Fla. woman shocked by $200,000 cell phone bill

[motherof3]

(AP) MIAMI — A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cell phone bill: she owed $201,000.

It was no mistake.

Celina Aarons has her two brothers on her plan. They are deaf and cannot speak, so the easiest way for them to communicate is by texting. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has a data plan that usually costs about $175.

But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons never changed to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2,000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $2,000 in data charges.

T-Mobile told Aarons the bill was correct. She called Miami TV station WSVN, which contacted T-Mobile. The station reports (Help Me Howard - High phone bill ) that T-Mobile cut Aarons' bill to $2,500 and gave her six months to pay.
link: Fla. woman shocked by $200,000 cell phone bill - CBS News

This would suck so bad! You would think T-mobile would have sent a text or called the account owner before the bill got so out of hand. But of course it's just money to them. I hate T-mobile anyway. They sucked for the 3 months we had them years ago.

[Josef]

And the saddest thing is texts cost cell phone companies NOTHING. Nada. Literally nothing. Why do you think the cell phone company was so quick to change the bill from $201,000 to $2500? That's still a bonus $2500 for them.

[Bellicose]

I seen this a few days ago, and I have had some time to think about it. Can I just say that there is no way in hell that I would even remotely pay them anything over my regular bill. I would tell them if they want their money they are going to have to take me to court. That is when I would tell the court, they dropped it from $200k, to $2500, why can't they just drop it to the regular bill if they are willing to drop it that much already? I would also say that they are trying to take money away from someone who is trying to take care of their disabled siblings as best they can. Who is going to side with T-Mobile on that one?

I would so tell them to Eff off, and not pay them a stinking dime, switching carriers as well.

[Kid Lester]

I'd make sure that the highest ranking supervisor I could get on the phone disclosed the physical location of his/her office to me. "Well, that's easy for you to say at your desk in Ohio!"

"No sir, we're in Tampa."

Then, during the course of the conversation, I'd explain that even $2,500 would cripple my family. And that at this point, with insurance, I'm worth more dead than alive. But my family can't collect if I commit suicide. So it'd have to be an accident, or natural causes, or in a hail of police gunfire, or something. Then I'd quote Revelations from the Bible.

Then I'd see where that went.

[tricksterde]

I got caught when I was working in Canada too. The quick calls and hand full of texts I made ran up over $300 for 2 months. I didn't know you could switch to international for a limited time. Lesson learned.