$28,000 AT&T football phone bill
p2pnet news view | TV:- An Illinois man aboard a cruise ship at the Port of Miami had time to kill so, “through some fancy web setup and a wireless card, he was able to watch about two and a half hours of a Chicago Bears game,” says the Miami New Times, going on:
“After watching his beloved Bears play, the ship took off and he did whatever it is you do on cruise ships.”
But, “When he got back home, he found a $28,067.31 cell phone bill! Seems AT&T was charging him international rates of two cents per kb. He called AT&T to straighten out that he was actually in the United States of America, but the best they could do for him was a $6,000 bill.”
However, the Chicago Sun-Times got on the case and, “Good thing you had the proof that you were still in port during the game,” it says, going on
“Team Fixer pleaded your case with AT&T, and the good news is they’ve agreed to credit your bill for $27,776.66.
“Apparently, this was some sort of freak thing where your phone was picking up a signal it shouldn’t have. After reading this, we’re going to use our wireless equipment sparingly the next time we go on vacation.”
Miami New Times – Man Charged $28K for Watching Football at Port of Miami, February 26, 2009
Chicago Sun-Times - $27,000 to watch a Bears game?!?, February 23, 2009
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February 26th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
This means he still paid over $100/hour just to watch a football game.
…Must be great to have more money than brains. (Bliss X 2!)
February 26th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
According to the article in Consumerist.com, he used his slingshot to access the game over the net.
It would be funny (actually not that funny, but sad) if the NFL got wind of this, and tried to charge him the same amount (or more) for rebroadcasting the game over the net.
Just my two cents
February 26th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Another reason to have a pre-paid cellphone. Frankly, I don’t know why we accept this kind of “use now, bill me later” service. All services which, for practical reasons operate this way, should have user-set maxima beyond which the service is discontinued automatically, and further debt is impossible. Unfortunately, sufficiently few victims occur, for this to be a non-issue for the rest of us.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Another proof that AT&T sucks as the carrier