[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not a 'major crisis'; but rather,
> just quite inconvenient when you are sold a device (commonly known as
> a 'cell phone') with the assurance it will work 'anywhere', and you
> have no particular reason to distrust the seller of same only to then
> later find out the seller was full of hot air.
Pat, I know you've been around long enough that for any claim on any product you have to have some history from others or history which you have discovered yourself. If you believed every claim that came down the pike you'd be buying into all the scams that spammers throw at you never mind all the 419 scams that are around. As in everything else don't believe everything you see in print, on TV or on the internet. Some people's "truth" is not necessarily *your* truth! Don't ASSume. We all know what that stands for!
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a cellular telephone company told
> you 'we have no roaming charges' would you take that to mean (1) we
> have arrangements with other carriers and do not charge you _extra money_
> for roaming, or would you take that statement to mean (2) we do not
> have any roaming at all? Since in the past, the subject of excessive
> charges for 'roaming' on another carrier's network has often times
> been an issue (since resolved by many carriers with 'national' plans
> such as the old AT&T), wouldn't you think that statement would be
> interpreted as (1) above? PAT]
Almost every carrier in their advertising will have disclaimers such as "not available everywhere" indicating that their service may not be suitable for use in all locations.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, please remember this was not my problem originally; just a problem left for me to clean up. My nephew Justin and his wife thought up Nextel as the way to go. No one has ever accused Justin of being an Einstein in disguise; frankly he is a couple of sacks short of a full load ... _they_ decided on Nextel as a good deal, not me. They never asked my opinion. It worked okay in Florida, the land of Jeb Bush and Orlando, and Walt Disney World; the where my sister died on the street due to cirrosis of the liver (drinking too much iced tea I guess); so why wouldn;t Nextel work here? After all, we have a 'major highway' going though town, Highway 75 otherwise known as Penn Street. All I know is Justin showed up here to be of help to Uncle Pat and was confronted by a frantic wife who could not understand why Nextel failed her. I gave him a prepaid phone from AT&T/Cingular Wireless and a Yahoo Messenger account to tide him over. PAT]