Teen used 1.3 GB of data on phone without unlimited plan

I think this kid needs a lot more help than an account suspension.

Hmm... 1.34GB. Sounds like a typical DVD->XviD rip. :-)

Originally posted by tatsh:

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I think this kid needs a lot more help than an account suspension.

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sounds like the teen needs a pre paid phone.that way no bills.the only reason im on prepaid is i can't afford a $20000 phone bill or a $500 phone bill.

Sounds like the teen needs to learn to be responsible.

this sort of thing isn't uncommon. i don't even know why it is newsworthy. i see this happening all the time since i work in customer service for one of the major wireless companies. it is extremely rare that the carrier would make someone pay for excessive domestic usage for this type of situation. actually i have not yet heard of an instance where someone was made to pay up (they do go after you to some extent for international pay per use though).

when you get new lines or add an existing lines to a group, pay per use data and such are added automatically if there is no data feature present. most kids wouldn't think they weren't supposed to do data transfer if mom or dad just gave them the phone and didn't say anything. the first thing they would do is start playing around with the features. there isn't really anything to do with who is at fault because i seriously doubt the guy was told the new line would have pay per use data but on the same note his other lines probably had it but didn't use it so it wasn't anything to worry about until now.

Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.

I bet the poor sucker went "Hey! You can access Youtube with this thing!" and downhill from that by not knowing/caring about data costs.

Originally posted by Mez:

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Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.

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Originally posted by Mez:

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Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.

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Umm, instead of taking that attitude, why not have your carrier disable data usage on his line? Or better yet, allow him to add a data plan that he pays for. If you have a smartphone, it's designed for more than calls and txt messages. No smartphone, no need for any kind of data access, block it.

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The dad got lucky... Like really lucky. One priest in my country under Rogers Mobile used up similar bandwidth on his phone, and ended up being sued by Rogers Inc and Rogers won... The priest had to pay all of it which was around $30,000 bill. Normally being sued for owing that kind of $ is popular in the states, no offense to anyone out there but it is. Let this be a lesson learn, don't give your kids a cell, make them pay for it and learn.

It's not like the phone tells you you don't have a data plan. It just warns you that you're going online and that charges *might* apply. This is more likely a case of ignorance than willfull misuse.

When I got my first phone my $50 cell bill was ~$130 because I downloaded phone updates and a crappy version of Galaga. I didn't have a data plan, so I just figured I was downloading it off the carrier's system and data charges wouldn't apply.

Seriously...if I don't have it on my plan...don't f'ing let the phone do it and charge some outrageous amount. Fortunately, I didn't do that much in my first month and learned my lesson relatively painlessly (yeah an extra $80 for about 212k of downloads really sucked, but /shrug).

Originally posted by IguanaC64:

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It's not like the phone tells you you don't have a data plan. It just warns you that you're going online and that charges *might* apply. This is more likely a case of ignorance than willfull misuse.

When I got my first phone my $50 cell bill was ~$130 because I downloaded phone updates and a crappy version of Galaga. I didn't have a data plan, so I just figured I was downloading it off the carrier's system and data charges wouldn't apply.

Seriously...if I don't have it on my plan...don't f'ing let the phone do it and charge some outrageous amount. Fortunately, I didn't do that much in my first month and learned my lesson relatively painlessly (yeah an extra $80 for about 212k of downloads really sucked, but /shrug).

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Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire amount, and the teen has had his account suspended (by his father).

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Luckily for the teen and his father Verizon said they would be crediting the account the entire amount, and the teen has had his account suspended (by his father).

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Nice. :)

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Amazing! but why would a 13 yr old have a phone on a PLAN anyway?! that's insane..

As a parent of 2 teenage boys, teens will be teens or kids will be kids.They will DO anything even though you say no.This are companies being greedy.It happened to me before.The first thing i told ATT is NO internet on my plan and guess what? After $800 bill they did not take it off.After arguing with them, it(the internet) disappeared from my plan.After 19 months, it came back again last November.I was told that i am using datas again which i thought i don't have anymore.They told me that their system automatically bring it back to life for some reason that most of us the consumers don't know anything about.So I told them that they have the best technology and they don't even have an ON and OFF switch to turn off my internet data plan. What is so hard about turning the switch to OFF?Now i have to call them again....

Originally posted by FrostRose:

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I bet the poor sucker went "Hey! You can access Youtube with this thing!" and downhill from that by not knowing/caring about data costs.

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Originally posted by Mez:

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Typical teenage aditude. His parents were really stupid to open up that door. Our son that is not on a pre paid plan knows he is dead if he uses the internet at all from his phone. He got it so he could call home without us going broke. Our younger kids have prepaid.

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Umm, instead of taking that attitude, why not have your carrier disable data usage on his line? Or better yet, allow him to add a data plan that he pays for. If you have a smartphone, it's designed for more than calls and txt messages. No smartphone, no need for any kind of data access, block it.

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