Thursday, October 20, 2011

It pays to call!

One of the ongoing problems of living in an RV full time, is what to do with communications, and internet and all that stuff… 

Our LG Smart Phone is hooked up the the Bell Canada Cellular System, and it is always a pain when we get ready to leave Canada for the U.S.  If you look online, or in my case, go to the local Bell Store and ask, you do not get any information in regards to taking your phone into the U.S.A. for any period of time.  Yesterday, I called customer service, and low and behold, they offered me a full U.S. plan, including talk time, and a full Data Package, which will allow us to use our phone full time down in the States! 

phone

Our phone runs the Windows 7 software.

It is a little frustrating when you cannot get the information you need and have to go looking for it the way they make you do it, however I am glad I found out about it!  So, for anyone with a Bell Cell Phone wanting to use it in the States, make sure you call customer service and talk to them!  It is worth it!  There is not mention anywhere, of a Data plan for the U.S. 

Now that I have had our phone for 6 months, I am used to it and enjoy using it, so I can now carry on once we start to travel again.

Spent the day today with David up here in Bracebridge, and he is doing well after surgery.   Hopefully his bandages come off soon, and he is on the road to recovery.  I was able to contact my Dr. today and arranged for a flu shot… don’t need the flu slowing me down this winter.

We were going to do some work around the house today, but the weather here was so bad, we ended up doing nothing!  Heavy rain all day… yuck!

We had a nice skype chat with David’s friend Doug, who is currently down in Lake Havasu City at his winter residence.  Weather is great down there, and we were not too jealous…

We received more good news about our communications yesterday… HughesNet is going to upgrade our Satellite Internet System, free of charge.  We will now get faster download times, and they have increased our daily download limits.  We have had very little problems with daily limits anyways, but always nice to have more.  Speed is always appreciated, as everyone likes nice fast internet these days.  In the next year, HughesNet will also launch a new Satellite within the next year, and promise more improvements to come.  We have come to rely on this system, and we find the product is good at a reasonable price.  The big advantage is you can get your internet anywhere in North America, and the system is very portable, and easy to set up.

Till tomorrow…

 

5 comments:

  1. I just found out about a discount that I qualify for with Verizon. But they sure don't mention these things unless you just stumble across them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. sounds to me like things are going your way today!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hooray, that's a great deal! I wonder if our Tracfones will work in Canada. =0

    ReplyDelete
  4. That sure is good news on the Bell phone plan. I doubt Telus' has a similar plan but I'm going to call them and double check now. My plan right now is to make sure I have my iPhone on 'airplane mode' to avoid any chance of roaming charges. Even so, I'll be checking usage daily just to make sure I'm not being dinged!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A word of caution.... You might just want to double check that plan, because in July 2011 I bought what the Bell Rep told me was a "full US plan" it was $100.00 per month for my iPhone 4 smartphone. Well on our 2nd day in the US I got a text message that told me that I had incurred $250.00 worth of data charges. I thought it was a mistake because I had bought the US plan. I called Bell to find out what was going on, thinking that maybe they hadn't activated the plan, and the Bell Rep said, yes the plan is active and by the way you don't owe $250.00 you owe $2500.00 - 2 days inside the US and I owed $2500.00 I immediately turned the phone off because I cannot afford $2500.00 every 2 days. I then began the process of negotiating with Bell to have the bill reduced and after 2 months of back and forth they told me to pay $1000.00 I didn't feel I owed Bell anything because their Rep told me that I can use the phone in the US just like I do at home in Ontario. So I paid the $1000.00 and said never again. I am going to Texas in December and I will be turning off my iPhone before I cross the border and I will not turn it back on until I return. While I was in the US I bought a US smartphone and a prepaid monthly plan. I will turn on my US phone as soon as I am across the border.
    Good luck, but I would not believe Bell after my experience. Bill

    ReplyDelete