Validas introduces free 411 directory assistance at (888) 444-8254
Would you pay $1.32 for a Google Search? How about shelling that out to ask for directions at a gas station or to find out the time from someone wearing a watch? Not likely. So why pay $1.32 for 411 directory assistance when you’re searching for a phone number?
In an analysis of over 18,000 cell phone lines, Validas found that about 10 percent of wireless customers have paid for the 411 service. The average 411 cost per line was $3.60, and the average cost for each 411 call was that pesky $1.32.
That ends right here. Validas has designed a completely free 411 service at (888) 444-8254. Especially in this rough economy, we firmly believe that no one should be nickel-and-dimed. Audit your cell bill with Validas and ensure that you’re getting a square deal on your wireless service.
The Limits of Unlimited Plans
It’s now commonly accepted that 80% of wireless users are subscribed to plans that don’t fit their usage. (Validas actually coined that stat, though others have since claimed it as their own).
Here’s an even juicier stat: 75% of people who subscribe to unlimited plans don’t need them.
In fact, we’ve found that 16% of unlimited subscribers use less than 500 plan minutes per month.
So if you’re on an unlimited plan now because you were a) scared into it by overage charges, b) thought it was easier to deal with than figuring out how many minutes you need, or c) just thought it sounded like a good deal, then give our “freeview” a shot at myvalidas.com and we’ll tell you if you’re one of the 3 of every 4 unlimited subscribers who’s paying a wireless carrier more than you need to for your service.
the Wireless Butler comes to the rescue!
A good friend (we’ll call him John) of one our associates at Validas uploaded a wireless bill he was concerned with. My president asked me to give him some WB (Wireless Butler), and I saw he saved a decent amount, 77% (great is 90%).
John then wanted to know how to tell AT&T to credit a plan mistake he encountered in their store. He had upgraded to a Blackberry and in changing his price plan, AT&T neglected to enter the Blackberry unlimited data plan. As a result, John wound up with almost $160 in pay-per-use overages. John sounded a tad frustrated with the situation and I told him a fundamental law I learned from being a rep at the store–the reps aren’t stupid; instead it’s the flawed systems they are using.
I told him to forget about it, adding that I would draft up an email for him to send to AT&T. In that email, I provided all the relevant information plus the evidence of the mistake to ensure that John didn’t have to do anything except copy, paste and send.
First email to AT&T:
Hello,
My account number is xxxxxxxxx
Name on bill: xxxxxxx
SSN: xxxxxxxx
I recently purchased a Blackberry (upgrade for my wife xxx-xxx-xxxx which has the $30. unlimited data plan) and the price plan has not been set up correctly. I requested to have unlimited data access but yet I have been charged $158.74 in Data Access. Please see a screenshot of my bill below illustrating this overage on my xxx-xxx-xxxx number.
Can you please make my mobile number xxx-xxx-xxxx the correct plan and change it to: Family Messaging Unlimited plus add Data Unlimited and credit my account $158.74 for the overage.
Please complete this, I cannot afford any more time to call or go into a store to have this fixed. I’ve spent enough time on this issue that is AT&T’s and I’m not satisfied with the billing service I’ve received so far.
Thank you
John
That should have gotten the job done. All the required authorization data and an explanation of John’s problematic situation should have made everything crystal clear. Yet, this was AT&T’s reply:
Dear Mr. xxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for taking the time to e-mail the new AT&T. We regret any problems you’ve encountered . My name is xxxxxxxx and I am happy to address your concerns.
The questions available to choose from at www.att.com/wireless are specific questions and serve a specific purpose; that purpose is to allow those questions that can be answered in a timely fashion via e-mail to be accessed online.
I also see that you are replying directly to the e-mails being sent to you, which provide no verification of your account. So that we may assist you further, please log into your online account at www.att.com/wireless and submit questions, concerns, and /or requests via our e-mail system. This will ensure that your account has been properly verified.
If the subject matter of your concern is not listed in the e-mail options, due to the nature of the issue and constraints of e-mail, please contact our customer service at 1-800-331-0500 or 611 from your AT&T phone for further assistance.
Again, I apologize for any misunderstanding or confusion that this may have caused.
We encourage you to visit our web site (www.att.com/wireless) often to view current and previous monthly statements, make payments and to shop for new product and service offerings. Thank you for allowing AT&T to serve as your wireless company. AT&T values you as a customer and we appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxx
AT&T
Online Customer Care Professional.
OK, so I just had to push them a little harder with the reality of this situation: AT&T will not allow a Blackberry to NOT have a data plan.
Hello xxxxxxx,
I understand but I am not calling in, or getting on a chat to spend more time on an issue created by AT&T. Regardless if I am xxxxx or not it is very obvious what the issues are on my account: It is my understanding that a blackberry MUST have a data plan (at least that’s what the sales rep told me), so why does my account have pay per use data charges?
Just like on the phone or on a chat, I can provide any information required to verify my account. Please send me what I should verify and I will reply with authorizing information.
Thanks
John
This did the job: John received a $160 credit on his account, a data plan for his Blackberry and AT&T keeps one more customer.
To sum up this entire story into one sentence: A billion dollar system did not catch or correct a mistake made by a human interacting with it, and the billion dollar company that owns the billion dollar system nearly profited as a result of that mistake.
The moral of the story is to audit your wireless bills through Validas to ensure that you’re getting a fair deal with your wireless carrier. Email admin@myvalidas.com and ask for the Wireless Butler if you’re ever in a pickle with your carrier…I’ll give you some WB.
Delighted to serve you,
Wireless Butler
Validas featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer
Consumer 10.0:
Web service can
help cut monthly
cell phone bills
By Jeff Gelles
Inquirer Business Columnist
Dissatisfied wireless customers got their due last week.
After years of complaints about early-termination fees, the Federal Communications Commission finally showed signs of a serious inquiry into the charges. And the shortcomings of AT&T Wireless’ network, familiar to disgruntled iPhone users, drew wide attention for an ironic reason: Apple’s decision to stick with AT&T when it launches its eagerly awaited iPad mobile computer this spring.
But today’s column isn’t about dissatisfied wireless customers. It’s about the vast majority of the nation’s 276 million wireless subscribers who are at least modestly happy with a technology that has changed so many aspects of their day-to-day lives.
Happy, I’d venture, but for one thing: their monthly bills.
CTIA, an industry group that tracks that astounding number of subscribers, says they bring in an average of about $550 a year in revenue, or a total of $151 billion.
If you feel like you’re contributing a little too much to that pie, you may find help from a Texas start-up, Validas, and its Web site: www.MyValidas.com.
Validas has just 10 employees, and its online tool has an occasional rough edge. But it’s easy to see why it’s already finding a niche in evaluating bills for consumers, businesses, and even one of the major national carriers. Validas helps customers live up to its motto: “Fight back against your cell phone bill!”
How it works
For the techno-literate, using MyValidas is fairly simple. If you already manage your bill online, all you have to do is save it as a PDF file and upload that to the site. Alternatively, you can ask MyValidas to use your log-in and import your bill.
For free, MyValidas will give you a basic analysis of your potential savings, along with tips on how to save money by avoiding needless charges.
For example, it will flag calls to 411, which cost close to $2 each. (Its tip, which you may have read about here before: Use one of the free, ad-supported services instead, such as 1-800-373-3411 – also known as 1-800-FREE-411.)
MyValidas will also look for charges for services that subscribers may not really want, such as $2.99 a month that several carriers charge for “Roadside Assistance.”
“Sometimes, people are mistakenly signed up,” says Validas cofounder Todd Dunphy. As someone who started nine years ago with Verizon in one of its retail stores and worked his way up to managing large accounts, Dunphy knows how such mistakes are made.
But MyValidas’ greatest value is for those who buy its full-fledged service – something Dunphy says visitors do more than half the time when the free analysis shows more than $5 a month in savings. The service costs just $5 for an individual or family subscriber, “so it’s a basic return-on-investment calculation,” he says.
Those customers will see how MyValidas slices and dices their bills, using its analytical software and, crucially, its access to the national phone-number database.
The most common problem it identifies? Customers who overbuy or underbuy when choosing a basic plan.
Those who underbuy subject themselves to what Sprint used to call “ugly overages”: high per-minute charges for calls, per-message fees for texts, or per-kilobyte charges for data. Those who overbuy throw away dollars each month, too, by paying for more service than they actually need – even with a sizable margin of error.
MyValidas doesn’t just identify your mistakes. It tells you how to fix them, based on your specific usage patterns.
Perhaps you’d benefit by switching to a service such as Sprint’s “Any Mobile, Anytime” plan, which offers unlimited calls to any wireless number. Or maybe all you need is to make a change at your current carrier – say, to a plan that starts nighttime calls at 7 p.m. instead of 9.
To make the process simpler, MyValidas even includes an “e-mail wizard.” With the touch of a button, you can ask your carrier to make changes it recommends.
A guinea pig’s savings
I tried out Validas’ online tool last week. I suspected my family wasted money on wireless service, but was surprised when MyValidas said we could save $40 a month by switching to a lower-cost AT&T plan – a little less than the $51 in savings MyValidas identifies on an average bill.
Could I have figured that out myself? Undoubtedly, since MyValidas’ basic recommendation was that I take advantage of a service that AT&T has introduced since we opened our account: its “A List,” which enables subscribers to get unmetered calls to the handful of other carriers’ wireless numbers they call most frequently.
Dunphy said such recommendations reflect one of MyValidas’ key strengths: its ability to analyze your bill in light of the steady stream of changes in plans offered by the nation’s largest carriers. (If you use a prepaid, flat-fee service such as Cricket or Metro PCS, MyValidas cannot help.)
“When carriers introduce new plans, the one thing they never do is communicate to their users whether they’d be beneficial to them,” he says.
Dunphy doesn’t accuse the carriers of anything untoward. Contrary to the developers’ expectations, actual errors in rating calls have shown up in fewer than 1 percent of the one million account records Validas has analyzed since its 2007 launch.
Instead, Dunphy believes the problem is that the carriers are focused on building their businesses and maintaining market share against the steady churn of customers lured by competitors.
“They’re all about networks, devices, and services,” he says. “The bill just isn’t a top priority.”
For many consumers, though, the bill is just that: a priority. If you’re in that category, you may want to give MyValidas.com a try.
Contact columnist Jeff Gelles at 215-854-2776 or jgelles@phillynews.com
At least this store is warning you before they rip you off for the next 2 years.
The carriers step up for calls to Haiti, but are they delivering?
America’s largest wireless carriers and their customers have stepped up and given back to Haiti in the recent weeks following the devastating January 12 earthquake. Verizon Wireless’ users, for example, have pledged over $7.8 million in aid to Haiti through texting campaigns. The carrier itself is helping by advancing a good portion of that money to the Red Cross immediately rather than waiting the standard 90 days. Additionally, Verizon Wireless recently announced that it is waiving the long distance charges for its U.S. customers calling Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake, from January 12 – 31.
Very altruistic. But with the massive volume of calls to Haiti, the risk for bureaucratic inefficiency increases and mistakes may be made. So, who ensures that the promises of free calling to Haiti are delivered upon? Validas. Come to our site and audit your wireless bill through our service. Besides reducing the average cell bill by over 20 percent (or by around $450 annually), we also provide a full record of your calling details so you can double check that your carrier is not charging you for calling Haiti if they made that promise. With over one hundred thousand confirmed dead, the earthquake has taken an unimaginable toll on the Haitian people and their friends and family across the world. While it seems incredibly petty to discuss something as comparably mundane as a wireless bill, the absolute last thing U.S. customers calling Haiti need are massive cell bills. We’re here to try and prevent that from happening.
how can the new verizon wireless and at&t plans benefit me?
The dust has settled, the buzz has died and two things remain ……
Verizon Wireless, At&t and Sprint fight and reporters/bloggers/re-sellers/analysts attempt to figure out yesterday’s wireless carrier plan offerings. As you may have read yesterday or today Big Blue (AT&T) and Big Red (Verizon Wireless) launched new plans that in many cases will help the American consumer save some cash. Is that a big story? Yes. But the plans are not the story. Validas is. Why? Because new carrier plans coming to the market rarely answer one simple question that most American consumers need answered: How can these new Verizon Wireless and AT&T plans benefit me?
It’s 2010 and it is laughable that solutions like comparison charts, surveys, and questions like “how many minutes do you use” are the tools that Americans have to evaluate the new plans. Again it’s 2010, not 1990, and the last we checked, the American consumer and family don’t have time to add decisions to an already full plate. How can a survey or a comparison chart analyze the 2000 calls on my five line bill? How can today’s old school tools figure out my A-list or figure out my Friends and Family or figure out my Mobile to Mobile minutes versus my land line minutes? Today’s 1990’s-esque solutions cannot perform the analysis needed to allow the American consumer to answer the only question that counts, again, “how can new carrier plans benefit me?”
Validas makes the decision for you. The software was built and is maintained by ex-wireless carrier billing experts who left their jobs to “fix the problem.” We work tirelessly everyday so you can enjoy your phone and enjoy the services your carriers provide; your bill, your plan, your cost …… WE GOT THAT. Come try the service and don’t sweat today’s plan of the week–it will have changed by next week, and Validas has your back.
Help the haitian earthquake victims with a text
In the aftermath of the tragic earthquake that has devastated Haiti, the world has risen to the call and responded with aid. Governments across the globe have sent money, doctors, medical supplies, food, water, and military personnel. Private citizens have also rallied, donating to this absolutely necessary cause. CNN quotes the Red Cross as estimating that three million Haitians, about one third of the nation’s population, “were affected by the quake.” Even a casual glance at the news conveys the severity of this disaster. Haunting images of the dead, the displaced, and the destitute fill our papers and our television screens. This suffering spurs us into action.
A recent post on this blog advocated exercising significant caution when dealing with so-called “premium text messaging” and provided examples of how uncontrollable and expensive these premium texts can sometimes be. Well, as a fair balance, here’s an example of a terrific type of premium text messaging that allows us to help Haitian earthquake victims. Just text “Haiti” to 90999 to make a $10 donation that will be charged through your cell phone bill. Thus far, the texting campaign has generated in excess of $20 million in donations, a record-breaking amount for charitable premium text messages but nowhere near enough to adequately help the Haitian people. There is more work to be done, and more lives to be saved. Text 90999 to make your difference.
Are “premium” text messaging charges really what you want?
If you review your wireless bill and discover “premium” text messaging charges, be aware that these generally refer to either billing for services (like voting on American Idol through texting) or subscriptions to features like jokes or ringtones. Using often convoluted marketing and miniscule fine print, companies tend to target teens, leaving family plans particularly vulnerable to incurring these premium text fees. With that said, it is just an innocuous reflection of our world’s advanced wireless capabilities when, aware of the costs involved, you use your phone to vote on your favorite TV show (usually $1 per use) or intentionally purchase the latest Lady Gaga ringtone. The problems start, however, when we sign up for deals such as “free” ringtones without reading the fine print detailing that ordering the ringtones constitutes accepting the terms of a paid subscription to the ringtone service. In some cases, scammers have even gotten hold of wireless numbers and begun billing them through the wireless providers until the charges are halted. Your cell company will not do this automatically, either; close review of your wireless bills is essential. Audit your cell bill with Validas, where we generate savings for the average consumer of around $450 annually.
Websites to take notice of that are connected with premium text messaging include the following list. Watch for references to them on your wireless bill:
http://www.solow.com/how_to_play/play_mobile.html
http://www.personalpsychic.com/faq
http://www.lifecoachexperts.com/
http://www.predicto.com/index.cfm/fuse/faq
http://www.funmobile.com/catalog/ringtone
http://www.lovesoulmate.net/
http://mozoot.biz/
A T-Mobile store in one of America's biggest malls just before Christmas. ...Did T-Mo get coal and onions in their stocking this year or what?