When you travel abroad, don't forget to pack your international calling and data plan--or face the consequences.
Perhaps you've faced the sticker shock of using your cell phone abroad, where roaming rates can reach as high as several dollars for each minute or few megabytes of data. Multiply that horror by a few thousand and you might begin to be able to empathize with Celina Aarons. The Florida resident recently opened her T-Mobile bill to find a balance due of $201,000.
Unfortunately for Ms. Aarons, the bill was correct.
The issue, as Florida TV station WSVN reported, was with a trip one of her brothers took to Canada. Two of Aarons' brothers are deaf and use texting as a primary tool for communication. So when one of them--who is on his sisters' phone plan--went abroad and forgot to turn off data roaming, the charges added up.
In addition to higher texting fees, T-Mobile charged 10 dollars per megabyte of data. And there was lots of data usage on the trip, including video streaming. The TV station contacted T-Mobile, and the company agreed to drop the bill amount by about 99 percent--to just $2,500.
T-Mobile told WSVN that it did send texts warning of the exploding bill and increased rates, but Aarons argues that she should have been contacted directly as the primary account holder.
In the end, it all worked out, and everyone is happy--except perhaps AT&T, who will be acquiring a company worth about $198,000 less than it should be, if its buyout of T-Mobile ever goes through.
So I guess $2500 is better than 200K. But think how you would react to a $2500 monthly cell phone bill. Think of the relief you would feel if your bill was 'only' $2500.
But I guess that's life these days. Coorporations setting traps that they hope consumers will just blindly wander into. And every once in awhile catch a really big one.
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6 comments:
Roaming charges - especially international roaming charges - are one of the best sources of revenue for the cell phone companies. Even an international roaming data plan is frightfully expensive...but it's better than more than $200K.
This may seem like a crazy idea, but maybe people should check with their cell provider before they travel. Or, maybe just get a cheap, basic pre-paid phone like the Smart Talk plan at Walmart.
Jay
B - I guess it would be cheaper to just buy a new cell phone when you get to where you are going.
J - You're right..but... I don't think you should be able to run up your cell phone bill to the cost of an average size home.
This happened when were were in St. Lucia in August. As soon as we got the first warning, we switched off our phones. We got back to a staggering bill but it was hundreds, not thousands. A phone call got it dropped to ~$30. Everything is negotiable.
Oh, and you do have to wonder how many people just quietly pay these huge hits. Not us.
LEW - I wish I had the money to 'not care' about a $200k phone bill.
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