STAY AWAY FROM RENT-A-CELLULAR

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in
message
...
[]
If I dialled direct, sure, but why would I want to do that?

Because that is what someone who doesn't know how to
play the system will do.

And so, I've just explained how to play the system. That's only one way
by the way.

To a few dozen people on an news group. How does
that help the rest of the world?

How does that matter, when what I'm pointing out is that phone rates
here are complex, and there are no standard rates for calling the US?

When complaining that the "rack" rate for something is
out of line with the competition, it is only fair to compare it
with the other "rack" rates. IMHO

Not in this case,

I disagree.

We are discussing a foreigner visiting for week who doesn't
have their own phone that they can bring with them and use.
They are therefore stuck using whatever it is that they can find
out about in the time available.

The people in question obviously had no time available to them
otherwise they would have been better prepared, Thus you
can't compare what they did with other things which require
preparation/prior knowlegde.

Huh? I wasn't doing that. I was responding to your point that the rates
applied by the rental company were simply a reflection of what people
would pay for such calls with domestic providers.

as there simply are no such things as rack rates for
mobile telephone calls. The inter-EU roaming rates go _some_ way to a
standard tarrif, but otherwise, it's simply far to complicated a
system.
With certain UK contracts, that 'cost' of calling the US would be quite
a bit lower.

A choice of UK contracts is not necessarily open to someone
holidaying here for a week.

It doesn't matter- as two PAYG alternatives have already been suggested.
Of course, the OP was referring to calls made from Spain. True, I don't
know the rates for _Spanish_ mobile providers, but as a piece of free
advice, I can say it would have been a fifth of the price to have made
the US calls from Spain on a UK payg Tesco SIM.

If you had a phone to put it in.

tim

tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
[]
It doesn't matter- as two PAYG alternatives have already been suggested.
Of course, the OP was referring to calls made from Spain. True, I don't
know the rates for _Spanish_ mobile providers, but as a piece of free
advice, I can say it would have been a fifth of the price to have made
the US calls from Spain on a UK payg Tesco SIM.

If you had a phone to put it in.

I don't understand why you want to make things so difficult. You can buy
cheap new mobile phones in Spain, as well as the UK, and getting them
unlocked is usually trivial.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 5 Sep 2007 15:49:18 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:

A choice of UK contracts is not necessarily open to someone
holidaying here for a week.

It is when they arrive with an unlocked phone like we do.

Not a contract- I assume you mean PAYG?

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
[]
It doesn't matter- as two PAYG alternatives have already been
suggested.
Of course, the OP was referring to calls made from Spain. True, I don't
know the rates for _Spanish_ mobile providers, but as a piece of free
advice, I can say it would have been a fifth of the price to have made
the US calls from Spain on a UK payg Tesco SIM.

If you had a phone to put it in.

I don't understand why you want to make things so difficult. You can buy
cheap new mobile phones in Spain, as well as the UK, and getting them
unlocked is usually trivial.

I'm not making things difficult.

I'm starting from the position of the OP.

I repeat. I do not think it reasonable of you to start from anywhere
else when discussing whether the rental contract was reasonable
or not.

tim

tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...
[]
It doesn't matter- as two PAYG alternatives have already been
suggested.
Of course, the OP was referring to calls made from Spain. True, I don't
know the rates for _Spanish_ mobile providers, but as a piece of free
advice, I can say it would have been a fifth of the price to have made
the US calls from Spain on a UK payg Tesco SIM.

If you had a phone to put it in.

I don't understand why you want to make things so difficult. You can buy
cheap new mobile phones in Spain, as well as the UK, and getting them
unlocked is usually trivial.

I'm not making things difficult.

I'm starting from the position of the OP.

Who rented a cell phone. If the OP had asked _here_, he would have been
advised not to do this.

I repeat. I do not think it reasonable of you to start from anywhere
else when discussing whether the rental contract was reasonable
or not.

This is surreal. The rental contract wasn't reasonable. Mobile phone
rentals never are.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

Calling the US from the UK on virgin payg has always been 20p/min. Orange is the same until they recently started to offer the cheaper rate already mentioned above.

Renting a phone in this day and age is a complete ripoff. A cheapo GSM phone will cost less than $50. And, the sim cards are almost free. Even had the OP had cingular/tmobile and decided to roam, for which they charge $1.29 and $0.99 respectively, it still would have been cheaper.

Definitely lesson learnt!

Orange has a 60 GBP Nokia with 200 min 20p /min pay as you go


"mrcamp" wrote in message
...

Calling the US from the UK on virgin payg has always been 20p/min.
Orange is the same until they recently started to offer the cheaper
rate already mentioned above.

Renting a phone in this day and age is a complete ripoff. A cheapo GSM
phone will cost less than $50. And, the sim cards are almost free.
Even had the OP had cingular/tmobile and decided to roam, for which
they charge $1.29 and $0.99 respectively, it still would have been
cheaper.

Definitely lesson learnt!




--
mrcamp