Woman floored by an off-the-hook $200,000 phone bill
A higher than usual phone bill can leave anyone stunned. And when Celina Aarons got a jaw-dropper for more than $200,000, it was no mistake.
The Florida woman has a plan that usually costs her $175 a month. She includes two of her brothers on it, who are deaf and mute, and use smart phones extensively for texting and communicating more easily.
"He's a sweetheart, and he goes to college and I would do anything for him," she told WSVN television of her brother Shamir.
The problem was that Shamir went to Canada on vacation, and did not turn off his data roaming.
The bad news for big sister: a bill for $201,005.44.
"I was freaking out. I was shaking, crying, I couldn't even talk that much on the phone. I was like my life is over!" she told WSVN.
She said she thought "it's never going to get paid... I can't pay that. That's like paying a nice house right now based on what houses are going for."
Though T-Mobile did not have to reduce her bill, it wrote down her charges to $2,500.
"The case of Ms Aarons was extraordinary, even if the amount was correct. T-Mobile cut her bill to $2,500 and gave her six months to pay," a T-Mobile spokeswoman said.
(c) 2011 AFP
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Need a rigid insulation material???
17 hours ago
-
magnets or EMF in car bumpers to protect from fender bender
May 26, 2012
-
length of wire in a coil of known dimensions?
May 25, 2012
-
India Engineering Powerhouse
May 25, 2012
-
electromagnet core dereference between hard and soft iron
May 25, 2012
-
Measuring water pressure in an open tank
May 24, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
10 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
3
Probability of contamination from severe nuclear reactor accidents is higher than expected: study
Catastrophic nuclear accidents such as the core meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima are more likely to happen than previously assumed. Based on the operating hours of all civil nuclear reactors and the number ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
3.6 / 5 (22) |
56
|
SpotterRF debuts Radar Backpack Kit (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- SpotterRF has announced a special radar backpack kit designed to enhance situational awareness for soldiers on the ground. The company says its special radar is designed for warfighters as part ...
Technology / Hi Tech & Innovation
May 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (5) |
13
|
HyperSolar shows dirty water no barrier to power world
(Phys.org) -- The Santa Barbara, California, company, HyperSolar, is set to transparently share the ups and downs of its research experiences toward the company’s ultimate vision, successfully producing ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 24, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
17
|
Tesla to launch electric sedan in US on June 22
Tesla Motors said Tuesday it would begin deliveries of "the world's first premium electric sedan" on June 22, slightly ahead of schedule.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
18
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
Almost half of new vets seek disability
(AP) -- America's newest veterans are filing for disability benefits at a historic rate, claiming to be the most medically and mentally troubled generation of former troops the nation has ever seen.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: 4.6 / 5 (9)
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: 4.2 / 5 (6)
This is gossip, right down to the "good big sister" and "poor little brother" exchange and the emotional outburst by the consumer.
There's nothing wrong with gossip (if you're into that sort of thing), but this is Physorg, not Gossiporg.
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Oct 18, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Ex post facto solutio
Oct 19, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (5)
But yeah, I agree, this is probably not the best place to discuss it.
Oct 19, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
Do you realize that it didn't actually cost them $200,000? It's just charges they increase to make obscene amounts of money off people who either aren't paying attention, or are unaware of the rates for Data Roaming.
Siding with T-Mobile on this is as ridiculous as it is counter productive as a consumer. Do you really think they would have voluntarily reduced her bill to just over 1% of the original amount if they were actually paying that much to provide the service.
Also the article makes no statement about her refusing to pay, they gave her an extension to pay it.
As for the relevance of this topic, I suppose Physorg is to blame for not linking how this story is relevant. If you read the news lately there is a lot going on about "Bill Shock". Cell phone companies agreed to give alerts to customers about to incur overage or roaming charges after a threat of regulation from the FCC. Very relevant in our smartphone obsessed culture.
Oct 19, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
In Europe, there are laws that forbid this kind of rip-off. You can't charge significantly more for data roaming there.
Oct 19, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Oct 23, 2011
Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Oct 23, 2011
Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
Oct 23, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Oct 24, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Where exactly is there a huge demand for free communications?
Who around here is actually stupid enough to think that cell phone usage will, or could, ever be free? Nobody. Quit trying to rationalize your baseless claim that all of us "outraged tech users" want free handouts.
What people want is reasonable cost for a service. Just look at the outrageous amounts charged for text messaging services since they began. Or the fact that suddenly 10GB of data costs the same as 2GB of data on these carriers.
Lets try to avoid the "poor giant corporation" claim here. If they really had to pay $200k then they wouldn't have simply dropped the charge out of the kindness of their hearts. You would have a harder time getting a late fee dropped on an overdue bill. They lowered the bill because it was ridiculous, and made for bad PR.
You're probably one of the people who cheered on the RIAA in their pursuit of people for millions of dollars in damages over sharing a few songs.
Oct 24, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Never said all. I didn't even single out a poster in this thread. Why do you assume I meant that? Why do you seem so defensive? Posters on this site routinely accuse big telecom (whatever that is) of malfeasance while it is obvious that they don't know how the industry works. That's hardly baseless. I'm merely pointing out that they shouldn't complain about things they don't understand.
Ha!! Another baseless assumption from /you/. If you knew my past experience with the RIAA, you would see how ridiculous that claim is. I don't like how they dealt with Internet, and they probably don't either, since their industry is still dying.
How can a company drop another's charges? They can't; they paid for her. PR
Oct 25, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
I absolutely love it when people come out with the "you don't know how the industry works" nonsense. I don't need to be a T-Mobile executive to understand basic facts.
I was never clarifying which company should or should not drop the charges, it was more general than that. My point was that the charges themselves were ridiculous. What I said was that T-Mobile lowered the charge because it was an obscene amount of money for the actual service provided and it protects their public image considering that the user was a deaf and mute man who relies on that service for his communication.
And yes they absorbed the cost, they didn't "drop" the charges, nitpicking semantics is just silly. Quit acting like a shill.
In the end my main point was that these roaming/overage fees, that telecom companies charge, are absurd.
Oct 25, 2011
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
A point unsupported. Good day.
Oct 26, 2011
Rank: not rated yet
Logic supports my point. Good day.