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Teen used 1.3 GB of data on phone without unlimited plan
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 16 December, 2009
A teen in California saw his cell phone bill balloon to almost $22,000 this month after using 1.34 GB of data without an unlimited bandwidth plan.
The 13-year-old had just been added to his father's family plan, which did not include any data usage. The plan was then charged per megabyte.
Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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17. December 2009 @ 03:15 |
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I think this kid needs a lot more help than an account suspension.
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Senior Member
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17. December 2009 @ 05:02 |
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Hmm... 1.34GB. Sounds like a typical DVD->XviD rip. :-)
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KSib
Member
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17. December 2009 @ 06:07 |
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Originally posted by tatsh:
I think this kid needs a lot more help than an account suspension.
It's actually quite easy to do that if you don't realize you don't have an unlimited data plan for an entire month. Of course, Verizon won't tell you.. "HEY! You owe $1000 already, what the deal?" when they can just take more of your money.
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Senior Member
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17. December 2009 @ 08:30 |
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sounds like the teen needs a pre paid phone.that way no bills.the only reason im on prepaid is i can't afford a $20000 phone bill or a $500 phone bill.
custom built gaming pc from early 2010,ps2 with 15 games all original,ps3 500gbs with 5 games all original,yamaha amp and 5.1channel surround sound speakers,46inch sony lcd smart tv.
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atomicxl
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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17. December 2009 @ 09:18 |
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Sounds like the teen needs to learn to be responsible.
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Member
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17. December 2009 @ 09:52 |
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this sort of thing isn't uncommon. i don't even know why it is newsworthy. i see this happening all the time since i work in customer service for one of the major wireless companies. it is extremely rare that the carrier would make someone pay for excessive domestic usage for this type of situation. actually i have not yet heard of an instance where someone was made to pay up (they do go after you to some extent for international pay per use though).
when you get new lines or add an existing lines to a group, pay per use data and such are added automatically if there is no data feature present. most kids wouldn't think they weren't supposed to do data transfer if mom or dad just gave them the phone and didn't say anything. the first thing they would do is start playing around with the features. there isn't really anything to do with who is at fault because i seriously doubt the guy was told the new line would have pay per use data but on the same note his other lines probably had it but didn't use it so it wasn't anything to worry about until now.
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Mez
AfterDawn Addict
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17. December 2009 @ 11:51 |
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Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.
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FrostRose
Member
5 product reviews
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17. December 2009 @ 12:26 |
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I bet the poor sucker went "Hey! You can access Youtube with this thing!" and downhill from that by not knowing/caring about data costs.
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Member
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17. December 2009 @ 15:05 |
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Originally posted by Mez:
Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.
Umm, instead of taking that attitude, why not have your carrier disable data usage on his line? Or better yet, allow him to add a data plan that he pays for. If you have a smartphone, it's designed for more than calls and txt messages. No smartphone, no need for any kind of data access, block it.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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17. December 2009 @ 15:12 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mez:
Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.
Umm, instead of taking that attitude, why not have your carrier disable data usage on his line? Or better yet, allow him to add a data plan that he pays for. If you have a smartphone, it's designed for more than calls and txt messages. No smartphone, no need for any kind of data access, block it.
Becuse taking out a club is easier than treating kids like kids(IE uber dizty fickle things) :P
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Mysttic
Senior Member
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17. December 2009 @ 16:23 |
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The dad got lucky... Like really lucky. One priest in my country under Rogers Mobile used up similar bandwidth on his phone, and ended up being sued by Rogers Inc and Rogers won... The priest had to pay all of it which was around $30,000 bill. Normally being sued for owing that kind of $ is popular in the states, no offense to anyone out there but it is. Let this be a lesson learn, don't give your kids a cell, make them pay for it and learn.
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IguanaC64
Member
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17. December 2009 @ 17:30 |
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It's not like the phone tells you you don't have a data plan. It just warns you that you're going online and that charges *might* apply. This is more likely a case of ignorance than willfull misuse.
When I got my first phone my $50 cell bill was ~$130 because I downloaded phone updates and a crappy version of Galaga. I didn't have a data plan, so I just figured I was downloading it off the carrier's system and data charges wouldn't apply.
Seriously...if I don't have it on my plan...don't f'ing let the phone do it and charge some outrageous amount. Fortunately, I didn't do that much in my first month and learned my lesson relatively painlessly (yeah an extra $80 for about 212k of downloads really sucked, but /shrug).
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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17. December 2009 @ 17:59 |
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Originally posted by IguanaC64:
It's not like the phone tells you you don't have a data plan. It just warns you that you're going online and that charges *might* apply. This is more likely a case of ignorance than willfull misuse.
When I got my first phone my $50 cell bill was ~$130 because I downloaded phone updates and a crappy version of Galaga. I didn't have a data plan, so I just figured I was downloading it off the carrier's system and data charges wouldn't apply.
Seriously...if I don't have it on my plan...don't f'ing let the phone do it and charge some outrageous amount. Fortunately, I didn't do that much in my first month and learned my lesson relatively painlessly (yeah an extra $80 for about 212k of downloads really sucked, but /shrug).
you have to be very very careful with cell/wireless services..they tend to gold dig >>
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AfterDawn Addict
6 product reviews
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17. December 2009 @ 21:17 |
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Quote:
Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire amount, and the teen has had his account suspended (by his father).
Nice. :)
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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17. December 2009 @ 23:43 |
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Quote:
Quote:
Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire amount, and the teen has had his account suspended (by his father).
Nice. :)
It's realy BS...verizon was kind enough to forgive a $22,000 debt to the dad...and the dad responds be taking away his kid's phone? Shouldn't he have been happy and relieved, and simply dissabled data for the phone? He probably never even warned the kid that his data plan was limited; the kid's old plan probably had unlimited data useage.
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Newbie
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18. December 2009 @ 10:06 |
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Amazing! but why would a 13 yr old have a phone on a PLAN anyway?! that's insane..
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Datalife
Member
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20. December 2009 @ 09:29 |
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As a parent of 2 teenage boys, teens will be teens or kids will be kids.They will DO anything even though you say no.This are companies being greedy.It happened to me before.The first thing i told ATT is NO internet on my plan and guess what? After $800 bill they did not take it off.After arguing with them, it(the internet) disappeared from my plan.After 19 months, it came back again last November.I was told that i am using datas again which i thought i don't have anymore.They told me that their system automatically bring it back to life for some reason that most of us the consumers don't know anything about.So I told them that they have the best technology and they don't even have an ON and OFF switch to turn off my internet data plan. What is so hard about turning the switch to OFF?Now i have to call them again....
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casurratt
Junior Member
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20. December 2009 @ 15:38 |
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Originally posted by FrostRose:
I bet the poor sucker went "Hey! You can access Youtube with this thing!" and downhill from that by not knowing/caring about data costs.
I agree with this person. lol Stupid Verizon.
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LaurenL
Newbie
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30. December 2009 @ 10:35 |
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mez:
Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.
Umm, instead of taking that attitude, why not have your carrier disable data usage on his line? Or better yet, allow him to add a data plan that he pays for. If you have a smartphone, it's designed for more than calls and txt messages. No smartphone, no need for any kind of data access, block it.
Just get an unlimited prepaid - they're much cheaper than the contracted unlimited plans anyway. I use the Straight Talk plans for my kids which costs $45 for unlimited everything on Vzn's network. No contracts, no bills to worry about but with very good service.
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