Posted on 01/29/2010 12:36:59 PM PST by Drew68
CHULA VISTA — Letty Soriano and her 16-year-old daughter, Janel, made a pact for their trip to Dubai to limit their international roaming charges on the girl’s cell phone: Janel could text-message her friends but not call them. If she got lost, Janel could call or text her mom.
Surfing the Internet on her smart phone was left to Janel’s discretion. As Soriano understood it from a phone call with her carrier, there would be no additional cost for that, other than the standard charges included in the family’s data plan.
But two days after returning from visiting her sister in Dubai, Soriano’s service was suspended and she received a message to call T-Mobile. She learned that her daughter had racked up $16,379 in data-roaming charges accrued by surfing the Internet.
“I couldn’t sleep for two weeks,” Soriano said. “I was walking around like a dead person.”
Christopher Elliott, travel ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler, said he has fielded several similar complaints.
“When you travel overseas with your cell phone, all bets are off,” Elliott said. “The only way to ensure that you won’t have to pay roaming charges is to leave your cell phone at home.”
Others advise turning off international data-roaming features to prevent phones from automatically downloading data, such as e-mail, even if the phone isn’t being used.
The Federal Communications Commission receives many complaints about mobile-phone-company billing and rate charges, but the agency said it can’t provide figures without a public-records request, which could take weeks or months.
Soriano and her attorney, Cyrus Seradj, tried for eight months to negotiate with T-Mobile in an attempt to have the charges waived. They cited Soriano’s call to T-Mobile before she left on her trip to confirm the cost of overseas service.
After Soriano complained to T-Mobile, the company offered a 25 percent discount on the data charges. But that’s as far as it would go, saying Soriano never asked about overseas rates for using the Internet.
“It is T-Mobile’s position that the disputed data charges are valid and owed,” wrote Justin Chrisman, who works in the company’s customer-relations department.
But after receiving a phone call from The San Diego Union-Tribune inquiring about Soriano’s case last week, T-Mobile said in an e-mail message that it would waive the charges “as a sign of good will toward our customer,” said Krista Berlincourt, with Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, a public-relations firm that works for T-Mobile.
How does one rack up a $16,000 phone bill?
While in Dubai, Janel surfed the Internet the way she does at home, looking at YouTube videos and logging into MySpace. But using a cell phone while abroad incurs higher roaming charges than at home. T-Mobile charges $15 per megabyte to use data services overseas.
Soriano said she was stunned to hear of the exorbitant cost associated with Janel’s Internet use and is furious with T-Mobile for not being more explicit about how international data-roaming charges are incurred.
T-Mobile doesn’t discuss individual accounts. International roaming fees are listed on its Web page.
Soriano said she didn’t look at the Web page but called directly to inquire. She said the phone company should have warned her about the ballooning charges while she was in Dubai.
Mobile-phone carriers’ failure to alert their customers that they’re racking up massive bills as a courtesy the way credit-card companies do makes them unfriendly, said Mindy Spatt, with The Utility Reform Network, based in San Francisco.
Michael Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumers’ Action Network, a local consumer group, said phone carriers typically back off once another organization gets involved.
“The international roaming cases are jaw-dropping,” Shames said. “They are notable because of the sheer audacity of the bill.”
His organization has gotten involved in such cases multiple times, he said.
“When you get these kinds of bills, take a big, deep breath,” Shames said. “Rule 1 is keep breathing. Rule 2 is keep a sense of humor because you will work through it. It’s rare that a customer ever has to pay more than a fraction of it.”
Don't bother. All international roaming of all kinds is always horrifically expensive. Even if your US provider doesn't rape you on the charges, the network operator overseas absolutely and invariably will. Your US customer service rep has no knowledge of those overseas rates, and is under no obligation to be accurate or honest about them.
The only safe thing to do outside the country is replace your SIM card with a prepaid local SIM... if that's even an option with your handset, which between carrier locking and the US's outdated and non-standard networks it usually won't be.
Ignorance of supposed commercial agreements is not tantamount to ignorance of the law.
By allowing the girl to rack up the charges, they set themselves up to look like the bad guy and ultimately wind up losing the whole amount in the end to PR. Don't get me wrong, the customer should have paid for the use at the agreed-upon terms, however those terms should have been in writing, not via a phone call.
“As Soriano understood it from a phone call with her carrier, there would be no additional cost for that, other than the standard charges included in the family’s data plan. “
It seems she was under the impression that internet wasn’t going to cost anymore than in the states. That doesn’t make the kid a brat or the mom stupid.
Sometimes Freepers can be so hateful about people when they don’t even read the articles.
While not binding in the same minor, the charges ARE. Don’t know what you mean by ‘supposed agreement’; access of the network is ‘agreement’ enough for most localities. She KNEW that she could be charged more - she’d cautioned her daughter and made an ‘agreement’ with her. Her stupidity in not checking what her liability could be isn’t an excuse as far as I’m concerned.
True, but apparently they did contact the phone company in good faith before they went. However, they didn't ask enough questions, and the company representative didn't volunteer enough information or ask enough questions either.
I'm impressed that T-Mobile waved the charges (under duress of bad PR though). However a $15/MB data charge is ridiculous, especially in modern Dubai where high-speed internet and cell phones are the norm. There's no way their marginal cost of service approaches 1/10 of that. But that's how cell companies abuse the customer.
That’s what happened with the last case of ambushed consumer overcharge plainted on the network recently. Turns out the aggrieved party let his son download and watch movies in Mexico...how effing stupid to you have to be?
In many cases, buying an unlocked local handset (as long as you don't need anything fancy) in addition to using prepaid minutes will still be cheaper than using your U.S. handset and calling internationally. In many countries, you can buy used handsets for dirt cheap.
She still knew enough to limit her daughter with an ‘agreement’ between them that apparently wasn’t encompassing enough. She SHOULD have dug deeper.
Bunch of snakes. They of course meant “no additional cost ON TOP OF THE EXORBITANT OVERSEAS RATE.”
Now at some point one does garner enough of a sixth sense to notice commercial claims that are baldly misleading. However cell service seems to be in a league of its own and it may take a shock or two to notice that THEY DO NOT PLAY BY THE SAME RULES AS MOST OTHER UTILITIES.
She checked in good faith and the snakes misled her.
Call any provider and ask them. Enter into no agreement if they won’t offer a plan that gives you cost-certainty.
But the Mom had no reason to be concerned about roman’ charges: she thought they only applied in Italy.
Some people in this world think that EVERYONE in it should have a ‘right’ to its conveniences and that their misuse is entirely excusable - it is the fault because that EVIL COMPANY didn’t explain it to me! They didn’t tell me I’d have to pay more when I’m in a far flung country....Sure, they all, every one, DESERVE these conveniences and should be coddled and excused.
Sure it did. Taught them to find a carrier that won't be so blatant about hosing them
But, is there any sane middle ground between “nothing at all individually billable” and “any old exorbitant charge.” I.e. keeping in a budget. My housemate tried Sprint’s $800 spending limit and found that only covers “some” kind of charges, not the whole bill (in fact they threaten to cut off many weeks before that figure can be reached at the rate services are being used).
Thank you, cellcos, for giving liberal consumer advocate groups a reason to keep existing!
I've worked in customer service where every phone call was recorded and stored in a database. It's quite possible that T-Mobile has on record a clueless CS representative telling the mother that there'd be no additional charges and this had a lot to do with their decision to waive the charges.
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