Yea, I am Cheap Bastard

A few weeks ago we went to Niagara Falls.  Ya know that is mostly in Canada.  My cell phone went kinda nuts over there.  Sometimes it worked fine and sometimes it had a little blue triangle on top and still worked fine.  Sometimes it did not work at all. It also experienced the same symptoms when we crossed back into New York. Whatever, I was on vacation, when it worked, I used it.  My wife's phone worked better than mine so we used it more.

When we had dinner with friends in Buffalo I asked them what the deals was with the little blue triangles and "roaming".  My friend said that when he sits at his desk in Buffalo, NY, USA his phone will sometimes click into roaming mode.  He has to call his carrier all the time because they bill him for roaming when he is in the United States. The Canadian towers are stronger and that phones just grab the strongest signal.

So I just got my cell bill and it was $38 more than usual.  Of course I call my carrier and ask them to explain the increase.  She told me that I used 8 roaming minutes and my wife used 35.  I told her that I wanted to avoid any extra charges so I made all my calls when I was on the US side of the falls. She said that I was roaming because I made the calls using Canadian towers.  However she was "willing to" take 25% off the roaming charges.

No, I don't want to pay any roaming charges because I saved up all mu phone calling for when I was on Goat Island.  (So, I said) which is entirely in the United States, but really, really close to Canada.   She told me that if I was in the US, a US tower would have picked up my calls.  But no, I told her.  "There are no towers on Goat Island, but there sure is a big one just across that little piece of the Niagara River in Canada".

She put me on hold for 9 minutes and came back and told me I must have been in Canada because my calls connected to the Toronto Tower.

Now I need a supervisor.

"So $38 either way is not a really big deal when my family's bill is 4 times that every month and my bill is only gonna go up when my kids get phones.  But I don't like being called a liar.  I did not want to get involved in roaming charges so I made all my calls when I was still in the United States."  I added, "This is something I am going to remember when it is time to renew my contract."


She gave me a $60 credit on my next bill.