Just say no!

I got my first cell phone in January, 1997. I'd just moved to Israel, and there was a waiting list for a land line. Cell carriers there only charged you for airtime on outgoing calls, not incoming calls (but man, did they charge you for outgoing calls...). When texting became available, probably within about a year or so, I discovered it was much cheaper than calling out (about 5 cents per, if that, and only for outgoing texts); within a short time, I was texting like a fiend. Everyone else was too. It made sense.

In the US, texts are often charged both at the sender and at the destination, but, unlike phone calls, texts cannot be rejected or dismissed. And when I signed up for cell service (with Cingular) here, I was getting lots of gibberish texts. And I was annoyed at the fact that I was paying for them (in principle!). So I had texting disabled. And they said, really? And I said, yeah really. And then I got more texts. So I called and said, no really disable it this time. And they said really? And I said yeah, really, and credit me my 20 cents, or whatever it was. And then I got some more texts. And I called and said, no, really really disable it this time. And they said, it's disabled. And I said, no it's not. And they said yes it is. And I said I just now got a text from the number blahblahblah. Can you see it? And they said no. And I said, well superduper disable it, and credit me for my however many cents. And they said they couldn't because there was no text. And so, when I got my bill (with a text message charge on it), I called them, and said, now do you see it? And they said yes, and credited me. And I told them to make sure there were detailed notes of all these conversations on my account. And then I got another text message some time later and another charge, and I called, and it was invisible, and then of course they billed me for it. And I called, and said to credit me $5 right this very minute for my trouble, because I'm tired of calling and I might switch to Verizon. So they did. And now it's been several months, text-free.

But I was recently dating someone, and somehow texting came up, and I mentioned that I didn't get texts and he said, Oh. I've texted you several times, and you never responded. And I was all, Oh! And you didn't think I was a total bitch for ignoring you? And he said, well I just figured you didn't feel like responding. And of course I started wondering who else thought I was ignoring them. I hate to think there's someone out there who'd see me as a "nonresponder," which I'm not! I hate people like that! And I mentioned my angst to my teammate Mel, who then told me she'd almost texted me the other day when she remembered that I didn't have text messaging from that time she texted me and I never responded and then she had to call me, and so she said, wouldn't it be funny if you could retroactively get all your texts and see what you've missed? And I was all, yeah after like the 20th text, they probably sent some really nasty ones.

I'm not ignoring you. And I implore you to join me. Boycott texts, dammit! Do you know what popularized them in the US?? American freaking Idol! Your cell carrier is totally sticking it to you.

From Washingtonpost.com, 9/9/08:

A key lawmaker and a consumer group are pressuring wireless carriers to explain why prices for text messages have doubled in the last three years as the technology has surged in popularity over the same period.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee, sent a letter earlier this week to the largest wireless carriers demanding answers for why they've raised their prices for individual text messages outside of flat-rate monthly data plans to 20 cents from 10 cents since 2005. The increases aren't justified, he said, given the lower operational costs to the carrier to send the short code messages.

"It appears that each of (the) companies has changed the price for text messaging at nearly the same time, with identical price increases," Kohl wrote in the letter. "This conduct is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."

Consumers Union sent letters to heads of the Senate Commerce Committee and Judiciary Subcommittee to investigate the texting price increases and whether they are the result of a consolidating industry and less competition.

The group said that 600 text messages contain less data than a 1 minute phone call. It said that at 20 cents a text message, wireless carriers would collect $120 for 600 messages.

"Does $120 for the equivalent of one minute of voice seem reasonable?" the group wrote in the letters. "Or do these usurious rates evidence an extraordinary amount of market power?"

Just how popular has texting become? CTIA released a study this week that showed the number of texts sent in June rose 10-fold to 75 billion messages from the same month three years ago.