Airdrie Man "shocked" by $8000 phone bill

[mykalberta]

The article lost me at "Airdrie man" - if he is not from Calgary I dont have any sympathy.

Its 100% his fault for using his phone from Canada in France and not knowing the terms of service.

The price is outrageous but alot of things are outrageously priced in this world.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Apparently, the iPhone does:

Apparently, the iphone is set to disable data roaming by default. If accurate, then this moron had to turn the ability to roam on himself, with the warnings above.

The iPhone also says, right below the switch to turn on data roaming (which, as mentioned before, is off by default):

"Turn data roaming off when abroad to avoid substantial roaming charges when using email, web browsing, and other data services."

And, each time your phone finds a network in another country, on Fido/Rogers at least, you receive a text message. When I travelled in the spring of 2009, it simply stated that "roaming rates apply", and this past April is specifically said what voice and data would cost ($2/min, $0.75/text, $0.03/kB).

Yes - that's in kilobytes. So that equals $30.72/megabyte.

What does this prove? The guy is an idiot AND roaming rates are absurd.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Dosen't matter.

That would be like you buying a porche from me for $200k, and then coming back a year later and crying that you paid to much and you want your money back.

You'll be pounding a lot of sand.

Also, I'd be buying a counterfeit. I would never buy a Porsche that didn't have an 'S' in it...That aside, I completely agree with the Captain. The iphone user is an idiot for reasons already stated. -enabled data usage-streamed a radio station on a device originally designed to PLAY MUSIC. Maybe he didn't have the 25 songs always played on Cjay loaded on his phone...-Just because he asked if he could use his iphone in France, doesn't mean he asked anything reguarding data usage. The customer service rep is a normal person, not a mind reader. If someone asks me for directions to the mall, I'm going to give them directions to the mall. Not the hours of operation. If they get there and its closed, that's not my problem.Also, this is not a new freaking problem. There's a story like this at least once a year. When cell phones first became the in thing, snowbirds were taking them travelling down south and coming home to find huge roaming charges. Why would data be any different. While Virgin (and any other cell company) is charging an exhorbent amount, he should not have it reduced because he's a moron. If that's the case I'm going to call city hall to have my property taxes reduced and claim I didn't know they'd increase after I bought a house.

[troutman]

I'm trying to be sympathetic to Airdrie Man, but CJAY 92? Really?

[peter12]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm trying to be sympathetic to Airdrie Man, but CJAY 92? Really?

Haha, as soon as I read what station he was streaming, my sympathies decidedly soured.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by fredr123

The guy was apparently streaming X92.9 using their iPhone app. He is scheduled to be on the afternoon show today to speak about this matter more. Tune in to hear his side of the story.

I actually called the station this morning to talk about this guy. I'm sure it didn't make the air as both the dj's and myself were dropping f-bombs like no tomorrow.

The basic premise of my argument was that this guy's situation was like choosing to juggle knives, cutting yourself and then blaming the knives for what happened. Just because you don't think of the consequences doesn't mean that there aren't any.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm trying to be sympathetic to Airdrie Man, but CJAY 92? Really?

It wasn't CJAY, it was X92.9

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Reaper

It wasn't CJAY, it was X92.9

Almost as bad.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Apparently, the iPhone does:




Apparently, the iphone is set to disable data roaming by default. If accurate, then this moron had to turn the ability to roam on himself, with the warnings above.

No sympathy, and even if the charge is ridiculous, he does not deserve a break on it. He should not be rewarded for being stupid.

Exactly. Perhaps if dude was on "Random Smartphone" he may have a case, but on the iPhone it takes a direct will to enable data roaming. The phone even warns you.


Plus, as mentioned, the guy is:

-Car Salesman
-From Airdrie
-Listens to CJAY or X92

Therefore, he deserves to pay through the arse.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by troutman

Almost as bad.

Not all of us listen to CBC Radio 1 (x92.9)

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by troutman

Almost as bad.

Not so redneck ignorant though. Plus, no Nickleback.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by troutman

Throw financial planners in there too. Nobody know how much they are getting compensated.

Yah. Pretty much whenever interest or commissions are involved, the consumer could probably use better information about how they are being charged.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Reaper

Not so redneck ignorant though. Plus, no Nickleback.

In addition to this, X92.9 introduced me to the phrase " canoe". Therefore they are more awesome than CJAY.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by troutman

Throw financial planners in there too. Nobody know how much they are getting compensated.

Some guy gets screwed on his phone bill and somehow we get caught in the crossfire! I'm sure that someone is being billed 0.1 for this post!

[bradster57]

http://money.canoe.ca/money/business...06-161208.html

It says he'll be buying out his contract (I thought Virgin didn't have contracts) and moving to another provider. Does he not realize that all the providers have insane roaming charges???

[CaptainCrunch]

Good then there's no reason for Virgin to give him a break on his bill. Hopefully they drag his stupid a%% into court and sue him for excessive stupidity.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Good then there's no reason for Virgin to give him a break on his bill. Hopefully they drag his stupid a%% into court and sue him for excessive stupidity.

You're totally out to lunch if you think $8k is in any way reasonable. The only thing I can think of that would be dumber than racking up these charges would be paying that bill.

[photon]

He didn't say it was reasonable, but the contract he signed didn't say "pay whatever you think is reasonable".

And it's not completely out to lunch, 3 cents a KB used to be the norm a few years ago.

Plus how much of it is Virgin/Bell, and how much of it is what Virgin/Bell has to pay the carrier in France? If the carrier in France is charging Virgin/Bell 3 cents a KB then they'll actually lose money on this.

[GGG]

Here is my problem with it. In the article in mentions that if he had called to set up an international roaming plan it would have cost him roughly $200 instead of 8k. So if he had any knowledge of the real costs or his options he would have chosen to pay the $200.

The per minute / per megabyte fee should not cost 40 times what the monthly rate fee is. There should be some reasonable corelation between the monthly or plan rate and the per minute rate.

I had the same problem with the Bell Mobile browser scam. $7 per month for unlimited or 5 cents a KB. 1 ring tone ended up being like $50. So a single use was more expensive than the monthly rate.

If phone companies wanted to avoid this they would develop some international roaming caps. When their computers detect someone's bill going over what it would cost if they had a roaming plan for their trip their data should be cut off until they call into customer service.

The guy is an idiot but what the phone companies do is very anti-consumer.

[photon]

Exactly.