Ridiculous AT&T International Overage

[awer25]

More like a bunch of international calls, texts, roaming data etc.....
Then they blame the carrier

It's not a question of blame. I can understand how some people may imagine that they are purchasing 50MB for the month just like you would buy minutes on a pre-paid cell plan. You can't go over your prepaid minutes because once you use them up, the phone stops making calls. Some people think that, after 50MB, the phone won't transfer any more data. Then there's the surprise of the insane overage charges. AT&T may charge $20 for 50MB, and then $20 for each additional MB. It's a markup that many people don't expect. Given how cheap data is in America, people don't always know that you can be charged $100 for downloading a large image from an email that a friend sent you.

OP just needs to call AT&T and see if they will adjust the bill. It happens all the time, and they will usually work with you as long as you're pleasant to speak to.

 

[Applejuiced]

It's not a question of blame. I can understand how some people may imagine that they are purchasing 50MB for the month just like you would buy minutes on a pre-paid cell plan. You can't go over your prepaid minutes because once you use them up, the phone stops making calls. Some people think that, after 50MB, the phone won't transfer any more data. Then there's the surprise of the insane overage charges. AT&T may charge $20 for 50MB, and then $20 for each additional MB. It's a markup that many people don't expect. Given how cheap data is in America, people don't always know that you can be charged $100 for downloading a large image from an email that a friend sent you.

OP just needs to call AT&T and see if they will adjust the bill. It happens all the time, and they will usually work with you as long as you're pleasant to speak to.

Who's fault is it if they guess or are misinformed though?
And 50MB on an iphone is nothing, you can use that up in a day easy.

 

[sk1wbw]

So I am in South Korea for the majority of the summer, and I brought my iPhone 4 along with me. I had the 50MB international data plan and sent a couple texts/answered a couple local calls. I went a few MB over the 50MB limit, and instead of cutting my service or notifying me (I simply forgot to turn off roaming when I got close to 50MB) they continued to let my phone onto 3G. I'm now ladened with a $600 phone bill for the month. Does AT&T let this happen to get more money, or what? Anyway, is there anything I can do to avoid paying the full $600?

International data plans boil down to one simple thing: your billing address. If you are sitting next to a local with an iPhone 4 with a local billing address and you are from the US using an iPhone 4 and using the same cellular network that the local person is using, but you have a US billing address, how can ATT justify charging you or anyone the exhorbitant data fees? It doesn't cost anything extra to download data on the same network using the same device just because one person has a US billing address and the other one has a local billing address.

 

[Applejuiced]

International data plans boil down to one simple thing: your billing address. If you are sitting next to a local with an iPhone 4 with a local billing address and you are from the US using an iPhone 4 and using the same cellular network that the local person is using, but you have a US billing address, how can ATT justify charging you or anyone the exhorbitant data fees? It doesn't cost anything extra to download data on the same network using the same device just because one person has a US billing address and the other one has a local billing address.

Its not as simple as just your billing address.
If you're using an AT&T sim in S. Korea for example you're using another carriers network for everything like calls, texts and data. Not AT&T's coverage any more. So that carrier can charge whatever crazy amount to AT&T for you roaming on their network and then AT&T passes the international charges to you. That's why its good and way cheaper to have an unlocked phone and use a local sim from a local carrier.

 

[unlimitedx]

If he only went a few mb over why would the bill be 600 dollars? I went over my international plan, and my overage was like 40 dollars.

OP said he went "over a few" with the 50MB plan. He could have been roaming in "additional countries" that charge by the kb (.0195/kb). ~35MB at that rate would push that to $600.

 

[sk1wbw]

Its not as simple as just your billing address.
If you're using an AT&T sim in S. Korea for example you're using another carriers network for everything like calls, texts and data. Not AT&T's coverage any more. So that carrier can charge whatever crazy amount to AT&T for you roaming on their network and then AT&T passes the international charges to you. That's why its good and way cheaper to have an unlocked phone and use a local sim from a local carrier.

It still doesn't cost ANY carrier ANY extra amount of money to send a modulated carrier wave to a receiving device no matter what country of origin that device is from. The carrier wave doesn't know the difference. It's just another pitiful excuse to rape users for more money.

Plus, you're not really roaming. That stuff went out a decade ago when consumers started to get smart. There are no more roaming fees in the US.

 

[Applejuiced]

It still doesn't cost ANY carrier ANY extra amount of money to send a modulated carrier wave to a receiving device no matter what country of origin that device is from. The carrier wave doesn't know the difference. It's just another pitiful excuse to rape users for more money.

Plus, you're not really roaming. That stuff went out a decade ago when consumers started to get smart. There are no more roaming fees in the US.

Dude, read the thread again.
He is roaming, he is in South Korea using his AT&T sim.
Not in the US