iPhone. News and Tips

So, it’s about time I’ve told you a terryfying story about the evil Roaming and holy Beeline.

Until now I had no idea why iPhone has a button that says “Turn off the EDGE-roaming”. But now I got enlightened. For one week in Croatia I didn’t switch EDGE roaming on, but then I used EDGE to read some news. And then I came back to Moscow…

On the 1st of August my iPhone has switched off. I called the Beeline. The girl on the phone tells me: Insufficient funds. I say: but I have a credit-based pay-system. She replies: Whatever, there is a limit. You to pay a certain sum in advance. I ask: How many? And then she says: 30 thousands rubles (~$1300).

I turn like f

**g mad and write a post – I have been a Beeline’s client for nearly 10 years, never delayed payments in a while, never switched between plans. There are no customers like me! And you’re talking about some crappy 30 thousands! And immediately I got a response from a girl from Beeline’s press service. She tells me – we’ll deal with this issue.

The same day I get a call from Beeline. They tell me – you indeed are so invaluable. You really didn’t delay any payment in 10 years. Such a loyal customer is great. I say: “Absolutely”. The girl tells me – we’re checking our billing systems, we’re likely to have some problems with it. I ask her: What’s all that fuzz about the limits? The girl replies: customers like you have a limit of credits equal to 10 average payments. I ask her – so what? And she’s like – you have an average payment of 8 thousand rubles. I say – so what? And she says – and your bill for July is 92 thousand rubles.

I ask her: HOW MUCH?!
She says: 92 THOUSANDS RUBLES. But we’ll check things out.

After that I immediately call the customer’s service and ask: How much is EDGE roaming in Croatia? And here I get an answer – EDGE roaming costs 25 rubles pro 50 kilobytes regardless of your location.

That gets me really f

**g mad. Immediately I realised, WHY does iPhone has a button to switch EDGE-roaming off.

Because ANY action, ANY link, ANY new feed in Google Reader costs 25 rubles regardless of how many you have downloaded – a kilobyte, two or even thirty. Have you ever seen a feed in 50 kb? Me – not. But the traffic is being measured in 50 kbs. Who thought that was a good idea? I don’t know, but certainly he doesn’t deserve living.

And that was when I realised that I was pretty much screwed. I have a nice salary, but 92 thousands rubles – this is exactly how much the WHOLE trip to Croatia costs, not taking into account what has been actually spent in
Croatia. That’s, holy ####, is 4 THOUSAND DOLLARS!

But Beeline has actually served me well – the didn’t leave me alone in this situation. They have called me another day and said, that because I am that wonderful, the make a discount for me like 20%. And the right to pay by installments.

And my new bill was like 72 thousand rubles. And I had a right to pay by installments. So the things turned out to be far less scary.

But, holy shit, measuring mobile Internet traffic in 50 kbs is f

g stupid.

It’s like measuring calls with 15 minutes. Or with half an hour. And that would be 10 dollars.

You make a call – 10 dollars, please.

That’s what it’s like with Internet roaming. Like in a Moscow restaurant. You see nice prices, you make orders and ask for some water in meanwhile. You get a golden bottle with Japanese water that they make from melted Fuji’s snow. That would cost 800 rubles. And they open it, so you can’t refuse.

I want everybody to realise all this! Hear you, people – YOU CAN’T USE INTERNET IN ROAMING! YOU SIMPLY CAN’T!