Canadian hit with whopping 85,000-dollar cellphone bill

[arboristman]

c/p news article posting by buddy junkyman on another site:



Canadian hit with whopping 85,000-dollar cellphone bill
OTTAWA (AFP) - An oil field worker in western Canada was shocked this month to be charged 85,000 dollars for surfing the Internet on his new mobile phone, local media said Thursday.


Calgary resident Piotr Staniaszek, 22, had signed up for Bell Canada's cellular phone service at about 150 dollars per month, with unlimited mobile Web browsing.

He believed the plan allowed him to use the phone to connect with his computer, using it as a modem to download a lot of data, high-definition movies and other bandwidth-hungry applications.

But when his first bill arrived in the mail, Staniaszek realized to his horror that the company was charging him on a per-kilobyte basis for Internet downloads.

"I didn't know what to think. I thought there was probably a mistake," he told public broadcaster CBC. "I told them I wasn't aware that I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer."

A spokesman for Bell said the company will adjust Staniaszek's bill to 3,243 dollars, as "a measure of goodwill."

But Staniaszek said he still plans to try and fight it, "because I didn't know about the extra charges. Nobody explained any of this to me."

"The thing is, they've cut my phone off for being like 100 dollars over," he told CBC News. "Here, I'm 85,000 dollars over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on."

[Allan23]

Now we know how bell can pay for there ECM .....

[TheShadowFL]

That same kind of stuff happens in the US too. It's not just a Canadian thing...

I had my "WildBlue.net" satellite ISP service for several months and one day I was cut down to dial up speed. I called them to complain and I was told that I'd exceeded my rolling 30 day download limit. I said "What limit?" and I was simply told to read the fine print in my contract. Well, my contract was of such poor quality I could not even read it. So, I looked it up on Wild Blue's web site and sure enough, I have a download limit of 7,500M per rolling 30 day period. At 80% of that, they will cut my download speed to dial-up speeds. If I continue downloading and hit the maximum, they cut me off completely. All that and I'm still paying them $50 per month for the service.
Oh, and it cost me $465 to buy the equipment and have it installed.

I would not have this 'service' if I didn't live out in the country where there is NO DSL or Cable service. My place is starting to look like a TV station with all the dishes. lol

My heart goes out to the guy in Canada. Wishing him a Merry Christmas!

The Shadow

[seatux]

Wow that sucks.

[63ranchero]

Originally Posted by arboristman

c/p news article posting by buddy junkyman on another site:



Canadian hit with whopping 85,000-dollar cellphone bill
OTTAWA (AFP) - An oil field worker in western Canada was shocked this month to be charged 85,000 dollars for surfing the Internet on his new mobile phone, local media said Thursday.


Calgary resident Piotr Staniaszek, 22, had signed up for Bell Canada's cellular phone service at about 150 dollars per month, with unlimited mobile Web browsing.

He believed the plan allowed him to use the phone to connect with his computer, using it as a modem to download a lot of data, high-definition movies and other bandwidth-hungry applications.

But when his first bill arrived in the mail, Staniaszek realized to his horror that the company was charging him on a per-kilobyte basis for Internet downloads.

"I didn't know what to think. I thought there was probably a mistake," he told public broadcaster CBC. "I told them I wasn't aware that I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer."

A spokesman for Bell said the company will adjust Staniaszek's bill to 3,243 dollars, as "a measure of goodwill."

But Staniaszek said he still plans to try and fight it, "because I didn't know about the extra charges. Nobody explained any of this to me."

"The thing is, they've cut my phone off for being like 100 dollars over," he told CBC News. "Here, I'm 85,000 dollars over and nobody bothered to give me a call and tell me what was going on."

Same thing just happened to my son, he bought a new krazr from Bell and was told at the Bell phone store that he could plug the phone in his USB on his computer and it would charge the phone. What he did'nt know was the phone would connect to internet and download ring tones and who knows what during the night. End result $3600.00 phone bill which after a huge fight the said they would reduce to $1100.00 as a goodwill jesture. Lot of gooodwill out there from Bell, the Pr***s!

[Cserebogar]

He isn't the first n won't be the last. There was another guy with Rogers that got a $60K bill n it was reduced to $5K. He was d/ling a ton of movies. Ther was an article I read on the net about all the "Fine" print in all the cell carriers contracts and UNLIMITED is defined in their terms under your agreement. Ppl are trying to fight it but they won't get anywhere with it. My heart goes out to the guy out in the country. I'm in the same boat but they just recently put up a wireless tower closeby....now iffens they can get to my name on the list for installation I'll be cruuuuuiiiisin!!!!!

[coorslightly]

happened to myself when i got my new cell phone last year. uploaded some pics from the cell to the bell site. they called me and told me 140 bucks, so far in one day lol i said what?????? as goodwill they cancelled the charge cause they didnt say a thing lol . unlimited on sign up has conditions but they dont tell you that till you use it.

[Olds355]

Bell has been ripping people off for as long as they have been around. Their bullies and I think everyone should fight them tooth and nail. They don't show due diligents by protecting their customers. Someone with a bill of 85,000 and they reduce it to 3,200 and say it's a measure of good will is crap. They know their in the wrong and just want to make something from it.
Just my 2 cents.

[TheShadowFL]

Have y'all ever heard the expression, "Buyer Beware!" ??

Many companies around the world are set up in such a way that they make more money off of tricks and loopholes than they do off of their own product.

I could give several good examples, but then this post would be ten pages long. What I will say though, is when you sign up for any "Service", demand a readable copy of the contract and read it over several times and ask lots of questions. If you have a friend who's a lawyer, let him read it and explain it to you. Most times, the legalese in those contracts would make a New York lawyer cry.

People must also learn that cell phones are good for that emergency call, but they get real expensive when you try to use them for internet access.
I use a cheap little Pre-Paid cell phone from "Net Ten". I buy time by the month ($15) and get 300 minutes with each renewal. The unused minutes carry over from month to month. I think that I've now stacked up over 1500 minutes. It don't play music for me, or take pictures, or connect to my computer, but it makes real good phone calls. Isn't that what a cell phone was meant for anyway?

Y'all have a real Merry Christmas!
The Shadow

[mrphil]

thats good to know i just bought a krzr a few days ago and thought what a cool idea to use the phone as a modem. I have unlimited internet browsing on my phone i didnt know it would cost extra. I just switched my phone setting from a modem/com to usb drive. The funny thing is because i bought the phone from ebay it was registered with Sasktel and according to Bell sasktel software isnt compatible with bell so i couldnt get mobile browsing on the phone and absolutely nothing that could be done to change it. Little did Bell know when "tier 2" called me back to tell me that i had already found the Bell Mobility firmware for that phone and flashed it the night before, so now it is 100% Bell and gets on the internet. I wanted to tell them to cut the bull but didnt't haha