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.”
cool = understanding?
I just checked my iPhone AT&T app. AT&T international data roaming (some 90 countries) can be bought as a monthly package. Max plan: $200 for 200MB. Over that and it's $0.005/KB.
With an unlocked GSM phone, you can usually buy a local SIM and get much cheaper rates "in country".
That's what I always hated about Verizon's phones. No SIM card. But they'll rent you a phone for use overseas.
Does it not even occur to anyone if you go overseas to ask what it will cost to use your phone before you actually use it? Do people just assume that it costs the same everywhere?
How difficult is it to get a cell phone that only does voice calls? Is that even possible?
Yeah, i did that for my daughter who is doing study abroad in Italy. The charges are way way lower then the ATT overseas rate. We did have to unlock the phone however.
>>I now have an iPhone and when I travel overseas, the phone will be in Airplane mode or turned off. I have an older hacked iPhone that I could use with a local chip as well.
You are correct. When I was in the Philippines, I went to the local markets and everywhere I asked in Manila, there were available people to hack my Iphone and replace the chip. It was 100 pesos which was like $2. Then again, most overseas Filipinos use Skype because its free.
Yes, pardon my slang. Cool as in spoke English clearly, understood my problem and was able to rectify the situation immediately over the phone, by herself, with no additional cost to me. Feats that seem increasingly rare in the world of telephone customer service.
Have you heard of “plans.” Did you see that the woman called to see if access from that point would be in the plan and they said yes. Fraud, end of story.
And I'll bet T-Mobile has a phone record of one of their customer service employees (perhaps incorrectly) affirming this. That could be one reason why they decided to waive the charges.
They will rent you a phone? More info please. We have Verizon and my son is in Iraq. Would it work there?
>> Really??? I mean really????? Since when is it the companies responsibility to give that information?
Stolen phone.
When my son got his phone (”Mom, I’m the last 17 year old in the county withouy a phone.”) I set his limits before he touched his phone. He is in his first year of college and I still have a zero dollar spending limit.
I threaten to add the tracker on his phone so I know where he is every minute of the day. “Mom that’s just creepy.”
:-) Thank God, he’s a good kid so there is no need for that. It is enough that he knows I will do it if need be.
Here would be me,when I was a kid, asking my dad if I could have a cell phone:
Dad,can I have a cell phone?
NO!
But Dad,all the kids”POW”
I had a much smaller version of this type of problem once. I’m too tired to recount the details, it pertained to a calling card, remember those? I told the carrier straight out, I’m sorry I was confused, but there is just no way I can afford to pay this, and we did work it out. I did have to write about three times to actually get the big credit they did give me. I think it was MCI, remember them?
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