UK Girl Handed $5,700 Roaming Bill After Vacation in NYC

[falchard]

lol if this happens to you don't pay your bill. There is no way a court will uphold excessive roaming charges like this.

 

[Krisk7]

I think carriers should also be obliged to provide current BILL AMOUNT as opposed to only the amount of data transfered and also to keep asking the question say every 200$ over the standard plan. "Your current bill is 2000$. Do you want to continue?" definitely is more appealing than "You already downloaded 15GB. Do you want to continue?"

 

[Houndsteeth]

When my niece moved in with us last year (long story), I moved her phone over to our account. I already had unlimited text messaging set up for the account, but apparently at some point while adding the extra phone line, the unlimited messaging did not carry over. I just about fell flat on the floor when I opened the bill at the end of the month and saw a bill for nearly $1400.

My niece had blown through more than $1200 in text messages in a month. I had received absolutely 0 notifications from the carrier, and when I called them, the support person agreed that the extra line should have had unlimited messaging, but they swore up and down that there was absolutely nothing they could do about the bill.

I got a manager on the phone, and he gave me the exact same spiel. At that point, I was ready to cancel the account. I wrote a very concise email to their customer retention department, and after two weeks, I got a response that my account would be credited for the overages. Sure enough, on my next bill, my account showed that the amount had been credited. But the next month after that, the credited amount was added back into the bill. Another email, and it was rescinded. This went on for about 2 more months, and I finally got in touch with a senior account representative in retention who finally explained what was happening.

Retentions was crediting the account, but Billing was still registering the overage as unpaid, and reapplying it with each new billing cycle. The account representative explained that her boss, an Executive VP with the carrier, ended up calling the billing folks and promised to start creating new orifices all around if they didn't get this situation fixed. Since then, no new overage fees.

 

[teknomedic]

"The carrier blocked calls and texts but did not block data".... then later....

"Customers receive warning texts to alert them of their data usage and we have an app that helps them monitor data usage, and opt-in to a data bundle if needed," Orange told the Daily Mail. "In this instance the customer received numerous text alerts which updated them on the roaming costs for the USA"

so... was the company sending alerts, but also blocking them at the same time???


...but mostly, next time use a laptop or tablet and pay for the hotels wifi or find that one "rare" coffee shop in New York that offers free wifi.

 

[jkflipflop98]

There's no way in hell it actually cost anyone that much money to transmit digital data. This is straight up robbery.

 

[anti-painkilla]

It is all he said/ she said.

Yes the data charges are exorbitant but they must realise that it was their childs fault for trusting them to not use it. The parents should have done more to ensure that their child only used the Wifi and not the mobile data.

Hopefully they can come to an arrangement with their carrier and get the bill dropped to a more reasonable amount.

 

[cpatel1987]

Lol seriously? Parents fault 100% for trusting your 14 year old with a smartphone with limited data plan...OVERSEAS! No sympathy.

 

[livebriand]

FWIW, I went to NYC several months ago, and the hotel I was staying in didn't have free wifi in the rooms. Certainly, they did in the lobby, and there are plenty of coffee shops nearby with it, but for the sake of convenience I tethered off my phone instead. I can see why she might have continued roaming, though in her case it was a stupid idea. (I wasn't getting charged any extra for my tethering, and was nowhere near my cap.)

 

[eiskrystal]

- The parents should have done more to ensure that their child only used the Wifi and not the mobile data. -

No the 14 year old is fully responsible. She isn't a 2 year old child. She is a fully functioning person learning maths and science at school.

 

[danlw]

If that was my girl, her phone and my sledgehammer would have a close encounter. Kinda the way that dad shot his daughters laptop several times with his handgun. If she wants a new phone, she can pay for it herself.

 

[danlw]

If that was my girl, her phone and my sledgehammer would have a close encounter. Kinda the way that dad shot his daughters laptop several times with his handgun. If she wants a new phone, she can pay for it herself.

 

[cats_Paw]

And this is a surprise ... why? If you have a daughter tho is 14 year old, has a smartphone and keeps documenting everything on facebook, even when you tell her not to, you fails as a father and you pay the price. In this case its actually a monetary one (and let me thell you, its the best warning you are going to get).

I dont have a kid myself, but my cousins have, and their kids learn to clean up after themselves and others, they learn to share, they learn to have fun with parents rather than with toys.

If i was that mother id be happy to realize Ive been doing it wrong.... If she does...

 

[cats_Paw]

On a side note, id probably cancel the account, pay the bill, and until my daughter dosent return that money in, no phone, no nothing that requires real responsability.
OFC if your daughter is examplary for the next year you will most likely give in, but you need to bring that kid to reality.

 

[smeezekitty]

I am sorry but people "justifying" this as reasonable are not being logical at all
Should she have stopped when warmed? Of course

Does that make $5k+ reasonable just transfer a few more bits? Hell no!

Chances are she didn't even understand it - if you were in the same circumstances - unaware that it would cause that large of bill to go over, would you still feel it is reasonable?

Sorry but it is sad for people to stick up for blatant gouging.

 

[vinhn]

This is what people nowadays, always on their phones. You go out and see everyone is looking at hteir phone.

 

[Marcel Brown]

This is exactly why I wrote my book, The Cheapskate's Guide to Traveling With Your iPhone! http://iphonecheapskate.com