Father destroys daughter's cellphone after $4756 texting bill
0. phoneArena posted on 09 Apr 2009, 01:17
A man bought cellphones for his family from Verizon Wireless, he opted for a plan that doesn't include texting not knowing that choosing such an option meant paying for each and every text sent and received...
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14. Fan_of_Fanboys posted on 09 Apr 2009, 10:12 0 0
VZW does have that ability. In fact the customer can sign up at the store, over the phone, or themselves on the website
10. xmguy posted on 09 Apr 2009, 09:14 0 0
How someone can REALLY send 700 texts in ONE DAY is beyond me. I have VZW I have their 250 plan I rarely go over the limit. WOW! If I had a kid and they charged a bill that high They'd never have a phone again until they knew the word CONTROL!
31. Dood posted on 12 Apr 2009, 18:41 0 0
I could have my math horribly wrong, but I think this would be a text every 7 minutes or so, factoring in about 8 hours of sleep. That gives plenty of time to eat in between texts and a very wet phone if she showers too long...
12. vzw fanman posted on 09 Apr 2009, 09:45 0 0
i would give her back her phone but block texting. what happens if she had an emergency and needed a cell??
16. andrew_espana posted on 09 Apr 2009, 11:06 0 0
if you have a teenage girl then you might as well get unlimited texting, either that or no phone at all
18. Jyakotu posted on 09 Apr 2009, 11:55 0 0
Parents too cheap to spring for Unlimited Texting? Ever parent should know by now, if you have teenager on the family plan, get unlimited text!
21. bellboy08 posted on 09 Apr 2009, 14:39 0 0
Well, if the girl was txting almost 700 txts a day... The Parents would have seen her! They should have done something about it!
22. vzw fanman posted on 09 Apr 2009, 15:40 0 0
hahah lol..700 texts a day is ridiculous, there is no need for it
25. brikz4real posted on 09 Apr 2009, 16:39 0 0
I've seen something like this happen before ( on a VZW aircard ). A girl got charged close to $6,000 for usage on her aircard even though the 5 GB limit was disclosed to her. She decided to download full tv episodes on the service...which she was throroughly warned about. You cannot, and I mean, CANNOT, predict what people will do. Why didn't the father add the text package? Cheapness ( if that's a word ). When you tell people about a text plan, all they see is the CHARGE ...not the BENEFIT. He probably saw the extra $30 as a bogus charge to get his money, but did not realize that the threat of text overages would never see the light of day. She's a teenager, and that's all they do ... TEXT. Not only does $30 keep this kind of thing from happening but if all they do is text, then they are not making calls..... which means you can afford to be on the lowest plan "minute-wise". A win-win situation. But once again, all he saw was the charge. Simply put, $33.99 per month could eliminated both a high ass bill and bad grades at the same time. If you are wondering where the extra $3.99 comes from, it's to have Usage Controls added to her phone line ( via your account online ). He then could have easily set her to NOT have texting ability during school hours ( this also could have been the fault of the rep for not disclosing that little tidbit either ). I read about this story via Yahoo's home page ( which linked the story to an onlne newspaper out of Colorado ). For all those who think Verizon is all about the money, the article clearly stated that VZW was willing to bring the bill down to a very "respectable" amount. The father smashing the phone (enV2) was hilarious. Useless....but hilarious. Again, cheapness rules. Save a little now, to get burned by a lot later.
37. metalpoet posted on 28 May 2009, 12:52 0 0
i agree with you! i use only about 450 mintues a month but i do about 3000 texts a month. i once had to pay an extra 20 bux just to have 5000 text a month but a verizon rep informed me of the select plan which is awesome!
26. Mali Mal posted on 09 Apr 2009, 16:56 0 0
Jus figured it was a perfect time to say verizon sucks LOL
36. metalpoet posted on 28 May 2009, 12:50 0 0
verizon doesnt suck, the guy was just a cheapskate! the verizon rep probably tried getting the guy to get a text plan or put them on the select plan but he was being stubborn which led to stupididty which led to a $5,000 bill.
27. vzwtechbill posted on 09 Apr 2009, 17:21 0 0
Saddest thing is, the store rep probably tried to get him to sign for a txt plan (comission), guy declined (cheapness), when bill came out, probably called to VZW and got most, if not all, the charges back as a credit
29. Fanboys Suck posted on 10 Apr 2009, 17:05 0 0
And then still did not sign up for text messaging... No Joke.
32. dbb10001 posted on 16 Apr 2009, 14:13 0 0
I can't begin to imagine what it was like for the parents to get a $5K phone bill, especially if they thought that they had a texting plan that, while not unlimited, was at least comprehensive. Talk about shock! Without debating the appropriateness of the volume of the rampant texting, I get particularly riled when parents are stuck with huge bills; I hear about this all the time because I work for the consumer advocacy websitehttp://www.fixmycellbill.com , powered by a company called Validas, where we slash the average cell bill by 22 percent. People like the Christoffersons may not have been actively misled by their providers, but they were clearly unaware of the vulnerability of their cell plans to their kids’ texting habits. I could go on and on about how shifty these cell companies can be in their attempts to make you overpay. I'll mention that at Validas, we stop them and have currently put over $5,000,000 back in the pockets of consumers. You can check out Validas’s fixmycellbill.com in the national news media, most recently on Good Morning America athttp://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/
story?id=6887412&page=1. Good luck to everyone trying to lower your wireless expenses down in this rough economy. Dylan
35. metalpoet posted on 28 May 2009, 12:48 0 0
i dont go over my texts cuz im on the select plan with verizon that means i can text who ever i want from any company as many times as i want. if the man was being cheap while not even thinking that his daughter WASNT going text, haha damn was he surprised! i work for verizon and i make sure that all my customers that have kids, teenagers, and young adults have either text plans or are on the select plan! you pay just a lil bit more now but u never have to wry bout go over texts and paying 5 g"s
33. vzwemp87 posted on 28 Apr 2009, 17:32 0 0
lol this is great only because i just got done helping a few customers with a $2556.86 text bill and actually they were more calm than i was!
34. metalpoet posted on 28 May 2009, 12:45 0 0
hahaha dumba@# shouldve listened when verizon sales person spoke to them about texting! he deserved to have that bill and she deserves to have her a@# kicked up one side and down the other.
