Adam Savage, one of the mighty busters of myths on The Discovery Channel's Mythbusters show, is freaking out on Twitter right now. The target of his rage? AT&T (NYSE: T), for slapping him with an $11,000 bill after he surfed the Web in Canada for a few hours.
This has happened before and it will surely happen again. If Tweets are to be believed, Adam apparently took a laptop modem with him on a recent trip to Canada. While there, he claims he spent several hours surfing the Web. Upon his return, he was hit with an $11,000 bill in data roaming fees.
Here is the public timeline of his tweets:
Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn't my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem.
And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.
They're claiming I uploaded/downloaded 9 million kilobytes (9 gigs) while in Canada. Frakking impossible.
@--- you read it right. $11,000.00
Did I mention they've turned off my phone until I pay? #attsucks
Almost forgot: Hey AT&T! I will fight this bulls--t.
Text messaging fees are stupid robbery? (they are), AT&T is attempting to charge me 11k for a few hours of web surfing in Canada. Pls RT!
I thought it was sort of funny to see a celebrity experiencing the same thing that regular unwitting users do (no offense, Adam!), so I re-tweeted (re-posted) his message. A few minutes later, an AT&T spokesperson emailed me and said, "We're helping that guy out you just RTed. Do you know him?" Well, AT&T, I only know him in so much as the fact that he's a celebrity and I watch his show on television every week. He likes to blow things up, and I like to watch him blow things up.
I was watching it unfold on Twitter.. carriers hate to get that type of situation happen as it shows the true robbery that does happen for data... Heck I am still amazed that people pay for SMS when carriers dont...
From what I read on twitter. Att backed off. He doesn't have to pay. As far as I cqan tell, This has nothing to do with rogers. He was using att in canada. Other than the fact that rogers may get the romaing payment???
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
These companies should be sued for providing false information. 0.015 cents is not a penny and a half. That is significantly less than a penny. There is a video on youtube about verizon doing the same thing.
Heck I am still amazed that people pay for SMS when carriers dont...
That is not really true. Carriers have to put more circuits and cards in the big switches to handle txts. With more and more ppl txt'ing away all day every day we have to add more and more of these certain circuits to handle all the traffic.
Actually the carriers don't pay to SMS per se. Texts are sent via the control channel, hence why they can only be 160 characters and why the text is not sent out instantly. The phone waits until there is a slot open in the control channel to fit the text, which seems instant to us because it happens so quick (I'm not sure how long exactly, but on the order of under 100ms most likely). HowStuffWorks "How SMS Works" HowStuffWorks "Cell Phone Codes"
So carriers do pay something since the texts may be stored, but they don't spend enough to justify increasing the price per text over the past few years (ATT used to be like 5 cents per text two or three years ago) to 20 cents.
These companies should be sued for providing false information. 0.015 cents is not a penny and a half. That is significantly less than a penny. There is a video on youtube about verizon doing the same thing.
Wow... that video really baffles me.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
These companies should be sued for providing false information. 0.015 cents is not a penny and a half. That is significantly less than a penny. There is a video on youtube about verizon doing the same thing.
It's almost impressive how stupid those people were.
From what I read on twitter. Att backed off. He doesn't have to pay. As far as I cqan tell, This has nothing to do with rogers. He was using att in canada. Other than the fact that rogers may get the romaing payment???
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
As figured AT&T would work something out and he would have to pay it.
This is just ridiculous. Companies like at&t unfortunately are notorious for trying to take advantage of their customers if the customers dont step up. Sad.
never understood why any cell phone carrier would credit valid charges. why a user can blame the company for his lack of knowledge about the products he uses. why blame att did nothing wrong except charge a customer a rate that previously agreed to under a CONTRACT.
These companies should be sued for providing false information. 0.015 cents is not a penny and a half. That is significantly less than a penny. There is a video on youtube about verizon doing the same thing.
IF YOU DO YOU MATH .015 IS EXACLT 1.5 CENTS OR A PENNY AND A HALF PER KB. 0R 15.3 PER MB.
NO U CAN ARGUE THAT THE CHARGE IS HIGH BUT IF U DONT LIKE THE CHARGE DONT USE THE SERVICE.
As figured AT&T would work something out and he would have to pay it.
YEAH AT&T IS GETTING HOSED THEY WILL EAT THE CHARGES AND PAY WHATEVER ROAMING CHARGE THEY AGREED TO WHOEVER OWNS THAT CANADIEN TOWER. AT&T HAS CHOSEN TO EAT THE CHARGES RATHER THAN SHOW THE POOR PUB THE WOULD GET. THE CHARGES ARE VALID.
never understood why any cell phone carrier would credit valid charges. why a user can blame the company for his lack of knowledge about the products he uses. why blame att did nothing wrong except charge a customer a rate that previously agreed to under a CONTRACT.
Exactly...if dude didn't know what he was doing it's not the carrier's fault.
Reading comprehension is sooooooo under-rated.
