WEB WATCH
New Websites Give Consumers Power to Fight “Ghost” Calls - Their phone rings and the Caller ID shows a the number calling, but the caller’s name is listed as “Out of Area” or “Unavailable” or “Unknown.” When the call is picked up, there’s no voice on the other end of the line and after a few seconds the caller hangs up. Frustrating? You bet -- especially when you’ve gotten up from the dinner table or out of the shower to take the call! The culprit in these so-called “ghost calls” is often predictive auto-dialer services that call literally thousands of numbers an hour. These services often skirt the edge of legality in complying with federal and state Do Not Call lists, but nonetheless they continue to annoy. Fortunately, a number of savvy consumers have taken it upon themselves to harness the power of millions of Internet users to try and track down these phantom callers. At websites like www.whocalled.us, www.800notes.com, and www.numberzoom.com, consumers can punch in the phone number of the “ghost” caller that appeared on the Caller ID to see if anyone else is receiving the calls and find out who is behind them. Users of these sites can also report “ghost” calls and add to the database of numbers that these sites are collecting. Once the owners of these sites have assembled enough evidence, they typically report the incidents to the Better Business Bureau and state regulators who can investigate any potentially illegal activity. In one case, the owners of 800Notes.com were able to get a non-profit group that was using an auto-dialer service to fire the service provider thanks to complaints on their website. The moral of the story? Consumers are not powerless in the face of “ghost” calls. You can fight back!
Average Wireless Bill Increased $13 Since 2005, Says J.D. Power - Consumers are spending more each month on wireless service, due in part to the cost of using their phones’ advanced features, says J.D. Power and Associates. More consumers are paying to use multimedia features like photo and video sharing, texting, and downloading MP3s and streaming video, found the J.D. Power study. In particular, the monthly bill for subscribers who use a variety of features and services on their cell phones is on average $14 higher than the bill for subscribers who don’t use such services ($77 versus $63 per month). The use of feature-rich phones is a significant reason why the average monthly wireless phone bill has risen from $60 in 2005 to $73 today. For example, in 2005 only 19% of survey respondents reported using their handsets’ photo features. J.D. Power’s latest data shows that this number has jumped to 34% today. While features remain important, from a consumer point of view, handset design and style continue to be the main determining factor in handset selection (40%), followed by getting a free phone (27%) and ease of use (22%). The survey also measured customer satisfaction with their wireless handsets. Among the major manufacturers, Sony Ericsson came out on top, followed by Samsung and Motorola. When choosing a new handset, consumers should be sure to try the phone out before they buy. A good way for consumers to do this is to research online which phones have the desired features and price points that appeal to you. Narrow down your choices to 2-4 models, then go and try them out in a carrier’s retail store (most malls now have multiple carriers’ stores in them, making shopping around a snap). Once you’ve gotten “hands-on” experience with the phone, you can then make the actual purchase online since carriers typically offer better deals on handsets online than their do in their stores. The goal of all this is to avoid being seduced by a pretty phone online and then finding out that the buttons are too small, or the design of the phone makes holding to your ear uncomfortable. While most major carriers today allow between a two-week and thirty day no-hassle return on products, if you can avoid the headache, why take the chance? To read more about the J.D. Power survey, click here.
Qwest Wireless’ “Message & More” Plan – To Buy Or Not To Buy? That Is the Question - If you live in one of the Qwest telephone service states (AZ, CO, IA, MN, MO, NE, NM, ND, OR, SD, UT, WA, or WY), you may be able to purchase wireless service from Qwest. As the smallest of the remaining three “local” phone companies (AT&T and Verizon being the other two), Qwest got into the wireless business by re-selling Sprint-Nextel service, instead of building its own network. This week, Qwest Wireless announced a new slate of wireless plans designed to give heavy users of texting and media sharing applications more options. The “Message and More” plans offer the same rates as the traditional Qwest Wireless voice plans, but add a $20 per month fee to allow for “unlimited” access to multimedia features like text messaging, web surfing, and photo sharing. There are several factors to consider before joining up with Qwest Wireless. To begin with, the Sprint-Nextel network that Qwest uses has consistently ranked near the bottom of industry surveys in terms of call quality. Before siging up potential subscribers should ask a friend or colleague who has Sprint-Nextel service in their area how satisfied they are with the carrier . Second, TRACNotes found at that it isn’t literally true that the acess is “unlimited.”The fine print says “unlimited” is limited to 5 gigabyte (GB) of bandwidth per month. Users who exceed this limit can have their service terminated by the carrier. This won’t be a problem for the vast majority of users. For example, a 3-minute YouTube video stream is about 5 megabytes in size. One would need to watch 5,000 such videos in a month on their mobile phone to hit the 5 GB limit. If you are really into power user, however (using lots of audio and video streaming, for example), it is a limit to keep in mind. Finally, as with many bundled services, some consumers will find that by buying a bundled plan they end up paying for services they rarely use (such as MP3 downloads or picture messaging). Consumers who only want to pay for one or two unlimited services (say text messaging and ringtone downloads) may be able to save by buying these multimedia service a la carte versus buying it in a bundle. For more information on the “Message and More” plans, click here.
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
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