"This is not completely his fault," said Estarija. "I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn't allow this to happen."
VZW doesn't have any fault in this at all. This is why you need to be over 18 to get a phone. The blame lands all on the account owner. He should have kept track of the childs usage by consistently going to verizonwireless.com or dialing #DATA.
They will do a rework to the bill. Put the family plan on a connect or premium plan, then do a credit minus the difference in calling plans. Over $20,000 goes to the president of the company.
Oh yeah customers always say there should've been a block when they get a ton of per use charges and then have no idea how they used so many mb... always the big bad cell phone company!
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Impressive. If it weren't for the fact that Dad's unemployed I'd find it quite humorous. Apparently parental responsibility continues to erode. I agree: VZW will credit the account a substantial % of the total, but I wonder what message that sends (both to Dad and to Junior.) Oh well, chalk up another one getting to walk away from their legitimate financial responsibilities.
I dont think very many people reach over 10GB of data... I know my record is almost 2GB of data in one month. He must have been on his phone 24/7. Or as someone said, tethering it and DLing porn all day and night or something...
I really dont think VZW should be cutting down that bill... Sure it was an accident, but still... I dont get why it is bad PR. Ok well I do, but it shouldn't be! They signed a contract, they agreed to the terms, they should have to pay for it! or better yet, I would tell them they can either pay the $21K, or pay an ETF and cancel their contract. Or, waive the fees and cancel their contract anyway. That is a loss for VZW....
They dont HAVE to reduce anything... Why is it that no one will take responsibility for what they do...
I still feel bad for them, even though its their own fault. Nobody ever intends to run up a $21,000 cell phone bill. It was just plain ignorance. I'm glad VZ is willing to work with them. This is why I not only made sure the data was blocked on my kids' phones, but I still check our acct online REGULARLY to monitor usage. I would have to sell my children into indentured servitude if I ever got a bill like that! LOL!
I still feel bad for them, even though its their own fault. Nobody ever intends to run up a $21,000 cell phone bill. It was just plain ignorance. I'm glad VZ is willing to work with them. This is why I not only made sure the data was blocked on my kids' phones, but I still check our acct online REGULARLY to monitor usage. I would have to sell my children into indentured servitude if I ever got a bill like that! LOL!
You bring up another good point........it's amazing to me how many people don't keep an eye on their bill and expect the carriers to let them know when there are overages.
That is serious...now I know my son will not be getting a phone until he is at least 17. But I must say that racking up $22,000 in charges is pretty impressive haha
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I have a sneaking suspicion that the kid was given the dumb phone to use but managed to buy and activate an older smartphone with pay as you go data, found out about the bill and changed back to the dumbphone.
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VZW doesn't have any fault in this at all. This is why you need to be over 18 to get a phone. The blame lands all on the account owner. He should have kept track of the childs usage by consistently going to verizonwireless.com or dialing #DATA.
They will do a rework to the bill. Put the family plan on a connect or premium plan, then do a credit minus the difference in calling plans. Over $20,000 goes to the president of the company.
If the account notes do indicate the customer requested the data block and it had not been applied or failed to provision correctly, then Verizon is at fault. Since we don't have to the notations we don't have anything to say other than rumor. I know at ATT I have filed requests for this exact thing as well, and the company will do everything they can to assist in resolving this both for the customer and the company.
The news video also states that the owner had requested to be voice and SMS only. Oh, depending on if MMS used data if the picture was over 300Kb. Oh this may not end nicely......
Video also stated about 1,500,000 KB of usage. That's gonna hurt. That's tethering.
Last edited by John.Hamilton.02; 12-12-09 at 08:46 AM.
I think it's funny that people expect companies, schools, daycares what have you, to be responsible for raising the kids right. "oh it's VZW's fault", last I recall, VZW has never had a kid slide out of it's uterus, therefore has no responsibilty to anyones kids. If you are going to let a child have access to a device that can cause large bills, teach them how to be smart about it. And when they "f" up, make them responsible for it. I realize that's to much to ask some people, but try it, you never know.
