Minutes with no air charge increasing?

[cybermob2]

i have assumed my "minutes with no air charge" were CS minutes, but they keep increasing! one day its at 91 min, a week later its at 137! whats going on? these better not be miscalculated minutes, cause i have used 300/300 minutes!

also... i have wknd minutes listed as "cingular extend" and "home", with home being 5000, and extend being 0. i am not in a cingular market, but am in superhome. calls i receive show up as home (for both regular and N+W) but all the calls i make show up as roaming. so far i've used 51 "home" N+W and 387 "extend" minutes.

[mobilegirl]

you're going to have to clarify what you are trying to say.

[cybermob2]

1) why are my "no charge" minutes increasing (i'm not calling CS)
2) why are my received calls "roamers" and my dialed "home"

any clearer?

[DeltaOne81]

1) I dunno but I've never seen those charged.

2) I dunno, but your 'extended local area' N&W minutes aren't charged any extra, so it shouldn't matter either .

That's all I can tell you, maybe someone else can explain more.

[ccsccs7]

Are there any other "special" calls you are making (aside from CS)? Voicemail? Call forwarding? Something that might be being billed or "labeled" incorrectly?

[powertoburn]

While international roaming - my minutes of use will go under minutes with no air charge catagory.

But, I do get charged the international roaming rate.

[Krayziecr]

All of my calls to voicemail go to the "minutes with no air charge" section. This happened to both accounts that I have ever since I switched to GSM. That may be what is happening to you, you are not getting charged minutes for calling voicemail

[cybermob2]

this is really effed up.

this month (today = end of cycle) i've used 810 TOTAL minutes.

according to cingular, there were:

Night + Weekend
Home 8/5000
Extend 365/0

Daytime
Home 300/300
Extend 10/0

Minutes w/no charge
127

That adds up to a total of 810.

after doing some power sorting in Excel, i've found this to be true:


Home Daytime 74
Extend Daytime 322
Total Daytime 396

Home N+W 61
Extend N+W 353
Total N+W 414

hopefully you see my dilemma... i have the potential to have a horrible bill tomorrow if the no charge minutes end up being resorted! likewise, how the hell am i supposed to be mindful of my minutes when they are messed up? they really ought to make their system a little more real-time.

[DeltaOne81]

I really can't see you being billed for those if the online system says otherwise. I've never seen a difference between the online billing system and the bill. Worst case, if they are, it seems like the kinda thing you should get credit for, since their system messed up in that way... maybe with a warning like, "next time be aware that this can happen."

[cybermob2]

well i can see the bill being the same...

if it is i'll still have a nightmare...

300 some minutes in "extend" mode (yet in superhome) that'll hurt.

i'm anxious now. can't wait to see this bill. if they are going to straighten out the extend/home thing... its gonna be interesting.

[DeltaOne81]

The "extend" mode on the billing system doesn't mean you'll be charged either. It just means either a) you weren't on a Cingular tower, or b) you weren't in your home area.

My service is out of upstate NY, but when I visit my parents in Ct, it shows up as "extended local area", even though I'm on Cingular, just not my home market. Now, I happen to be on a Nation plan, but the NY regional/superhome plans certainly include Ct.

The only time you can be sure you'll be charged is when you have a new box altogether which is titled "Roaming at 0.79". Whenever that has shown up, I've been charged (on my old Preferred Nation plan). When it didn't show up, I was never charged. I suppose it's possible for it not to show up on your online account, and then end up being charged for roaming a bit anyway, but that's never been the case for me.

[ccsccs7]

Originally posted by cybermob2
…how the hell am i supposed to be mindful of my minutes when they are messed up? they really ought to make their system a little more real-time.

Just so you know, Cingular warns you not to be too reliant on the online minutes record. Once, an error occured that didn't charge December 25th minutes as peak, although Cingular doesn't set aside any holidays (unless they occur at night or on weekends) as off peak.