Canada's Worst Cellphone Bill!

[pink_panda]

I was watching this on Marketplace and feel very sorry for some of these people whose bills are in the thousands!

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/c...bill/main.html

[trucks12trucks]

and I thought my phone bill was high!

[nadiabreckon]

Like I told my husband, you have to be aware of roaming charges when you have a cell phone...we all know how ridiculous companies are... I read some of the comments at the bottom of the page, and have to agree with the person who says if you can't afford the cell phone, don't own one....and he continues by saying if you can't afford the gas, take the bus and don't drive!

This is just my opinion on this, but I know not to use my phone out of the country because I don't want to get "screwed"...we were in the USA last year and my DH used my phone for 2 min and left a message on his boss' voicemail....1.95$/min, and they count 20sec as a minute! So, you really gotta expect overseas to charge you even more than just across the border...

[momofkali]

My friend got charged $800 because her phone was connected to the internet for hours while she was at school. That was Rogers

My other friend got charged $100 for a ringtone he never downloaded. When he inquired what ringtone it was they told him they couldn't tell because the download had failed.
So he was charged $100 for a FAILED download. That was Fido

[zmartell]

My friend got charged $800 because her phone was connected to the internet for hours while she was at school. That was Rogers

My other friend got charged $100 for a ringtone he never downloaded. When he inquired what ringtone it was they told him they couldn't tell because the download had failed.
So he was charged $100 for a FAILED download. That was Fido

LOL such a lie. Just because it failed doesnt mean anything except the act of whether you can open it or not.

[cabmonk]

I wouldn't just blame the sale people though, can no one ever just once think for themselves. People will send 5000 texts messages without realizing they don't have a text plan and the texts are like .25 cents each. They will tether their cell to their computer without realizing the provider doesn't allow tethering.


I have 500mb of data(and i'm on the net every day with it), plus 400 weekday mins, free incoming calls, free evenings and weekends, 2500 sent texts, unlimited incoming texts, free rogers to rogers calls, voice mail, + a certain amount of video and picture messaging and my bill is never over $85.00.

[vibrantflame]

I have mixed feelings about this. I don't doubt that many cellphone companies do screw people out of a lot of money, and I find that horrible that they would do that. I also think almost all of their customer service is horrible because it is outsourced to call centers in other countries.

On the other hand, I think it is the consumer's responsibility to properly inform themselves. Now I'm not saying that the people in the video didn't do this, but I know of some people who have had high cell phone bills and it was there own fault. It's nice to think we can trust service reps to be honest and sell us the best package, but that is just not always the case. And sometimes they make mistakes too, but they aren't the ones that can fix it, the company has to, and then the company doesn't want to.

The major problem is that consumer protections is all well and fine, but it doesn't do anything until you're already in trouble. So arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can first, and hopefully that will avoid a lot of problems.

Personally I am with Virgin Mobile, best cell phone company I have ever been with. I've never had a problem with them, one time I did get charged twice for the same game (because the first time it failed to download), I called them and they immediately credited me for the second download. My phone bill has never been unexpectedly high or anything, and I have an awesome plan.

[anisa]

these companies give us all the info, sometimes ppl just aren't as careful as they should be.
the ppl who do make genuine mistakes are often stuck, cause i'm sure these companies hear all sorts of wild stories from ppl who were just plain careless.