Posted on 04/09/2009 5:57:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A cell phone used by a Wyoming 13-year-old to run up a nearly $5,000 phone bill will text no more thanks to her angry father and his hammer.
Dena Christoffersen of Cheyenne sent or received about 20,000 text messages over about a month, and her parents' phone plan didn't cover texting.
Gregg Christoffersen said that he thought texting had been disabled on his daughter's phone, which he smashed hours after getting a phone bill for more than $4,750.
The family says Verizon has been willing to knock the bill down to a reasonable level.
Dena has been grounded until the end of school. She says she feels bad and has learned her lesson.
Reminds me of the early days of cell phones (I guess it hasn’t changed much) when if you went over your minutes you were charged outrageous rates like a few dollars a minute for a local call, etc.
I got one of those bills and called the server and told them straight out. “I will NEVER pay this bill” just on principle, it was no better than a scam to charge me hundreds of dollars for local calls. I told them they can retroactively charge me at a higher plan for the past month and increase my minutes on a new plan, but they will never see one penny of those outrageous charges. They did it, I paid them the extra 30 or so bucks whatever it was to increase the plan.
I see this crap in emails I get from co-workers. It's sloppy and lazy.
I constantly see girls (and it’s always a teenage girl) texting while driving. Unbelievable.
Must have had preset distribution lists, and remember there was probably a charge for each text that was sent to her also.
My son was helping out working in someone’s yard with a bunch of other kids. He said some of the kids were texting each other - 20’ apart!
He texts a bit. But he pays everytime he sends an image (once!) and every time he receives one. Well, only half-price on one of those images. It was of a homework sheet he forgot!
Just about every cell phone company offers unlimited text messages for five or ten bucks a month and I am almost positive that Verizon is one of them.
Our cell phones are “bundled” with our landline and the provider just switched to Verizon who gave us “free” replacement phones.
The “free” phones came with cameras and texting, if I wanted phones w/o cameras and texting, well I would have to pay for those phones. And guess what, they have simplified online parental controls and monitoring for a mere $10 per month per phone. Took me days to get the freaking parental controls set.
Mind you my kids do not have their own phones, we have a communal “kid phone” that they are required to take with them when they go places. If I have more than one kid going more than one place, then the 2nd kid gets a parental phone.
It's killing me trying to stay ahead of my kids technologically. I'm beginning to see the attractions of being a Luddite.
...commuter trains.
omg, u r so not cool
well said. then they have the youtube site to indulge themselves in with a ‘who can top this’ thing also. things are upside down now for sure and ‘benumbed’ fits good.
I pay my Verizon bill at the local office, it’s all automated, I punch in my number, swipe a debit card and it’s done.
Before I get out of the office my phone beeps, Verizon sends me a text message telling me that my bill has been paid.
If you send one message to 10 different people, it counts as ten.
Was there confirmation of this? When I got texting blocked on my cell phone I got an email confirmation of this from AT&T.
My question is why does a thirteen year old have a cell phone?
The only reason my sixteen year old had one was for while he was working at camp and he had to pay for it. It was taken away not long ago for texting or using it when he was at work or after our lights out. Easy enough.
My brother has sent 5,000 in one month... He however, had an unlimited plan I think. My parents just galked at the number and went on, so I would assume so.
My daughter gets a cell phone at 13.
No issue there.
My 12 year old daughter (honor roll last 3 semesters!) got a cell phone for good grades, but it is ONLY pay as you go, and she only gets minutes when she gets on the honor roll. Costs me less than $10 per month, but the service REALLY sux (virgin moblile) she says.
She is still happy because she is one of the cool kids with a cell phone.
At our rural school we have at least one second grader and one kindergarten kid with their own cell phone. Ridiculous!
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