Posted on 04/17/2024 8:42:40 AM PDT by simpson96
TAMPA, Fla. — Floridian Rene Remund and his wife toured Switzerland last September. But when they got home, their cell phone bill had jumped higher than the Swiss Alps.
Remund and his wife said they travel frequently and always notify their cell phone carrier before they leave the United States. In this case, Rene said he visited a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan. He's also been a T-Mobile customer for nearly 30 years.
“They said you’re covered. Whatever that meant. You're covered,” Rene said.
The couple took a trip that they described as magical. As they toured the countryside and spent time with family and friends, Rene said he never gave a second thought to the pictures and messages he was sending during their time away.
Shortly after returning home to Dunedin, Remund said he received his T-Mobile bill. He looked at it and thought it said $143. It wasn't until days later that he discovered the actual amount he owed.
T-Mobile charged him over $143,000 for using 9.5 gigabytes of data while overseas. Five to ten gigabytes is considered average for one month. But in this case, it was all roaming data which cost thousands of dollars each day of his trip.
Remund said he immediately called T-Mobile and waited on hold while a representative reviewed the charges.
“She gets back. 'No, this is a good bill," the representative told Remund.
"What do you mean it's a good bill?," Remund asked.
"Well, this is what you owe," the representative said, to which Remund replied, "You’re kidding me?”
Rene then hired an attorney who wrote letters to the president of T-Mobile but got no response. That’s when the attorney called ABC Action News for help.
We contacted T-Mobile’s corporate offices. Days later, someone from the carrier called Remund and offered to credit his account for the entire amount.
Another reason to hold off on sending stuff out.
Yep, no idea about T-mobile but you can add international roaming on AT&T for $7 a day or about.
I use T Mobile overseas frequently. My plan is unlimited data roaming and text messaging.
The phone calls will cost you. I even used data and text in Afghanistan with no extra fees.
Oh look! Cousin Rene is in Switzerland! Let’s go check out his pad!.................
dont worry- biden will forgive his debt
“They said you’re covered...”
He was covered. He had service and didn’t mention in the article that he wasn’t going to be charged different from normal while he was there. He should have asked. He was covered.
wy69
First thing I thought also. Don’t assume that a drone in the retail store is giving you the gospel. Paper trail, paper trail, paper trail
Take a small laptop with no PII on it ...
Send the pics from your hotel, using wifi.
Roaming is expensive. Try doing it on a ship. You’ll get a big bill (unless you buy their plan). Another freeloader. Guess they will be raising rate to cover these idiots.
I can do that with my phone.................
So they send him an insane bill which they confirm is legit which prompts the customer to begin legal action and then involves media and then the whole bill is erased as if it never existed. The takeaway from this is a warning to others to be careful when away from home with smart phones and other devices.
Only from people who hate oil cans... btw the new phone book is in.
I went to Nova Scotia one time, and got a notice that I had incurred thousands of dollars of charges. I nearly had a stroke.
People who think “Oh, this is the stupidity of the user” have their heads so far inside their cell phone asses to think everyone else has the same level of stupid cell phone usage ingrained in them.
The customer rep was correct. That is what the guy owed.
“We contacted T-Mobile’s corporate offices. Days later, someone from the carrier called Remund and offered to credit his account for the entire amount.”
Hopefully he still has to pay his legal bills as it’s not the fault of him trying to save money with a domestic plan, but then abusing it on overseas travel.
Something missing. Switzerland in included I the overseas program for most plans. Free internet (slow), free texting. Calls are 15 cents per minute.
My wife has sent hundreds and hundreds of photos from many countries at no charge.
When entering another country we get an automated message from T-Mobile informing us what our freebies are.
For $50 you can get 30 days of free calls and high speed internet.
I know everyone hates Google, but the Google Fi cell phone service would have charged them a maximum of $95 for 9.5GB of data. They also have an unlimited plan, but the pay as you go plan costs $10 per GByte. I cruise a lot so that’s what I use.
“European and North American systems are different...........”
Still US T-Mobile.
What the heck is there in Nova Scotia to warrant a trip there?
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