You think your Internet bill might be bad? A man traveling abroad downloaded the film WALL-E, and was charged $62,000!
Alberto was traveling to Mexico on business when his nephew wanted to download the movie WALL-E to watch. Little did he know how much it was about to cost him!
Check out the clip to find out how “generous” his cell phone carrier was in reducing the bill:
[cnn-video vid=/video/bestoftv/2009/04/23/howard.62k.movie.cnn] [polldaddy poll=1566363]
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what company is that. the public should know
The guy was roaming internationally. The carrier is just charging him what they would have been charged by the roaming carrier in Mexico. He should have read his information that came with the mobile broadband device. With all US based carriers I know of, data roaming is extremely expensive when roaming internationally.
You're a moron. The roaming carrier in Mexico would charge the other provider nothing close to $62,000 or even the $17,000. Nor does any of the cost involved for either company come close. Cell phone providers are the biggest scam out there.
After the Government lol
The guy was roaming internationally. The carrier is just charging him what they would have been charged by the roaming carrier in Mexico. He should have read his information that came with the mobile broadband device. With all US based carriers I know of
I was never "anti-corporation" until the last 6 or 7 years. It started with my Wells-Fargo bank applying rediculous charges to my account, then Chase suddenly jacking up my credit card interest rate to near 30% for no reason. Verizon tortured me to death slowly with their blood-letting. — Our society's laws are based on the traditional "common law" concept, that what makes sense to the common person is the way that we are expected to behave. There is no way that a $62,000 phone bill can make sense to anyone. — Common sense would then tell me that our trusted corporations have become criminal. The time for revolution has come.
This isn't the guy's carrier charging him $62k, this is the cell tower owner in Mexico charging his carrier probably $50k and the carrier tacking on their standard roaming "profit". Common sense would tell me that this guy is a moron: first for not knowing what his plan included (or excluded) and second for expecting his cell provider to eat his mistake.
While $62k is obscene, it shouldn't have been unexpected. Maybe I'm just an exceptionally smart consumer, but I always "look before I leap". Your credit card company wouldn't raise your rate for no reason. They may have raised your rate because you paid a different bill late (they can do that, check your card agreement). None of these companies can charge you a dime without letting you know that they can. Change in rate at Chase? In the agreement. Ridiculous charges at Wells Fargo? Most assuredly listed on their website. Verizon blood-letting? Every penny (aside from government imposed fees, which have grown to be about $10 month on my bill) listed on their website or in literature available in their stores.
Be a smart consumer. Quit blaming the corporations. Take some personal responsibility for your actions.
Hey, Burt … do you always read the fine print? Really? Sure you do. I, on the other hand, have a life.
Clint Bradford is not a troll, he's absolutely right. When I planned on traveling out of the country, I called my provider to ask about how much more every aspect of my service was going to cost while I was gone. I was told minutes would be $.99 each, texts would be $.35 each and data would be $15 per megabyte. While $15 per megabyte is OUTRAGEOUS, I made damn sure not to use any data. You honestly expect to travel outside of the country and have the same service cost? (I mean, really? It costs more just to call other countries, it's gonna cost more to call FROM there) Just call and ask. It's 15 minutes tops to save yourself a ton of money. I ended up getting screwed and had to call the BBB, (but that's an entirely different ballgame) but ya know, I made the effort to call and check these things out rather than assuming.
And you consider all that said, the movie download is about 1.37GB (just checked Wall-E on bittorrent as an indicator, and that's one of the lowest sized ones.). It definitely isn't $62k, but at $15/MB, yep, that's about 17 grand.
$62,000…now by any measure that is over the top. If the company was ethical they would have cut off the transfer or at least sent a warning at a few hundred dollars.
OMG! I would rather buy the original DVD rather than charged $62,000.
WOW REALLY?? I'd go with the $62000 personally.
Ah, the guy was roaming in Mexico. I missed that. To me it sounded like the guy went to Mexico and left his phone at home where his nephew picked it up. This causes me to have a smidgen more sympathy for Verizon et al, but it does little to soften my recently acquired anti-corporation position. The Exceptionally Smart Consumer Burt says stop blaming corporations and read my account agreements. He's right, I usually don't. I grew up trusting. That's how I was raised. And for most of my life my trust was rewarded, until about 7 years ago. My Well Fargo's agreement surely said there was an overdraft fee, but when I did have an overdraft I was charged a fee every day my account stayed negative. By the time I noticed… I switched to WaMu. 6 years ago I did a balance tranfer. To Chase. After the the transfer, Chase doubled my general rate to something between 25% and 30%. I called. They said it was due a change to my credit history. A balance transfer. Theirs. I switched to US Bank. So against my will, corporations are slowly turning me into a smart consumer. I no longer have a cell phone.
Well, I suppose the only recourse is to hit up The Pirate Bay and download $62,000 worth of movies, music and software… at least have something to show for all that money being thrown away.
Oops.
*removes Wall-E from her computer*
That's alot of money…. poor guy.
– Lora
We live in an information age–everything moves and changes fast. I do not think that society is aware of the consequences of many of its actions. We simply cannot keep up with what goes on in the cyberspace world that we live in.
Another point to be made is that a sense of what is right, you know honesty, responsibility, integrity– all those values that were taught to many of us as children, are lost to much of mankind today. Where is that sense of "Do to others what i would like for them to do to me?"
Anyone raised the question how corporations calculate these fees and charges? Does it not make anyone wonder how the world would survive if all executives salaries had always been capped?
The reason these things incur such charges is that no-one would get away with charging their time at these rates. So, they hide their dirty, money-grabbing actions by falsly inflating the prices on such items that consumers are not always aware of full facts when purchasing. i.e. mobile phones, loans, etc etc etc
It is only CEO's, upper management and dirty rotten scoundrels that ever see the proceeds of such billing incidents, and I remind everyone of that in their misguided conceptions of right and wrong, and entitled and non-entitled billing.
I say that there is an economic revolution to come from the recent events on the worldwide marketplace, and sentiments rendered in this thread certainly elude to the civil unrest swelling.
Go Get Em ! Corporate responsibility is one of the last bastions of unchecked moral ethics, and it is time that some bodies stood up and took both responsibility, accountability, and resolve !
The Mexican mobile provider's internet cost is not $62,000. It is not $17,000. Do you think that mobile phone providers internet costs are higher than businesses or home users? They are not. They simply have a broadband connection. This connection is transmitted to the tower, then through cellular signals to the end users mobile phone. They simply have a high mark up to make a profit. For example the Mexican mobile providers internet bill could be $30 per month which includes a certain amount of included traffic (lets say 20 GB per month for sake of argument.) They are then reselling the traffic for a fantastic markup. For example $15 per MB would be an incredible profit if they are paying $30 a month for 20 GB.
You could argue they have to have the markup to pay for the infastructure of the cell phone tower, etc, but this is paid off over time, just like a mortgage on a house. The rest is pure profit. These companies should be regulated for what they can charge for internet traffic even if it's roaming.
Hi, This the first time I come here, I like your post and you have a new one follower!
Hi, This the first time I come here, I like your post and you have a new one follower!
This is crazy. And they think they can stop it.