Posted on 04/30/2010 6:28:44 AM PDT by GOPsterinMA
DOVER — Bob and Mary St. Germain say they can’t believe it. Four years after their son, Bryan, used his cellphone to connect to the Internet, the couple is still trying to fight the bill: a nearly $18,000 tab from Verizon.
Bryan, now 26, thought his family’s plan included free data downloads. It didn’t, and in August 2006, the St. Germains’ phone bill ballooned to more than 100 times the normal amount.
“You can’t print what my husband said’’ when the bill came, Mary St. Germain said. “He was very shocked.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
This idiot was 22 when it happened, why wasn't he paying his own bills?
They were paying $180 a month to begin with?
Eff that.
Pay his own bills? In Obama’s America? From Dover, MA?
You got it all wrong, FRiend! /s
Don’t feel sorry for them.
Undeniable rule of life: It costs more to be stupid.
This is not a rip off by Verizon. And comparing bandwidth cost now to 2006 is irrelevant. It’s like saying now that Seagate cheated me when I paid $300 for a 350 meg hard drive back in the day, because drives are so much cheaper now.
Note that the kid DL’d over 1 gig in a month...on his phone. Not an easy thing to do in 2006 I’m betting. Don’t know what kind of throughput you got on a cell 4 years ago, but I don’t think it was that great.
Flame away folks, but these people as innocent victims of evil corporation doesn’t pass the smell test.
Yep.
I am constantly asked to upgrade a number of services I purchase. I don't do so because I am very leary of the unknown charges that I may incur. It just isn't worth the hassle.
You bring up very valid points! 1G dl’ed on the phone 4 years ago - impressive.
For sure Verizon sucks. I’ve heard more horror stories about them than Comcast.
I’m still curious/impressed about the amount of downloaded data over a phone 4 years ago.
Maybe the boy was studying to be and SEC worker.
What’s the phone companies though? They extend all users an $18,000 credit line without a phone call to ask /check /warn?
Yeah, me too. It did sound like the charges were incurred over a 6 week period, or so. It doesn't appear that the family was negligent of trying to understand their monthly bill.
So apparently, while the young lad was studying to be a honcho at the SEC he felt the need to tether the sh*t out of his cell phone.
BBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a case of two wrongs here. Mr. ‘SEC Regulator’ should he held accountable as he was 22 y/o at the time. Verizon should have notified the account holder of the mounting charges.
I have no doubt that Verizon sucks.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good one!
When my daughter went over her texting limit unaware and racked up a big bill, AT&T agreed to change the charges as if we had a plan that covered the texts - they keep a customer and get a larger monthly contract - Verizon would better have done the same - this is not good publicity for them.
This is something I never understood either. If you look at it from the phone companies' perspective, most of the time these charges are waived or significantly reduced. This results in the phone company taking a hit financially, especially since it cannot waive the costs of providing the service it ultimately gives away for below cost.
Most credit cards do not allow for unlimited spending. I am surprised most cell phone companies do. I personally would like to see cell phone companies offer an option to enforce a maximum amount of spending each month per bill. You'd get a warning that you are about to cross the line and if you really DID want to take the hit you'd have to consent to it. I think that would be a major winner from the phone companies' perspective because they would not lose money providing service for which they will not be paid.
Great example (sorry to hear about your big bill though)!
Exactly - Verizon looks worse here (although methinks the kids knew what he was doing).
My daughter and her husband got a family plan with unlimited text messaging and gave their two teenage daughters a phone for the first time. The first day one of them racked up 300 text messages. The phone got taken away.
T-Mobile has treated me very fairly, and I’ve been with them since 2006.
Me too! I’ve been with them since 2002 (they were still Voicestream then), out of contract since 2004 (buy my own phones).
Haven’t found a better provider to jump to yet. In fact, I’m thinking of getting 3G internet service from them as well.
O U C H ! ! !
First day? Yikes!
Smart move on your family’s part - gotta yank the phone, no other choice.
A coworker has unlimited data and 300 text messages a month for $4.95 from T-Mobile. He’s had the plan since they started it (I’m thinking a decade ago or close to it), and as long as they don’t make him change it, he’s not.
“Family Plan” probably. “Bundling” is the big buzz word in the telecom industry right now. The more stuff you group together, the more money you save.
This is just another reason to avoid Verizon. Their customer service is terrible and they never tell you the truth.
Are you telling me that there is no way that Verizon could have tried to contact this person or suspend the account when the bill climbed above $5,000? Did they really think this guy was going to hand over $18,000? Bunch of idiots working in that company. Would they allow it to climb to $50,000 or $100,000?
What a stupid company.
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