AT&T Slaps Family With a $19,370 Cell Phone Bill

Lauren 09-07-2008

A Portland family racked up nearly $20,000 on their AT&T bill, local station KPTV reported.

The Terry family said they wished they would have received some kind of warning before receiving their 200-page bill in the mail for $19,370.

In July, their son headed north to Vancouver, Canada, and used a laptop with an AirCard to send photos and e-mails back home. The bill showed he used the service 21 times, but because he was out of the country, the activity added up to thousands of dollars in charges.

The AirCard allows users to connect to e-mail, the Internet and business applications while traveling, according to AT&T's Web site. On the Terry family's bill, they were charged international fees for the service.

The Terry family said they asked an AT&T employee about the service before their son left the country. They said they were told nothing about international fees.

Dave Terry also said they were never contacted by the company to be alerted of the high fees.

"(We) have a bill that runs normally $250 to $300 for our cell phones," Terry said. "When AT&T saw the numbers getting over $1,000, I would think it's their responsibility to inform us that something was amiss because that card could have been stolen."

An AT&T representative said they're treating the matter seriously and looking into it. According to the company, they hope to have an answer for the family in the next few days.

Raven

I'm sorry but this happens way too many times becuase people too lazy or just too stupid to think. It's international usage, you know there's going to be major charges.

Hsoolien

Basically these people need to be slapped, since they never asked about international charges they cannot expect the company to volunteer that information, and there is nothing in company policy requiring them to warn about unusually high charges (unlike many credit card companies). Basically suck it up princesses.

Nina

There's always international rates, they knew damn well it did they just try to get on over on them. That's like the people still out thre claiming they didn't know 411 charges you when you call them.

hugo281

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnn! !! a $20,000 bill though, yeah international rates are a killer thought but daaaaaaaammmmnnn!!! I bet they feel like dumbasses right now lol, but how did they let it get that far, shouldn't they have checked their bill instead of waiting for AT&T to call them to tell them hey yall your bills is way fucking high!! stop emailing shit!!!

Mina

my dad would kill me.

Raven

Actually sometimes things like this are half way ligit too. I know sales people and other cell phone workers either mislead customer or accidently tell them the wrong thing and things like this happen.