said by ninjatutle :

We need more details...

What time did the cruise boat leave port? What time was he using the service.

These boats have been known to block signals and makes you use theirs. Thats the only explanation to the $28k. I'm on a 3G card right now and I know better to be streaming video...

said by en102 :

I went on a cruise ship for an event (still in dock), and 'inside' the ship the signal was very weak on AT&T (San Pedro, CA). I'm sure that if I went to a lower deck, or closer to the center of the ship, I'd have no service... or 'roaming' on the ships service, with extortion fees (sort of like PetroComm in the Gulf of Mexico).

I think that for the most part, unless requested AT&T (and others with international roaming or national roaming with fees) should do the following:

- Block these high cost roaming carriers (assuming US cruise ship or PetroComm) on DATA unless they call into AT&T and explicitly request it. Without knowledge of roaming (this is AT&T's own issue here!) you could be hit with fees.
- Enable the roaming indicator

AT&T does list roaming on ship rates
»www.wireless.att.com/learn/inter···toaction
-

said by ninjatutle :

We need more details...

What time did the cruise boat leave port? What time was he using the service.

These boats have been known to block signals and makes you use theirs. Thats the only explanation to the $28k. I'm on a 3G card right now and I know better to be streaming video...

said by ninjatutle :

We need more details...

What time did the cruise boat leave port? What time was he using the service.

These boats have been known to block signals and makes you use theirs. Thats the only explanation to the $28k. I'm on a 3G card right now and I know better to be streaming video...

said by DivineDark :

For example there is no way to tell if somebody has their foot on one side of a country border of not. With a ship it is not a piece of land and can not adjust rates based off its current location.

said by Anon Y Mouse :

Fo God's sake, make up your mind. It's him or her, don't use both! Of course, no one can be sure these days.

said by raw :

Not you... Karl.

said by RadioDoc :

At some point you can't protect people from themselves, but AT&T and the rest of the wireless industry should just cut people off at the cap and require affirmative confirmation to continue beyond it. That would end these sorts of things.

said by BF69 :

but then they couldn't collect on their outrageous and potentially illegal overage fees.

said by DaveNJ :

ATT could have sent her a text saying she is over her limit, and will be charged. But that would be the reasonable thing to do. Hence ATT didnt do it.

said by Cogdis :

It's possible he had a different model card which does not support SMS. I haven't used a wireless data card in a while but when I had one a while back with Sprint it did not support any SMS (though I still got charges for spam texts once in a while which would be refunded by Sprint).

said by ninjatutle :

The guy is an idiot. I just posted a screen capture of the ATT 3G SMS app...

said by DaveNJ :

I bet her phone said "ATT" , Att never shows when you are roaming, and locks out carrier select. ATT could have sent her a text saying she is over her limit, and will be charged. But that would be the reasonable thing to do. Hence ATT didnt do it.

said by BF69 :

which makes it seems cheap because most people don't know there is over 1 billion KB in a GB

said by jester121 :

A giga is a million kilos, not a billion.

Those pesky orders of magnitude will get you every time.

Since you did the math wrong should it still be illegal?

said by BF69 :

My math is still right. It's still $503 per GB. Go do it yourself Einstien.

$0.00048/KB = $0.49152 per MB = $503.32 per GB.

They told me that the bill was correct and somehow I was charged international rates for Internet use, and the cost is 2 cents per kb. That came out to $27,788.93.

said by sharksfan3 :

I believe it's also against AT&T's TOS to stream media over their data network.

I don't feel bad at all for this person. $6,000 is better than $27,788.93.

said by sharksfan3 :

I believe it's also against AT&T's TOS to stream media over their data network.

I don't feel bad at all for this person. $6,000 is better than $27,788.93.

said by me1212 :

If it says unlimited it should be unlimited not 5g+ overages. I hope they ether have to give REAL unlimited OR say on their main page "we have a 5g cap+ overages, and if you use it in a US ship port your bill could be over $20,000!" well it would be with in the realm of not being false advertising.

said by pfak :

Most utilities don't actually guarantee 120 volts for AC Power.

said by fcisler :

There is no, 0, zip, zilch, nada reason as to WHY ANY CONSUMER cell phone account should be able to accrue more than lets say $5,000 in charges.

said by fcisler :

There is no, 0, zip, zilch, nada reason as to WHY ANY CONSUMER cell phone account should be able to accrue more than lets say $5,000 in charges.

Got a business plan and spend $20k a month on 30+ cellphones? Yes. I do know someone who does.

Why in the hell should AT&T let this woman rack up that bill? I can understand why when you buy a 500 minute plan you can go to 750 minutes. They make a very hefty sum off of overages.

Is it me that finds that - for once - cell phone companies should opt-in a $5,000 cap and then give you the option to opt-out of that? In this case...when you rack up the $5,000 they can tell you "well you didn't opt out". Or when you opt-out and they try and charge you $28k they can go "well you opted out"

said by Matt :

If you RTA, the charges were completely waived. They didn't have to pay a dime.

said by funchords :

Sorry, but it doesn't count when a company does the right thing under pressure of a consumer reporter.

said by funchords :

There is no way that ANY data service ought to cost $135.00 a minute (based on the $28K amount) or even $30 a minute (based on the $6K amount).

said by patcat88 :

Satellite phone call from the Moon?

said by patcat88 :

Satellite phone call from the Moon?

said by patcat88 :

Satellite phone call from the Moon?

said by Metatron2008 :

Unlimited meaning 5 gig, $135 a minute, she could easily be a millionaire soon.

said by swintec :

No one has mentioned it yet, but dont Cruise Ships have on board equipment that act as cell sites for when out at sea? I have yet to be on a cruise but Sprint talks of this on there website. Is it possible she was connected to this system while sitting in port? Maybe she was deep into the ship in her cabin and the standard non-roaming signal couldnt penetrate the ship enough so the ships system took precedence? Not really sure.

Either way...to those that say they should have cut her off when she reached her cap...it takes a fair amount of time before usage is calculated and accounted for to the customers account. It is in no way calculated in real time. The damage most likely would have been done before the data session was billed...even longer of a time if she was indeed roaming as it can take several hours - to several days before roaming partners update each other.

said by DaveNJ :

I remember reading a while back , that ATT was charging a maximum of $100, regardless of overage. Again this is ATT's fault, the service should have just turned off, when she hit $100 worth.. It completely unreasonable to expect someone to pay this..

my cell phone/wireless card bill, which is usually about $220, and it said I owe $28,067.31.

Team Fixer pleaded your case with AT&T, and the good news is they've agreed to credit your bill for $27,776.66.

said by expert007 :

We got my son a new AT&T cell phone for Xmas, and recently we got his first bill in the amount of $3012.50, most of which was of course, pay as you go data charges.

Problem is, we never told him specifically NOT to use the internet. Why would I even know that internet was enabled by default when on ALL of my previous AT&T phones and Blackberries, internet wasn't available unless you had previously signed up for a data plan?

About an hour on the phone with two different AT&T reps, one in customer service and one in billing, and a two week special review of the circumstances led them to waive ALL of the data charges. They disabled the data service to the phone, which took all of five seconds, but of course, my son had been informed that he wasn't to use ANY data services already. I wasn't a dick about getting it resolved, but I made it clear that I wouldn't accept their usual proposed solution, which apparently was "If you sign up for a data plan, we'll waive the charges". For a kids phone, there was never any intent to have a data plan on there anyway.

I have to give them kudos for taking care of this right away.

said by pnh102 :

If cell phone providers are going to waive contract provisions for a select group of idiots who choose not to read them, does that mean those contracts should not apply to the rest of us who do read them as well?

said by N10Cities :

On that point, I agree..... people need to read the fine print....

The Chicago Tribune has the latest tale of a woman who decided to watch a "Slingboxed" Chicago Bears game

My wife and I are exhausted over this.

said by TKJunkMail :

»Yet Another Ridiculous 3G BillIt wasn't a woman. It was the husband. The woman in the picture was the reporter on the story.

»www.suntimes.com/news/zimmermann···.article