As much as I despise overreaching Government regulation, there should be a law in place that regulates overage charges. Like, if your bills hits 2x its regular amount, your carrier should auto dial you to let you know what is going on.

I cannot find a strong enough argument as to why that is a bad idea.

nekom: She needs to work her way up the CSR chain and file complaints with various agencies. Giving them negative PR doesn't hurt either. You can always win if you make enough noise, make them want you to go away.

My old boss has a 13 year old daughter and she used mommy's phone for a few nights to text a few of her friends...they did not have a texting plan...he received the bill a month later and some how over the course of 3-4 nights she racked up something like $3000 in texting charges. He got them to knock the bill down to $500 and he made her work off that $500. This was in a restaurant, so he tells us this at our preshift meeting and lets us know that she will be working for us for a few days...he made her wash dishes from like 3pm to 5pm for about 2 weeks. Funny as hell to see her crying and carrying on about how unfair her punishment was, the dishes are disgusting, its hot...blah, blah, blah...funny as hell!

impaler: How can you despise "overreaching Government regulation" and also support it?

I support practical legislation and consumer protection, like the CARD act or the passengers bill of rights, laws that actually do something. But I hate laws that are "feel good" or reactionary to a specific event and or unique tragedy that make the event illegal or create a harsher punishment...that somehow claim that if such harsh legislation existed in the first place, this tragedy wouldn't have happened.

All that being said, it is deceptive at best that cell phone carriers allow your bill to skyrocket 2000% without any notification to you. Credit card issuers have all kinds of fraud prevention in place to block large and erroneous charges and they go through great efforts to alert their customers about problems with their accounts. I fail to see why cell phone carriers do not have something like this in place. Massive overages are obliviously part of their business model, otherwise they would have done something about it at this point, it is not like the technology isn't there.

Yes, we can argue personal responsibility, you can log into the website, check your cell phone account and see what is going on. I am just saying that at some point, social responsibility on the carriers part exists somewhere, there needs to be a willingness to meet the consumer half way or we need to see about getting the government involved. I support big business, but I also support protection of the consumer.

SurfaceTension: Had to come back and post in here. Just had a mis-understanding about my account was supposed to have unlimited texting and didn't have it for like 2 weeks. Got them to reduce my bill by the amount they were charging me (a little over $300) for the texting I did do. All it took was one phone call and being nice to the customer service rep.

I have also always had very good luck with them. My mom took her phone to Canada, and within two hours I had an email from them letting me know that (in case I didn't) and asking me to call them to add the plan that covered data in Canada temporarily so she didn't run up an enormous bill. Also when she went way over on her texting, they texted me to let me know one of the phones on our plan was over and to call them to update her plan. Both times I called and the rep backdated the bill with the new plan, which reduced it by a lot. The one time they couldn't do that right away was right at the end of the billing cycle, and that rep told me to call back once the bill was released and they'd fix it with a credit. I called back, and that's exactly what they did.

I think there's more here than the article says.

Sounds like mom figured out the hard way how to make it stream. My guess is she was messing around, started up some radio or video option and backed out of the app but never stopped the streaming.

Monkey's razor says her mum downloaded porn from the internet.

I've entered into several contracts with them over the years so that my mother and younger sister could each have cell phones. (I have a separate plan with another provider) They couldn't afford the phones on their own.

Then you need to have the big girl talk with them: "You're a big girl and you can pay your own bills."
"But I can't afford it!"
"Then you can't have it."

See how that works? It's call being fiscally responsible."

Lady also wondered why the phones battery was completely drained and why there was lotion in the crevices after her son used it to, "make a call".

I think mom hit a wrong button somewhere (she's obviously not very phone savvy) and piled on the Internet charges by accident. However I would like to know exactly what was downloaded or whatever and when.

As was pointed out, the phone is completely capable of doing what they charged her for. Ignorance of how to do something does not mean a lack of doing it. I would honestly believe she did it completely by accident, and knocking off half the bill is quite sporting of them. Deriding a company for farking up on your own, AND they are willing to drop a lot of the charges, is not bad customer service.

Work for a cable/phone provider sometime, people throw a lot of lies your way. Like an account that had it notated the woman's mother had died on 3 separate occasions.

Sounds like mom has a streaming porn addiction.

When I switched from Alltel I had some problems... including them saying that I didn't have a text plan and such... Soooo my lifes goal is to over abuse that phone and texting to make sure that I rack up enough to amke my money back and then some...

I hit 5000 texts last month did it in less then 2 years

Pocket Ninja: I was also going to say something about The Consumerist being a fetid swamp of moldering liquefied shiat, but I think that's been covered in the past.

Yeah, what the fark are these people at the Consumerist always complaining about? It's not like the amorphous, faceless nature of corporations allow sociopaths to inflict massive amounts of suffering on society at large and get off scotfree.

"The phone where the charges originated is my mother's; I know for a fact that she doesn't know how to use the internet on the phone"

And right then and there, your argument was lost.

\I don't know how to use a gun, but my cousin got shot.
\It's not manslaughter, i swear

The Onion is prophetic: The phone where the charges originated is my mother's; I know for a fact that she doesn't know how to use the internet on the phone, nor would she stream anything. My sister has her own phone, and an MP3 player for all her music. Moreover, both my mom and my sister tell me they weren't using the phone for that purpose.

Um, her phone's capable of streaming. The mom's not capable of getting it to work, though.

/just pointing out the misleading headline; has no bearing on my opinion as to whether she should be liable for the full or even 50% of the bill. I'm still undecided.

If only there was some menu option on this phone that could be activated that would tell us how much data has been transmitted and received. Perhaps put in the Recent Calls area maybe on option #5. It could be called "View Timers" or something similar.

Big Cheese Make Hair Go Boom: nekom: She needs to work her way up the CSR chain and file complaints with various agencies. Giving them negative PR doesn't hurt either. You can always win if you make enough noise, make them want you to go away.

My old boss has a 13 year old daughter and she used mommy's phone for a few nights to text a few of her friends...they did not have a texting plan...he received the bill a month later and some how over the course of 3-4 nights she racked up something like $3000 in texting charges. He got them to knock the bill down to $500 and he made her work off that $500. This was in a restaurant, so he tells us this at our preshift meeting and lets us know that she will be working for us for a few days...he made her wash dishes from like 3pm to 5pm for about 2 weeks. Funny as hell to see her crying and carrying on about how unfair her punishment was, the dishes are disgusting, its hot...blah, blah, blah...funny as hell!

So...2 hours a day over two weeks...hmmm...assuming it's all 7 days per week, she was a $18/hr dishwasher.

tansa: 3 words

Sprint. Simply. Everything.

Never a problem.

This. I have Sprint and share a family plan, so I don't have to worry about that kind of thing.

I'm waving the bullshiat flag over this excuse. I've had a limited minutes plan with Verizon for years, and every time I get close to the limit I get a daily text from them telling me I'm going over my limit and am about to/am incurring extra charges. In fact, yesterday for the second time this year I received a phone call from Verizon telling me I was over my plan limit.

My guess is granny discovered muzak streaming, and is now horrified to discover that it's not covered in her plan.

/CSB

I cancelled my plan when I moved abroad (Mexico) and was waived the cancellation fee since they don't provide coverage in that area (yes, you can actually do this, even if moving somewhere in the State that doesn't have coverage). I frequently came back to the States and on one of those trips found a collections note for over a year of not using a service that had never been cancelled. Called 'em up, same shiat, I said "Fark you, I ain't pay'in shiat!". Still haven't, I'll happily explain the situation to any creditor if/when it affects my credit.

Don't most data capable phones have some sort of usage meter built in? It should be pretty easy to check the phone and see if any data stream was initiated during that time period.

/shrug

Brandyelf: SurfaceTension: Had to come back and post in here. Just had a mis-understanding about my account was supposed to have unlimited texting and didn't have it for like 2 weeks. Got them to reduce my bill by the amount they were charging me (a little over $300) for the texting I did do. All it took was one phone call and being nice to the customer service rep.

I have also always had very good luck with them. My mom took her phone to Canada, and within two hours I had an email from them letting me know that (in case I didn't) and asking me to call them to add the plan that covered data in Canada temporarily so she didn't run up an enormous bill. Also when she went way over on her texting, they texted me to let me know one of the phones on our plan was over and to call them to update her plan. Both times I called and the rep backdated the bill with the new plan, which reduced it by a lot. The one time they couldn't do that right away was right at the end of the billing cycle, and that rep told me to call back once the bill was released and they'd fix it with a credit. I called back, and that's exactly what they did.

I think there's more here than the article says.


I agree that something doesn't add up. She needs to track down the usage. Times, dates, phone line, etc. It could be a billing error, but more likely I'm guessing someone downloaded/streamed something they though was free...and are playing dumb.

And this would be the reason I continue to use only prepaid mobile phones. No surprises, no bills, no worries. If the money isn't there, the phone doesn't work. There's no possibility of overcharging for something. You can get them in Android flavors, too.

If only Apple and their iPhone carriers would get with the program and make a prepaid iPhone, I'd be using one. As it stands, if I want to get back into smartphones I'll be going back to Android out of necessity. $30 a month beats $60 per month for an iPhone, too.

It's too bad. I like iOS. I have a ton of iOS apps. I'd prefer to use it, but they don't seem to want my business.

Pocket Ninja: The Onion is prophetic: Um, her phone's capable of streaming. The mom's not capable of getting it to work, though.

Yeah, this is what I was going to say. Except that "not capable of getting it to work" really means either "didn't know what she was doing and doesn't want to be charged for a mistake" (if she's honest) or "knew what she was doing and wants to pretend ignorance" (if she's not).

I was also going to say something about The Consumerist being a fetid swamp of moldering liquefied shiat, but I think that's been covered in the past.

It's good to see some green in these threads. Thanks for never letting me down, PN.

rawbert7: I'll happily explain the situation to any creditor if/when it affects my credit.

I don't think it works that way. A decline is a decline, why should they care or want to work with you at all?

ihatedumbpeople: Big Cheese Make Hair Go Boom: nekom: She needs to work her way up the CSR chain and file complaints with various agencies. Giving them negative PR doesn't hurt either. You can always win if you make enough noise, make them want you to go away.

My old boss has a 13 year old daughter and she used mommy's phone for a few nights to text a few of her friends...they did not have a texting plan...he received the bill a month later and some how over the course of 3-4 nights she racked up something like $3000 in texting charges. He got them to knock the bill down to $500 and he made her work off that $500. This was in a restaurant, so he tells us this at our preshift meeting and lets us know that she will be working for us for a few days...he made her wash dishes from like 3pm to 5pm for about 2 weeks. Funny as hell to see her crying and carrying on about how unfair her punishment was, the dishes are disgusting, its hot...blah, blah, blah...funny as hell!

So...2 hours a day over two weeks...hmmm...assuming it's all 7 days per week, she was a $18/hr dishwasher.

Considering that her daddy is the boss, I think that's pretty normal in this country. Nepotism goes a long way toward letting the wealthy stay wealthy.

stephen02tb: rawbert7: I'll happily explain the situation to any creditor if/when it affects my credit.

I don't think it works that way. A decline is a decline, why should they care or want to work with you at all?

It's not like it matters. In 10 years' time everyone but the top 2% will be deeply in debt and creditors won't be able to collect shiat.

ihatedumbpeople: Sounds like mom figured out the hard way how to make it stream. My guess is she was messing around, started up some radio or video option and backed out of the app but never stopped the streaming.

My thought too.

SurfaceTension: All it took was one phone call and being nice to the customer service rep.

This also goes a long way.

I bought my Droid Bionic from Wirefly, and unfortunately it bricked on me. Instead of being able to take it to the local Verizon store (I got it $50 cheaper from WF) I had to process the warranty through them, and they said they wanted me to ship my old phone to them FIRST, and I CALMLY REQUESTED that not happen because of the huge inconvenience that would put me in. They obliged, and overnighted the new phone to me but put a $300 credit hold on my method of payment for 10 days to ensure the old phone got returned to them.

It's not impossible to be courteous AND get your way.

isn't there a way that they can look and see what exactly was used or supposedly downloaded---have verizon itemize everything and see what is going on.

Big Cheese Make Hair Go Boom: As much as I despise overreaching Government regulation, there should be a law in place that regulates overage charges. Like, if your bills hits 2x its regular amount, your carrier should auto dial you to let you know what is going on.

I cannot find a strong enough argument as to why that is a bad idea.

This would be covered under fraud already.