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(The Consumerist)   The reason you don't want to put family on your T-Mobile plan? They may take a trip to Canada and rack up $201,000 in charges   (consumerist.com) divider line 151
    More: Florida, phone bills, WSVN-TV  
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10601 clicks; posted to Main » on 18 Oct 2011 at 2:24 PM (3 years ago)   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



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2011-10-18 02:28:39 PM  
Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.
 
2011-10-18 02:28:41 PM  
this is straight left with these gotcha rates - at some point business has to be regulated when competitors collude to keep prices high.
 
2011-10-18 02:28:53 PM  
I'm surprised t-mobile cut them slack.
 
2011-10-18 02:28:58 PM  
Thats a lot of farking porn!
 
2011-10-18 02:29:46 PM  
Ten bucks a MB?! It shouldn't even be legal to charge that much.
 
2011-10-18 02:31:22 PM  

jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.


Until you realize what it actually cost them. Hint: they still made a buttload of money.
 
2011-10-18 02:32:22 PM  
$10/megabyte


200,000/10= 20,000

20GB in two weeks? Holy shiat.
 
2011-10-18 02:32:56 PM  
While I fully agree it's the customer's fault for not verifying something like this would take place, at what point does T-Mobile look at this and go:

-Gee, this guys account is up to $5k, should we shut him down?
-Na, we'll let it go.
-Damn now he's at $50k, well maybe a little more.
-$150k, I'm sure he's got this.
-Oh, you can't afford the $201,000 phone bill we just sent you, who would have ever thought.

And surely they are losing this guys business over this. Figure losing out on at least $1200, probably more a year from this guy's family plan over something that a $60 or $80 fee for Canadian coverage would have fixed. Seems dumb from both sides.
 
2011-10-18 02:33:40 PM  
I was gonna spend a week in LA.

Spent about an hour on the phone with my mobile provider to ensure that I was setting myself up with a plan that suited my needs while "roaming". Put an extra $75 in options on my bill to cover my texts, phone calls and data. Problem solved.

If you're too stupid to realize that data/phone/texts are going to cost you in a foreign country AND too stupid to notice that your phone says "roaming" or "Rogers" or something that isn't your usual "t-mobile" notification AND you're too stupid to read the text that (for me, at least) automatically gets sent as soon as the phone picks up a foreign carrier? Pffft. You get what you deserve.
 
2011-10-18 02:34:29 PM  

Bill_Wick's_Friend: I was gonna spend a week in LA.

Spent about an hour on the phone with my mobile provider to ensure that I was setting myself up with a plan that suited my needs while "roaming". Put an extra $75 in options on my bill to cover my texts, phone calls and data. Problem solved.

If you're too stupid to realize that data/phone/texts are going to cost you in a foreign country AND too stupid to notice that your phone says "roaming" or "Rogers" or something that isn't your usual "t-mobile" notification AND you're too stupid to read the text that (for me, at least) automatically gets sent as soon as the phone picks up a foreign carrier? Pffft. You get what you deserve.


There are still plans that include "roaming" within the US?
 
2011-10-18 02:34:35 PM  

Wolf Cola: Ten bucks a MB?! It shouldn't even be legal to charge that much.


You didn't have to sign up under that program. So what should be done? Should the Goverrment now socialize the telephone industry, too?

Common sense really takes a nose-dive these days, it appears
 
2011-10-18 02:36:40 PM  
the article says it did warn the offender, just not the account holder, sounds like the dude was being a tool
 
2011-10-18 02:37:26 PM  

JWideman: jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.

Until you realize what it actually cost them. Hint: they still made a buttload of money.


And? I am usually not on the side of defending big business but I don't see the problem here. Person was dumbass and racked up a large bill because they didn't bother to try and understand the contract they signed, business lets them pay a fraction of the charges they racked up.
 
2011-10-18 02:38:45 PM  

k4mi: While I fully agree it's the customer's fault for not verifying something like this would take place, at what point does T-Mobile look at this and go:

-Gee, this guys account is up to $5k, should we shut him down?
-Na, we'll let it go.
-Damn now he's at $50k, well maybe a little more.
-$150k, I'm sure he's got this.
-Oh, you can't afford the $201,000 phone bill we just sent you, who would have ever thought.

And surely they are losing this guys business over this. Figure losing out on at least $1200, probably more a year from this guy's family plan over something that a $60 or $80 fee for Canadian coverage would have fixed. Seems dumb from both sides.


TFA:

While T-Mobile says it sent several texts to the brother alerting him of the rates, the sister believes she should have been given a heads-up at some point before things got into six-digit territory. "Wouldn't you let me know as the primary holder and they are saying no we respect your privacy. What privacy? That is my account," she says.
 
2011-10-18 02:39:01 PM  

jst3p: There are still plans that include "roaming" within the US?


I have no American service plan. If I'm even near the border I have to tell my phone to only pick up Rogers and to ignore the AT&T, T-Mobile & Sprint signals so that I don't get dinged with a US roaming charge.

Free 3g coast-to-coast-to-coast, though, plus free long distance to anywhere in Canada or the USA.
 
2011-10-18 02:39:07 PM  
Just buy a burner SIM card when you get to your foreign destination and text your temporary number to all your friends.
 
2011-10-18 02:40:38 PM  

Bill_Wick's_Friend: jst3p: There are still plans that include "roaming" within the US?

I have no American service plan. If I'm even near the border I have to tell my phone to only pick up Rogers and to ignore the AT&T, T-Mobile & Sprint signals so that I don't get dinged with a US roaming charge.

Free 3g coast-to-coast-to-coast, though, plus free long distance to anywhere in Canada or the USA.


Gotcha, eh.
 
2011-10-18 02:40:45 PM  

Bill_Wick's_Friend: I was gonna spend a week in LA.

Spent about an hour on the phone with my mobile provider to ensure that I was setting myself up with a plan that suited my needs while "roaming". Put an extra $75 in options on my bill to cover my texts, phone calls and data. Problem solved.

If you're too stupid to realize that data/phone/texts are going to cost you in a foreign country AND too stupid to notice that your phone says "roaming" or "Rogers" or something that isn't your usual "t-mobile" notification AND you're too stupid to read the text that (for me, at least) automatically gets sent as soon as the phone picks up a foreign carrier? Pffft. You get what you deserve.


Who need them.
snb26pr.files.wordpress.com
Useless.

You get what you deserve.
 
2011-10-18 02:42:55 PM  
i wouldn't pay it. i'd say fark you come and take it.
btw i'm from Texas :D
 
2011-10-18 02:43:39 PM  
Since this adult woman had to buy her (presumably) adult brother a phone and put him on her plan, I'm gonna assume the brother is a hopeless fark-up and the phone company did warn him.

Plus, who downloads 20gb over two weeks off of their phone?
 
2011-10-18 02:43:50 PM  
I'm going to be (finally) getting a smart phone this week. Since I travel through Canada on the way to visit family (Michigan to New York), I asked all the different places about how to treat Canadian coverage.

Every single salesperson made it crystal clear: 'Turn off your data in Canada'.

/probably going AT&T
//and Samsung Galaxy 2
///entering the 21st century a decade too late
////wooo?
 
2011-10-18 02:45:35 PM  
I was recently visiting one of the San Juan Islands near Seattle and at one point we actually started picking up cel towers over in Victoria. Both my phone and my wifes alerted us that we were no longer on American carriers, so we put both phones into airplane mode until we got back to the other side of the island. Problem solved.
 
2011-10-18 02:48:21 PM  
Maybe they went to Canada to stalk the T-Mobile girl.
 
2011-10-18 02:48:40 PM  
Actual cost: a few cents
Markup: 20000%

Cell phones are the biggest swindle in the last 100 years.
 
2011-10-18 02:49:48 PM  
thats the problem nowadays with mobile phones costing models. things are rediculously and artificially priced, or based on historic models. $5/mo for 350 texts?? for what is essentially a few kb of data.

mind you a lot of the money is put back into infastructure. But the pricing model is out of touch with reality. I think eventually in the 4G and beyond world they should goto a unified model. X/month for unlimited data, and in that context data is considered phonecalls too. or x/gb where the price is reasonable, not the 1$/mb i pay if somoene inadvertantly sends me a picture text
 
2011-10-18 02:53:00 PM  

jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.


Horseshiat. Short of inserting the phone in a ceo's ass it simply should not be remotely possible to get a phone ill that high no matter what you are doing with it or where you are doing it. They are AT LEAST two orders of magnitude away from being reasonable by any stretch. They were using a cell phone, not downloading actual gold bars.
 
2011-10-18 02:54:26 PM  
Looks like they are in the middle of taking care of the Bill Shock. (new window)
 
2011-10-18 02:54:46 PM  

JohnBigBootay: jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.

Horseshiat. Short of inserting the phone in a ceo's ass it simply should not be remotely possible to get a phone ill that high no matter what you are doing with it or where you are doing it. They are AT LEAST two orders of magnitude away from being reasonable by any stretch. They were using a cell phone, not downloading actual gold bars.


He managed to use up 20GB of data in two weeks while internationally roaming and ignoring text warnings. I still think they were reasonable about it.
 
2011-10-18 02:56:03 PM  

natmar_76: Actual cost: a few cents
Markup: 20000%

Cell phones are the biggest swindle in the last 100 years.


I doubt that it cost T-Mobile a few cents to provide 20GB worth of Data to this person's phone in another country. I could see $2500 being the actual cost.

Also, you're an idiot.
 
2011-10-18 02:57:21 PM  
Surprised it wasn't "Your deaf brother racked up $201,000 in text charges. I SAID YOUR DEAF BROTHER..."
 
2011-10-18 02:57:21 PM  

Eirik: I was recently visiting one of the San Juan Islands near Seattle and at one point we actually started picking up cel towers over in Victoria. Both my phone and my wifes alerted us that we were no longer on American carriers, so we put both phones into airplane mode until we got back to the other side of the island. Problem solved.


Yeah, this. I was up in Canuckistan recently as a T-Mobile customer, and within minutes of turning on my phone at the airport in Calgary I got a "hey, you're in Canada! You might want to check your settings so you don't get reamed in the ass by roaming charges" text from T-Mobile.

So, regardless of whether it's a ripoff or not, I call shenanigans on them somehow unknowingly racking up $200K in roaming charges without having any idea they were doing so.
 
2011-10-18 02:57:33 PM  
I land in Germany. I turn on my cellphone. The first thing that happens is it says "Data has been disabled due to roaming."
 
2011-10-18 02:58:19 PM  

jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.


They do have an obligation to lower the bill. In fact it's damn near extortion. Go to a judge and show them the 200k bill and the 2500 bill and ask the phone company to justify either of them. If they can't bill with an accuracy of two orders of magnitude then neither bill should stand. They are saying pay us 2500 or we'll reinstate this phony 200k bill.
 
2011-10-18 02:58:42 PM  

Gobliz: i wouldn't pay it. i'd say fark you come and take it.
btw i'm from Texas :D


At which point we would've sold your account to a collections agency. Got the money anyway. You would then have the agency calling you to collect while affecting your credit.

/former t-mobile employee.
//not a dealer.
 
2011-10-18 02:58:45 PM  

natmar_76: Actual cost: a few cents


More than that, I believe..

Shaw (or Rogers or Bell Canada) did the work but then they have to collect that money from an outside company whose client pays the bill.

I don't have any hard data (and I'm not going looking for hard data) but I would expect that there are costs associated with having to go to a different provider for the payment. Probably nowhere near the brazillion stupid dollars that the telecoms charge, but not quite "nothing" either.
 
2011-10-18 03:00:30 PM  
2.bp.blogspot.com
 
2011-10-18 03:01:00 PM  
And once again I will trumpet the benefits of pre-paid cell phones. No surprises, ever. If the minutes you paid for are gone, then they're gone and you can do nothing to put yourself in the poorhouse unless you willingly go out and buy more minutes.

Honestly, you people need to learn to ration your telecommunications, or at least figure out that there are tons of low-cost or free options out there. I was just on the "phone" for two hours with someone, and it was free because I used WiFi and an App on my iOS device, as did she. Bluetooth headset + VOIP + free WiFi = Free phone calls.

Bottom line: All it takes is a little research to prevent this sort of crazy bill from happening.
 
2011-10-18 03:01:20 PM  
That is like $204,478.55 CAD
 
2011-10-18 03:02:22 PM  
I am NOT surprised tmobile cut them some slack.. $2500 isn't bad considering that tmobile has already had to pay the roaming charges to the canada providers. I've had good dealing with tmobile customer service. One time when taking a trip to fl, I enabled the unlimited internet (then $20) plan on my phone of which I tethered to my laptop through BT. When I got home, my next bill showed up as $630. What had happened is while the internet was enabled, the plan option was not, so it was charging me per megabyte the entire time (about 5 gigs worth). When I called em they slashed the entire charge off.. although it could have to do with the fact that they never offered a per megabyte charge in the first place, so I never agreed to the method they charged me with. However it was a hassle free experience. Sadly I am no longer with them really as they have no good data plans on pre-pay, but I still have a phone that maintains the gold status membership of their pre-pay for backup purposes.
 
2011-10-18 03:02:53 PM  
So if you cry like a biatch online about your bill, you get your bill slashed? Cool...

/stupid farking people
 
2011-10-18 03:02:59 PM  
Mobile providers know damn well what they are doing. They hide that shiat as best they can to scrape every penny from unwitting customers. All the carriers do it and It should be illegal.

There should be some method of limiting your charges per month and if you go over the phone stops working without serious customer intervention. I don't propose blocking the phone completely because maybe they really do need to go over but it should take serious effort on the customer's part to go over whatever preset limits they have in place. Right now it's all hidden in the background with infinite charges possible, totally ridiculous.

This is why I only use prepaid plans.
 
2011-10-18 03:03:10 PM  

jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.


Good thing it wasn't Verizon. They would've placed a lien on your house.
 
2011-10-18 03:03:57 PM  

PeenkyPinkerton: Gobliz: i wouldn't pay it. i'd say fark you come and take it.
btw i'm from Texas :D

At which point we would've sold your account to a collections agency. Got the money anyway. You would then have the agency calling you to collect while affecting your credit.

/former t-mobile employee.
//not a dealer.


credit means nothing to me. I have literally no credit.
 
2011-10-18 03:05:30 PM  

vodka: There should be some method of limiting your charges per month and if you go over the phone stops working without serious customer intervention.


T-mobile has that. It's called Flex pay.
 
2011-10-18 03:05:32 PM  

jst3p: 200,000/10= 20,000

20GB in two weeks? Holy shiat.


At 1 meg/minute, 20GB is two weeks. If you downloaded 20GB in 128kbps MP3s, you would have 2 weeks of continuous music.

/So it sounds like Canada is really exciting
 
2011-10-18 03:06:28 PM  
Besides we're all overlooking the underlying rule here.
NEVER GO TO CANADIA!!!! lol.
 
2011-10-18 03:06:53 PM  

Gobliz: PeenkyPinkerton: Gobliz: i wouldn't pay it. i'd say fark you come and take it.
btw i'm from Texas :D

At which point we would've sold your account to a collections agency. Got the money anyway. You would then have the agency calling you to collect while affecting your credit.

/former t-mobile employee.
//not a dealer.

credit means nothing to me. I have literally no credit.


Then you would've been placed on a flex pay account and wouldn't have run into this problem to begin with.
 
2011-10-18 03:07:09 PM  
Text warnings plus chopping the bill down by 99% plus giving the customer six months to pay is... Surprisingly reasonable of T-Mobile.

That said, the only real way to fix these sort of problems is to pass a federal law requiring cell carriers to automatically suspend service once the bill reaches 2 or 3 times the normal size or some specific dollar amount pre-arranged between the carrier and customer.

Too bad reasonable reforms Like that can't get through congress anymore due to all the outright bribes "campaign contributions" paid out to congress members from big businesses.
 
2011-10-18 03:07:20 PM  

PsyLord: jst3p: Though it had no obligation to do so, T-Mobile eventually decided to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave the customer six months to pay off that amount.

Seems like they were pretty reasonable about it.

Good thing it wasn't Verizon. They would've placed a lien on your house.


Actually, no... Verizon was pretty awesome. My mom is on my plan, and she went to Canada recently. Within 3 hours of her crossing the border, they both emailed and texted me (as the primary account holder) and asked me to call them. I did, and we put a temporary plan in place that covered the traffic she was generating. It cost me an additional $30, but that's it. When she came back, I dropped that portion of the plan, no problem.
 
2011-10-18 03:08:16 PM  

change1211: natmar_76: Actual cost: a few cents
Markup: 20000%

Cell phones are the biggest swindle in the last 100 years.

I doubt that it cost T-Mobile a few cents to provide 20GB worth of Data to this person's phone in another country. I could see $2500 being the actual cost.

Also, you're an idiot.


Exactly. It may not cost any carrier all that much to move 20GB, but the issue arrises with international roaming. T-Mobile would have been charged an inflated rate by Rogers (or whoever in Canada) that they have to pay. The same would be true in reverse. The company then passes the cost on to the customer, and rightly so. T-Mobile is probably not making a whole lot off this, if anything. Direct your rage at the Canadian carrier.
 
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