Topic: $85,000 cell phone bill

[cleveland]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/61440

I'd fight it to the end!

[my78k]

debated whether or not to reply to this one as I work for the parent company of Bell Mobility (Bell Canada).

I am definitely on 2 minds on this one...part of me says he's right for freaking out but part of me says he should understand is contract. As for his comment that he is pissed about the company not informing him....well it is his phone and plan after all. Since when is it the company's responsibility to inform you that you are screwing up...

If you leased a car and then returned it with more kms than you had been alotted on the car you would have to pay for it.

They did drop his bill to about a 75th of what he actually racked up. Don't forget that tis usage DOES cost the company money. Why should all other subscribers pay for his lack of knowledge (and believe me ALL customers will pay for that kind of thisng).

Dennis

[cleveland]

Even with a family plan, internet, and all the bells and whistles, I find it hard to believe someone would have a cell phone bill of more then a couple hundred.  Seems to me they are trying to screw him on the fine print.

[seaweb11]

Shouldn't the company have been concerned his phone might have been stolen?
Unless of course there are a lot of $85,000 bills coming through their system.

[Pinhead]

Apparently he didn't do much research... There are ways to "fool" the phone company to give you free PAM service as long as you have an unlimited data plan. Simply disabling secondary modem NAI would've solved this problem before it even started.

[Raul CB750K1]

When I traveled to the States, as soon as I got into my hotel room (Wingate Inn at Memphis), after 20 hour or so of traveling, I just phoned my wife to tell I arrived safely. The call lasted two or three minutes.
Next morning, I checked the bill in the TV -I was curious about the price-. I was astonished to discover it was $30!! I complained at the hotel desk and they disclaimed saying it was the telephone company responsability, and that they couldn't know in advance how high the price could be.

I retorted saying that they have the responsability to inform the customer about the price per minute, either them or the telephone company. I was going to be reimbursed the hotel bill by my company so I didn't fight anymore, but it really pissed me off.


What I mean is that there was no information about the price per minute. Sometimes -not always- the customer is right.

[HITMAN]

There is no excuse for NOT reading the fine print, and if you can't, have someone do it for you.  I leave the country regularly and use Verizon all the time, and have never had a problem.  First I will admit that there are different plans in and out of country, and if you don't choose correctly it can cost you big.  Second I have used it as a data line, but I had that feature turned on temporarily when I knew there wouldn't be WiFi nearby.

BUT on another note, if you use your credit card excessively they shut you down for suspicion of theft until you call.  Guess Ma-Bell never really went away???

[Raul CB750K1]

My credit card company sends me a mobile message everytime I spend more than 300 euro in one single purchase. The idea is to inform the cardholder just in case he/she is not the one using the card.

[ethos42]

This is crap.

Pure and utter crap.

Saying the guy really owes more than the company would charge another customer who has a plan for something is crap.

Look at it this way... Is it really in the company's best interest in the long run to charge someone more than they would if the customer was on the correct plan?

Let's say there's a data plan that offers 100mb a month for $10 with a $1 per MB overage fee, but for $100 you get unlimited data. As soon as you hit the next plan cost, you should be automatically bumped to that.

I know this isn't how it is, but to me it seems a bit shady that I can get charged 50c a minute if I go over my 500 minutes, but had I paid $10 more I would have doubled my minutes.

Sprint started a plan like this, you sign up for the cheapest one, and they adjust your minutes every month, never charging you more than $10 per step in plan.

[74cb750]

Seems this sort of thing happens way too often.

Our great congress did an investigation of these overcharges several years ago....and just like their investigation of "suspected overcharges to the public" in the recent oil/gasoline pricing .... Yep! same result. Nothing.

Good luck with your bill. Let us know if we can help in any constructive way.
peace,
michel