BF2S Forums Why are American cell phone companies so primitive?

_j5689_ wrote:

Bertster7 wrote:

HurricaИe wrote:

@Funky, nice. See, in America we can't have nice things like that. We try to haggle, they tell us to GTFO.

You don't haggle!?!?

But how do you get good deals?

So you're saying haggling is mainstream there?  That's awesome.  I could've haggled for that fucking 6¢ of sales tax on that cream soda I was gonna buy the other day but couldn't because I only had a dollar.  If I only lived in Europe.  GOD DAMN THIS FUCKING SALES TAX TO HELL

The only time haggling ever works in the U.S. is at garage sales or flea markets.

Not exactly mainstream, but when a phone company calls you trying to persuade you to get a contract with them, you can get a lot more out of them than they initially offer - which is essentially haggling.

Small shops, you can often haggle in a bit. Hell, you can try and haggle anywhere, but any big chain stores aren't going to have any of it.

Last edited by Bertster7 (2008-04-12 11:07:57)

<3 my LG Viewty for free together with a €20 euro 2 year contract which is worth €25 euros each month.

kylef wrote:

Why would you want an N95 in the first place

I don't, I want a Sony Ericsson C702. As others mentioned though, the N95 seems to be the pinnacle of 3G phones available right now.

liquix wrote:

because the American Market doesn't respond well to advanced phones. Also, the US is much much larger than the countries you mentioned, with a lower population density. This size difference boils down to spotty coverage. As far as sexy phones, well start having smarter kids. Companies won't sell and develop phones for a market where they won't sell, that's bad business.

I don't think there are many analog networks in the US anymore, if at all. They upgraded everyone to 2G... they can make it to 3G. Remember, these are American telecom companies... they're richer than god.

Also, just a sample of my frustration

(19:21:02) (@Hurricane) i mean what the fuck
(19:21:02) (Archerlulz) hahaha
(19:21:07) (Archerlulz) lol
(19:21:09) (@Hurricane) we have fucking nukes
(19:21:18) (@Hurricane) we have the aforementioned fucking robots on mars and satellites near jupiter
(19:21:25) (@Hurricane) WHY THE FUCK DO THE EUROPEANS HAVE A BETTER CELLULAR NETWORK THAN US
(19:21:42) (Archerlulz) because luxembourg is the richest country in the wurld
(19:21:45) (Archerlulz) as per GDP
(19:21:48) (Archerlulz) lololololoo
(19:22:13) (@Hurricane) moar like suxembourg

FatherTed wrote:

500 texts
500 anytime, anywhere (inc Europe) minutes
Free Internet
Free handset worth £300 every 12 months.
....£20

I like my contract

every 12 months?!?!

i hate you

RDMC wrote:

<3 my LG Viewty for free together with a €20 euro 2 year contract which is worth €25 euros each month.

Ahh man I want that phone so badly!!!

Bertster7 wrote:

You get charged for receiving texts?

What about receiving calls? Don't tell me you get charged for that!

Yes, I believe I do pay for all calls made to and from my phone.  And regarding text messages:  About 1.5 years ago, I didn't have a text message plan on my contract.  It was essentially pay-per-use at either $0.10 or $0.15 each.  I don't remember how much it was at the time.  Anyway, there was a month where I got a bunch (5 or so) spam messages on each of the 3 phones on my contract.  I called AT&T to complain and they told me "There is nothing we can do about receiving text messages, unless you turn off text messaging service."  Sons of bitches!

I have a contract with 3 phones on it and I have 550 shared daytime minutes, but any calls made to AT&T mobile numbers, any calls whatsoever made between 9pm-6am and on saturday/sunday are unlimited.  (Obviously those rules apply to calls in the AT&T USA network)  I pay an extra $30 to add unlimited text and multimedia messaging for all 3 phones every month.  I get a 20% discount through my employer and I pay ~$95/month after all sorts of fees and taxes.

All this, and I am still using the Motorola v557 I got about 2.5 years ago.  If I wanted to buy a new phone through AT&T, I would have to pay a ~$30 'upgrade fee' per phone.  Try to haggle with the AT&T store people and you get nowhere.

My Cell Phone Works Fine And Makes Me Lots Of Money

On my Blackberry Pearl, I can not get a signal for the internet even if I was sitting in front of the store.

As far as bars I can get 4-5 anywhere, And I agree the prices are high!

Really? I was always fled to belive it was the other way round. (yay for us)