Philadelphia man "shocked" to get $17,505 Verizon Wireless bill

His roaming charges totaled $17,445 -- accumulated when was visiting the Dominican Republic and used his USB modem to access the Internet. "I called my daughter and wife to look at [the bill]. I asked them, 'Am I seeing correctly?'" (Philly.com)

Comments

[KDP]

The lesson here is do not take your U.S. access phone along on a trip outside the U.S. Use the local phone systems or internet access. The roaming charges are buried in the fine print although they usually don't tell you how much is charged on a unit basis. This guy will probably get the charges reduced but will still pay a hefty fee.

[Mark]

"The third time he tried to log on, he said, a message told him that he was roaming and he immediately shut down his computer and didn't use it the rest of the trip."

Sure, I believe him...

Besides his ignorance, there's another shocking thing: That the media continues to run these ridiculous stories.

[Jack]

Well..... duh! Bad enough to "make calls" in a different country... but to "Tether" your computer to your cell in a different country to surf?!?!? STUPID!

[Wapnig McChinkstein]

Don't worry. I'm sure someone from Nigeria will soon offer him a ton of money that they need to get out of the country.

[Phranqlin]

He should have bought a cheap, local "pay as you go" phone when he was in the DR and used that.

However, I'm not surprised that Verizon slapped him with a monster bill and is being a dick about reducing it. They just had to pay a $25M fine for excessive charges to customers without data plans who inadvertently accessed the web.

[Max Headroom]

I thought all Veri$on user were used to bills like this.

[Farmer Bob and the City]

Sterilize him.

[The_Overdog]

This isn't really Verizon's fault, beyond making their network with the Dominican Republic's. They are simply passing the roaming charges from the Dominican Republic carrier to the US customer. Sometimes, I think you should have to positively affirm to receive that service, as it does carriers as much harm as good.

Roaming charges are so high because foreign carriers don't want you to use their network very much. They built it for their own customers' use. Verizon or whomever can sometime negotiate slightly lower rates, but really it's up to the foreign carrier to charge as much as they want.

Verizon simply collects and passes those charges to the DR carrier. In this case, they will probably be eating some of those charges.

[jakejake]

Another m*f who will be up against the wall when the revolution comes.

[David]

I know nothing about roaming charges - however:

17 grand for an hour and a half of internet?

[jojo]

Thank you David, I was thinking the same thing. Whether or not the man is an idiot for using his computer to surf the net in a foreign country is not really the issue here. I can see a roaming charge of a couple of dollars, hell even $10...just to make you sweat, but $188 + a minute.....OMG!!!!! You could fly around the world and visit the home office for every website cheaper than that!

[Rock Marine]

He could take his picnic table and the family dog to the Dominican Republic for less than 17 grand, but no, this idiot took his cell phone and computer.

[Aaron]

Providers should be required by law to alert you when you are using a service or provider that is charging fees which would break a certain threshold (e.g. $100) over your normal cell phone monthly rate.

[Nick]

Aaron's right - cell phone providers should tell you if you exceed a certain dollar amount.

The dude in question downloaded like 850MB on his modem. Dumbass.

[Joe]

I remember the good old days when we took vacations to get away from it all. Now we take cell phones so folks back home can contact us..we need to check in on facebook to see what the folks back home are doing, or we need to check in with the office. Maybe next vacation, once he boards the plane to paradise, he'll click the "off" button and enjoy his vacation...not turning it on again until returning home. Try it...you'll like it.

[Joe]

I remember the good old days when we took vacations to get away from it all. Now we take cell phones so folks back home can contact us..we need to check in on facebook to see what the folks back home are doing, or we need to check in with the office. Maybe next vacation, once he boards the plane to paradise, he'll click the "off" button and enjoy his vacation...not turning it on again until returning home. Try it...you'll like it.

[ambeckham]

I was kind of starting to feel bad for this guy until I read, "a father of four who worked in landscaping before he was injured and was forced to go on disability." Really this guy is out on disability and taking a vacation to visit family in the DR? I'm supposed to feel sorry for him? Screw him.

[Jamie]

So wait a tic.
He need an interpreter just to tell a basic story to the newspaper...
...but can speak enough to open a Verizon account?
Sounds like someone didn't understand the charges. I think it would be in Verizon's best interest to do something for this guy though. What did he download for 850 MB though? Books to read on the beach?

[American Veteran]

It's phone sex.
Veri$on fucks you every time.

[Don't forget]

Another person who of course... cannot be held for his own mistake. He signed a contract that more that likely he did not read and/or understand it. But he signed it, which of course makes it all Verisons fault. After all they twisted his arm to ignore reading the contract, calling billing to see what the roaming charges could/would be, or any other number of preventative measures. Yep... all Verisons fault. Nail em to the wall and give this guy a great big hug. He has been so traumatized.

[Don't forget]

Another person who of course... cannot be held for his own mistake. He signed a contract that more that likely he did not read and/or understand it. But he signed it, which of course makes it all Verisons fault. After all they twisted his arm to ignore reading the contract, calling billing to see what the roaming charges could/would be, or any other number of preventative measures. Yep... all Verisons fault. Nail em to the wall and give this guy a great big hug. He has been so traumatized.

[Me]

Where else but America can an unemployed yard guy have a personal computer, wireless access and enough disposable cash to travel overseas?

[sometimesilie]

@Don't Forget-

Having a phone line is a necessity, not a luxury in America. Don't believe me? Try getting a job without one.

Verizon makes bazillions of dollars by using PUBLIC AIRWAVES. These very same airwaves that we all own. Supposedly.

So you can argue that he signed a contract, etc. but if he didn't "understand" this contract it's VERIZON'S FAULT. I've looked at mine. I don't either because I don't have a #$%&ing law degree. I've also found, to my disadvantage, Customer Service tells you whatever it takes to get you off the phone and citing what you are told is less than worthless when you dispute a bill.

What percentage of Verizon's customers, needs, wants, or desires 17K worth of roaming I wonder? .002%? .003%? Why tailor the structure of your services towards them then, unless you are looking to trip people up and screw them on billing?

As a Verizon customer myself, I don't even want to have the ability to incur those kinds of charges unless I expressly say so. I can't waltz in and buy a 17K car without a credit check. Why should I be able to do so with phone services?

But yeah, this unemployed landscaper should have outwiled the poor, defenseless, multinational corporation and the hundreds of lawyers, technicians, MBA's, and PhD's they employ to think this kind of crap up.

[sometimesilie]

"Where else but America can an unemployed yard guy have a personal computer, wireless access and enough disposable cash to travel overseas? "

Oh, I totally agree and realize that this guy is less than the ideal posterboy to use to make an argument over deceptive,/predatory billing practices by Verizon.

[John_Halfz]

Me: almost everywhere else in the developed world. Even more abhorrent, unemployed dude has health care almost everywhere else in the developed world.

[Don't forget]

Like I said. Not his fault. The big bad company forced him to use their service.

[Rofo]

850MB someone said? that's a few hours of compressed video, a metric crap ton of books ... if an average webpage is 200kb (which is kind of on the high end) that's 4250 webpages) ... MP3's that's about 213 of them ...

[sometimesilie]

You don't get it, do you?

[Rofo]

Actually the data rate that would have to be if he only used it an hour and a half is not possible ... I call shenanigans. God I hate articles like this so everyone can go on and on about how evil big companies are or how much this douche bag is a victim of corporate greed. Do you really want me to think verizon singled out some disabled guy to over charge. Like they would have made a conscious effort to defraud this one guy? Yeah Verizon can be iffy and what they do on business bills (or what any telco does on them) is crazy, but this ... this is just some douche bag ... being a victim douche bag.

[Tom Weidermeijer]

Dominican Republic... OR HAITI!!!

Verizon might be receiving some voodoo hootoo!!!

[chili]

I just got back from a cruise to Mexico. I took my phone with me with the knowledge that it was approximately $2.00 per minute of voice usage. I had turned data roaming off. The moment I turned airplane mode off on my phone when we stood on firm land in Mexico. Verizon sent me two free texts. One welcomed me to Mexico, the next told me how much it was per KB of Data (if I remember it was something like $20).

I would have to assume that they sent similar free text message to this customer as well.

The wife and I made one phone call to talk to the wife's parents and our daughter.

[TequilaJoe]

Can you hear me now?

[bookofra]

Indeed - Phone sex :D