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Man gets $85,000 cell phone bill
- Thread starter Music_Producer
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Rodimus Prime
macrumors G4
exactly I did not know what tethering was until this year. I always though of them as one and the same.
Hawkeye411
macrumors 68000
LMAO ... This is an extreme example of why we need to get rid of the CRTC in Canada so that we stop getting raped by Rogers and Bell because there is no competition here.
Geez ... how could a company in this day and age get away with charging this much money for something that provided as an unlimited service in many countries in the world .. and ..... yada yada yada ...... starting to feel likeI'm wasting my breath .. yada yada yada ... yawn .... hmmmmm ... yawn ...... good night.
Geez ... how could a company in this day and age get away with charging this much money for something that provided as an unlimited service in many countries in the world .. and ..... yada yada yada ...... starting to feel likeI'm wasting my breath .. yada yada yada ... yawn .... hmmmmm ... yawn ...... good night.
That sucks!
I would hope they would have called him once his bill got up to maybe 1,000... or maybe $2,000 or at least hopefully $10,000 or $50,000.
I would hope they would have called him once his bill got up to maybe 1,000... or maybe $2,000 or at least hopefully $10,000 or $50,000.
No, when you surf the internet on your computer.. which is connected to your cell phone - that's tethering. Just surfing the web on your cell phone is fine.
This is not about who's a nerd and who's not.. it's just about signing up for a service, you should know what you can do , and can't do. You're telling me that consumers who sign up for subprime rates but don't read the contract.. are classified as non-nerds? 🙄
The first time I tethered.. I had to pay a $850 charge (like 4 years ago, when surfing the web on cell phones was a little new) I didn't read the TOS.. best thing is, if in doubts - always check.
It's not like this guy was using his computer to surf the web, check email , etc - he was downloading high def movies and what not - legal or illegal downloads, who knows? To his credit, the company should have called him to let him know that he's downloading too much, or put a cap on his account. I don't think the company ever thought "haha, he will have to pay 85k"
You should also be glad that there are plenty of non-nerds like people who are losing their homes because they don't know what the hell an ARM means. Or people who sign up for a car lease without knowing what the lease is all about.
solvs
macrumors 603
phillipjfry
macrumors 6502a
I think they should give him a mulligan just this once. They knew what they were doing when they saw him downloading 85,000$ worth of data. Didn't bother to tell him that he was really maxing out his limit. Hell, even verizonwireless will txt msg me when i am close to hitting my monthly minutes. I guess it must have been a slow year for Canada's cellular services and had to squeeze some extra juice out of a middle class worker. 😕
GSMiller
macrumors 68000
No, I'm not calling anyone nerds, I'm just saying that I have heard too many stories like this and as a result don't use my phone to surf the internet.
If I was on an unlimited data plan I would assume that I would get unlimited data. I've never even heard this term "tethering" until just now! My point is that, like others have mentioned above, not everyone is familiar with the ins and outs of cellphone data plans (or any other subject, for that matter).
I think that's pretty nice of them since they had absolutely no obligation to do so. It was his own fault, he obviously didn't read the terms of service which he agreed to. If I were in charge of the company I proably would not have lowered his bill as much as they did. He shouldn't expect the company to call him and tell him how much his bill is going to be nor should he expect to have the entire terms of service explained to him; he should have read it himself, before agreeing to it, asked any questions of the people working in the store, of people at the companies corporate office, or of his attorney, and then he should have agreed to it. Had he done the responsible thing, he would not be in the hole $85,000. Personally, I think an investigation should be taken up as to whether he downloaded this much content legally or illegal and then appropriate legal actions should be taken. I hate people who do things irresponsibly and then expect their mistakes to be corrected with little to no punishment. I also here he is planning on taking actions to have the bill reduced further, which ticks me off even further.
notjustjay
macrumors 603
Wow.
I remember once going to a conference in a rustic location that didn't offer internet access or even phones in the guest rooms (it was a "get away from it all" kinda place). I brought my cell phone and laptop, and used Bluetooth to use the cell phone as a modem. The only ISP I knew how to use was back home, so I placed long-distance modem calls from Texas to Ottawa, and used a dial-up internet connection that ran at about 9600 bps due to the lousy cell reception. I was able to check my email periodically, and even then, all of this didn't cost me much more than about $15 extra in long-distance and roaming bills.
Fido/Rogers has since more than tripled the roaming and long distance fees, so I wouldn't do this again.
I remember once going to a conference in a rustic location that didn't offer internet access or even phones in the guest rooms (it was a "get away from it all" kinda place). I brought my cell phone and laptop, and used Bluetooth to use the cell phone as a modem. The only ISP I knew how to use was back home, so I placed long-distance modem calls from Texas to Ottawa, and used a dial-up internet connection that ran at about 9600 bps due to the lousy cell reception. I was able to check my email periodically, and even then, all of this didn't cost me much more than about $15 extra in long-distance and roaming bills.
Fido/Rogers has since more than tripled the roaming and long distance fees, so I wouldn't do this again.
You know, I'm not a fan of the CRTC either, but in fairness, next year they're auctioning off new frequencies on the wireless spectrum and they've set aside a chunk of what's being auctions for new players, and are requiring existing providers to play nice with said companies.
This all has been met by moaning and groaning from the Teluses, Rogerses and Bells of the world, but this is the kind of move that needs to be made to improve competition in Canada.
I hope Apple is pretty firm on what kind of iPhone plans eventually come into play here... hopefully Rogers realizes what kind of userbase boost they could get from the phone, and hopefully that translates into a highly competitive plan.
solvs
macrumors 603
Have you ever read those things (and actually been able to understand them)? It's ridiculous that it would even be possible for him to run up his bill that high in one month. It would have been one thing if he did it making calls, like if the rate was clearly stated as a certain amount per minute. But he thought he had unlimited internet. You shouldn't need a lawyer to use a cell phone.
You really don't need a lawyer, if you have graduated high school you should be able to read and understand a cellphone term of service fairly easily. I imagine his had something that read similar to this
"NETWORK SERVICES OR NETWORK EQUIPMENT. EXCEPT FOR CONTENT FORMATTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AT&T¿S WIRELESS CONTENT STANDARDS, UNLIMITED PLANS CANNOT BE USED FOR UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING OR STREAMING OF VIDEO CONTENT (E.G. MOVIES, TV), MUSIC OR GAMES. FURTHERMORE, PLANS (UNLESS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNATED FOR TETHERING USAGE) CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY APPLICATIONS THAT TETHER THE DEVICE (THROUGH USE OF, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, CONNECTION KITS, OTHER PHONE/PDA-TO-COMPUTER ACCESSORIES, BLUETOOTH® OR ANY OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY) TO LAPTOPS, PCS, OR OTHER EQUIPMENT FOR ANY PURPOSE. Service is not intended to provide full-time connections, and the Service may be discontinued after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage. AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network and (ii) protect its wireless network from harm, which may impact legitimate data flows."
The capitals are At&ts own doing, not mine.
That's directly from At&ts terms of service, it's fairly easy to understand and clearly states that the connection: is not to be used for tethering computers and that it is not to be used for downloading, uploading, or viewing content not formated for a phone. They also reserve the right to terminate your data at anytime, which, assuming his cellphone company did the same, they proably should have done (but were not obligated to do). I'm sure there was something similar to this in the terms of service that he agreed to, it's pretty obvious that he didn't read the terms of service. Now if he read the terms and they were not very cleary I would proably feel bad for him, but I would still say that it is his own fault. If there wasn't something like this in his terms, he has every right to have the entire bill reduced to what he would normally pay, but I really doubt a large cellphone company is dumb enough to not make prohibitions on tethering and downloading content. It really is his own fault, this is why you don't sign, or agree to things without reading them.
Yeah, I wonder how many of those HD movies he downloaded, and how much they cost him? or did he not have a lawyer to explain copyright to him either?
