Florida man's trip overseas ends in shock over $143,000 T-Mobile phone bill

This forum is dedicated to all sorts of scams and here is a very interesting story.

Floridian Rene Remund and his wife toured Switzerland last September. But when they got home, their cell phone bill had jumped higher than the Swiss Alps.

Remund and his wife said they travel frequently and always notify their cell phone carrier before they leave the United States. In this case, Rene said he visited a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan. He's also been a T-Mobile customer for nearly 30 years.

"They said you're covered. Whatever that meant. You're covered," Rene said.

Yes!!! They were covered so much to the point they received a bill of $143,000 for their magical trip to Switzerland. A magical phone bill for 'roaming charges' over 9.5 GB of data (!) which will come to several thousand dollars per day!

What a scam!

But I think the case has been resolved and the couple don't have to pay these 'roaming charges'.

www.cbsnews.com...

originally posted by: Consvoli
This forum is dedicated to all sorts of scams and here is a very interesting story.

Floridian Rene Remund and his wife toured Switzerland last September. But when they got home, their cell phone bill had jumped higher than the Swiss Alps.

Remund and his wife said they travel frequently and always notify their cell phone carrier before they leave the United States. In this case, Rene said he visited a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan. He's also been a T-Mobile customer for nearly 30 years.

"They said you're covered. Whatever that meant. You're covered," Rene said.

Yes!!! They were covered so much to the point they received a bill of $143,000 for their magical trip to Switzerland. A magical phone bill for 'roaming charges' over 9.5 GB of data (!) which will come to several thousand dollars per day!

What a scam!

But I think the case has been resolved and the couple don't have to pay these 'roaming charges'.

www.cbsnews.com...

I heard this story on the radio yesterday. Because of the potential of someone else seemingly minor mistake could have some serious headaches after. So many many moons ago I decided to never buy a phone from a carrier. I buy mine intentionally unlocked and able to use 2-3 Sim cards for this exact reason.

a reply to: Consvoli

'swhat he gets streaming porn overseas! Sorry....✌️😎

a reply to: budzprime69

Does your system work? 😃

a reply to: Consvoli

Kind of a plot twist. Florida man is usually the offender.🤔

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: Consvoli

'swhat he gets streaming porn overseas! Sorry....✌️😎

He has a wife.
Do you imply married men are watching inappropriate videos on their cell phones abroad and their wives don't know it?

Why is it always florida man?

a reply to: xuenchen

Yes it does very well actually.
I have my American ATT Sim, then when I travel I load a sim for the area I am going. All works super fine.
Just make sure the phone you get is internationally unlocked and can accept multiple Sim cards.

originally posted by: budzprime69
a reply to: xuenchen

Yes it does very well actually.
I have my American ATT Sim, then when I travel I load a sim for the area I am going. All works super fine.
Just make sure the phone you get is internationally unlocked and can accept multiple Sim cards.

That's true and you should very careful when your provided says everything is covered...

What they ve done to him was unthinkable and it's a great scam. Governments must have the power to intervene in these cases.

a reply to: Consvoli

Ya he got got by his carrier and we all know it didn't cost them maybe more than a few bucks.
That really sucks but good it made the news. I'm sure they will rollback those charges in fear of boycotts.

a reply to: Cre8chaos79

It's gotta be them gators and the humidity.

I fly to and stay in the Philippines for long periods of time but need to keep us phone for banking, etc.

1. I buy a SIM card or use a previous one immediately upon landing.
2. I only put my US sim in to call/text US for banking etc (e.g. getting authentication code via text).
3. I have a Paid Skype phone number 50/yr plus 3$/month I use to call most day to day (family etc).

I could let the us cell service go, but us government and some banks won’t send text via Skype. Frustrating.

I think it was in the 90s, where my dad worked, a coke machine racked up a phone bill of over 10,000 dollars. It was calling long distance to order refilling but the system would not recognize it and it would keep calling again and again to place an order. Each attempt adding another long distance call charge.

That machine was removed when they figured out the bill.

In the case of this Florida man, I think he spoke to someone at that store that did not know what they were talking about. That happens all the time in my experience. I also think he should have turned off all updates when traveling internationally. That could rack up the data usage with several apps and possibly a system update.

originally posted by: budzprime69
a reply to: Consvoli

Ya he got got by his carrier and we all know it didn't cost them maybe more than a few bucks.
That really sucks but good it made the news. I'm sure they will rollback those charges in fear of boycotts.

I think the matter has been settled and he doesn't have to pay anything. They should pay him for psychological damages! Imagine the shock when he realised this was his bill?!

Remember the days of analog phone service and when you had to pay for long distance? You could choose the "provider" of the service as different providers offered different rates per minute. When making a long distance call you could simply tell the operator who you wanted to use as a provider.

I genius of a man got an idea and created a provider named "I Don't Care" (or something to that effect) and charged like $9.99 per minute.

He would bill people hundereds of dollers for a call...all legally. Some shmo would make a call and when asked what provider to use, they'd simply say "I don't care" BOOM!

(saw this on the news many years ago and recalling from memory. Details may differ from my recollection)

a reply to: Consvoli

Nope. I'm implying porn streaming Florida to Europe...back to binging Florida and back...again...is...costly...for women too.

Shoulda downloaded 'em to flashdrives 1st! Thats what I d......did. Once.

Just sayin'!??😆

a reply to: Consvoli

These phone companies suck. Verizon was another famous case.