We went to Florida end of March for Disneyworld and Universal with the kiddos. My husband called Rogers before we left Canada to get a roaming package put on his phone. He chooses a $40 package that gives him cheap data and texts without the roaming charges.
We cross the border - and his phone just stops working. My work phone, which I put a roaming package on, switches to AT&T. My personal phone, which I did not put a roaming package on but wasn't planning on using much, switches to AT&T. His phone? No connection. No switch. Nothing.
He tries calling Rogers but his phone won't even let him do that. He basically had a very expensive paper weight for the duration of the trip. He could take photos, and would upload to facebook and whatever at the hotel by wifi each night, but couldn't use his phone at all. Which sucks for us, because we have us and two children to look after, if we lost each other at all we would have no way to get a hold of each other in the park.
So we got back, and he calls Rogers, and he was told that "Oh, some employee put a roaming block on your phone two years ago!" (My husband has never left the country except for now, so no clue why that was). So they let him put a roaming PACKAGE on, but never thought to tell him that there was a block on.
So they tell him, they will credit him back the $40 roaming package. My husband says, he wants 2 weeks free from his normal plan too, seeing as he wasn't able to use his plan AT ALL for 2 weeks.
The worker pipes up "Uhm, but you said you were able to use wifi, so that's using your plan.."
Wha?
We laughed and explained that Wifi is not their plan, Wifi was given by the hotel and you could use any device without a plan with wifi, they can hardly take credit for that.
So we escalated it, and supervisor gave $35 off the monthly bill, which still isn't great, but we took it because we were headdesking at this point. Even she mentioned that he WAS able to use his phone on WIFI.
2. I ended up needing the emergency room in Florida. Now, I definitely feel for people wo can't afford care in the US. I'm lucky enough that my regular work benefits also provide 100% coverage for me and my family even on personal travel outside the country. So I called up my benefits, told them what hospital I was going to, they faxed over a letter saying I had 100% coverage for everything.
I got care, I went to leave, and the hospital asked for a $1,100 deposit or we couldn't go. They highlighted on their forms where I signed that said they could ask for a deposit "if insurance could not guarantee 100% coverage". I argued for about half an hour, that the fax they were sent that says right on it, 100% coverage, should legally mean I do NOT have to pay a deposit. They would not budge. I ended up calling my insurance and they had to write this huge document about 100% coverage meaning no copays, no out of network, no exclusions, etc, etc, etc, etc before the hospital would let me leave.
That was crazy. Now I'm back in Canada, where I ended up back in emergency, and got surgery and it was all free. I even told the girl at the hospital, in Canada I could go get in a huge accident, spend 3 months in the hospital getting countless surgeries and it would still be free when I walk out. She thought THAT was crazy. I thought her way was crazy. I know we have some meds and stuff that we do pay partially out of pocket for, but I wouldn't trade health care for anything, I can't imagine having to face a huge hospital bill on top of being sick, or having to choose between whether or not I could afford to get my kids or myself seen in an emergency.