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girl texts 20,000 in 1 month....$4750 bill!
- Thread starter Keebler
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For one I would say there are many people out there who don't understand what really is or is not enabled by default and the industry as a whole could do better at the point of starting the contract and by default only allow the no charge actions to occur. i.e. texting - if outbound is charged and inbound is free, by default only inbound is allowed.
Along with this, I am always amazed how, especially with phone services, people can have bills in say the $100-200 range consistantly and then get a bill for $4500 and the providers system is not raising any red flags over fraud, even if this family was running $200 a month on cell phones this bill is 22.5 times the normal level which screams something is wrong and the customer should be contacted.
The standard response from the carriers is always, we don't care you should know better, and then its the media and they look bad and it becomes, we are working with the customer. I would think in this case they could retroactively cover them with unlimited texts for the months, and maybe have them keep it on for a few months so they are reimbursed for the services provided.
As much as the girl is at fault, the carrier must share the blame for failing to act on costs that are so out of normal and failing to act.
william sire
macrumors regular
I think the idea is safety and to keep track of kids.
Kid is at friends house and decides to go to a different friends house, the parents will want to be notified. It's up to the parents to decide if it's being too controlling.
If/when I have kids I think the pay as you go with a set number of minutes a month is what I would go for.
I got one when I was almost 15 (I'm 20 now), which was 3 years+ after everyone else. I wanted one to keep in touch with my friends; I felt horribly left out.
However, I was on payg when I was younger and I never had the £2000 topup needed to run up a 20,000 text bill
Yeah, I don't quite understand the sentiment of some of y'all that kids are kids and there's no reason for any of them to have cell phones. I was 13 when I got one (22 now - so I probably would have had one younger if they'd been as common as they are now), and I was neither on a pay as you go plan nor did I ever run my bill up. My mom was a single mother so I was on my own a lot and it didn't make sense for me not to have one (from a safety/accessibility standpoint).
Not a lot of faith in the upbringings if no one here thinks any kid can be taught and trusted to be mindful and responsible? That was not the rule-of-thumb sentiment my mom had when she raised me and I hope I don't have that mindset when I have kids of my own either...
Yes, it's absolutely insane. The US is a completely price-gauged country for communications.
And as for kids having phones. I have an 8 year old who has started asking for a phone! Some of his wealthier friends have them already! I have no idea what he thinks he will do with it though. All he does on the phone is mutter..
If you think it's bad in the US, just look at Canada. It's even worse there.
I had my first mobile when I was 16. I've always used data, not SMS, though, so never had a problem with racking up the bill.
Forgot the 20,000 texts in a month and the massive bill: you're charged for receiving texts?!
We need a license to watch live TV here in the UK. Hmm.
We need a license to watch live TV here in the UK. Hmm.
Yes.
The license is generally worth it IMHO since the programming is of superior quality. I don't think I appreciated quite how good BBC TV is until I moved to the States. In the US there are hundreds of channels available, and offer almost nothing watchable (in my highly subjective opinion). I've started watching the rubbish they put on BBC America (Ramsey's Kitchen, Graham Norton!!) just so I can zone out. I wouldn't have watched that stuff over there!
I sent around 25k texts one month a few years back, mainly because my girlfriend at the time was a nutjob. I never got charged for it, and I was on an unlimited SMS plan that actually didn't exist back then, but somehow got it anyways!
Wow thats crazy. My brother seems to be the same. Were ever the phone goes it goes with him, he goes to the toilet the phone is in there with him, tea time we can't even have a meal with out the phone going off. He also smses whilst driving.
I sent around 25k texts one month a few years back, mainly because my girlfriend at the time was a nutjob. I never got charged for it, and I was on an unlimited SMS plan that actually didn't exist back then, but somehow got it anyways!
My daughter sent/received over 24,000 last fall. Unlimited texts family plan, baby!
Was talking to my friend yesterday, she wants an iPhone and was trying to sus the best way to have internet added to her plan. I was like well why not just swap out your unlimited texts for unlimited internet? You'll still have 1200 texts.
Turns out she doesn't know how many texts she sends a month 'cause the counter resets every time you pass 2,000. She just knows her counter resets maybe 6 times a month at least.
Turns out she doesn't know how many texts she sends a month 'cause the counter resets every time you pass 2,000. She just knows her counter resets maybe 6 times a month at least.