More Coporate bashing

[Edward Crosby]

Here is a really great article on mobile phone providers.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/30/david-pogue-launches-all-out-war-on-canned-voicemail-messages

I can tell you as soon as I read this I emailed Mark Siegel at AT&T.

--
Have a Better One,
Edward Crosby
http://www.edwardcrosby.com
-----
"There are no atheists in foxholes or firmware updates."
Merlin Mann

[Todd Elliott]

I heard about this on the radio or a magazine. Tilting at Windmills though.  That's just the smallest of the way phone companies rape us every day.

---------------------------------------------
Todd Elliott
thel...@gmail.com
http://www.theuniquegeek.com/

[Edward Crosby]

Corrected the subject line spelling.

Really. Complain to your mobile provider. These guys are thieves for what
they charge us for service.
I've been complaining about the voicemail greeting for AT&T for ages. My
girlfriend doesn't even leave a greeting on her AT&T voicemail and it
still takes forever to leave her a voicemail with the AT&T garbage
greeting.

[Cary Preston]

Text messaging costs the carriers practically nothing to provide. Infuriating.

[Ronald Methvin]

Definitely give feedback to companies, but remember, it's REALLY hard for companies to take real advantage of you.  Unless (1) the company is a monopoly when it comes to the product (which are very, very rare - Apple may be a monopoly on the iPhone, it ain't on cellphones) and (2) the item is a necessecity (and a cellphone ain't a necessecity), they CAN'T overcharge you - because you don't have to buy it.

Seth Myers, of SNL, has a routine about how jaded people can be.  To paraphase, "Last week, I was on a plane, and the say over the intercom that the flight now offers free wifi.  The guy beside me and I agree that is pretty neat.  A half hour into the flight, they announce they are havging problems with the wifi.  The guy next to me says, "Man, that's BULLS#!T".  Dude, so you don't have access to something that you didn't even knew existed 30 minutes - and you're mad about it?!?" 

 

I can now, for less than $50 a month, talk to anyone anywhere in the U.S. for as long as I want, when I am pracically anywhere in the U.S.  20 years ago, I couldn't get that kind of a deal on a landline, much less a cell phone.  That's awesome!  Sure, the cell companies make a mint on texting, but 20 years ago . . .oh, wait that didn't exist back then.

 

Sure, society is in a downward spiral, and the government is slowing taking away our freedoms . . . but as far as businesses go, they are awesome.  Think  AT&T or Exxon make 'too much' money?  Don't use them, and/or, better yet, invest in them and reap the benefits of other peoples' complicity.

 

~Ron

 

(I've been listening to a lot of Ayn Rand, recently.) 

---

From: Todd Elliott <thel...@gmail.com>
To: theuni...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 2:22:52 PM
Subject: [The Unique Geek] Re: More Coporate bashing

[Cary Preston]

It may be anecdotal, but there does seem to be some collusion on
certain services (like texting) that a truly open market would abhor.
There have been some providers that decided to offer 'free' texting
(cost shifted to other services, but the cost is still minimal) but
the service isn't widespread enough to be a legitimate offering.
It's one thing to take services or products for granted, but entirely
another to resent knowing that a product or service is being
intentionally 'dumbed down' or overpriced purely because a provider
can. It drives me batpoop to know the iPhone is MMS and tethering
capable, but AT&T prevents it from being utilized on their network.
Cell phones are as close to a necessity for my line of work (and more
than a few others) as you can get. I expect market forces and
regulation to prevent organizations from exploiting me as a single
consumer.

[Edward Crosby]

To be honest, since I have no patience, the annoyance of waiting for the
greeting to end has always been my gripe. Learning that AT&T is charging
me (and also the person I am calling, I suspect) for that annoyance is
just icing on the cake.
True, it is definitely a privilege to have a mobile phone, but I am paying
for that privilege. The fact that AT&T is milking for something extra,
like waiting on a voicemail greeting, doesn't give them the right to take
advantage of my privilege, even if they are the provider.

--
Have a Better One,
Edward Crosby
http://www.edwardcrosby.com
-----
"There are no atheists in foxholes or firmware updates."
Merlin Mann

>