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Yet Another Ridiculous Verizon Wireless Bill
Philly man faces $17,000 3G bill from Verizon
by Karl Bode Friday 29-Oct-2010 tags: prices · business · wireless · bandwidth · consumers
Tipped by ptrowski See Profile
As we've been covering extensively, the FCC is considering imposing rules on wireless carriers requiring they improve notification systems informing customers before their wireless bills are going nuclear. While it's true such users don't read their contract fine print, it's also true that the endless stream of insane bill stories we've seen are also the fault of carriers, whose pricing schemes are frequently both intentionally cryptic and punitive. While carriers insist the new rules aren't necessary, these kinds of stories continue to roll in, like this Philadelphia man and his $17,000 Verizon bill:

When Mota, who has lived in Philadelphia for 23 years, visited family in the Dominican Republic, he took his laptop and the USB modem. He said he accessed the Internet with no problem for an hour early on June 19 and a half-hour that evening. The third time he tried to log on, he said, a message told him that he was roaming and he immediately shut down his computer and didn't use it the rest of the trip. When he returned, he found the $17,505 Verizon bill in his mailbox - $17,445 of which was for roaming charges.

Verizon says they're looking into his case and acknowledges that such surprises are "bad business." As is usually the case once these stories find their way into the press, Verizon frequently decides to provide a significant refund. In the case of one Boston resident, he had to fight for four years but ultimately got Verizon to forgive an $18,000 phone bill. Could these users pay closer attention? Sure. Could carriers create systems that get consumer confirmation before bills require second mortgages? Absolutely.

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Romney2012
Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe in
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1 edit

No roaming on data plans should be default

While nothing can be made foolproof from users intent on being stupid(for real stupid; or just pretend stupid to ripoff the phone company), all Verizon data accounts should, by default, be "no roaming". And if you try to initiate roaming access from an overseas location, it should require positive action(more than just 1-click) by the customer to turn on roaming. That would end most of these overbilling claims from arising. And any claims of the customer not knowing what ran up the bill could be mocked by Verizon in the press.
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SunnyD

join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL

No contracts longer than 10 lines long should be default

Seriously, the T's & C's of common service contracts are ridiculous. It's no wonder that nobody ever reads them, let alone understands them if they do.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
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Re: No contracts longer than 10 lines long should be default

You can thank lawyers and people who try to weasle out of stuff for T&Cs which are 20 pages long chock full of legalese.

cdru
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Re: No contracts longer than 10 lines long should be default

said by rchandra:

You can thank lawyers and people who try to weasle out of stuff for T&Cs which are 20 pages long chock full of legalese.
20 pages? I was notified the other day that Apple had updated their T&C for the iTunes store. It was 55 pages long. If there are more then a dozen people in the world that actually read all 55 pages I'd be really surprised.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
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Re: No contracts longer than 10 lines long should be default

Well, then...the answer is simple in principle, but admittedly tough to execute: do not patronize them, and they will wither on the vine, until such time as they simplify their T&C.

Despite the lawyers putting forth their best efforts, I have to wonder just how enforceable some of these agreements are. Many of them are so chock full of "at our sole discretion" so as to make them meaningless. One may as well just word it something like "You are our customer but at any time at our sole discretion you are not; you will be terminated and we won't let you return." On that note, it's so simple: too broad.
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elwoodblues
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said by cdru:

said by rchandra:

You can thank lawyers and people who try to weasle out of stuff for T&Cs which are 20 pages long chock full of legalese.
20 pages? I was notified the other day that Apple had updated their T&C for the iTunes store. It was 55 pages long. If there are more then a dozen people in the world that actually read all 55 pages I'd be really surprised.
For the App store.. that's bloody insane. I'm going to read 55 pages on my phone..yeah sure.

Up here in Ontario, they have legislated that leasing agreements on cars are in plain english now.
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cdru
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Re: No contracts longer than 10 lines long should be default

said by elwoodblues:

For the App store.. that's bloody insane. I'm going to read 55 pages on my phone..yeah sure.
Actually, when viewed on the phone (or in my case an iPod Touch), it was 55 pages that each had probably 3 or 4 scrollable screens each. Here are the Terms & Conditions. Printing the web page, it would still be 18 pages.

rchandra
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If you don't want to read it on your iDevice, I'm pretty sure you don't have to. You probably have a device with a larger screen at home, or for the time being you can probably go to a public library and borrow (the use of) one of their computers for a spell.

Man (or woman) up, read it, and then decide whether you want to agree with their terms or not. If the answer is "not," don't patronize them. As the saying goes, ignorance is no excuse, and I'll add it's just a cop-out.
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Jeopardy! replies and randomcaps REALLY suck!
jjeffeory

join:2002-12-04
USA

Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

Good idea, but I don't think it would be very good PR for Verizon to mock their customers.

Really, the charges should be explained to the customer trying to roam in terms of something like this:

If you roam internally, you could incur significant charges. Then they could show an approximation of the charges in terms of dollars for the country in question. This would give the customer the power to make an informed decision of whether or not they want to pay 4,000/hr ( or whatever that charge will be) to stream that movie...

MalibuMaxx
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

said by jjeffeory:

Good idea, but I don't think it would be very good PR for Verizon to mock their customers.

Really, the charges should be explained to the customer trying to roam in terms of something like this:

If you roam internally, you could incur significant charges. Then they could show an approximation of the charges in terms of dollars for the country in question. This would give the customer the power to make an informed decision of whether or not they want to pay 4,000/hr ( or whatever that charge will be) to stream that movie...
Toyota mocked it consumers... how would this be any different... its normal and common procedure to mock your userbase... How unfortunate for the common consumer.

Matt
All noise, no signal.
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

I don't understand this ... when one of our users goes over $2k on a corporate data card, either domestic or international, the data card is disabled and we get an email from the carrier ... IMMEDIATELY.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

I'm sorry, isn't that a bit of a catch-22? Turn off their access to email, then send them an email? It's kinda like the strip with Dogbert as Help Desk Tech resetting a user's password and sending the new password via email.
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Jeopardy! replies and randomcaps REALLY suck!
MRCUR

join:2007-03-09
Columbia, PA

Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

I would hope the IT department isn't using data cards as their Internet connection...

TwighlightLA
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said by Romney2012:

all Verizon data accounts should, by default, be "no roaming". And if you try to initiate roaming access from an overseas location, it should require positive action(more than just 1-click) by the customer to turn on roaming.
Your posted suggestion is a reasonable, prudent, common sense solution to the problem. It really is.

How have you lasted here since 2002 posting like that?

Romney2012
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

said by TwighlightLA:

said by Romney2012:

all Verizon data accounts should, by default, be "no roaming". And if you try to initiate roaming access from an overseas location, it should require positive action(more than just 1-click) by the customer to turn on roaming.
Your posted suggestion is a reasonable, prudent, common sense solution to the problem. It really is.

How have you lasted here since 2002 posting like that?
Stubbornness.

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Eek2121
Lovin Verizon FIOS

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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default


cameronsfx

join:2009-01-08
Panama City, FL
said by Romney2012:

said by TwighlightLA:

said by Romney2012:

all Verizon data accounts should, by default, be "no roaming". And if you try to initiate roaming access from an overseas location, it should require positive action(more than just 1-click) by the customer to turn on roaming.
Your posted suggestion is a reasonable, prudent, common sense solution to the problem. It really is.

How have you lasted here since 2002 posting like that?
Stubbornness.

Actually, there are 435 seats in Congress and it has a 97% reelection rate. Only about 65 are competitive. We need to throw out a lot more than the 50-60 that will win and sends Dems packing. The Senate is worse. Quit, die, or get caught doing something gay and that seat changes. Rarely do incumbents in the Senate lose.

So, really, who is the problem? The voters. "I like my Congressmen and Senator. Throw out so and so." Redistricting is another problem since they are drawn to keep everyone in office.

"Congress may change hands but the only thing that really changes is the blood on the new hands."

elwoodblues
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

2 words.. Term Limits.. Ban Lobbyists (ok thats 4 words)

Don't know if the American Constitution allows that.

But it's crazy to have 80yr old Senators voting on bills that are around technology that they barely pronounce let alone understand.

Point in case :

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8XSo0et···=related

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rchandra
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Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

said by elwoodblues:

2 words.. Ban Lobbyists
Sorry, that's patently against the First Amendment

said by elwoodblues:

Don't know if the American Constitution allows that.
Not yet; there's nothing stopping the amendment process to add one encompassing more than just the presidency.

said by elwoodblues:

But it's crazy to have 80yr old Senators voting on bills that are around technology that they barely pronounce let alone understand.
Well, yeah...look at rights-shredding monstrosities like the DMCA. Goodbye, fair use.
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Jeopardy! replies and randomcaps REALLY suck!

jtudor
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said by TwighlightLA:

said by Romney2012:

all Verizon data accounts should, by default, be "no roaming". And if you try to initiate roaming access from an overseas location, it should require positive action(more than just 1-click) by the customer to turn on roaming.
Your posted suggestion is a reasonable, prudent, common sense solution to the problem. It really is.
And that is exactly why Verizon and other carriers will NEVER implement it.

It is the logical thing to do, and Lawyers will NEVER agree to do the logical thing, it cuts into their revenue stream!
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michieru
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1 edit
It should be the same process as when you are traveling to a foreign country and want to make calls in that country straight off roaming from another carrier. In order for that to happen you must call the company and get the line activated in order to do that.

The same should be done with data cards, and even then data cards are just phone lines with no minutes. Verizon knows a customer won't ever pay for such a bill yet they let it happen to see how much can they can get away with.

EDIT: P.S Democrats and Republicans need to be thrown out of office because they are both just as useless as the next.

Tough Love

@cox.net
I have little compassion for people who buy non necessities that they can't afford. The reason our country is so screwed up, and jobs are leaving in droves, are due to laws and regulations designed to protect the stupid and lazy from themselves, which can't be done. I don't care what limits you impose upon business and society, the stupid and lazy will always find a way to get into trouble. Wireless broadband is not a necessity, commodity or birth right. It is luxury item for most people.
talz13

join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

Re: No roaming on data plans should be default

Right, since the service that usually costs you $30 a month would be fine if it went to $30,000 for a month, since it's a "luxury"...
horsemouth
Please Clarify My CSP
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canada
That will learn him for not speaking the Queens english.
Honestly tho...the boy needs a swift kick not a 17,000 bill.
glinc

join:2009-04-07
New York, NY
Reviews:
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Yeah....

I realized there are more stupid people living in the US and never do their homework before getting anything. Who doesn't know DR is not covered?. When you get your service they tell you is Nationwide and covers US, Alaska, Puerto Rico.

I've had customers coming with their bills also thinking Canada is covered as well.

HappyAnarchy

@iauq.com

Re: Yeah....

How about immigrants from the Dominican Republic that came over, don't understand newer technology as well and don't understand anything other than that the sales agent said "Sure you can use this anywhere!"

How about people who don't understand much about cel phones already, but the sales person said - "No problem, its easy to use. You just plug it into your computer and you can use it anywhere!"

Sure, if you are technologically literate and the carriers only marketed to people who are, you might have a point. Then again, I could easily see technologically literate people (Re: Adam Savage of the Mythbusters) can imagine, it can't be that expensive to use this for an hour or two. Then find out it is more than $10,000 for an hour or two of usage. There is no world in which that is a reasonable price, or can be reasonably expected. It is like using a credit card to fill your gas in Europe, expecting a charge on your card that is high, because gas is more expensive, but missing the little asterix on the price that says foreigners have a 1,000% mark up. Then you get a credit card bill for $5,000 for a couple of gallons of gas.
Then they say, why didn't you look at the small print - Sure you should have but that doesn't stop it from being point blank highway robbery.
jjeffeory

join:2002-12-04
USA

Re: Yeah....

Great points!

So you mean that corporations should be ethical as well as make money? Being legal isn't being the same as being ethical.
glinc

join:2009-04-07
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1 edit
You do have a point. But read the article. The guy lived in PA for 23 years. It's really enough time living in the US to learn english and to have enough time to educate yourself on the product you are shopping.

Don't forget that every store have someone that speaks english and spanish as standard so even if he didn't know how to speak english after living in the US for 23 years then sure there will be a spanish rep to take care of him.
slckusr
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1 edit

Yea i dunno

I always had to provision peoples phones\modems so they worked outside of the country. Thats when you take the opportunity to explain to the customer these services cost additional money.

Ignorance at this point is no excuse, unless of course your living in a box and never seen the news/paper/internet talking about outrageous fees when traveling overseas.

Corehhi

join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC
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Re: Yea i dunno

said by slckusr:

Ignorance at this point is no excuse, unless of course your living in a box and never seen the news/paper/internet talking about outrageous fees when traveling overseas.
Seriously someone is going to want to pay 17K for cell charges?? These charges are just ridiculous.
hottboiinnc
ME

join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH
totally agree...but the customer still won't care. why should ust block roaming until the customer gives up an american express card.

fifty nine

join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
kudos:1

Realtime usage meter

How hard is it to implement a Realtime usage meter? This would solve most of these problems or at the very least let the carrier say that they gave you fair warning.
cghh

join:2001-01-15
Milpitas, CA

Re: Realtime usage meter

said by fifty nine:

How hard is it to implement a Realtime usage meter?
Not necessarily that easy. The roaming provider most likely does not send the billing info in real time. Sometimes they just send a monthly bill to roamer's home system. So VZW does not know that you ran up $18000 in roaming charges until they get the bill a month later.

The European Union has ordered its members to provide real-time limits on roaming charges among them, but they are required to have their billing more tightly coupled than is generally the case internationally.

fifty nine

join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
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Re: Realtime usage meter

said by cghh:

said by fifty nine:

How hard is it to implement a Realtime usage meter?
Not necessarily that easy. The roaming provider most likely does not send the billing info in real time. Sometimes they just send a monthly bill to roamer's home system. So VZW does not know that you ran up $18000 in roaming charges until they get the bill a month later.

The European Union has ordered its members to provide real-time limits on roaming charges among them, but they are required to have their billing more tightly coupled than is generally the case internationally.
It doesn't have to be from the carrier. It could be an estimate in the connection software itself.

maartena
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It is not that hard to implement a real time usage meter.....within their own network. And in most cases realtime isn't even needed, a random interval of checking 12 times per day is probably more then enough, and economically feasable for any operator.

The problem in these cases is the foreign carriers. The Dominican company he was roaming with, might only report back data usage to Verizon once a week. After all, when you roam, you are not connected to the Verizon (or other US carrier) network AT ALL, and data usage is piped to whatever internet backbone the local carrier has.

The real problem here is the REDICULOUSLY HIGH amounts of money being charged to phones that use the network of another carrier. While the local user may have a plan similar to the U.S., like with a 2 Gb data cap or something for an amount around 60-something dollars etc.... the international roamer gets charged something rediculous like $15 per Megabyte to use the same data network.

It should start with BIG companies. If the carriers of Canada, U.S., the major part of the EU, China, India and Japan just get together and stop charging eachother rediculous amounts of money for a little bit of data, we'll be a lot better of, and the smaller carriers in smaller countries will follow suit.
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elwoodblues
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Who is going to monitor that's accurate?

We have the same issue up here in Canada, our domiant Telco, which is also an ISP has gotten regulatory permission to start metering it's users, resellers and other ISP's using their last mile.

The ball is bounced between one regulatory agency that is responsible for weights and measures, to the other body that is responsible for the regulating the telco's (we don't regulate the Internet per se, they look at the pipes and regulate those).
--
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Gflo

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subject because it told me to

When I left the country on a cruise ship this past summer, the second we got out of range of the last cellphone tower(it was in the water about 50 feet from the shore) I got an SMS on my droid saying I was now roaming(cruise ship service) and It listed the prices for data and phone usage.

sapo
Cruising Down Memory Lane
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Re: subject because it told me to

Yeah, when I drove through a few countries in Europe I received an SMS for each individual area explaining fees and everything as soon as I was roaming.
--
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Pirate515
Premium
join:2001-01-22
Brooklyn, NY

Re: subject because it told me to

said by sapo:

Yeah, when I drove through a few countries in Europe I received an SMS for each individual area explaining fees and everything as soon as I was roaming.
I guess it depends on how courteous a local carrier is to notify/warn you.

I went on a cruise last summer and the same thing happened, the second I got out of range of AT&T towers, I got a text explaining the rates; also, I kept getting the same texts when arriving and leaving various ports (my guess is it was switching between the ship's satellite coverage and local carriers).

However, when going on vacation to Mexico a few months ago, I did not get any texts whatsoever. I was roaming on MOVISTAR and TELCEL while there.

Of course, I have an iPhone and my data roaming is disabled by default, so I never run into surprises like that when traveling. I still make occasional phone calls, which are still a rip-off, but not as bad as data roaming.
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sapo
Cruising Down Memory Lane
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Re: subject because it told me to

I forgot to mention I was using a European Sim card so the carriers were much more understanding.
--
A block of cheese is a good day indeed.
SanJoseNerd
Premium
join:2002-07-24
San Jose, CA

Stop Saying "Read the Contract"

I'm really tired of people blaming the user for this sort of thing.

Two years ago I was in the market for new cellphone service, and I wanted to find out what I was agreeing to before I signed up. I went to the websites of half a dozen carriers, and carefully paged through them.

None of them had anything that even remotely resembled "the contract". None of them.

One carrier might have disclosed all or most of its charges. But the disclosures were in tiny print so small I had to use a screen magnifier to read it, and it wasn't all in one place but rather scattered in bits and pieces all over the website, and the various bits and pieces interacted with each other in unintuitive ways so it was impossible to figure out what you would actually be charged.

The other carriers said stuff like "500 minutes for $50 per month" and not much more.

If users are confused and don't know what to expect, it's not the user's fault. Carriers have deliberately made it impossible to "read the contract" or to predict what your charges will be. It's the carriers' fault.

See 12 replies to this post

Koil
Premium
join:2002-09-10
Irmo, SC

Is this V-DSLR?

You should really get some stories about Verizon on the front page... haven't heard much from them lately.

heat84
Bit Torrent Apologist

join:2004-03-11
Fort Lauderdale, FL

2 edits

Re: Is this V-DSLR?

said by Koil:

You should really get some stories about Verizon on the front page... haven't heard much from them lately.
How is it Carl's fault that Verizon likes making an ass of itself everyday?
--
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Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02
kudos:30
Yeah sorry, they've been busy this week unveiling new wireless pricing and paying record FCC fines, I fail to see how that's my fault.

Koil
Premium
join:2002-09-10
Irmo, SC

Re: Is this V-DSLR?

Looks like we still need that sarcasm font. :P

BF69
Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN

prove he used $18K in data

I'd liek to see Verizon priove that the data he used cost them anywhere near $18K. Most likely closer to $18.

See 7 replies to this post

ARIA2
Linux
Premium
join:2002-04-15
Brooklyn, NY

They guy is a retarded.

if you read the article the retarded person took his card over seas and used it on roaming... well no shit, you would think he has a brain.
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Mr Matt

join:2008-01-29
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Simple Solution!

Like Gflo said if the customer is roaming and the customer tries to connect screen, the displays you are now roaming press send to see prices. Then press send again to continue.

Corporatist have made deceiving customers is both a science and an art. Corporatist do not disclose the facts about the price of the service then they are offering and then they apply below line undisclosed fees to the customers bills to fraudulently raise prices. The corporate slime then pay off lawmakers to turn their backs on consumers.

Why would someone pay a couple of million dollars to be elected for an office that pays a fraction of the cost to run for that office. Answer Graft and Corruption.
ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

Share the blame

I think that the blame for things like this can be shared. First comes the subscriber. Anyone who doesn't know that International roaming costs extra--a lot extra--is an idiot. Second is the roaming carrier. Remember, that bill isn't all going to VZW. The carrier in the Dominican Republic likely charged VZW a premium for their customer to roam on their network. Third is, of course, VZW, since they are also making quite a lot off these kinds of charges.

Merely saying the customer should have read his contract ignores the draconian penalties for using these services. Suppose your mortgage company places a clause in your contract that states that, should your credit score ever drop below 600 for any reason, the entire balance of your mortgage shall be due immediately. Is that reasonable? The lender might argue that it is because your creditworthiness just dropped, and they need to ensure they'll get paid. Is it legal? Well, you did sign it, and it could be argued that it isn't completely arbitrary, since the lender can articulate a reason for it being there. Is it right? Of course not.

ARIA2
Linux
Premium
join:2002-04-15
Brooklyn, NY

Re: Share the blame

agreed, he is a retard... wtf is wrong with him... anyway... they should prompt pricing on connection if you are roaming... but who has international coverage on the wifi? why would you turn it on, if he did turn it on, wopuldnt they tell him its expensive.
jjeffeory

join:2002-12-04
USA

Re: Share the blame

Actually. I'm not sure retarded people can legally enter into binding contracts, so reading the fine print or even the contract wouldn't help.

Being unsophisticated is not the same as being retarded. Those of us who frequent this site may be a tad more sophisticated than the average Joe and know better. Others, who are casual users, could possibly get caught by this.
moes

join:2009-11-15
Indianapolis, IN
Reviews:
·AT&T DSL Service
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topic

First off to the people calling this guy retarded, grow up some.

second This guy probably thought like others do that they got service through verizon and when roaming they are roaming on verizon and possibly never have a clue there on another network all together.

This is why there should be a system put in place anywhere you can access the internet on your phone or laptop that will state that you are either roaming or not and how much the price will be per kilobyte. I find it in this day and age these things are not already implemented.

I hope he fights this and wins.

Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH

Re: topic

said by moes:

This is why there should be a system put in place anywhere you can access the internet on your phone or laptop that will state that you are either roaming or not and how much the price will be per kilobyte.
Actually, some phones do this already. I've got a Motorola Q9c on Sprint running Windows Mobile and it has a specific option in the data settings for 'Data Roam Guard' which basically keeps you from using data if you are roaming (I haven't actually had a chance to use it whether it blocks it outright or throws up a warning you can 'OK' through). I've even seen some rare dumbphones with this feature as well.

I'd personally blame the phone manufacturers and moreso the carriers (Hello Verizon!) for a) Assuming people are not going to be roaming outside their network and attempting to use their device as they normally would, and b) Either not defaulting these user nanny features in the on position or keeping them out altogether (Oh yeah, we can make out like bandits on idiot customers if we just leave this one feature out! GENIOUS!).
--
I swear, some people should have pace-makers installed to free up the resources. Breathing and heart beat taxes their whole system, all of their brain cells wasted on life support.-two bit brains, and the second bit is wasted on parity! ~head_spaz
patcat88

join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1

1 edit

Re: topic

Sprint specializes/ed (before all these prepaids came out) in poor credit rating customers. Every Sprint phone I've seen has somewhere in its menus a roaming alert/guard/block feature. Verizon does its best to hide the fact your roaming on Verizon phones, since Verizon has a policy that it never charges for domestic roaming (or you can't roam at all on that network if its too expensive for Verizon to swallow), and likes to pretend in its marketing that it covers the entire USA (after the Alltel purchase, this might be true now ), when in fact Verizon users are roaming all over the place and not knowing about it.

So yeah, Sprint doesn't want you to get a large bill then default on the account and stop paying monthly altogether. Even the deposit Sprint would make a bad credit score customer pay won't cover a $10K bill.

Gutygiui

@comcast.net
Yeah but he knew he was going to DR! Since when DR is part of the US?
patcat88

join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1

Re: topic

If I do a hit of acid, the DR flag looks like the american flag. Same colors and all.

extreme50
Formerly TwoKDialup
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Coloma, MI

Somebody call Johnny Depp...

this is the makings for WiFi Pirates of the Caribbean.
--
Comcast has spoiled me rotten!
tim85254

join:2010-07-15

"user did not understand what they bought"

Beginning and end. Dominican Republic != United States. No sympathy whatsoever here.

linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State

You gotta be kidding?

I really can't fathom $200/minute ROAMING even with a tariff tacked on the bill.
--
Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside
rody_44
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA

you hit it on the nose.

More like the person knew all along what he was doing. Now he will just complain and hope he gets a credit and another month of free service. The douche bag never planned on paying anything. This just potentially gets him another month until he gets shutoff for non payment. At that point he just sells the phone on fleabay.

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

~850MB = $18,000 ?

Was the ~850MB (~870,000 KB) all from that 1 1/2 connection ?
If it was, what was he downloading ?
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Canada = Hollywood North
megalosaurus

join:2000-11-29
North Salem, NY

Re: ~850MB = $18,000 ?

They must get fantastic bitrates in the DR. I think I want to move there.
Rilly

join:2007-10-26

The COSTS are STUPID

There is no way they need to charge this cost for roaming fees to begin with. When i went to the states (from Canada), as soon as i crossed the border, i got the little notice telling me that roaming fees 1 MB = 55$. 55$ for 1 MB of data is crazy.. this is the problem.. people expect to pay more.. but they don't expect anything to cost THAT much money! $55 a MB would work out to 44K to download an 800 MB file.
patcat88

join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1

Re: The COSTS are STUPID

said by Rilly:

There is no way they need to charge this cost for roaming fees to begin with. When i went to the states (from Canada), as soon as i crossed the border, i got the little notice telling me that roaming fees 1 MB = 55$. 55$ for 1 MB of data is crazy.. this is the problem.. people expect to pay more.. but they don't expect anything to cost THAT much money! $55 a MB would work out to 44K to download an 800 MB file.
You should see what 800 MB of pay per text text messages are.
watice

join:2008-11-01
New York, NY

codetel

i've never had roaming charges when roaming on codetel. I don't know what kind of agreements they had, but if I had prior notification that I was roaming then that pretty much makes me responsible for my usage, doesn't it?

freedom love

@charter.com

Do not go quietly into that good night.

Any system that can run up charges to above normal is a corrupt system, keyword here is normal.
Society is made up of people of many levels of intellect and understanding, with the logic of "read the contract" you assume everyone understands the world the way you do, this is not a factual point of contention as we all know not all of us were A students?
We all have parents, mine are older and they do not understand the new ways of the technological and contractual world and it is not their fault, no more than your inability to perform brain surgery.
It is the greed of Corporations to get all that you can as opposed to a reasonable return on your investment. Greed is why we have whacked out contracts, not whacked out citizens.
Besides when has it been necessary to have a contract for a utility?
Contracts are for businesses doing business with each other and they have no place in this subject matter.
If you love contracts and plans how about we start doing the same for driving your car. How many miles do you want to pay for upfront and every mile you go over your plan limit you will be charged at a rate 10 X that of the plan rate.
In principle this is exactly the same and unamerican in my view and that of the majority of we were ever given the opportunity to vote on something like this, which we won't.

ffdsdsf

@lgk.com

Re: Do not go quietly into that good night.

well i got suprise charges when going through canada and i didnt enable data till i was in the u.s. but apparently i had just crossed the bridge and still was getting a canadian tower.. granted it was only 5-6 bucks so i didnt bother.. but it is possible to get service without knowing...
Joe12345678

join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Re: Do not go quietly into that good night.

said by ffdsdsf :

well i got suprise charges when going through canada and i didnt enable data till i was in the u.s. but apparently i had just crossed the bridge and still was getting a canadian tower.. granted it was only 5-6 bucks so i didnt bother.. but it is possible to get service without knowing...
also I think some one in the past said they had rogers and they have sings that say no roaming fees in the Detroit area but that that turned out to be for voice only and he used some data and got a big bill.
megalosaurus

join:2000-11-29
North Salem, NY
Last time I was in Canada with my Verizon phone, I was unable to get a straight answer from anyone about what fees I would incur for texts or calls in Canada. I kept getting answers about what it would cost to call or text to Canada from the US, but that wasn't the question I was asking. Finally, I just decided to leave the phone turned off the whole time, since there was no other way to block texts.

What is so special about wireless carriers that bits become so much more expensive when they cross the border? My landline phone service is with OV, and I can call Canada and talk all day and it's covered in my flat monthly rate. With my internet service, I can visit any site in the world for a fixed rate. What is so special about wireless service? I keep hearing about having to use a different network and go through special fee structures. By now, the US-Canada border should have no meaning when it comes to moving bits around. Look at what has happened with Long Distance in the US. At one time, a long distance call was a major event. Now, the term "long distance" is an anachronism. When people move across the country, they don't even bother changing their phone number. If the cellular carriers ever stopped colluding on prices and had some real competition, you'd see those Canada fees disappear overnight.

ReneMH

@omcastbusiness.net

Re: Do not go quietly into that good night.

In fact we should see the world fees disappear. I use 10-10-987 to make phone calls to Switzerland for 2c/min since the beginning of 10-10. They are still in business therefor they must make a profit. All costs should be upfront anyway and final. I pay flat and if that doesn't cover their costs then they have to fix it on their side. Imaging McD would charge the moment you leave and would be allowed to add extra fees.

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