Posted on 12/13/2007 6:43:02 PM PST by BGHater
Bell Mobility to adjust bill in 'measure of goodwill'
A Calgary man is disputing a cellphone bill of nearly $85,000, claiming the phone company failed to tell him using his phone to surf the internet would cost so much.
The Motorola Krzr model Piotr Staniaszek bought from Bell Mobility allows him to use the phone to connect with his computer; downloading data to the computer resulted in the shocking charges.
"I didn't know what to think. I thought there was probably a mistake," the 22-year-old oil-field worker said of the extraordinary total.
A spokesman for Bell said the company will adjust Staniaszek's bill in "a measure of goodwill." But he will still owe Bell more than $5,000.
A bill that large is extremely rare, spokesman Jacques Bouchard said.
"What happened is that the client used the cellphone as a modem linking it directly to the computer and downloading huge files, ... high-res movies for instance."
Staniaszek said he pays $10 a month for unlimited mobile browsing on his cellphone. "So I figured that was the same thing, but I guess not."
After speaking to Bell about November charges of $65,000, Staniaszek said he was informed his bill had increased to nearly $85,000 after more downloading in December.
Staniaszek said the company should have alerted him to the soaring tally. He normally pays about $150 a month for his phone.
"The thing is, they've cut my phone off for being like $100 over. Here, I'm $85,000 over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on.
"I told them I wasn't aware that I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer. I'm going to try and fight it, because I didn't know about the extra charges. Nobody explained any of this to me."
Bouchard said Bell cannot monitor the activities of every one of its customers.
The phone company should be allowed to bounce the phone off this kid’s Bone Head!
I think $5,000 is fair for being stupid. He should e happy they let him off the hook.
85K! Now that must have been a lot of porn! LOL
I don’t care, there is no way that a phone bill should be $85,000. I don’t care what the fine print says. That is robbery.
"Movies"?
Heh.
I just received a jaw-dropping Verizon bill. F the bastards! I paid them off completely a month ago! They are lying thieves and cowards.
He had unlimited mobile browsing.
Sounds to me like the phone company pulled a fast one.
I agree, but what in the world is an oil-field worker doing on his cellphone all day?
After being informed that his previous month's charges were $65,000, shouldn't he have cut back a bit?
We use a prepaid phone. We maintain our landline and use the cell for when we actually need it.
He has an interesting point. He may be a stupid customer for running up an 85k phone bill. But the phone company is pretty stupid to think anyone stupid enough to run up an 85k phone bill, would have 85k to pay the bill off. It seems like it might be a good business practice to cut people off before they run up that kind of bill. Of course phone companies pimp on the side anyway, because as I understand it they collect for all those 900 phone numbers.
It sounds like he ran up an additional $20K before he got the previous months bill. Really, what can you do on a phone that costs $85K???? It is not like he is phoning Antarctica. He was surfing the net, which he reasonably assumed was part of his unlimited access. There should have been some consent about the charges.
So the guy should have prepaid $85,000?
No, that is rape.
We do the same. My phone costs me $20. every 3 months.
I get a kick out of people paying hundreds of dollars a month for a stupid telephone.
Many have a ripoff system where you pay a monthly fee for access, but pay very high prices for data download. So they can get away with charging exorbitant rates for data transfer you wouldn’t pay using any other internet access. Kinda like paying 10 cents for a text message if you don’t buy a text message “package”.
I didn’t say that. But, stupid is as stupid does. My phone has net access too. I know how much the net sucks from my airtime. It takes about 2 minutes of my airtime to send an email. It takes 10 minutes for a ringtone. When I prepay, I am in control. That’s all.
Pr0n!!!
Bouchard said Bell cannot monitor the activities of every one of its customers
But their computers can...when they’re not adding up all the 85K phone bills
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