Posted on 04/18/2024 11:45:17 PM PDT by Dr. Franklin
US man returns from Europe to $143,000 T-Mobile bill for using phone overseas Gigantic bill apparently reflected using 9.5 gigabytes of data on a phone that had not been set up for international roaming
Guardian staff Thu 18 Apr 2024 08.52 EDT Share A Florida man was stunned to come back from a European trip and – upon checking his phone bill – realize that he had been charged a staggering $143,000 by his phone company for using his device while overseas.
ABC Action News reported that Rene Remund and his wife had toured Switzerland last September and had even gone to a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan with his phone provider before leaving.
But the gigantic bill apparently reflected using some 9.5 gigabytes of data while overseas on a phone that had not been set up for international roaming.
Remund told ABC that he called T-Mobile and waited on hold while the charges were examined and the person he spoke with informed him that the bill was not a mistake and that he was liable for it.
Remund replied: “You’re kidding me?”
He then hired a lawyer, who contacted ABC for help. Shortly after T-Mobile were contacted by ABC, the company offered to credit Remund’s account.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
9.5 gigabytes of data for $143,000?
A TracFone 10 GB data card is $40
Yeah, I get it - roaming.....
But still...
We talked about this in another thread on FR, last time I was in Europe about 4 years ago, I called AT&T and they had a $7/day roaming plan with unlimited talk/text/data for the countries I visited.
That’s not too bad
My carrier offers a $15/day plan.
Whatever the price $7 or $15, it’s dumb to go over there and not check out the prices before thinking it’s the same as the US.
I remember these sorts of stories circa 2000’s... how are there still people who don’t check on this sort of stuff before they travel? And most phones allow for dual SIMs!!! I have found Googlefi to be the best service for traveling, you are allocated the same data plan as you have in the states abroad. This is solely for travel, you can’t remain abroad and use it... after 3 months they will throttle and then turn off roaming.
I carry two phones when I travel in Europe. I use my AT&T US phone as “Internet calls only” and have a travel phone that I just purchas SIM cards for wherever I travel.
I’ve used the same travel phone all over the world. Even purchased SIM cards at a street vendor on the bank of the Mekong River in Laos. They are very cheap too.
Apparently he DID call aforehand and was told he was “good to go”...
I doubt that T-Mobile’s billing would be defensible if put to the test. The most likely reason for T-Mobile’s outrageous charge was that the local T-Mobile employees did not know what they were doing when the customer consulted them before the trip. They ought to have warned the customer of potentially excessive charges under his rate plan.
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Something about this smells. I’m a T-Mobile customer, I went to Germany for a week last year and paid maybe $20 extra. I checked the website through my app and it was pretty clear on what to do.
https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/international-roaming-services
Something tells me there is more to the story than that, he probably was asking if his would work in Europe or did he need a “Euro” phone, he was told you are good to go in terms of your phone working, he probably never asked about roaming charges.
You are probably right...
But there might have been some “This call may be recorded for quality assurance...” snippets that the Tmobile pres heard to make his pr decision easier.
Spent 6 weeks in Italy...Verizon wanted $10/day which would have been a considerable wad. So we got TIM sims...[But TIM was a disaster to deal with,,,,whole nuther story...]
When my son, who is on my account, went to Italy for two weeks we called T-Mobile and I explained what We wanted the phone to do while there. There was an add on international plan that had talk,txt and 15GB data for $35 and it was active for 30 days. He used Wi-Fi a lot in hotels and other places, and used about 9 GB of the data plan. If you are about to go over on the plan for the data you bought, it would prompt you to buy another 15GB for another $35 so there are no surprises (which he did not need to do).
This was easy and cheap and worth it, in my opinion. it worked seamlessly with no surprises.
I don’t know who was advising this poor man at the t-mo store but they did him wrong.
Right, my international roaming is $10/day with Verizon. Will test that out later this year.
We used to go up to the Niagra Falls area, Hub’s older brother lived in Ransomville. Walk down one side of the street you were on AT&T, the other Rogers Canadian. Big difference in the charges, and AT&T had to adjust.
Japan is particularly bad for this. It’s easy to get a mobile hot spot for WiFi, but difficult to get a phone, unless you know a legal resident who will buy a phone for you. I’ve only found one place that will rent a SIM, and you have to take care of all the paperwork before you arrive there.
This is why you should always buy an unlocked, dual SIM phone. Use one SIM slot for your usual carrier, and buy a second SIM in whatever country you’re visiting.
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