Mythbuster Tweets His Way Out of $11k Phone Bill

abcnews ^ | June 30, 2009 | KI MAE HEUSSNER

[JoeProBono]

What would you do if you opened up your cell phone bill to face a dizzying five-digit charge? You might do well to follow Mythbuster Adam Savage's lead. When the host of the Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" learned he had rung up $11,000 in charges from AT&T while in Canada, he headed straight for Twitter.

The culprit, he tweeted, was the USB modem plugged into his laptop that was running on a wireless plan suitable for the U.S., but not for Canada. "AT&T is attempting to charge me 11k for a few hours of web surfing in Canada. Pls RT!," he posted to his Twitter feed Friday. Later, he wrote, "Almost forgot: Hey AT&T! I will fight this bull****."

[Artemis Webb]

"Clearly Mr. Savage did not understand how either his computer or his data plan worked. Such people should not be trusted with complicated electronics, much less explosives." Clearly you don't know who you are talking about nor have you ever seen Mythbusters.

[Tanniker Smith]

I think Adam needs to test the validity of these charges ...

... with lots of explosives.

[DaGman]

The problem here is... and this goes against "conservative" wisdom... AT&T Wireless is not regulated as the landline companies are. Landline companies are regulated by the state Public Utility Commissions. Any billing and customer complaint can be escalated to the state PUC. Not so for wireline. There is no where to go except the labyrinth of AT&T's billing system. Rest very assured that this fact guides everything about AT&T Wireless customer service versus AT&T landline service.

[Oztrich Boy]

I think it’s a myth that you can fight AT&T.

"Whoever said that didn't have as much plastique as we do"

[Moonman62]

AT&T is incredibly notorious for this type of stealth, “hope you’ll just pay and shut up”, type of billing.

Sometimes I understand why people hate corporations.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I hate AT&T.

Our phones were supposed to work in Mexico, and the rates were supposed to be a whole lot less than what the hotel charged. The phones kept ringing, we could even tell who was calling, but when we tried to answer none of the calls would connect.

The bill due date passed while we were down there and they made the usual courtesy call, which of course came right through. And they charged me 19 bucks for it.

For that and several hundred other reasons ($$ in charges for services we didn't order or use) AT&T can smooch my kazoo. Oh and they can go to hell. And s^!&%#*%$@ck too.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I didn't ask them to cancel my contract. I told them where to stuff it.