News:

"Forbidden Fruit [L-H]"
Congratulations Mellific & Swashbuckler for completing your RP!

Main Menu

When In Mexico, Do Not Download

Started by Rhapsody, April 24, 2009, 02:40:26 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Rhapsody

This is the most mystifying and WTF??? thing I've ever come across; I was just shown this after I got home from running errands 20 minutes ago. 

A man goes to Mexico to pack up his things (the resort he manages closed down due to the recession) and downloaded Disney's WALL-E for his nephew to watch.  His wireless carrier proceeded to charge him $62,000 USD for doing so, and after he called in to ask what the hell was going on, the company dropped his bill down to $17,000 as a "favor" to him, which they claimed was their base cost for the service.

I'm not kidding; it's on CNN and everything.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/23/howard.62k.movie.cnn
|| Games I Play||
Not Available for RP
|| O&O || Requests ||  A&A ||
Current Posting Speed: 1-2 times per week

Come to me, just in a dream. Come on and rescue me.
Yes, I know. I can be wrong. Maybe I'm too headstrong.

HairyHeretic

Seen similar stories a time or two before. Basically its paying through the nose for roaming charges, and then presumably a rate of $x per kb downloaded. Because a movie is going to run a few hundred meg in size, you end up with insane charges for it.

The fees probably make sense if you're wap browsing on your phone, and its a few kb here and there to browse a page. Multiply that a few thousand times, and you get your movie.
Hairys Likes, Dislikes, Games n Stuff

Cattle die, kinsmen die
You too one day shall die
I know a thing that will never die
Fair fame of one who has earned it.

The Overlord



Mexico has computers?  :-)


Actually been there...no real desire to go back until they clean up all thier shit, this is just one more reason. With luck, we might be flying straight to Cuba before long, which I'd like to see.

Trieste

I have friends who have visited both Mexico and Cuba, and they have better stories about the safety and comfort of Cuba than Mexico. They are Canadian, though. One person I know has visited Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, places all over Mexico (the Yucatan and also the west coast), Brazil and Cuba ... has said Cuba is her favourite.

I couldn't help but feel amazed.

Aiden

Quote from: The Overlord on April 25, 2009, 07:01:01 PM

Mexico has computers?  :-)


Actually been there...no real desire to go back until they clean up all thier shit, this is just one more reason. With luck, we might be flying straight to Cuba before long, which I'd like to see.

If you are going to the dirty and poverty-stricken cities on the US-Mexico border I understand why you feel this way but that is like saying, you hate California after visiting Death Valley. Mexico has some of the BEST and culture rich areas in the world, deeper into the country, small pueblos hold their look that was established by the French long ago. Hell, some of the most beautiful women in the world live in Guadalajara, Mexico- in this part of the world the elusive French-Mexican hybrid female exists...

consortium11

Cuba was good fun, but I couldn't help feeling a vague sense of disappointment when I was there.

The Old Town was pretty much a dump, Revolution Square resembles a carpark and (understandably now I think about it) the only areas that were close to the image of Cuba I had prior to going was the tourist town... that resembled a theme park.

As a beach holiday it would be as good as anywhere in the world... but could have been anywhere in the world. Outside of the cheap price of top notch cigars, it didn't really seem to have much of the vivid character I'd expect.

Zakharra

Quote from: Aiden on April 26, 2009, 12:17:08 PM
If you are going to the dirty and poverty-stricken cities on the US-Mexico border I understand why you feel this way but that is like saying, you hate California after visiting Death Valley. Mexico has some of the BEST and culture rich areas in the world, deeper into the country, small pueblos hold their look that was established by the French long ago. Hell, some of the most beautiful women in the world live in Guadalajara, Mexico- in this part of the world the elusive French-Mexican hybrid female exists...

You mean Spanish don't you? The French never touched Central or South America.

Oniya

Does that mean that French Guiana is a misnomer?  ???  May not be Mexico, but it is South America...
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Zakharra

 I'd forgotten about that. All of Central america and half of S. America is Spanish. 48% more is  Portagese ands the remaining 2% was French. Still, he's talking about Mexico which was Spanish completely.

The Overlord

Quote from: Aiden on April 26, 2009, 12:17:08 PM
If you are going to the dirty and poverty-stricken cities on the US-Mexico border I understand why you feel this way but that is like saying, you hate California after visiting Death Valley. Mexico has some of the BEST and culture rich areas in the world, deeper into the country, small pueblos hold their look that was established by the French long ago. Hell, some of the most beautiful women in the world live in Guadalajara, Mexico- in this part of the world the elusive French-Mexican hybrid female exists...

Problem is, the cartel-induced violence is occurring in more than little out of the way nooks of Mexico where tourists never go, and it's spilling over the US border.

It's not that Mexico is doing nothing about this; on the contrary the current administration has been moving to wipe out the cartels, who are fighting back. This is why we're seeing the recent violence.

All I'm saying is that I'm not keen on going back to a place where I could robbed and killed because I'm a freakin' gringo with dinero. Or just happening to be in the wrong place when they cartels decide to host a public shootout.



For the record, I want to visit Death Valley. Desert was one of the reasons I hit Vegas last year. Yeah the city is decent, the hotels and casinos are amazing, but I also got out into the outlying desert. That is, rocky high desert; not the rolling dune seas I really wanted to see, but desert nonetheless.

As Buzz Aldrin said from the Sea of Tranquility...magnificent desolation.

Darius

I sometimes work down along the Mexican border and another think you have to be careful of is who your cell phone links up to. I made one call back to the office from there and the south of the border provided charged $62 for a fifteen min call.

Luckily it was on a work phone so it was their problem, but something to consider if you're ever down there for pleasure.
When the avalanche has started, the pebbles no longer get to vote.
Ons and Offs
absence to make hearts grow fonder
Story ideas
Darius & His Ramblings
No one is an unjust villain in their own mind… we are all the hero of our own story.” A Lucio

Tsenta

Actually plenty of service providers are trying to convert their internet so you pay by how much you use rather than one monthly cost so if you're prone to long downloads and such your bill is going to be much higher. I think most providers are going to go against this though because it'd lose them too many customers, this isn't only in Mexico but they're trying to do this in the US as well.
There ain't no rest for the wicked.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis - "Thus always to tyrants"] - Marcus Junius Brutus The Younger.

Lithos

If you are on wireless (gprs and edge at least) and download things from network other than your operators, you are likely to have to pay insane roaming fees. You can even make a huge stack of them if you download from network x and it goes through networks y q and z as well. Here at least they say it with big letters in wireless interface cards and dongles: do not use on vacation aboard unless you know what your roaming fees will be.

Either there has been no warning or the person has been careless.
There is no innocence, only layers upon layers of guilt
--
Wiki | O&O | A&A | Game Search

OldSchoolGamer

Why anyone would try and download an entire movie via EDGE is beyond my understanding.  Like trying to drink a swimming pool through a straw. 

It had to have taken...well, let's be generous and say the network was running at 100kbps.  That's a tenth of a meg every eight seconds, so one meg every 80 seconds.  If the file was highly compressed (say, 200Mb), that's 80*200 seconds, or 16,000 seconds, 266.667 minutes, or a little under 4.5 hours.