Hanging up on killer 411 fees
How often do you dial 411 from your cell phone? Are you aware of how much your carrier charges for directory assistance? Do you think it’s fair? Tell us what you think, and how you avoid steep 411 charges.
I have Verizon Wireless and I now pay $4 a month for their SuperPages service. This gives me unlimited director assistance as well as driving directions, movie times, maps, etc. It’s a lot less than paying for directory assistance and a lot more valuable.
411 fees are outrageous for just a 5 second info. Something has got to be done about these extra phone charges telephone companys are charging. 7.9 million is revenue is completely ridiculous.
I NEVER use 411 and i’m a former info. operator. User fees are fair. There are a number of free information services, however, the data bases are NOT updated daily as are AT&Ts. You truly get what you pay for.
I had to laugh, I really did.
Only a complete idiot pays nearly $2.00 just to be told a telephone number that, with a bit more, dare I say it, WORK, can be looked up on the Internet, or (God forbid) an actual phone book.
The old saying is more appropriate than ever.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
If you want to employ a human interface, be prepared to pay for it. I don’t believe any of the cry-babies out there would work for free
There should be a way we could call our local home telephone company on our cell phones (for those who have a home based telephone service- we should have a choice) and be billed for telephone number( inquiry) information calls rather than be forced to use our cell phone carrier.
IT’S A RIP-OFF!! THIS IS INFO THAT THE PHONE COMPANY ALREADY HAS ON HAND FROM PAID SUBSCRIBERS!! IT’S LIKE RE-GIFTING. IT DIDN’T COST THEM ANYTHING TO GET ANY AND RECHARGE PEOPLE TO GET IT AGAIN. 1-800-GOOG-411 IS THE WAY TO GO. IT’S FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
411 IS FREE FROM PAY PHONE. HOW MANY OF DID YOU USE IT? WHEN I WANT TO FIND SOMETHING I DO NOT USE MY CELL, I USE PAYPHONE, IT IS FREE FOR 411.
Another trick to avoid 411 is , use car GPS, or navigation system, it has so much info – including restaurants , movie theatre, hospital, gas stations etc, and it is ALL FREE. Just one time cost of buying instrument.BE SMART
google-411 is copying 1800free411 .
I have been using 800free411 for along time. Google-411 just come out recently.
When I test google-411, it does not work
very well. It can’t find all the listing.
800free411 give all kind of listing.
It’s absolutely ridiculous. Bring regulation back, since all of the carriers have abused deregulation.
I used to have great service from PacBell on my home phone. 411/Directory Assist.–we got 2 free per mo., then 25c each. NOW that it’s AT&T (bigger is NOT better), it’s $1.99 for my home phone AND my cell (both are AT&T now) in So. Calif., even though you say $1.79. I called to complain (I’m a “Senior”); girl I got I could hardly understand, she had a bad headset, I could hear lots of noisy people in the background (latest technology?). She tried to tell me we got some “free calls” each month, I said, “Not according to my bill in my hand”; she checked with a supervisor and she was wrong….So I’m trying the “freebies”. Service, a thing of the past—Good service: Enterprise Rental Cars for one; my local teachers’ credit union another. But AT&T, no way. Airplanes too, I took a 5 hour flight to Hawaii and not even a meal! Had to bring my own, yuk!
Are they fair? Sure. Are they overpriced – absolutely! Here’s my solution: Learn how to text. By texting the letters GOOGL into the To: line, and entering the name of the place of business plus an approximate zip code, you will be texted the address and phone number of that business. Unlimited texting, or, 10 cents per text is a whole lot cheaper than what the wireless folks are charging!
We are living in a hipocrat country and this is just begining of some of them. Wait and watch for more to come.
It’s a criminal and that’s how the cell
phone companies screwing up their
customers. It should be stopped by
some authorities.
I had Sprint, and found that most listings I requested were not even in their stupid database! Numbers that I could lookup through land-line information weren’t available, and they would tell me there was no listing. But they would prohibit you from dialing through to local information, instead forcing you to use their service and charging an arm and a leg for it.
I got an iPhone…I use the Google feature to find listings, which give me address and phone number at no additional charge; it’s included in the free data feature…I haven’t had to call information and pay ridiculous fees since I switched!
Sprint should be SLAPPED by the FTC for forcing people to use their sub-par directory assistant. Oh yeah…then when they give you a wrong number it takes a whole billing cycle…sometimes TWO to credit you back the fee! RIDICULOUS!
Its real simple put the cell phone away..Im 61 yrs. old and i built a good bussiness using a regular phone at my home and office. I only have a cell phone for emergency calls, and that one i only buy minutes of air time. I pay for my cordless phone one charge and call 24 hours a day, internet service, and long distance. one fee and the extra money i save over the 10 yaers not paying the crazy cell phone prices goes back into my bussiness. Who cares if some one see,s you talking on a cell phone in public. Cell phones are a FAD not a nescesity for most of the people talking.
If you are paying for 411 service, so what? If you don’t like it, there are free alternatives. Back when it was totally free I saw people who would call 411 when the phone book was completely within arm’s reach. No sympathy here. Pay the market price for 411 and maybe I won’t have to pay so much for regular service.
Its the people,s falt that these co,s. make so much money, and people have to pay it. Its real simple set the phone down.Every where you go someone is talking on a cell phone. 95% of the chatter is junk. The industrys have conned people into thinking that talking on a cell phone is a way to look good in public, and people have fallen for it. at the tune of billions of dollors a year. 97% of the conversations can wait untile that person can get home and talk on there CODRLESS PHONE, and use a phone book.
It is a plain rip off. Did I read it rigth? 7 billion a yr? come on… who is putting and end to all this?
Directory assistance has become so expensive. It’s outrageous and egrigious. 90% of the time now I look for the number on whitepages.com. There are very few numbers I need that I can’t obtain here for free.
I’m considering filing a class action law suit due to “accidental” 411 directory calls.ATT will often have a 411 directory button that users are unable to turn off. Consequently, many accidental calls to the directory are made by just putting your phone in your pocket. I never call 411 directory, but still manage to get $4-$7 dollar a month in charges from misdials
C’Mon we live in an opportunistic society!! If you have a need and I have a service, you will pay what I ask for and if it is of a value to you you will buy!
Why be mad just at 411, how about this yearly auto inspection costing $40++, what a scam, 10 mins hook up to a machine run the car, and you have the report, i.e, $240/hour for this service.
Ever buy a house, look at all the charges we have to pay to a bank and or title company, $75 for a delivery fee.. list goes on!!
Its a freedom to get what you can from whosoever you can!! the mighty $$$$$$$$.
Ben from Indiana has it nailed. It’s ridiculus that companies take our payments and then try to charge us for paying. I’m old enough to remember when you could pay a bill or receive a service (like a phone number) for free. I refuse to pay whenever possible. If I have to send an old fashioned check to pay a bill and not get slammed an added fee, so be it.
It’s called ROBBERY which is a direct result of GREED.
Just look at what the airlines get away with!! We used to be “served” for our $$. Now they just “charge”.
Businesses that want people to call them should pay for the information-they would get a reduced price, I’m sure. I won’t call information and pay those prices. I may just end up not being a perfect little consumer.
OK. Here is how I see it. My phone number is MY phone number. I haven’t granted any license to any of these cell carriers to share that information. So if they want to give out MY phone number, they should split the take with me. It is MY data they are selling not theirs. Make any sense?
No, it’s not fair. But then, it’s not fair what I have to pay Starbucks for what I could make at home. When I choose to pay, I’m just another American Fool. As for an urgent need for a number: yeah, I’m willing to pay that. If I just call 411 for convenience, shame on me.
The best deal for 411 comes from MetroPCS. For a flat $2 per month you can make unlimited use. While they won’t connect you after giving you the number once, they do text you with the number simultaneously!
411 fees Shameful!Wake up real people, while you go without things you really need just to give these porkers more money than they can ever spend shows what they think of real people, these people are considerd pigs and the government lets them get away with it! so called legal highway robbery
This is just another way that the American public gets ripped off everyday by big business and the Fed Government. We need BIG changes in the way business is conducted in America. There is too much GREED.
There is another alternative try FREE 411 1-800-373-3411, you have to listen to a brief advertisement but it is free information
It’s not a matter of ‘fairness’ so much as a policy of incrementalization that almost ALL companies are using to nickel and dime ever-higher profits out of us. The Telecommunications Bill written by and paid for by the telecommunications industry 10 years ago needs to be completely re-written.
That being said, we can still vote with our wallets… don’t use these services! Program numbers into your cell-phone. Cut down on the ‘extras,’ using bare-bones services only. As a society, we’ve become lazy, and are willing to believe that we’re only paying “a little bit more” when in fact we’re being systematically gouged.
I don’t use the 411 system anymore. If you call 1-800-373-3411 it is a free call for information. I use all of the time now. You can even use it from your home phone.
Yes, the fees are too high. The wireless companies should provide some 411 calls at no charge and a small service charge for the remainder.
I belive the big scam of the $1.79 charge is that you are charged just for connecting – even if you never speak to the operator. If you want to be treated like an idiot call Sprint customer service and inquire about it.
Are they fair? Sure. Are they reasonable? Of course not.
What’s the difference between $1.79 for a call lookup and 25 cents for an 8-byte text message? Or a $15 fee to pay by phone? Or a $3 fee for talking to a teller at your bank? Not a thing. They’re all symptoms of Americans being all too willing to say “oh well” and pay an unjustified fee for something.
As long as a big enough percentage of the US population keeps going along with fees like this, nothing will ever change. All of you, quit complaining about it and START REFUSING TO PAY!
Sure they’re fair, you always have the option to look the number you want online before you leave you house, work, etc. It is a convenience, not a necessity, therefore you should pay for it. Should you not have to pay more for restaurant food than food you cook for yourself? Should you not have to pay more for a car that is fully loaded with convenient features like navigation and power everything over a car with none of that. Sure you should. So if you forget to look up a number before you leave you have several options for free service: Stop and ask, go back home, find a public pay phone with a phone book. Sure they are inconvenient options…… but hey they are free. If you want convenience your going to pay for it. To avoid it all, just be prepared and look up numbers and addresses, and schedules before you leave where ever you are (internet, phone book). And there if you have the internet on your phone then USE IT, and don’t call 411.
NO! I do not thing they are fair. They are ridiculous. I only use it when I am in desperate need of a phone number. Just like a whole lot of other things, we are being gouged by companies like telephone, electric, groceries, gas. We are paying $6.00 a gallon for milk in Hawaii that not only is not from local dairies but is already PAST the freshness expiraton date AND HAS BEEN HOMOGINIZED MORE THAN ONCE! I wonder what it is going to take to turn this trend around. It is on a downward death spirial and all of America is at their mercy!
The wireless carriers, like the Internet isp’s, have the user over the barrel. They charge what they want. There needs to be government regulation NOW!!!
I don’t have a problem with carrier charging a “small” fee, 10-20 cents. Service fees are getting way out of hand. It’s a rip off. That’s why I use Internet or the old Yellow Pages.
411 fees are ridiculous. Call someone and have them look it up for you on the internet or wait til you get to where you are going and do it yourself. $7B! That’s crazy!
I used to spend a lot of money on 411, until I discovered Google SMS. I’ll text message for anything from a 411 listing to word definitions. Of course, now I have the internet on my phone so I go straight to the web.
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you can actually be free from those hideous charges of 411 and get the information you need thru this 1-800-411 SAVE. I just learned about this and it amazed me coz its really free. well, there’s jus a short advertisement that you have to bear with before the connection but i dont mind, its free anyway. and i must say that they’re fast and accurate because you get to speak to a live person intead of a machine..also a great way to save isn’t it?