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Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

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Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#1

Post by tremt »

Hey HN,

Would love some help here. We gave an iphone to my father last christmas and he was fine with it (but not using much).

He then went for a trip to UK last month and now he got a 13k bill from ATT. Way more than what he can afford...

In the bill it sais that he used 900,000 kb (or similar) at around 10am and it cost him almost 13k for just that internet usage.

Is that possible? He tried to call them, but they said that he HAS to pay because the charges came from the UK company....

He said he didn't use it much (but tried to check the email, but was so slow that he gave up).

Any suggestions?

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#2

Post by imechura »

The same thing happened to my company with AT&T back in 2006. We where sending our sales team to London and Paris to meet with our banking customers and they where running up data usage bills up to 25k per month per phone.

Unfortunately, there was no way out of it other than to pay, up and educate the staff on the costs associated with travel and data usage. The end result was that our teams would turn data features off when traveling abroad and use land lines to call as much as possible.

If your dad is retiring and owns his home then he may just decide to not pay it and let them report it to his credit.

If he is still going to rely on credit then he needs to setup a payment plan and ask them to forgive part of the bill. However, my experience with ATT is that there is no chance of that happening. You will be lucky if you can speak with a rep who even knows what a phone is.

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#3

Post by noonespecial »

Firstly, I feel for you. Its a strange commentary on the human condition where little bits of institutionalized dishonesty like this are allowed to persist despite the fact that literally everyone knows that its wrong. I'm not sure how the people answering the phones tell old men that they owe $13,000 overages are able to do this job.

The advice is that persistence is key. Everyone knows that this is a mistake, even the jerks at the phone company making this stuff up. You just have to keep calling, insisting that there's been a mistake and moving on up the chain. Try to find other routes into the system as well, call some PR guys, look up the names of company officers on the internet and email (or call if you can find numbers).

Even if your phone did DL 900meg, it probably did so outside of your fathers control, and the marginal cost of providing this data to an iphone in a big city is 0. Its just a stupid shell game intended to fleece a few hundred bucks from folks here and there that in your case went horribly wrong. Make enough noise and you'll probably be able to get them to agree to take the few hundred and let it go. It will take some work though.

You local TV news might be interested in it as a fluff piece as well.

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#4

Post by dave1619 »

noonespecial wrote: post #3

Firstly, I feel for you. Its a strange commentary on the human condition where little bits of institutionalized dishonesty like this are allowed to persist despite the fact that literally everyone knows that its wrong. I'm not sure how the people answering the phones tell old men that they owe $13,000 overages are able to do this job. The advice is that persistence is key. Everyone knows that this is a mistake, even…

local tv news sounds like an interesting option. you need a powerful advocate, and local news could be that.

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#5

Post by dave1619 »

dave1619 wrote: post #4
noonespecial wrote: post #3

Firstly, I feel for you. Its a strange commentary on the human condition where little bits of institutionalized dishonesty like this are allowed to persist despite the fact that literally everyone knows that its wrong. I'm not sure how the people answering the phones tell old men that they owe $13,000 overages are able to do this job. The advice is that persistence is key. Everyone knows that this is a mistake, even…

local tv news sounds like an interesting option. you need a powerful advocate, and local news could be that.

also, maybe local newspaper, and try to set up a website sharing your story with the links to the news stories about your story. try to stir up publicity. even email the ceo of AT&T and senior VPs directly.

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#8

Post by PonyGumbo »

noonespecial wrote: post #3

Firstly, I feel for you. Its a strange commentary on the human condition where little bits of institutionalized dishonesty like this are allowed to persist despite the fact that literally everyone knows that its wrong. I'm not sure how the people answering the phones tell old men that they owe $13,000 overages are able to do this job. The advice is that persistence is key. Everyone knows that this is a mistake, even…

I'd add Consumerist to this list. They live for this kind of stuff.

Re: Ask HN: $13,000 bill from ATT mobile - What to do?

#10

Post by vshlos »

A few years ago I went to Belarus. I made probably 1 20-30 minute call. I got a bill from ATT for ~$1000. The call cost $5 an minute!! Anyway, we called ATT and cut that payment, however I did still have to pay around $500. Call them and fight it for a while, tell them that you are going to sue them on some grounds (such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unjust_enrichment).
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