AnchorDesk |
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Cell-phone customers: Stand up for your rights! |
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David Coursey Executive Editor, AnchorDesk Wednesday, February 5, 2003 |
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You should be able to understand what you're buying. Carriers should be required to give each consumer a summary of their pricing and options at the time an order is placed. Pooled minutes for multiple phones
Many consumers get this now, but just to be perfectly clear: One household (or small business) plus multiple phones should equal one pool of airtime that all those phones can draw from. Plus, we should have fair pricing for the additional phones. Adjustable plans
If you make a mistake when selecting a plan (maybe you chose too few minutes or didn't get the data services you needed), your bills can be completely out of whack, with charges much higher than you expect. You should be able to change your plan to reflect your actual usage, rather than get stuck paying outlandish bills. Time's up notices
You shouldn't have to guess or find out for yourself when you're about to go over your allotment of minutes. Carriers should be proactive in telling you--perhaps via SMS messages--to help you avoid using more minutes than your plan allows. Maximum bill protection
Likewise, you should have some protection against vastly exceeding your monthly airtime allotment, perhaps because of a family emergency. You should never have to pay more than the cost of whichever plan your carrier offers that includes the number of minutes you actually used. Returnable hardware, cancelable contracts
Cellular carriers essentially give away the hardware in return for one- or two-year service contracts. This means that, as soon as you walk out of the store, you're more committed than you should have to be just to get cellular service. I'd like to see a clause allowing customers to cancel accounts up to ten days after receiving the first full month's bill. That would give consumers added protection--and carriers more incentive to implement understandable pricing. Portable phone numbers (and even phones)
Why can't I keep the same phone number when I go from one carrier to another? Sounds like a software problem to me. Fix it. Likewise, you shouldn't have to buy new hardware every time you change carriers--you should be able to bring your old phone with you. All-you-can-eat data
You shouldn't have to worry about the cost of using data services. For small devices that don't use a lot of e-mail, like handsets, the data service should be a small additional all-you-can-eat charge. Parental controls
Parents should be able to control when their children can use their phones, who they can call, what they can download, and how much airtime and data they can use. Parents should be able to receive, over the Internet, near real-time lists of calls made to and from their kids' phones. Privacy
You have the right to be protected against unwanted commercial messages. I'm especially concerned about this because future location-based services could make it way too easy to target consumers as they stroll/drive down the street. We also need to be protected against marketing calls and SMS spam. So there they are, ten basic rights for cellular customers. Some cellular customers already get them--Sprint PCS has pricing plans that would be pretty hard not to understand, for example, and AT&T offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. But no carrier offers them all. I'd like to see these implemented immediately. Now, I drafted these rights with an eye toward what is actually possible. But there's one more right that would negate the need for many of the 10 and--oh, by the way--completely change the U.S. cellular industry as we know it: The end of plans
Get rid of all the plans I've described (and complained about) above and implement simplified per-minute pricing for voice calls. There'd be discounts for people who use very little time ("lifeline" phones) and discounts based upon total usage. The more airtime you use, the less each minute should cost. All time would be billed in the smallest possible increments, so you wouldn't pay for time you don't actually use or rack up hyper-expensive overtime minutes if you go over your allotment. I won't hold my breath waiting for this last one to become standard industry practice, but it's the kind of protection and fair, clear pricing that customers deserve. I'd love to hear what you think about my proposals. And I'd love to hear a response from someone senior in the cellular industry willing to defend their consumer-hostile practices. What do you think? What should cell-phone carriers do to make their pricing and plans fairer? Do you think they'll ever implement any of my suggestions? TalkBack to me!
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