3 days of Iphone use costs man $8,000

Alberta man stung by cellphone bill of nearly $8,000

Sorry mods, I think I put this thread in the wrong place...

Warning: Using an Ipod can cost you a fortune.

Jason Boutang says he was shocked when he opened the bill for his iPhone and saw he had racked up charges of nearly $8,000.

“It’s criminal,” said Boutang of his June statement saying he owed Virgin Mobile $7,763.70 after using the phone for three days while travelling in France.

“They pulled the plug on me after the third day,” he said, adding he figured it was related to roaming charges of some sort, though he never would have imagined he’d open such a humongous bill weeks later.

“I opened my e-bill and fell over,” he said.

“I had to get three other people to look at the screen to make sure I read it right.

“They said, ‘pay up, every penny ... you went outside your neighbourhood, you pay the price,’” he said.

What irks him most is he called the company a couple weeks before he left to inform them he would be taking his iPhone with him to Europe.

Boutang said the customer service representative failed to warn him about the pricey cost of using an iPhone abroad, and says he wasn’t told about a roaming data plan he’s since discovered that might have allowed him to use his phone overseas for as little as $200.

“It hurts, but I don’t even want to pick it up; I don’t even want to look at it.”

This is terrible, especially considering there was a roaming plan that could have taken $7,563.70 off the final bill, had the phone company told him about it.

Just another sorry example of an company ripping off customers.



[edit on 5-7-2010 by star in a jar]

[edit on 5-7-2010 by star in a jar]

[edit on 5-7-2010 by star in a jar]

Of course they aren't going to tell him about it! Now they have an extra almost 8 grand out of a customer! It's ridiculous, but another reason i steer clear of virgin, they've ripped us off before.

What do you expect? Cellular service is in the stone age in the US. I use my phone everywhere I travel and it costs me very little. The only time it was costly was when I was in the US on a visit. What a ripoff, AT&T was charging me $10 a min roaming. When on roaming in Japan it was only $0.25 a min. I really feel sorry for this guy, all they did was rob him shamelessly. They could have informed him of the service plan for travel but oppted not to so that they could gain more money.

Agreed, it's shameful how they allowed him to walk in this trap even though he told them he would be using it out of the country.

Very poor business practices, I believe it's important for the media to report these sort of events to put pressure on these companies to be reasonable or suffer a loss in public image.

Prepaid cell Cellular service is the only way to go. When the time runs out that is it. No bill to worry about. I will NEVER have a cell phone that is not prepaid again. I think that prepaid cellular service is the way of the future for cell phones.

I'm not taking sides on this one, it sounds like he made a mistake by not doing enough research before buying the phone, and they made a mistake by not telling him about the plan. It sounds like both sides were at fault.

I haven't had a cell for 7+ yrs.
Don't want one.
Don't need one.



(edit)
Screw it.
Point made.

[edit on 7/5/2010 by reticledc]

From my personal experience with cell phone, I have been ripped off by the Canadian carrier Telus. My 3 year contract ends in august, and I am thinking about going the old fashion way, the 0.25 cents per call telephone boot.

But the new Iphone 4 is comming to Canada in July........

What I am going to do ?

reply to post by star in a jar


Why does the title say Ipod and not Iphone? Every time I read this I think it's meant to be about downloading music, or something.

To topic: Don't know what to say. Everyone knows, or should, that cell phone companies are a rip off, he should have been more careful and researched what he was getting into. There have been enough stories like this, for it not to be a surprise.

reply to post by LadySkadi
Oops thanks for pointing my error out, It is indeed an Iphone

I wonder about these people who had to pay out for their 'mistake' and didn't raise a ruckus like this guy did. There could be an number of people who came home to thousands-dollar bills.

There's this other case of a man who downloaded movies off the internet with his phone and was stuck with an huge bill, even though I think he used his phone to transfer said files to his computer at home, not downloading with the phone but linking it to his computer.

After a public backlash against the company who billed the man who downloaded these movies, the bill was lowered significantly.


[edit on 5-7-2010 by star in a jar]

reply to post by star in a jar


Lol. No problem. Just wondered if I was missing something there. I don't have the Iphone, probably never will (unless it's work related) so am not in the "club".

As for stories like this, I remember reading about a guy that got charged 10k for using his laptop on (overseas charges) while on cruise - only thing was - they hadn't left Florida yet! However, the Internet provider registered it as international connection.

reply to post by St-Patrick


What is this telephone booth you speak of?



[edit on 7/5/2010 by fixer1967]

Well something like this :



This is an old technological device that aloud you to make local phone calls for .25 cents.

[edit on 5-7-2010 by St-Patrick]

This is not new or exclusive to cellular providers.
Remember when AT&T monopolized long distance? I inadvertently racked up hundreds of dollars on my parent's phone bill as a kid and At&t never budged on the bil. He should have known the rate before he placed the call. It was poor form for Virgin mobile not to mention it when he called customer service, but that doesn't absolve his responsibility. The charges are not criminal, but you could argue they are inappropriate.

*takes a sip from my $5.00 cup of coffee wondering how they get away with charging people those prices...

BTW, my carrier probably would've cut the bill to a reasonable amount (likely in the hundreds or maybe a grand) because I've seen them do it for others before. It's better to get part of it than for it to go to a collection agency or court I guess.

If you think the charges are a ripoff, then what does that say about the man who fell for it?
what about the other 80% of people who do know how much they pay on their bill for roaming?

reply to post by AlienMenace
8 thousand dollars for 3 days of out-country Iphone use is terrible, it's beyond inappropriate... It just seems criminal.

Sure, he could have not paid that much, but oh noes, he didn't ask for it specifically...

The logic of these charges fails to compute. For someone like me 8,000 dollars is like 4-6 months wages.

These companies are making a killing





[edit on 5-7-2010 by star in a jar]

I've been screwed by every provider out there, but my "favorite" was my first cell phone from Sprint. My roommate used to monopolize the house line, so I thought: hey, I'll use the cell phone instead! Only to find out that while my living room was in their "zone" my bedroom 5 ft away apparently wasn't (although it was all supposed to be covered under my zip code) and I was walloped w/ hundreds of extra dollars in charges for supposedly roaming. No negotiation, so changes, nothing. Robber baron scumbags!

reply to post by fixer1967


Amen to that. I use megatalk from iwireless so basically i spend 50 bucks for a month of unlimited text, long distance all that jazz.
I am never going to pay a cell phone bill in my life if i can help it.
This story just goes to back up my beliefs, contracts screw everything up.
No bank acct, just cash
No phone plan, just cash.

i say he should refuse to pay. let them take him to court . when the court finds out he told them he was going to europe they should find company at fault for not telling him he would need internationnal plan to stop crazy roaming charges

reply to post by star in a jar


You would think that people would realize that nothing is cheap when it comes to international roaming or long distance.

I work for a subcontractor that handles customer support for a large cell phone co and I always tell the customer to keep the phone off and turn off the data roaming. If they don't just leave the phone at home. It says right in the Iphone setup to turn off the data to minimize the data charges.

Though in this situation Virgin really should have suspended the service on the phone until the customer calls in to rectify the situation.

A backdated int. data plan could have fixed the problem if caught before the billing cycle closes. Or at least a rerate on the screwup.

I fixed a $2000 bill once with a postdated $200 int. data feature. At least the guy had the sense to call in before the cycle close.

And they alway say I'm such a nice guy.

reply to post by St-Patrick


I hate to burst your bubble... But most pay phones in Canada now charge 50 cents. And good luck trying to find one.