Calls from Caribbean

We made a trip to the Caribbean in June, but before we left, we called Cingular's customer support line and visited the local Cingular store to determine if calls from our cell phone would be covered under our National Plan. We were told that Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands were covered. We were also warned that calls through other (foreign) cell providers would be charged at a very high rate. We were told to only make calls when the "Cingular" name appeared on the phone's display.

While on our vacation, we avoided using the phone when it connected with non-Cingular providers. When we made a Cingular connection, we made and received calls just as we would from home.

When we got home, there was a $600 roaming charge on our bill! It said that our calls had gone through Anguilla, a country that we have never been to! Apparently our "free" Cingular calls had been routed through another country (Anguilla) that was in range of St. Maarten, where we stayed.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there any way to know when you are being hit with a roaming charge, even though the phone says "Cingular" on the display? Customer service says that they might be able to get us a 50% reduction in that large roaming charge, but that's all. Since I followed Cingular's advice before making the trip, I feel that they should eat the charge. Am I right or wrong?

Yes i have experienced this. I went to montreal a little more than a month ago. When i called cingular to ask them what i should to about making calls, i was told that i should switch my phone to the 1900 mhz setting and everything would work out fine. While i was there i was told i would be connected to thier Rogers ATT network, and i would be in what they called "cingular extended" meaning i wouldn't incur roaming charges. When i got home and my phone bill arrived, i had been charged about 300 dollars in roaming charges. When i called cust. service they told me that my calls did not go thru Rogers, but went thru FIDO, which is another GSM carrier in canada, and that i should have remained on an 900/1800 mhz frequency. My advice to anyone travelling outside the US is to have an old GSM phone unlocked, and buy a world sim in the country you are in. These give you a set number opf minutes, and are good worldwide. They can cost about a dollar a minute, but it is better than paying the 5 bucks a minute roaming can cost you.

what part of international calling is so hard to comprehend, you left the us, you not going to get free calls, it will cost you an arm and a leg.

The part the customer stated was that when they called to Care, we told them what the calling area was and what it covered. What's bad about this is that we don't know specifically which network you're going be connected to.

If I were you, I would get with customer care, speak with a supervisor and let them know what you were told. Otherwise you wouldn't have used your phone.

Also mention that we should look at the spots in calling regularity.

Its called signal bouncing, Your phone should indicate that you are connected to another network other then cingular if this is happening (doubt cingular has towers in peurto rico and USVI if its not considered part of there NW calling area) Do manual network selection to avoid this problem if you are in the same area again.

acutaly csr they said they went to the store, mistake number 1
secondly USVI an caribbian are not the same expecialy if your on the boat bookoo harges for roaming while on a cruise ship the best rule of thub is if you leaving the 50 us states buy a phone card at walmart

never beleive what a store rep has to say about roaming or intl calls , they dont have the resources to tell you, 100% that thats right call CC thats what we are here for. Not for , beyond popular beleife, to be yelled at and riticuled

I promised everyone that I would tell the outcome of our story -- about using US cell phones in the Caribbean. In the process we learned a lot about our cell phone coverage, the phone itself, and the quirky state of communications in the Caribbean – especially on St. Maarten. There is a happy ending here

, but more important, I hope I can provide some advice for travelers to the islands.

Our cell company (Cingular) includes Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as part of its national calling plan, meaning you can make calls from those areas just as you would in the US, subject to limits on total minutes, etc. The Cingular Web site, their customer care hotline, and local store personnel all warned us about using phones in the Caribbean, where local (foreign) companies charge a minimum of $2 per minute for calls to and from the U.S. The names of these companies appear on a cell phone’s display when it is in range of one of their towers. When you are in range of a Cingular tower, “Cingular” appears on the display.

We spent a week on St. Maarten, June 4 – 11. Most of the time our phone displayed the name of either of two local companies, one on the Dutch side and one on the French side. When this happened, we turned off the phone to avoid receiving any calls. But occasionally, from our apartment, we were able to pick up a “Cingular” signal and make calls back home, we thought for free, since we heard that signals from St. Croix sometimes reached St. Maarten. But when the bill arrived we were charged over $600 for our calls

, which apparently were made through cell towers on the nearby island of Anguilla.

When I called Cingular Customer Care, the rep seemed familiar with the problem, and said he would look into it and get back with us. He said that it was likely that we would receive 50% credit for the calls made in error, but probably not more than that. He never called us, but instead sent us a cryptic text message saying that they couldn’t help us. When I tried to reply to the text message, I received an error message saying that the recipient could not receive messages from me.

That got me mad, so I went to the Cingular Web site and sent an e-mail to Cingular’s CEO. A day or so later I received a call from Elaine Hoya, an aide to the CEO, saying that she was going to research the problem and get back with me. When she did call, she explained that some international carriers (such as the one on Anguilla) did not send an “alpha tag” (display name) to cell phones from their towers. Unfortunately, our cell phone interpreted the missing (blank) alpha tag as my default provider, “Cingular.” The name appeared on my phone exactly as it would back in the US. There was no way to tell a free call from a fee call.

She offered us a 50% rebate, but said that she would escalate the matter higher (not saying who is “higher” than the CEO!) A day or two later she called back, saying that all of the charges would be reversed

. I was happy with the outcome, and offered to help spread the word to other Caribbean travelers. She admitted that the problem was not limited to the islands, but to many border areas (such as U.S. – Canada) where competing cell providers can be accessed by customers. She said that there is no way to set your phone to only send and receive legitimate Cingular calls. The safest bet is to expect high charges when you are in a country that is not on the list for your plan. If you are within three miles or less of a supported country, you might get lucky, but you can’t count on it.

Conch, Thanks for posting your happy outcome!! With all the bells and whistles of GSM you would think that CINGULAR means cingular tower but I guess not. In the future I may go to St.THomas so I will have to watch.

Also wondering if any members went on a cruise in Caribbeon(?) and if cell worked while on water(ocean!). I would imagine not. I guess while in port in St.Thomas,PR or Bermuda it may work while on board.

Calls from Caribbean

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