California Couple Slapped with $8K Trans-Pacific Phone Bill
International travelers frequently get slammed with unexpected and exorbitant cell phone fees, particularly for services like checking e-mail and sending text messages. According to CNN, California's P. Morgan Brown and his wife almost missed a mortgage payment recently because Verizon (with whom they had signed up for auto-draft billing) dropped an $8,000 tab on the couple after Ms. Brown used her phone during a visit to Indonesia. Verizon reportedly charged the Browns $2.50 per text message home, and $1.75 per minute for calls home. While the European Union has implemented regulations to reduce roaming charges and cap text-messaging fees, U.S. carriers seem content to gouge their unwitting customers. Writing for Tribune Media Services, Christopher Elliott gives some tips on how to cut down, and avoid, those ridiculous charges.
His suggestions include buying a separate phone upon arriving in foreign locales, signing up for temporary international plans, buying and using local SIM cards while abroad, and signing up for Skype, which allows for free and inexpensive calls, particularly to other Skype subscribers. (Not surprisingly, Skype has eclipsed the major phone companies as the largest provider of international calls.)
If those suggestions don't prevent outlandish charges, you could always just tweet about the astronomical bill until your carrier decides to dismiss it, but that might only work if you're a celebrity. [From: CNN]
Teen Texting Craziness
Syracuse University professor Laurence Thomas made news last year for walking out of the classroom whenever his students disobeyed his "no texting in class" rule. Wouldn't the kind of student who would text in class be happy to have class canceled?
In January, 13-year-old Californian Reina Hardesty sent 14,528 text messages from her cell phone. Fortunately for her daddy, he had her on an unlimited text plan.
Two high school cheerleaders in Seattle were suspended from school in December when school officials found out that they had taken nude pictures of themselves on their cell phones and, mistakenly or not, wound up with them circulating through the football locker room. The girls' parents have filed suit against the school. You'd think they would just let the embarassment die quietly.
In December, while on a class trip (according to an Internet rumor anyway), the above message appeared on 18-year-old Elizabeth Frisinger's phone after mistakenly texting her dad, back home in Cleveland, that she'd just lost her virginity. Whoops!
Outdoing Reina Hardesty, 15-year-old Ohioan Paige Hornev averages 15,000 text messages a month. That comes out to the impressive, or pitiful, average of 500 text messages a day.
Thinking about Emily Jenning's texting abilities just makes our thumbs hurt. The Vancouver, British Columbia teen pumped out an absurd 41,600 text messages in the course of a single month -- we did some quick calculations and that works out to about one text every minute.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BluesK1d said 7:08PM on 8-28-2009
Your analysis is incorrect here. The EU price cap legislation applies to wholesale rates that carriers within the EU charge customers of other carriers in the EU. The US carriers all already have an agreement so that while traveling around the US and technically roaming, you never see that and are never charged. With respect to the EU legislation, we are already ahead of them since we don't have roaming caps, we simply arent charged extra at all. Until very recently the European situation was like a T-Mobile customer roaming into an AT&T zone and then getting charged $15 per meg.
The outrageous fees US based customers incur in other countries is a result of the foreign carrier sticking it to them. US carriers like Verizon are simply passing that rape on to you when you get your bill.
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Falco said 8:18PM on 8-28-2009
One would think people would check what kind of charges would apply to using their cell phones when traveling to another country. As always, don't assume responsibility for your own actions. Obviously it's the phone companies fault that she did not read the contract.
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LEIDYLUV123 said 9:06PM on 8-28-2009
I CONCUR!
Lily said 5:15AM on 8-29-2009
Hmmm, you must work for these sleazy cell phone companies with their surreptitious rules that apply just when you least expect it. I had trouble with my "nationwide coverage" in an only slightly rural area of a state. I don't feel one bit sorry for any cell phone company; they prey on the consumer.
Falco said 8:29AM on 8-29-2009
Lily
No, I don't work for them. When I went to Iraq, the first thing I did is check with my cell carrier if use over there was possible and how much it would be. You do not have to work for cell company to use your brain. Those companies do take advantage of people, but a lot of those people let them by not reading the contracts they sign. When I got back I switched to a "pay as you go", which costs me about $20 every other month. I do not use my cell nearly enough to justify entering some 2 year or more contract and pay $50 + a month.
junior said 8:36PM on 8-28-2009
So f*cking self absorbed that you can't leave the cell phone home.
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WILD WILLY said 9:07PM on 8-28-2009
STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES! USING CELL IN FOREIGN COUNTRY HOW CAN THINK YOU WON'T GET THE SHAFT!
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Chuck said 9:36PM on 8-28-2009
I leave my phone at home when I am out of the country.
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kimk20554 said 9:47PM on 8-28-2009
Come on. Who travels to another country, uses their cell phone and doesn't expect it to cost big time? First thing you do when you pick up the phone is check to find out what the charges would be. I'm tempted to say she deserves it for her stupidity.
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BReaves1986 said 10:09PM on 8-28-2009
Jesus 8k? What did she talk on the phone nonstop? She had to have been calling all the time and texting in between....
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crazed69696 said 10:09PM on 8-28-2009
I am a verizon customer and I had a smart phone that had a hidden data plan......I removed the data plan and the next month my phone bill was $6800. Thankfully a called verizon and they dropped the charges!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hmadden said 10:13PM on 8-28-2009
Sounds like my daughter when she was a teenager!
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wyldesteve said 10:34PM on 8-28-2009
Wow! Talked 4571 minutes (76 + hours) or sent 3200 text msgs home...or a combination of both, to get an $8000 bill. Hope She enjoyed her trip.
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ron said 10:48PM on 8-28-2009
way to go verizon showing your true colors
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ehm said 11:02PM on 8-28-2009
Hey Mr. ADHD, could you try to stay on topic? Does everything have to be about politics?
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J Lea said 11:07PM on 8-28-2009
Wow! "Almost" missed a mortgage payment. Those poor people.
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Sue said 2:08AM on 8-29-2009
Yeah I noticed that too - wow! lol
ALMOST damn !
Ish said 11:57PM on 8-28-2009
"Verizon"... Go figure!
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Joe123 said 12:22AM on 8-29-2009
Why is it that its always the company providing the service thats the problem? Whatever happened to people taking responsibility for their actions? You bought a service and were told that if you left the country you would pay roaming rates for using those services because the other country chanrges that much for you to do it because youre an American andd they think you can afford it. It has nothing ot do with your provider or theri service and everyting to do with your own ignorance. I hope Verizon does stick it to them. Complaining to the media should not be an outlet to get out of paying your contractual obligation. When do we get to do this with our other utility providers? Someone let me know so that I can stop paying my gas bill in the winter.
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Lily said 5:15AM on 8-29-2009
LMAO Someone with that many mistakes in his post should not discuss ignorance.