use and don’t readjust means that the rest get it cheaper (i’m not naive enough to think that there’s not also some tidy profit for the supplier as well but the point still stands).
If every gym gave a rebate for the ‘once a monther’s’ – the average user would never be able to afford it.
Anonymous Coward
on 11 Nov 08Yeah, I think I’ve sat next to you on the train before. Shut up already.
;)
Jake
on 12 Nov 08In Asia it’s a pay what you use system. And only the person who calls pays.
So if I use my cell to call your cell, then I pay, not you.
mzzw
on 14 Nov 08try prepaid; you’ll pay $100 per year or less.
Tripp
on 14 Nov 08I say you go on a serious call binge this weekend and burn them all up a la Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions.
Don Wilson
on 14 Nov 08I absolutely agree with you, Sarah. I have accumulated over 4,000 “rollover minutes”. I’m certainly not using my iPhone up to the $90/mo that I pay for it… shouldn’t I be able to just pay for what I use?
This discussion is closed.