Hammer Time!
Posted on 04/09/2009 7:51:57 PM PDT by Gordon Greene
CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting.
That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message.
The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25.
"It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said.
The bill was legit.
Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been sending most of these messages at school. That's more than 300 texts within an eight-hour period every
Gregg Christoffersen was shocked to see his daughter's texting bill. (9News)day for the whole month. Needless to say, it drew attention away from what she should have been doing: paying attention in class.
"She went from A's and B's one semester to F's in two months," Dena's dad said.
Hours after the enormous bill arrived, Gregg Christoffersen took a hammer to his daughter's phone.
He and Jaylene also grounded Dena until the end of school.
"I felt really bad, and I have learned my lesson," Dena said, with her head down.
Since she lost her phone, Dena's grades have gone up, and the texting is down to zero.
As for the phone bill, the family says Verizon has been willing to knock it down to a reasonable level.
The Christoffersens are asking school administrators at Johnson Junior High School to crack down on cellphone use during school.
Hammer Time!
We could call anywhere from Florida... but roaming charges kicked in where she was staying.. Anyhow we got an $800 phone bill - with one equal to that coming the following month.
We called Alltel, they looked at our account - laughed with us - and excused all the charges. We switched to the Alltel national plan and have been with them ever since. Not all phone companies are bad - ours was great.
That was a great story... There are good rep’s and bad ones in every business (including church and politics) but people only seem to talk about the bad.
Thanks for the GOOD post and Happy Easter.
Happy Easter to you too!
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