Verizon Waives Teen's $21,917 Data Fee

[Darth Sushi]

Verizon Waives Teen's $21,917 Data Fee
By Kevin Parrish, published on December 14, 2009

" Teens and mobile phones don't mix.

Imagine heading out to the mailbox, opening the lid to its ominous mouth, and pulling out the Verizon Wireless bill. Imagine standing there at the box, cracking open the envelope in hopes of a decent charge, only to see that your teen has racked up over $21,000 in data charges. Now imagine your explosive reaction.

According to KTVU-TV in San Jose, California, an unemployed Ted Estarija from Hayward added his 13-year-old son to his Verizon Wireless account, costing him $50 extra a month. But his first month's bill under the new pricing plan was just a little more than the extra fee: it was a whopping $21,918.

When Estarija set up his son's account, he requested that Verizon restrict calls and texting. What he didn't do was ask for restrictions on data. That, of course, was a mistake: the 13-year-old teen downloaded approximately 1.4 GB in just one month. Naturally, Estarija blames Verizon for the bill, claiming that it shouldn't have allowed the obscene amount of downloads.

However, there's a glimmer of sunshine: Verizon listened to his plea and credited his account for the full amount thanks to all the media attention he's received thus far, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Estarija thus kicked his son off the Verizon Wireless account. There's no indication on what happened to his son's phone, or what was actually downloaded. "

Source: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Verizon-...news-5345.html

[3RA1N1AC]

Naturally, Estarija blames Verizon for the bill

naturally!

of course, mobile phone companies and their content providers do charge obscene prices for cellphone amusements and it needs to be regulated. but this guy should have been aware of the availability of obscenely priced downloads, especially before giving a multimedia cellphone to his son.

[Cabalo]

Around here, I pay 7.5€ per month to get 150mb downloads on my phone. MSN is for free.
If you just use RSS feeds, outlook, and some occasional website visits, it's enough.

[Skiz]

It was in their best interest to wipe the fees. The customer would never pay them. Ever. No one would. Repeated attempts to collect $22K for 1.4GB of data transfers would only result in bad publicity for Verizon.

[Appzalien]

How long do you think it will be before they start to add kiosks where telephone booths once were? Then you can plug in a flash drive, and with a pocket full of quarters, download a couple of megabytes of porn (anonymously?, I doubt it).

[bobbintb]

How long do you think it will be before they start to add kiosks where telephone booths once were? Then you can plug in a flash drive, and with a pocket full of quarters, download a couple of megabytes of porn (anonymously?, I doubt it).

uh. never.

[kingboom4]

That is funny... The thing I dont understand is that, why the hell would you download 1.4gb, specially on your phone... you can have better ways of getting appz or music onto your phone, e.g. PTs lol...

[Canes]

ha that kid must of never put his phone down