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Man Downloads TV Shows and Gets a $54,000 Cell Phone Bill

A man who went on a TV show downloading spree after misunderstanding the terms of his cellphone contract has been hit with a bill for $54,000. The factory worker, 29, who fears being made bankrupt said: “I just laughed out loud. How on earth could I afford to pay that?” A loan, maybe? Santa?

Simpson

Most people know that downloading TV shows doesn’t usually cost anything when you get them using BitTorrent.

However, Ian Simpson, a 29 year old factory worker found a way to make them cost – lots. After taking out a cell phone contract which he thought included ‘unlimited’ internet use (albeit with a ‘fair use’ clause), he got some advice from a friend who showed him how to connect his cell phone to his laptop.

According to a Stewart Maclean report in the UK’s Daily Mirror, Simpson said: “My mate told me how to wire my mobile to my laptop as a modem. It meant I could download faster than on the handset and get a proper internet connection in my flat.”

However, after downloading TV shows for a month, Simpson’s service was disconnected: “I probably downloaded 20 or 30 TV shows and four albums” he said. “I assumed it’d be OK, but they cut me off. I rang up and they said I owed them nearly £30,000.”

“If I’d known it would cost so much I wouldn’t have done it” he added.

A spokesman for the cellphone company, Vodafone in the UK said: “Few customers exceed the fair usage. But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately. The rules are clearly stated. Mobile web pages use fewer megabytes. That package is not designed for large-scale downloading or computer-speed web use.”

Simpson, who claims he can only afford to rent a room in which to live, lives in hope that the company will go easy on him: “Unless they take a sensible approach I don’t think I’ll have any choice but to go bankrupt.” he said.

Luckily for him it seems that Vodafone will “try to come to some sympathetic arrangement” despite being taken unawares by “the intensity of Ian’s downloading”. Intensity. On a cell phone. What a guy.

Always check the small print ;)

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  • MrLeet

    all of this fucking shit is overprice on earth. i mean, fuck, internet should be free – it’s just bytes and shit!

    hope satellite connection will come to mass some day near future

  • lawofbob

    this guys a moron. Read your fucking contract, asehole.

  • CharlieW

    I lol’d.

  • LSD

    Usually i’d laugh my ass off and call this guy a complete idiot for not reading his contract but wtf. Its x-mas. Hope everything works out for you Ian :)

  • LMAO

    what did u expect? the guy’s a factory worker!

  • qm2003

    Using a mobile to connect to the internet FASTER ?

    How stupid is THAT ?

    What a moron.

  • Mr.IceMan

    LOL :)))

    PS: Merry X-Mas to all

  • fidge

    His picture says it all, LOL

  • Tom

    Best laugh I had all day thanks torrentfreak

  • tor

    These fucking companies shouldn’t advertise ‘unlimited’ if in fact it’s actually limited through a bs fair use policy, which is usually written ambiguously enough that the company can change it’s mind and charge whenever it wants.

  • brent3000

    Just wait till the RIAA get on him for them 4 albums he admitted to downloading…

    0wned

  • Mathias

    Read this a couple a days ago, still makes me laugh :D

  • S_

    [quote comment="247627"]Using a mobile to connect to the internet FASTER ?

    How stupid is THAT ?

    What a moron.[/quote]

    You do know that mobile internet in Europe currently runs at 7.2Mbit/s meaning it can probably be faster then some DSL and Cable services, of course this guy just used his phone, meaning unless he had a new phone he probably did not get those speeds but a few Mbit/s is not unlikely.

  • *ENiGMA*

    Oh dear, is all i can say, i feel sorry for him, then i don’t, you really should read the contract to its entirety, but then ‘tor’ got it right, they write in the small print something not to defend them from people taking the piss, but so they can fuck people like this guy who is a bit gullible and/or naive.
    Merry Christmas all, i got shaving oil, classic prezzy.
    Peace, The *ENiGMA*

  • Anonymous

    The bill got reduced to 3800.

  • Zacha

    Well… here in sweden almost every mobile contract with unlimited data says “Applies only to surfing on the mobile and not when used with computer”. (To use with computer you buy a special modem which a seperate contract).

  • SuperGeek

    I lol’d. Poor guy.

  • Matt

    What a fucking n00b. I would make the retard pay.

  • shop

    [quote comment="247673"][quote comment="247627"]Using a mobile to connect to the internet FASTER ?

    How stupid is THAT ?

    What a moron.[/quote]

    You do know that mobile internet in Europe currently runs at 7.2Mbit/s meaning it can probably be faster then some DSL and Cable services, of course this guy just used his phone, meaning unless he had a new phone he probably did not get those speeds but a few Mbit/s is not unlikely.[/quote]

    you do know the fastest internet on a mobile(3g) runs at 3.6 Mbit/sec

  • Wade

    This is sad, but the dude is an idiot.

  • twilight

    He simply chose a wrong path for downloading what he needed and thats all. You were once newbies in computers.

    I paid some time 850 Euro to my phone company for doing a similar thing. They have overpriced some kilobytes thats the problem.

    DSL is the best way to connect to the internet.

  • system

    This guy isn’t even original in his stupidity.

    [quote]A Canadian man has been shocked to receive a mobile phone bill for nearly $85,000 (£41,000).

    Piotr Staniaszek thought he could use his new phone as a modem for his computer under his $10 unlimited mobile browser plan from Bell Mobility.[/quote]

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7141935.stm

    Also:
    [quote]They said that Rachel’s mobile phone had been connected to her laptop, which was connecting to the internet[/quote]

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/x-ray/sites/allarticles/updates/6p13_troubleshooter.shtml

    ’tis the season to be retarded, fa la la la la, la la la la

  • S_

    [quote comment="247705"][quote comment="247673"][quote comment="247627"]Using a mobile to connect to the internet FASTER ?

    How stupid is THAT ?

    What a moron.[/quote]

    You do know that mobile internet in Europe currently runs at 7.2Mbit/s meaning it can probably be faster then some DSL and Cable services, of course this guy just used his phone, meaning unless he had a new phone he probably did not get those speeds but a few Mbit/s is not unlikely.[/quote]

    you do know the fastest internet on a mobile(3g) runs at 3.6 Mbit/sec[/quote]

    Latest Turbo 3G atleast in operation in europe runs at 7.2Mbit/s.

  • Johnny Falcon

    Yeah, and since the average declared speed you can get in the USA is 6Mbit/s [tho' I've gotten to 12 in burst] then this guy’s reasoning looks a bit better.

    Of course the USA lags behind EVERYONE these days. *sigh*

  • MadGoat

    You guys say “owned” to this guy, but in the meanwhile all of you are happily downloading music and movies.

    You’re a hypocrite, and you know it.

  • qm2003

    It really does NOT matter “how fast” an internet connection via mobile phone is (there are a couple of different technologies).

    What DOES matter is the “how much does it cost”.

    The answer is “insanely expensive”,
    unless you don’t have to care about the payment (politicians, drug dealers or otherwise rich people).

    If the guy had invested only 10 minutes into information gathering, he wouldn’t be fucked now.

    So, no, i don’t feel pity for him.
    Not at all.

  • Yatti

    Make it $5400 euro… He can pay monthly over few years… I don’t think can get any more reasonable lol..

    Other than that people should know using your cell as a modem = EXPENSIVE… Everywhere…. We really need to start cracking down on tele companies.. They rip us off so hardcore..

  • serrebi

    The fact that most of us download stuff is unrelated. Even if this guy stuck to browsing and downloading linux ISO’s, he’d probably still ahve a similar bill, if not the same. But hey, calling each other names is like a christmas tradition, right? Marry christmas!

  • Anonymous

    Similar thing happened to a guy in Canada, its on BBC News somewhere.

  • 321

    The company should just not charge him any thing but, that will never realistically happen unless it’s going to be a PR stunt.

    The reason is that the small print is always deceiving and is a stupid way that big companies can cheat their customers.

  • otherside

    I’m with tor…if you advertise ‘unlimited’ then deliver unlimited. otherwise, it’s limited. truth in advertising. this is what happens when the marketing goons flex their muscle. my company would never have done this cause the lawyers would have sh1t. we once said ‘guaranteed delivery for xmas’ and got pnwd by some customers. never again.

  • Dave

    This is ridiculous.
    My internet connection costs 20 euros a month for unlimmited downloading 24 ours a day, 7 days a week.

    How dare Vodafone ask such an amount for their mobile internet connection. It is a shame!

  • lellhs

    [quote comment="247737"]You guys say “owned” to this guy, but in the meanwhile all of you are happily downloading music and movies.
    [/quote]With the difference that we won’t have to pay £30,000 at the end of the month.

    [quote comment="247737"]You’re a hypocrite, and you know it.[/quote]No, you’re dumb and you don’t know it!

  • Zay

    “Fair usage” is usually what in most sensible minds is deemed to be the norm or average of what most people use. My Question is if everybodys usage increased to stupid amounts would what is deemed to be “fair usage” also increase.

    Who cares about the speed aswel. He was downloading not streaming and Telcos charge on the amount of data not the time you spend this isnt CSD.
    The Dumb Shiite should pay for it he used the data Vodafone delivered on his request and provided their service thats all they should be held accountible for- did they deliver or not?? Yes they did.

    Ian if you are so neive and were not aware of the costs why would you use the service??
    Pay you dumbass

  • fidge

    it doesn’t make any sense. If the guy only downloaded 4 albums and about thirty shows, how the hell do they work that out to £30’000? What must the price of a meg cost?

  • Zay

    Because he is using his Mobile it would have used so much data to Download everything he has to pay for the upload aswel as the download. What a stupid thing to do it would have been better if he used a Wireless card in his laptop. Thats what those cards are for and he wouldnt have to pay as much if he is on the right data plan

  • Wildclaw

    [quote comment="247884"]it doesn’t make any sense. If the guy only downloaded 4 albums and about thirty shows, how the hell do they work that out to £30’000? What must the price of a meg cost?[/quote]

    I guess because they are using penalty prices when exceeding quotas that should be considered illegal/criminal in any sane justice system.

    For example, I could sell you 5GB for $30, but for every MB you exceed those 5GB i charged you a penalty of $5. That would mean that the first 5 gigabytes costs $6/GB, but the 6th and onwards cost $5000/GB. Insane, sickening and unfortunally legal in many places.

  • Anonymous

    I feel sorry for the poor guy. Friend should have showed him how to use BT instead. And for what cause would Vodafone let this get to such scale?

  • Paco420

    I got a bill for almost 500 euros the first month I got cable internet here in Europe because of downloading movies, music, ect… When I seen the bill I instantly checked my usage and seen I had gone over my 10gig international limit.
    I brought to their attention that it only looked like international due to proxy use. Dont ask me how… but I didn’t pay anything more then 50euros that month and from their on. Only real difference I have noticed is that no matter how much I try I just cant hit 100gigz per month anymore, stuck between 50gigz and 70gigz. Basically saying they limited my internet from 8mb to 4mb but I continue to pay for 8mb (20 euro difference) I do get a garrentee that my personal information stays personal and it doesn’t matter what I download or how much bandwidth I use. The extra money I pay per month is well worth my security.

    As for dude… well… sucks to be him but hopefully it being the holidays they will be nice or sympathetic towards him.

    As for everyone being an ass with their shit comments, Fuck you and I hope you get ass raped.

  • nb

    wildclaw: That’s the way it is in Canada.

  • Paco420

    [quote comment="247932"]I feel sorry for the poor guy. Friend should have showed him how to use BT instead. And for what cause would Vodafone let this get to such scale?[/quote]

    Its a major corporation… they don’t monitor accounts unless they are underage accounts or specifically asked to do such.

    Exact comment from a member of Vodafone “Too many accounts to monitor, not to mention we don’t get payed to do such.”

  • Rocks

    Here in Sweden I pay about 35 Euro for my 100Mbit connection, unlimited of course. My mobile phone company charges 1 euro for 24 hours of mobile internet use if I want to surf with my mobile phone.

    I dont understand how fake-unlimited companies can even survive in other countries. They would be dead here.

  • Dicks

    You guys are dicks. Who the fuck reads their contract. NOBODY thats who. Also it is possible that he doesn’t have the internet at his apartment (aka flat), so getting a cell with that capability and being able to use it a a modem for his laptop sounds reasonable. Until the people make their own wireless mesh networks the corporations will have control. Wireless mesh networks, make one in your community today!!

  • Joe

    He shouldn’t have to pay anything, IMO. It’s clearly advertised as unlimited. Fine print be damned, it’s marketed and sold as unlimited.

    The cell companies do this shit on purpose, obviously. Even Visa will call you if you suddenly make lots of purchases that’s not normal for your usage, but these companies don’t because that’s the whole plan.

    I once had a cell phone stolen, and didn’t realize it until the next morning. I called, and the fuck that stole it already charged $800 worth of shit (I didn’t even know it was possible to do that.) Even though I was a member of T-Mobile for three years, and never went over the 300 minute plan once, they told me, and I quote “Well, that’s your problem. Sucks to be you.”

  • hassan

    tommorow I am going to hit the mall and spend 50,000$ buying junk. when the send me the bills I m gona laugh out loud and say how on earth could i afford to pay that?

  • The Scourge

    The fact that many people are using uneducated foul language to make fun of this guy proves one thing. You are stupider than him. The point in this article is that the Cell Phone companies are overcharging customers extortion fees for things that hardly cost 1 CENT!!! The fact this guy is bringing it to the attention of the public, should be commended! Because most people are pathetic & lazy and would be stupid enough to pay the fee, rather than take a stand. Truth hurts eh?

  • jabber_wocky

    [quote comment="247750"]Make it $5400 euro… He can pay monthly over few years… I don’t think can get any more reasonable lol..

    Other than that people should know using your cell as a modem = EXPENSIVE… Everywhere…. We really need to start cracking down on tele companies.. They rip us off so hardcore..[/quote]

    They rip us off for a service that we volunteer to pay for? How’s that? I went the first 34 years of my life without a cell phone, and could do the same for the next 34, if I so desired. Get a grip. Want != need.

  • someone

    I’m amazed how many folks here are saying the guy should pay the $54,000.00.

    Personally I wouldn’t want to purchase service from a company where such charges could get built up to the point where I wouldn’t find out until the monthly billing.

    The ISP should obviously cap the service, or including a billing warning via phone/email within a day the cap has been exceeded so that the customer knows what they’re getting into before it goes too far.

    I’d think any metered service that bills monthly should be forced to send warnings within 24 hours if the metering exceeds some reasonable limit.

    If you ask me, the n00bs are the cell company. Stuff like this just shouldn’t happen.. it’s a PR nightmare and creates needless suffering.

    Most reasonable website providers send warnings when your website is getting too much traffic (ie. if your website hits the big time on slashdot or some highly trafficked blog) and may even cap/disable the site for a period. This way you can investigate the cause.

    On the internet, it’s too easy to rack up charges due to unexpected traffic.

    This guy could have accidentally left a high bandwidth auto-reloading webpage containing streaming video open and stowed for weeks. Even someone who knows what they’re doing could make such a ‘mistake’.

    ISPs and phone co’s keep track of the metered data they bill for, so there’s no excuse they can’t keep an eye on traffic overuse and send warnings as soon as overuse is happening.

    Greed or not, no one wins if this kind of stuff is allowed to happen.

  • Jan

    See it here in CZ:
    The “average” cost for regular call is about 0,1 Euro per minute, which is 60k bytes of data, which is some 1,6 Eur/MB. WAP GPRS is 20 Eur/MB. It means that for data connection operators charge more then 10x more for technically almost same connection. Thats what I call ripping. Remember that front page of some magazine can easily have 1MB. Connection through Internet APN is much cheaper that through WAP APN (which is usually preconfigured by operator……)

    Jan

  • Jason

    Damn…after only downloading 20-30 shows and 4 albums he gets booted for violating the fair use clause? Comcast didn’t bitch at me for that until I sucked up 400.489 gigs of bandwidth and made it into the top 1/10th percentile out of 17 million subscribers last month. Hell, even then they gave me a second chance. Now I try to keep it under 6 gigs per day. Yeah, I have waaaaaaaaay too much porn.

  • Hafiz Dhanani

    Wow, that’s unbelievably. Crazy, but interesting. You have to feel sorry for the guy!

  • localzuk

    I think this would be a good testcase for a court case. If he wins then it sorts out this whole ‘unlimited’ plans thing and he won’t be in debt. If he loses, then it sorts out this whole ‘unlimited plans’ thing and he’s still in debt, but by a little more. If he doesn’t let it go to court he still is financially screwed.

  • Anonymous

    [quote comment="247615"]all of this fucking shit is overprice on earth. i mean, fuck, internet should be free – it’s just bytes and shit!

    hope satellite connection will come to mass some day near future[/quote]

    Satellite internet is a waste, it uses the dish for download, but uploads via phone. Fiber is the way.

  • Laz

    Jason

    That 400.489 gigs is more than all the data generated every month on the world (it’s around 350 gigs)

  • hypercrypt

    Laz, I used to generate about 10 to 15GB of traffic a day, that’s more than 400GB a month! Where do you get that number from?

  • Zera

    ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’

  • Lame-0

    You tards that download tons of shit need a life or a woman, your probably the same mental cases’s that leave your pc and all the other shit running all the time down-loading and sucking up electricity but drive a Prius to save the earth….

  • John

    Read the fucking contract before you do such things
    You have to know what the connection costs and what is included

  • PiticStyle

    LOL :) Stupid man!

  • RobInMI61

    I usually cheer for the little guy against corporate greed, but this guy was smart enough to figure out how (with some instruction I understand) to connect his laptop to his cell to download large media files. He knowingly used his service… the fact that he didn’t read his contract was his mistake. It seems his carrier is lessening the charge substantially, but he should be held responsible to pay the lesser amount without option. It was his choice.

  • Anonymous

    [quote comment="247615"]all of this fucking shit is overprice on earth. i mean, fuck, internet should be free – it’s just bytes and shit!

    hope satellite connection will come to mass some day near future[/quote]

    Okay, you spend $$ on an infrastructure and give it to me for nothing.

    I do think trading standards should bban the use of anything suggesting infinite or unlimited useless as that is impossible.

  • Anonymous

    [quote comment="248023"]Jason

    That 400.489 gigs is more than all the data generated every month on the world (it’s around 350 gigs)[/quote]

    HAHAHAHA

    retard

  • nasagov

    Why would they go easy on stupidity.
    Take away a 0 and the amount becomes reasonable. Disconnect his service and charge him 5400. Fuck stupid people.

  • D. McMillan

    I say the guy should sue the company for false advertisement. Unlimited is unlimited. There is no star beside it in the dictionary there should be no start aloud beside it on front of the contract, or on an advertisement.

  • John

    > What a fucking n00b. I would make the retard pay.

    Typical response from a self-important asshole. These contracts written by corporate lawyers full of sneakies and gotchas that your average Joe has no hope of understanding. Not everyone has an IT degree. If Vodaphone marketed this as unlimited, they should be held to their word.

    As for you @Matt, I’ll pray 2008 is a year of tragedy and misery for you. Karma is a bitch.

  • Dave

    He bought the service (whether THE SERVICE was unfair or not doesn’t matter.)

    He signed a contract binding him to the service. If he didn’t read it, that’s his problem.

    He used the service.

    He should pay for the service.

    /thread

  • afitz

    [quote comment="247988"]Comcast didn’t bitch at me for that until I sucked up 400.489 gigs of bandwidth and made it into the top 1/10th percentile out of 17 million subscribers last month. Hell, even then they gave me a second chance.[/quote]

    Comcast was happy with me when I kept it under 300GB a month. All genealogical data, of course… :-)

  • Jayson Barclay

    I feel bad for this poor dope. Being told he has free internet, then yanking the rug out from under him with some “Fair Use” BS that’s hidden deep inside a contract nobody ever reads(and they know nobody reads it).
    The guy was just downloading some music (probably Mike and the Mechanics or maybe something from the Alan parsons project) and some tv episodes (Likely the Jeffersons and maybe Facts of Life). Now who hasn’t downloaded music illegally? I know I steal music and movies all the time. It’s my little vice, a bit of digital gluttony. But in my defense, I do it anonymously so it’s okay. Plus these are songs and movies I wasn’t going to buy anyways, but if they are free who cares? Anyways, I say give this poor guy a break.

  • Johnny T

    When I have a question about something I read in an advertisement, before I sign up for a service, you know what I do? I CALL the fucking company and I ASK my question. Is that so hard for some of these people to do before they go off and do something incredibly stupid??? CALL and ASK before you fuck yourself over.

  • Tommy

    The government has released secrets about Area51. Take a look at the article here, and DIGG.

    http://digg.com/politics/Government_Reveals_The_Secrets_Behind_Area_51_AMAZING

  • Anonymous

    with all this outrageous cell phone bills coming up with the new features of cellphones. They should have a feature that limits your bill to a certain degree almost like a prepaid plan. So I can put a cap on my cell phone bill of $200 and when I reach that they just cut of my service for the month. It’s just that cellphone companies can be really shady…

  • ryan

    read the terms of your contract idiot. unlimited on your cell phone doesn’t extent to your laptop. and try starting small instead of racking up a huge bill, duhh

  • timtimes

    The issue isn’t necessarily limited to whether the service was unlimited, or how it was used It’s the fact the telcos can get away with acting ignorant on this issue of OUTRAGEOUS overcharging forever. Here’s where I see their weakness. The real legal damage will be when one of these overcharged folks get a good lawyer and DON’T settle out-of-court.

    In the US, most cellular companies (perhaps all but prepaid?) do a credit check. Bad credit or no credit history results in a high security deposit for some folks to receive service. It’s a big deal here in Mississippi where many people with bad or little credit can’t afford to put a thousand dollar deposit for a cellphone, so they get prepaid phones with higher per minute charges. It’s a poor man’s phone tax. The point is that the phone company should know in advance that this rube can’t afford such a phone bill. Commmon sense (here’s where the judge or jury gets payback) wouuld dicate a company policy that prevented such incidents in the first place. Somewhere around the thousand dollar mark, unless you’re a client with a usual calling habit that high (and they’d know that too, so high use-high value customers wouldn’t be affected) they just FREEZE the account. If only for the purpose of FRAUD control. The phone company can easily program qualifiers on individual or groups of accounts to prevent this type of thing from happening. Scared customers agree to pay a percentage of the extortion instead of giving it the proper LEGAL test so sorely needed I do not believe the telephone company behavior or contract will withstand the scrutiny of the ordinary man standards of reasonableness. If, during the trial, it is found through subpoenas of phone company records that they have known about this and continued the practice in a predatory manner could add further complications for them.
    I have had the phone company try to overcharge me illegally and unethically back during the dial-up era. Back right after bulletin board (BBS) era, AOL could still charge by the minute for modem service. About the time modems hit 56k, competition had moved the dial-up market to provide UNLIMITED dial-up for about twenty bucks a month. One of the major telcos offered such a deal but shipped a PER MINUTE version of their internet setup software(remember back when you had to INSTALL THE INTERNET–LOL). I wouldn’t have realized it was ENTIRELY their fault until the REPLACEMENT installation CD they sent me DID THE SAME THING! In the meantime I had a couple hundred dollars worth of dial-up charges to debate with them because the initial “mistake” wasn’t noticed until….drum roll….THE FIRST BILL., though when I got that replacement cd and it was also an installation trap to their higher priced per minute service (they were still preying off noobs and grandma’s who were willing to pay thru the nose for per minute billing – Grandma used to get some HELLA BILLS when the grandkids visited) they finally relented and wrote off the bill. I had SEVEN pages of notes on the customer service experience because every time I got transferred to a different person I had to start over with the story. Conclusions: Guy might be a dumbass noob, but we’re all dumbass noobs somewhere sometime in our lives and with capitalist wolves like these Telcos at every turn, we’ve got to look out for each other. There’s no justice, it’s just us.
    Enjoy

  • konayuki28

    oh that sucks…. well that man learned his lesson now.

  • Networker

    [quote comment="247615"]all of this fucking shit is overprice on earth. i mean, fuck, internet should be free – it’s just bytes and shit!

    hope satellite connection will come to mass some day near future[/quote]

    LOL!! You serious? I charge ISP’s $200+/Hour to help them engineer networks. Internet will never be free. I need to actually raise my rates because I’m working 40/hours a week now.

  • gimp

    There is a lot of misunderstanding about the telecommunications industry in these comments…

    Excess data charges are there for a reason (these services are not as cheap to provide as you probably think). Services are generally bundled into a package that includes a set amount of data, calls, etc. at a certain price. This package is usually bought from a wholesaler who passes on excess fees to the service provider.

    This customer could have at any time enquired about his data limit and/or excess charges by calling customer service. In most cases, he would have been given a document showing all the charges for his service, and this will also be available on the service provider’s website or available from them by fax or mail at request.

    I don’t know what the laws are in this person’s country, but in Australia there are rules about protecting a customer from an ‘unexpectedly high’ bill. We’d be obliged to suspend the service and/or contact the customer if the customer incurred extremely high charges. In Australia this customer could go straight to the ombudsman and get the charges reduced significantly (which is probably why the customer’s bill was reduced to about 10%).

    It’s tricky with mobile data, as it’s intended for casual phone-based use, NOT using the phone as a modem. In fact, in Australia I believe service providers state clearly that the phone is not to be used as a modem.

    As for the wrongly advertised ‘unlimited’ I couldn’t agree more – it is disgraceful, but unfortunately generally legal. Remember unlimited refers to the data you can download, not the cost (or the speed). The industry needs more regulation to ensure that ‘unlimited’ means ‘unlimited without speed shaping or extra charges’. The misnaming of plans as unlimited costs the telcos in upset customers and frustrated staff as well as misleading customers. Unfortunately it is a race to get the customer to sign up on a contract – and advertising is all about deception.

    As for not reading the contract, that is an assinine defence. The customer is given the contract and asked to agree to it. It’s true that most customers don’t read them, but that is the customer’s responsibility, not the service provider’s. If the customer doesn’t understand the contract they should not agree to it. Accepting a contract and then complaining after the fact that you didn’t understand it or didn’t read it is just plain stupid.

  • sss

    HeLLo

  • John

    “it’s just bytes and shit!”

    LOL

  • Michael

    [quote comment="247709"]He simply chose a wrong path for downloading what he needed and thats all. You were once newbies in computers.

    I paid some time 850 Euro to my phone company for doing a similar thing. They have overpriced some kilobytes thats the problem.

    DSL is the best way to connect to the internet.[/quote]

    Eh, the problem with DSL is the speed depends solely upon where you live in relation to the nearest respective ISP. Cable/Fiber is a much better way to connect to the internet, a lot faster (at least for me, i get 8 Mb/s down where as i would get 2 Mb/s down with DSL)

  • GoldenGnu

    Get a company that where you pay for your talk/data transfer in advance
    Than you’ll never use money you don’t have… They’ll simply close your phone when you’ve used your prepaid money…

    In Denmark it even cost less, if you pay in advance, as the company never has to collect money from people who don’t have them… (which is an expense most telephone companies have, I suspect). also, they’ll get the interest of the money even before they are used..

    It’s a smart trick for both the company and the costumer…

  • hiro81

    Similar event occured recently in Canada with Bell Mobility offering “free internet access” but neglecting to mention associated fees. $30,000 bill or something in the neighborhood if I’m recalling correctly, they reduced the bill signifigantly after the press got wind of it anyways. It was on Fark… too lazy to go find the link currently, but I find it interesting to see this kind of dirty advertising duping people around the globe.

  • me

    what a moron, I hope he has to pay every cent of it just because he’s so damn stupid

  • bvd

    wow, many annoying and rude people here on this comment board…
    ‘i would make the retard pay’ ‘what a noob’ ‘what a moron’ and the shits and the fucks…
    and i’m just gonna say
    ‘you fucking mediocre shitholes, i hope the world pisses on you too,it probably did, that’s why you are so annoying to other people’
    go to college and learn to think and be respectful..i did, i have my masters degree in psychology and almost my second in culture management.
    i hope i don’t have to deal with mediocre douchebags like most of you guys here…

    merry christmas

    b*

  • Tentakel

    Hey guys,

    firstly, about the speed: You don’t know where this guy is living. If he lives in a rural area without DSL access then he might be damn right. Then the cell phone was probably the fastest option.

    Secondly, yes it is stupid not to read (or understand) a contract before signing it. BUT, why are these assholes allowed to advertise with UNLIMITED traffic when in fact it is very limited? IMO that’s fraud, despite this bullshit ‘fair use’ clause. They should be sued for deceptive advertisement, ordered to pay back any money they have stolen with that ‘fair use’ BS from any people, and even made to pay a huge penalty fine on top, so that they finally learn how to advertise honestly…

  • NoN_AliVe

    Omg.. Poor guy.. He got fucked. =/
    Propper fucked…
    I hope it works out good for him, ‘cuz 53k is a hell of a lot money. Good luck Ian. :P

  • Paul

    Wow, half of the commenters here appear dumber than the guy in the story.
    That’s impressive

  • MKx

    I think companies that advertising this ‘unlimited’ crap should be sued! If what they meant is, say 3 Gb limit, they should say that and not use unlimited, becuase you know, some other companies ‘unlimited’ can be 5 Gb.

  • Zay

    [quote comment="248245"]There is a lot of misunderstanding about the telecommunications industry in these comments…

    Excess data charges are there for a reason (these services are not as cheap to provide as you probably think). Services are generally bundled into a package that includes a set amount of data, calls, etc. at a certain price. This package is usually bought from a wholesaler who passes on excess fees to the service provider.

    This customer could have at any time enquired about his data limit and/or excess charges by calling customer service. In most cases, he would have been given a document showing all the charges for his service, and this will also be available on the service provider’s website or available from them by fax or mail at request.

    I don’t know what the laws are in this person’s country, but in Australia there are rules about protecting a customer from an ‘unexpectedly high’ bill. We’d be obliged to suspend the service and/or contact the customer if the customer incurred extremely high charges. In Australia this customer could go straight to the ombudsman and get the charges reduced significantly (which is probably why the customer’s bill was reduced to about 10%).

    It’s tricky with mobile data, as it’s intended for casual phone-based use, NOT using the phone as a modem. In fact, in Australia I believe service providers state clearly that the phone is not to be used as a modem.

    As for the wrongly advertised ‘unlimited’ I couldn’t agree more – it is disgraceful, but unfortunately generally legal. Remember unlimited refers to the data you can download, not the cost (or the speed). The industry needs more regulation to ensure that ‘unlimited’ means ‘unlimited without speed shaping or extra charges’. The misnaming of plans as unlimited costs the telcos in upset customers and frustrated staff as well as misleading customers. Unfortunately it is a race to get the customer to sign up on a contract – and advertising is all about deception.

    As for not reading the contract, that is an assinine defence. The customer is given the contract and asked to agree to it. It’s true that most customers don’t read them, but that is the customer’s responsibility, not the service provider’s. If the customer doesn’t understand the contract they should not agree to it. Accepting a contract and then complaining after the fact that you didn’t understand it or didn’t read it is just plain stupid.[/quote]

    I couldnt agree more with you. Its not the telcos fault he doesnt read the contract and does not understand that it is unlimited in the amount of data downloaded you just have too have the wallet to match.

    People must also realise that unless the service is provided by the telco the charges are delayed as the Telco has to wait on the other service provider to provide all the costs that the Cust raked up on their site.

    As I said in my previous comment the Telco provided the service.
    Mostlikely it was unsupported as Vodafone has wireless options for your laptop and convey that you should not use your ph as a modem as that is not one of the main uses of most phones even though MANUFACTURERS not Telcos make it capable of doing so.

    Unless you all have worked in the Telco industry you are all as neive as this guy as you do not fully understand the way things really work.

  • TelecosAreShit

    vodashite and ther unfair bullshit rip off interSuck access is WAAAyY overpriced for the crap that is..

    i hope this guy takes this to press and makes a big fool out of these stupid cellphone companies

  • John

    I think

    STUPID NOOBs should PAY

  • hohoho

    what a moron

  • WaWaWa

    what a fuckin moron.

  • The 3.6 Mbits/s and 7.2Mbit/s are only achievable when using HSDPA supported mobile, as the maximum conventional speed of normal 3G supported devices is 384Kbit/s

    [quote comment="247705"][quote comment="247673"][quote comment="247627"]Using a mobile to connect to the internet FASTER ?

    How stupid is THAT ?

    What a moron.[/quote]

    You do know that mobile internet in Europe currently runs at 7.2Mbit/s meaning it can probably be faster then some DSL and Cable services, of course this guy just used his phone, meaning unless he had a new phone he probably did not get those speeds but a few Mbit/s is not unlikely.[/quote]

    you do know the fastest internet on a mobile(3g) runs at 3.6 Mbit/sec[/quote]

  • Anonymous

    The 3.6 Mbits/s and 7.2Mbit/s are only achievable when using HSDPA supported mobile, as the maximum conventional speed of normal 3G supported devices is 384Kbit/s

  • nave

    [quote comment="247661"]These fucking companies shouldn’t advertise ‘unlimited’ if in fact it’s actually limited through a bs fair use policy, which is usually written ambiguously enough that the company can change it’s mind and charge whenever it wants.[/quote]

    Yea. Everyone is criticizing the guy for being dumb. Probably, but the point is that most people are dumb and these companies use these tactics to dominate these types of people. $54,000 for some downloading? I don’t give a shit what the fine print says… that’s fucking corruption.

  • Cedric Browne

    This just underlines the blatent GREED of the mobile telephone companies.
    Mobile telephone operators are clearly needing an investigation from the Office of Fare Trading into their price fixing. How could a few hours of internet access possible cost so much?
    Sheer greed. Totally unacceptable.

  • I

    [quote comment="248841"]what a fuckin moron.[/quote]

    I’m sure he’s just as smart as you, the problem with your comments is that when you screw up (and you will) no one will be around to call you a fucking moron.

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 – is in work.

  • anonymous coward

    [quote comment="247662"]Just wait till the RIAA get on him for them 4 albums he admitted to downloading…

    0wned[/quote]
    4 albums off of Jamendo?

  • anonymous coward

    That poor bastard. The phone company should just slap him on the back of the hand and remove the charges. If he does it again then charge him for the removed charges.

  • markie

    These days unlimited does not mean no limit. Personaly I think unlimited should mean no limit at all. If somthing isn’t unlimited then it is limited. It is as simple as that. So when you see the word unlimited in a contract there is always a catch.

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  • John

    Who would ever expect a $54K phone bill? Let’s weight the options here. This month I could,

    Purchase a decent sports car ..or.. Download porn

    Travel the world in style ..or.. Watch a season of Friends

    Put a down payment on a home in a hot market ..or.. Share some files and send e-mail

    Wether this is a stupid mistake or deliberate excess nobody would ever in their right mind expect a $54K phone bill.

    Mobile Internet may be more expensive than conventional connections but how would you go about getting a bill of such size with another provider? I foolishly downloaded all binary newsgroups for a few days a few years ago and was promptly dropped by my ISP. There were some long distances phone charges to their abuse department but no change on the monthly bill.

    As noted earlier this is predatory. That the provider would at all consider this a reasonable practice is inhuman.

    Threshold monitoring is built into every system we are familiar with – computers or otherwise; some examples include disk quotas and speed limits. Pay as you go cell providers prove the technology exists in this area as well.

    Whether it be a time limit, price limit, or data size limit – something should be in place to prevent this unreasonable situation from happening. It’s a gross oversight that allows an outrageous bill of $54K, and the provider should bear that responsibility.

    This however is part of a broader issue that billing practices allow people to unexpectedly accumulate mass debts. It seems to be an issue with any new communication service. We have issue with mobile technology today, general Internet connectivity previously (though there are still limits with many packages), and telephone packages in the past (there are still places in the US it’s unclear when you’re making a long distance call!).

    It is my suspicion that this comes from the interoperability of many smaller providers, but we must demand some form of protection for the end consumer. Threshold limiting has been around forever, let’s demand protection for each other with mobile and whatever new technology comes along.

  • bob

    British people are retarded.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, and I thought my $800 phone bill for using Internet while overseas in an obscure country was a lot.

  • haha

    serves him right, you should use your home computer for that not a cell phone , what a idiot

    down with i phone and all like products, there should only be one device for each service and less trouble

  • Luke

    I had a problem with a phone company once. i had a new phone line installed, and ADSL installed the charge just for the ADSL at the time was over £200 to install, along with £100 for the phone line.

    along with the high cost of line rental, and ISP charges.

    i phoned every week. trying to pay my bill before it got out of hand, it took them over 5 months to bill me, this wasnt only me, it was all their new ADSL customers.

    i was given 14days to pay about £500/or so. i called on day one. they refused to extend my payment terms, i spoke to the manager, explained my history, they admitted they had problems, but still wanted payment within 14days.

    after i said i think i better speak to the inhouse laywer at my work, they soon gave me more time to pay.

    i had the momney set aside all the time in my account, but thats not the point. i refused to be bullied.

  • u235sentinel

    It’s perfectly understandable. Unlimited now means limited. Why not just own up to what the customer REALLY paid for rather than deal with this junk? I had the same thing with my Internet over Comcast. Cept no large bill… just terminated my account for a year.

    Will I be back with Comcast?

    You’re kidding right? Crappy service and abusive management? For get it!

    http://comcastissue.blogspot.com

  • Just another human being

    That guy who ran up a huge bill, supports Bush I think, maybe smarter than Bush too ;>)

  • haha

    exactly RETARD he is look at him

  • cellphonedestroysbraintissue

    I don’t use cellphone
    and they are gonna cause cancer in your brain or tumor
    becareful don’t use it!!!
    its your health you are destroying
    it uses microwave technology
    cellphone = kills your braincell as well
    makes your really really dumb
    not in an instant but eventually the more you use it…
    one day you will become retarded

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  • mongler

    thnx for the revelation d”b

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  • goobimama

    Fuck em’. Fuck em’. Fuck em’ to death. One should just go around with a bazooka and smoke these bastards out.

  • what’s right is right

    I remembered when ppl had unexpected excess phone bills from 900 numbers.

    All you did was explain what happened (your kid, girlfriend, etc made the 900 number) and that you didn’t know anything about it. The phone company would just take that portion of the bill out. Of course usually for the first offense.

    I think this kind of case should be handled similarly.

  • FUCKOFF

    Ya what the fuck …. FUCK YOU AND YOU CELL PHONE COMPANYS DICK FUCKS

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