So, I took a look at my phone bill today. It was higher than usual — for some reason, there was a data charge. Huh? I thought all the data on my iPhone was included?
Here’s how AT&T got a little extra cash out of me.
Data Usage Summary
IPHONE TXT MSG 200
182 Text Messages Used
147 Text Messages Included
3-24 35 Billed at $0.10/Msg 3.50Total IPHONE TXT MSG 200 3.50
IPHONE TXT MSG 1500
77 Text Messages Used
450 Text Messages IncludedMEDIA MAX UNL MNET
32,533 Kilobytes UsedTotal Data Usage Summary 3.50
I had a 200 Text Message plan. I knew I was getting close to the limit, so I upgraded to the 1500 message plan. Seems simple enough, right? I’d used 187 messages — still under the 200 limit — and added on an additional 1300. But that’s not how the clever billing accountants at AT&T see it. As far as I can tell, here’s what they did:
– Instead of “upgrading” my message plan, they canceled the first plan and replaced it with the new one
– They pro-rated the number of messages in my 200 plan by the number of days I had it, coming up with the number 147. In other words, it’s not 200 messages during a month, it’s 7.15 messages per day.
– Because I’d used 182 messages and their prorated package only had 147, they charged me for the 35 messages which should have been comfortably accommodated in the 200 message plan.
– Then they prorated the new 1500 plan down to 450.
And that’s how the weasels at AT&T (like bankers) whittle away your money bit by bit. Imagine that, say, nation-wide there were 10,000 people who switched to a different text message plan to avoid overages last month. That’s an extra $35,000 AT&T took in last month in addition to the higher plan fee!
Boy, I’ll bet they’re chomping at the bit to get those new iPhone MMS charges at 35¢ a pop, eh?
And don’t even get me started about how these tiny bits of data are charged to us at something like $1,500 per megabyte. Bastards.
