How To Save Money On Calls And Data From A Cruise Ship

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I work on cruise ships, often several months at a time. When I returned home from a 7-week contract back in September & October 2009, I looked through my last 2 bills, and discovered that while that time, my phone was charged about 30 times for voicemail retrieval calls, at $4.98/minute, and I had about $250 of roaming charges on my bill. I used the phone a few times for the few days when we stopped in Hawaii, however otherwise during onboard the ship I only used the phone for the alarm clock function.

Before going furthermore, I should mention that while the previous year, I started getting calls during onboard another ship sailing out of Florida, and was surprised that the signal from land was so strong, however didn’t think too much about it. Then, when I got home later, and saw my bill had about $150 in roaming charges to Norway, I called up T-mobile, and told them I hadn’t been in Norway for several years, and wondered how these charges got on my bill. The customer service rep researched it, and asked me if I had been on a cruise ship recently, and I told her I had. She said that the cruise company had instituted a new satellite-cellphone service onboard the ship, which charged $4.98/minute, and that’s where these calls had originated. I paid those charges, and vowed not to make THAT mistake again.

This time I called t-Mobile, told them about these new charges, and that I had not made any cell phone calls onboard my ship. The rep said she was sorry nevertheless that her manager told her they couldn’t take the charges off my bill, it was a matter between the cruise line and their cellphone service provider. I said that was absurd and asked to speak to a manager, who told me he said he would take the 1-minute charges off, yet not the longer ‘calls’ – he seemed to be saying as a matter of fact that I had to have made those calls – I told him that I did not make one single call on that phone, and if that’s how they treat their clients, at the time cancel my service. I’ll either get a new phone now, or wait till I come back in May afterwards my then assignment.

I wondered how my phone could be charged for these calls when I did not use it at all to make ANY calls. With the naked eye I theorized that maybe someone had somehow obtained my phone and had made the calls on it. Nevertheless that didn’t make any sense, because there was only one number called, and that was my voicemail retrieval number – why would some stranger call my voicemail retrieval even once, much less 30 times? It just doesn’t make any sense.

To be told by T-Mobile that even if there is some weird glitch in the satellite phone system instituted by the cruise line, that my problem is with THE OTHER CELL-PHONE COMPANY and not T-Mobile, is the height of arrogance and shoddy treatment of their clients. The idea that I am responsible for charges that may have been incurred by maybe nobody, just because my phone was TURNED ON, is ludicrous.