Airdrie Man "shocked" by $8000 phone bill

[Hack&Lube]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2.../14610246.html

"It’s criminal," said Boutang of his June statement saying he owed Virgin Mobile $7,763.70 after using the phone for three days while traveling in France

[worth]

Lol, using 130mb of data over a European network. Brilliant.

[Hack&Lube]

He was probably streaming Cjay 92 lol

[CaptainCrunch]

The guy's an a%%.

Pay the bill.

Its like that guy a few years ago that was streaming movies to his cell phone in Fort McMurray and got a $10,000.00 phone bill, then cried about it after the fact.

People need to think once in a while.

[ben voyonsdonc]

This guy has to be a complete moron. Honestly, do you think that you can get a Calgary radio station in France without using the internet??

[Kipper is King]

He's an idiot. Plain and simple.

[Yeah_Baby]

nm

[Prototype]

I'm shocked people still think there's no such thing as roaming fees.

Originally Posted by The Link

The Airdrie car salesman

'Nuff said...

[Dan02]

I used to be sympathetic when these smart phones first came out, now you're just a moron, these things have happened to enough people you should have been aware of the issue.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm shocked that people don't read terms and conditions when they sign contracts.

The excuse

"Well I didn't know, refund my money"

means nothing to Virgin Mobile. At least they were nice enough to shut down el stupido's phone after three days.

[Azure]

You get charged $8000 for 130MB?

[ken0042]

What irks him most is he called the company a couple weeks before he left to inform them he would be taking his iPhone with him to Europe.

I think this guy has a case; depending on what was said during that call. If he called to see about if he would have service over in France, then he has a case. If he called about something else, and mentioned it in passing then maybe not.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Azure

You get charged $8000 for 130MB?

As someone else on another forum put it:

While I agree it was the guys fault, it's hard to justify the price these companies charge for out of network usage. The costs of supplying the bandwidth aren't even remotely high enough to justify a $8000 bill for 130MB. For $8,000, I could pay to have someone buy a flash drive, download the content, fly from the United States to France, stay in a nice hotel, and deliver it in a rented car, and still not spend that much.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Roaming fees are pretty ridiculous but he should have done just a little research before streaming hours and hours of radio to his iphone. I know that Rogers sends me a text when I leave the country to let me know that I am in a roaming zone. As soon as that happens, I turn off my phone and leave it off unless I am in a tough spot.

[squiggs96]

That's like buying a car from him and then being pissed that you have to pay for gas. He's another example of why schools should fail kids until they learn basic math skills. Passing them ahead is hurting them.

[getbak]

If you go into the Network settings on the iPhone, it says "Turn data roaming off when abroad to avoid substantial roaming charges when using email, web browsing, and other data services."

I don't remember, but I believe it is set to "Off" by default. If it is, that means at some point, he had to turn it on.

[Pinner]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

As someone else on another forum put it:

Nicely put into perspective

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I think this guy has a case; depending on what was said during that call. If he called to see about if he would have service over in France, then he has a case. If he called about something else, and mentioned it in passing then maybe not.

That to me is irrelevant unless he asked a direct question about roaming charges in a foreign company. Help Desk people are not Kreskin.

[The Yen Man]

I really don't have any sympathy for the guy or people who are stupid enough to fall into a similar situation. In this day and age, he should have been well aware that there are roaming charges once you're outside your country. He should be thankful Virgin shut off his service. Imagine if the idiot kept using it through his whole trip.

[Regorium]

I dunno, it's still his fault for actually using the data.

There's an option on most phones to just turn data off completely so you don't even get dinged for the random upkeep data usage that the networks send.