Boy Racks Up Almost $22,000 in Cell Phone Charges

[Skillet]

http://smallbusiness.aol.com/mobile...most-22000-in-cell-phone/20091215142909990001

It's every phone user's nightmare, except Ted Estarija, of Hayward, California, wasn't dreaming. His 13-year-old son ran up a cell phone bill totaling $21,917.



The problem? Estarija's Verizon wireless plan didn't cover data usage, and he was charged by the megabyte -- specifically, 1.4 million kilobytes of data. Estarija knew that his phone bill would go up when he added his son to their family plan -- he figured an additional $50 and even had the phone company restrict his son's calls and texts. But he hadn't considered downloads, and that's where his son racked up the charges.



Making matters worse, Estarija recently lost his job, and from what a USA Today report from several days ago indicates, his son isn't some louse who was downloading and uncaring about it. Estarija told a TV station that he was worried about his son, who was devastated over the bill and what the stress of paying over $21,000 to the phone company was going to do to his father. Fortunately, there was soon a happy ending to Estarija's story. As the Associated Press reported, Verizon agreed to refund the entire bill.



But there are several lessons here for entrepreneurs -- and, well, everyone really.



Make sure you understand your cell phone plan. As in, really, really understand it. Not every company will be so understanding (of course, Verizon probably recognized it had a whopper of negative press coming if it didn't do something fast). If you have employees on your cell phone, realize that they, like Estarija's son, may not just talk and text -- they may download. The safest way to go is to obviously have an unlimited plan that covers everything.



If you're a business with a service that has the potential to destroy a customer's life, make it very obvious to that customer what can happen. Something went wrong, clearly, when Estarija signed up for his account. We'll probably never know what happened, unless there was a conversation recorded between the customer and a Verizon representative, but it seems obvious that somewhere in educating their consumers, the phone company might want to explain better what happens if you download, say, 200 songs in a month.



If you do destroy your customer's life, consider giving all or most of their money back. You may get some positive national press about it, especially in these economic-challenged times... and, hey, it is the holidays.

 

[Crusader]

Lesson here is, don't trust kids on contract phones!

 

[Skillet]

Or.. Pay the extra 10 dollars for an unlimited data plan.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Wow that sucks.. I have an unlimited plan.. I can text and talk all I want.

 

[Skillet]

Wow that sucks.. I have an unlimited plan.. I can text and talk all I want.

Me too. Who'd want to pay per kilobyte of data? I'd be broke. I've downloaded movies onto my phone because 3g is decent speed. I'd be out a quarter million bucks a movie or so.

 

[IcarusForde]

We have crappy mobile net in NZ... it sucks. :



Add to the fact that an unlimited internet plan here in NZ is non existant, and then you're shot really. Best bet: get a couple of terabytes of external hard drive when you're away on holiday, and use the internet there while you torrent everything in sight.

 

[UCMENOMOR]

That is a large debt, lol he knew the phone bill was going to go up well I bet he did not know it would go up that much.

 

[Santa]

hmmm.....I wonder if he got his phone taken away?