bill posts

$23-Quadrillion Charge for Cigarettes, Due to Visa Software Glitch

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Jul 16th 2009 at 2:13PM

Federal and state taxes levied on cigarettes have increased exponentially recently, but anything over, say, $1-million per pack seems a bit steep. According to FOXNews, at least three consumers in Tennessee, Texas, and New Hampshire were each charged $23 quadrillion ($23,148,855,308,184,500) after purchasing cigarettes with Visa debit cards.

Tags: bill, top, VISA, VISA charge errors, VISA overdraft charges, VisaChargeErrors, VisaOverdraftCharges

Cell Phones

Dad Takes a Hammer to Teen's Cell Phone Over $5K Bill

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Apr 9th 2009 at 7:20PM

Dad Smashes Teen's Cell Phone Over $5,000 Bill

We've seen teens send out 14,000, 15,000, and even over 40,000 text messages in one month, so one girl's firing off 10,000 texts in one month shouldn't really shock us all that much. But the tale of Dena Christoffersen has two ingredients that make it much more interesting than the other tales of texting addiction we've shared before: no text messaging plan, and an angry parent with a hammer.

Dena, a 13-year-old from Cheyenne, Wyoming, incurred the wrath of her father after she rang up a $4,756.25 cell phone bill, which included over 10,000 text messages. The family didn't have a text messaging plan. To make matters worse, most of the messages appeared to be sent during school hours. On one day in particular, Dena sent over 300 texts during the eight-hour school day. Needless to say, this had an effect on Dena's grades, which went from A's and B's to F's.

After seeing the bill, Dena's father Gregg took his aggression out on the teen's handset -- with a hammer.

Now sans cell phone, Dena has pulled her grades back up, and we're quite impressed with Gregg's restraint. If we got a $5,000 cell phone bill, we'd probably smash a lot more than our daughter's phone. [From: Denver Post/9News, Via: Textually]

Tags: bill, parenting, sms, text messaging, texting, TextMessaging, top

Man Pays $350 Electric Bill With Pennies...Electric Co. Not Amused

by Peter Mychalcewycz (RSS feed) — Mar 16th 2009 at 5:12PM

A Bristol, Virginia man didn't get angry when his electric company screwed him; he just decided to return the favor.

John Almany was shocked when his monthly electric bill from Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU) jumped to $350, but Almany, being the upstanding citizen that he is, decided to pay every cent. Accompanied by a friend/accomplice, Almany visited several banks and proceeded to exchange cash for gobs of pennies. After they had collected $350 worth of coins, they unrolled all 26,000 of them and then dumped the 170 lbs. worth of the pennies into two large duffel bags. The Bristol Herald Courier reported that the two cohorts then made their way to the electric company's local pay counter, where Almany gleefully informed the cashier "this is my bill, and I'm here to pay every penny of it."

The cashier initially refused the payment, but since pennies are legal tender, staff were eventually forced to start counting the mountain of coins. After two hours, BVU employees had only counted $26 worth and had to stop because it was closing time. Almany, point having been made, exchanged the coins at a machine for paper bills, and paid the remaining bill in cash the following Monday. BVU has since set forth rules that limit the amount of coins a person can use to pay a bill.

Well played, Mr. Almany. [From: Tricities.com, via neatorama]

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Tags: bill, billing, bills, electric bill, ElectricBill, funny, pennies, top

Cell Phones, TV, Mobile Phones

Mom Gets $50K Bill After Teen Downloads 'Lost' via Cell Phone

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Mar 13th 2009 at 10:15AM

Remember last year's tale of the unfortunate (and unidentified) public servant who managed to rack up a $200,000 phone bill by downloading numerous movies over a non-unlimited cellular data plan? His wasn't the first such outrageous bill we've seen, nor even the second, but at least he can take solace in knowing he won't be the last, with news coming of a Spanish city councilwoman receiving a $50,000 bill courtesy of her daughter's downloads (technically, the woman received a bill of around 40,000 Euros, which converts to around $50K, according to El Mundo).

This woman has a Wi-Fi network in her Madrid aparatment, but the daughter was unable to access it from her bedroom consistently. So, she started using mom's 3G cellular modem, provided by the municipal government and paid for on a per-kilobyte basis, to download television episodes like 'Lost.' Many, many shows and gigabytes later, the mother was presented with the resulting bill and has pledged to repay the council. We hope the daughter at least foots a portion of that -- and that she has a better idea of what's going on in 'Lost' than we do. [From: El Mundo, via Fox News]

Tags: big bills, BigBills, bill, billing, cell phones, CellPhones, cellular modem, CellularModem, download, dumb, teens, top, tv

Cell Phones, Computers

Woman Sues AT&T Over $5,000 Data Bill on 3G Netbook

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Mar 8th 2009 at 12:42PM

We're well aware that the phrase "unlimited" doesn't actually mean anything to cell phone providers. Unlimited data plans rarely are that. In fact, most plans come with a hard and fast cap at 5 gigabytes (GB) of data per month, and, if you exceed that limit, you'll get hammered with absurd overage charges. Just ask Billie Parks of Oklahoma who picked up a netbook at Radio Shack for $99 after agreeing to a monthly data plan from AT&T.

Parks is suing AT&T after being hit with a $5,000 bill after going over her monthly data cap. She claims that neither AT&T nor Radio Shack drew enough attention to the cap or mentioned how much the coverage charges would be (though you'd think she would have asked). While AT&T does clearly spell out the cap and charges on its Web site, the nature of the charges are not mentioned in the service summary or contract, which would be presented to a customer signing up in a store.

According to the suit, the service agreements are, "deceptive, misleading and utterly incomprehensible to the average consumer." Parks is seeking to have her account credited the $5,000 and to prevent AT&T from collecting future overage charges.

Tags: att, bill, data plan, DataPlan, lawsuit, netbook, radio shack, RadioShack, unlimited data, unlimited plan, UnlimitedData, UnlimitedPlan

Cell Phones

Oregon Family Receives $19,370 Cell Phone Bill

by Peter Mychalcewycz (RSS feed) — Sep 5th 2008 at 8:25PM

You've all heard the Iphone bill horror stories and gasped at other outrageously high wireless bill mishaps...Well here's another one.

A family In Portland recently opened their AT&T wireless bill and found this number staring back at them: $19,370.

And you thought your wireless bill was high! The culprits in this particular case are a laptop AirCard and a less than forthcoming AT&T employee.

In July of this year, the Terry Family, of Portland Oregon, sent their son off to Canada with a AirCard equipped laptop so he could email and send photos of his trip. According to the Terry's, they had discussed the service with an AT&T employee prior to purchasing it. The employee allegedly said nothing about international fees, leaving the Terry's under the impression that, well, there were no international fees.

There were.

The Terry's received a mammoth, 200 page bill detailing the international charges that had accumulated with each of the 21 times their son had used the service. The family, who, according to their father has an average monthly bill of around $300, contends that not only were they not told about possible fees, but that AT&T never warned them of their escalating bill. In response, AT&T has stated that they are looking seriously into the matter.

Meanwhile, back in Oregon, we are sure the Terry's are seriously looking into changing service providers. [From: WFTV.com]

Click Here for the Top Five Ways to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill

Tags: att, bill, breaking news, BreakingNews, dumb, high bills, HighBills, phone bills, PhoneBills

Cell Phones

In-Flight Calling Ban Passes Hurdle in Congress

by Donald Melanson (RSS feed) — Aug 1st 2008 at 1:37PM

It looks like that proposed ban on in-flight calling has now passed its first major hurdle in Congress, with it snagging some much needed approval from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in a voice vote on Thursday.

While the so-called "Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace" (or HANG UP, really) would make permanent the current ban on in-flight cellphone use, it'd also go one step further and put a stop to all in-flight voice communications, which its co-sponsors hope will prevent airlines from charging some passengers to use their phones while also charging others to sit in a phone-free section of the plane. Of course, the bill still has a long ways to go before it becomes law, but giving the recent polling on the matter, it would seem to have a better than decent chance of going all the way.

[ITworld Via Slashdot]

Tags: bill, flight, in-flight calling, in-flight cellphone, in-flight cellphone use, In-flightCalling, In-flightCellphone, In-flightCellphoneUse, travel

Car Tech, Computers

Colorado Toll Road May Require Online Registration

by Will Safer (RSS feed) — Mar 13th 2008 at 3:25PM

Interestate 70 in Colorado between Denver and the ski resorts to the West.

If you're seeking a Rocky Mountain High, you may soon need to pay the piper -- or at least invite a few friends along for the drive up the mountainside to avoid a proposed toll for Interstate 70 in Colorado.

State Senator Chris Romer, a Denver Democrat, has proposed turning I70 into a toll and HOV highway on Sundays throughout the year and on weekends during the peak ski season. The reason? Folks driving to and from the ski resorts clog the interstate so much that locals actually refer to the weekend traffic as a rush hour. Plus, all those cars are competing with 18-wheelers, making the road crowded, slow and a little dangerous.

To come up with a solution, Romer asked the public to engage in a "Wikipedia"-style, collaborative process to shape the proposed bill, allowing constituents to log on to groups.google.com/group/fixI70now so they could comment on his idea and make suggestions. While Romer didn't take every suggestion the public made, he does say the collaborative online discussion has shaped the proposal he'll put before the legislative body.

In short, his bill, if made law, would create weekend travel restrictions and tolls for a portion of I70 and ski resorts, requiring drivers to either have passengers on board to meet HOV requirements of at least three passengers or pay a toll. Truckers wold have to pay a toll during the restricted times no matter what. The goal is to reduce traffic by 10 to 15 percent.

There's another catch that is rankling a few Coloradoans, too. Before starting a journey up the mountain, drivers would have to register online so the state could measure traffic flow. If you're reading this article, then clearly this wouldn't be a problem for you -- you have access to a computer and an Internet connection. But what about those folks who still haven't completely joined the digital age?

Still, the bill is not in its final stage and he does promise to incorporate more suggestions made through the online discussion group.

From Daily Camera.

Related links:

Tags: bill, breaking+news, colorado, denver, government, I70, legislation, romer, toll road, TollRoad, top, wikipedia

Cell Phones, iPhone

Man Gets Slapped With $85,000 Cell Phone Bill

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Dec 14th 2007 at 2:30PM

If you thought absurdly high and encyclopedia-sized iPhone bills were the only game in town when it comes to ridiculous cell phone charges, you were sadly mistaken. In fact those 300 page, $3,000 and $4,000 iPhone bills have nothing on what some poor Canadian oil field worker was charged by Bell Mobility.

After picking up a new phone that he could tether to his laptop and a $10 unlimited data plan, Piotr Staniaszek decided he wanted to do some downloading -- everything from HD movies to applications to watch and install on his PC. What happened next would have put most of us at the Switched offices in a body bag following a heart attack. Piotr got slapped with a $60,000 bill! Confused, he call Bell Mobility's customer service department, which informed him that it had made a mistake... his bill was actually $85,000!!

How Piotr wasn't immediately moved to violence we'll never know, but he was probably using more exclamation points than we are right now.

It turns out that he was being charged on a per-kilobyte basis because his unlimited browsing plan didn't cover using the phone as a modem. As a "goodwill" gesture, Bell Mobility has dropped the bill to measly $3,243.

Staniaszek plans to fight the bill saying he was never informed about the restrictions on his wireless plan. That said, he's coming off rather lucky, considering many U.S. wireless carriers strictly forbid downloading of movies and other high-bandwidth items over wireless broadband networks.

Do you think it's fair that this poor Canadian man was charged even $3,243, or should he have read the fine print?

From The Register

Cell Phones, iPhone

Man Gets $4,190.76 iPhone Bill

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Aug 20th 2007 at 2:24PM

We love you, iPhone bill. We've already had some great times together, and you've only been here two months. You remember that time you showed up on our door step in a box looking like a copy of 'War and Peace'? That was great. By the way, when we took you out the other day, you looked like 4,190.76 bucks.

Kidding aside, international roaming on your iPhone is a bad idea, in case you weren't already aware. This handheld Mac is big on media features and e-mail, meaning it burns through data pretty quick. Without an international data plan, that $0.05 per kilobyte adds up -- sometimes to over $4,000.

Pierre -- some dude who wrote to Consumerist -- took his iPhone on a vacation through Ibiza, Spain and Europe and managed rack up a $4,190.76 bill, mainly for international data roaming fees. He managed to talk a customer service rep into retroactively giving him the 20-megabyte-per-month international data plan, which dropped the price of additional data down to $5 per megabyte. Pierre's bill was slashed to just $900 which -- come to think of it -- is still insane!

Just remember that your unlimited data plan, on any phone, isn't really unlimited if you use it outside of the U.S. Check the fine print.

From Consumerist

Related links:

Tags: apple, bill, breaking+news, top

Cell Phones, Green Tech, iPhone, E-Mail Addiction

Girl Videotapes 300-Page iPhone Bill

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Aug 14th 2007 at 11:04AM

If you're not familiar with AT&T's billing practices you might be a bit shocked to receive your first iPhone bill. Justine Ezarik was less-than amused when her 300-page bill was delivered in a box.

AT&T makes sure to take note of every single text message, every data transaction, and every phone call and print each on a separate line. That means that every time you hit that Safari web browser button, you're adding a line to your bill. Every time to receive or send a TXT message, you're add a line to your bill. It may not sound like much, but for those of us who live and die by our phone it adds up quickly. A 300-page bill is certainly uncommon, but 50-100 pages is fairly normal for heavy texters and mobile web users. Those of you with an AT&T account -- especially iPhone users -- may want to consider signing up for electronic billing to save a tree or two.

From Engadget and Tasty Blog Snack

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Tags: bill, breaking+news, conservation, iPhone, top

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'Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

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Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.

Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.

Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.

Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.

HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.

HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.

HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.

GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.

Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.

Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.

Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.

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