AT&T charging Mythbuster's Adam Savage $11k for websurfing in Canada

[CPA]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
AT&T will settle this quickly with him.

What do you think they care about more? $11,000 or a bad PR campaign led by a celebrity?

that dude is hardly a celebrity. Yes, they have a cool show, but it's not like 99% of America even knows who they guy is.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: venkman
In this day and age, when he is probably as connected and tech savy as anyone, he didn't know about international data roaming? It's his own damn fault and I hope AT&T milks him for every dime.

Yup.

 

[arcenite]

And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.

 

[sandorski]

ridiculous.

 

[lupi]

should find the story of where one of them tried to charge a guy like 60k for downloading a movie while at a mexican resort.

 

[Exterous]

Next on Mythbuster's:
Will AT&T rape you on data and roaming charges in Canada?
Jamie: I think we should do some small scale testing first
Adam: I think we should just ramp this up to full scale
*Flys to Canada*
Adam: I just got raped by AT&T! Am I missing an eyebrow?
CONFIRMED!

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: arcenite

And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.

Doesn't seem too tech savy if he doesn't know the difference between bits and Bytes, little b, Big B.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: jpeyton
AT&T will settle this quickly with him.

What do you think they care about more? $11,000 or a bad PR campaign led by a celebrity?

that dude is hardly a celebrity. Yes, they have a cool show, but it's not like 99% of America even knows who they guy is.

He should do a show on it.

I'd like to see the Death Star response to this price gouging they keep getting away with.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: arcenite

And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.

Doesn't seem too tech savy if he doesn't know the difference between bits and Bytes, little b, Big B.

Not many people do anymore old schooler.

 

[Queasy]

Updates from Adam's twitter:

They're claiming I uploaded/downloaded 9 million kilobytes (9 gigs) while in Canada. Frakking impossible.

Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn't my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem.

There's movement! Apparently I'll be getting a call soon... Maybe even phone service!

Today the tweeps became twoops. Just got off the phone with AT&T and they've taken care of everything to my great satisfaction.#twitterrules

AT&T guy on the phone with me:" apparently you've got enough Twitter followers to get our attention." me: "50,000". Him: "wow".

So yeah, there must have been something wrong on AT&T's end if they thought he downloaded 9GBs of data.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: arcenite

And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh.

Doesn't seem too tech savy if he doesn't know the difference between bits and Bytes, little b, Big B.

Even people here mess that up. 99% of people here list their internet speed in mbps. millibits per second. Right.

Still, I think NASA downloads data from Mars at a rate less than that.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Updates from Adam's twitter:

They're claiming I uploaded/downloaded 9 million kilobytes (9 gigs) while in Canada. Frakking impossible.

Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn't my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem.

There's movement! Apparently I'll be getting a call soon... Maybe even phone service!

Today the tweeps became twoops. Just got off the phone with AT&T and they've taken care of everything to my great satisfaction.#twitterrules

AT&T guy on the phone with me:" apparently you've got enough Twitter followers to get our attention." me: "50,000". Him: "wow".

So yeah, there must have been something wrong on AT&T's end if they thought he downloaded 9GBs of data.

ROFL

 

[Modelworks]

They should do an episode on how much c4 it takes to convert a modem into dot sized particles.

 

[FelixDeCat]

He shouldve switched to Tmobile. Affordable, reliable and reasonable data plans Ive had since 2003.

 

[Slick5150]

AT&T is why I no longer have an iPhone and now have a Palm Pre w/ Sprint. Its ridiculous to me that an unlimited data plan still charges you for text messages (which should be free for everyone in the first place)

 

[Sea Moose]

who is AT&T (im not from the usa, is that a phone company like optus or somthing?)

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: Sea Moose
who is AT&T (im not from the usa, is that a phone company like optus or somthing?)

Yup. Formerly the king of long distance, does wireless as well (bought out Cingular a few years back to extend their customer base beyond what was pretty pathetic)

In regards to Adam - he should still be charged if he truly used some amount. I don't think he used $11K worth, but whatever he did use he should be charged though

 

[XZeroII]

This happened at our company. The service was connecting automatically for over a year without any user intervention. Even their software said it was not connected, yet it was. When one of our people went to Mexico, some software on her computer that automatically synchronizes data over the internet transferred a gigabyte of data over the course of 4 days. We got a bill for $22,000. Obviously we asked her about it and she claimed that she never connected to the service because she knew it would cost money. After investigation, we discovered that it was connected even though the software said it wasn't. After numerous talks with AT&T, they finally gave us an ultimatum and said that we either pay their 'reduced' $1,000 or we pay the entire $22,000. We had to choose the $1,000 but we cancelled everything AT&T at our company. That $1,000 cost them a lot of money moving forward.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

You guys are fucking ridiculous. It's one thing if he did NOT use 9 GB and was charged for it, but if you've got some kind of laptop data solution, IT'S YOUR FUCKING JOB TO MONITOR YOUR USAGE WHEN YOU'RE ROAMING. The roaming rates aren't hidden, they're advertised, and whenever I travel I keep my AT&T SIM at home and get a # wherever I'm going. I'm in the West Bank right now, using a Cellcom IL SIM card and paying reasonable rates, because I'm not a fucking idiot and I know AT&T is expensive as fuck over here.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: venkman
In this day and age, when he is probably as connected and tech savy as anyone, he didn't know about international data roaming? It's his own damn fault and I hope AT&T milks him for every dime.

But.. $11,000?

Don't you think that's a bit excessive? Did he go through terabytes of bandwidth on his phone?

:roll:

I'd be furious too.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: venkman
In this day and age, when he is probably as connected and tech savy as anyone, he didn't know about international data roaming? It's his own damn fault and I hope AT&T milks him for every dime.

But.. $11,000?

Don't you think that's a bit excessive? Did he go through terabytes of bandwidth on his phone?

:roll:

I'd be furious too.

at $0.015/kiB (kilobytes, proper abbreviation?) that's 700 MB. The rate is advertised, it's HIS FAULT, unless of course it isn't his fault and he didn't use the bandwidth. Otherwise, IT'S HIS FAULT.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: dphantom
You gotta be kidding. He should know about roaming fees. I often visit an area in Michigan right across from the Canadian border. In certain places, my signal comes from a Canadian cell tower. I am very careful not to use my phone until I get within range of a US cell tower.

Not much sympathy from me I'm afraid.

But it's freakin' 2009, why would it cost that much anywhere? I could maybe see if you're bouncing it off a satellite from Everest base camp, but updating your Facebook in Winnipeg shouldn't cost as much as a small car.

Why do text messages cost so much? There's really no justification for some of the stuff cellular providers charge for, but oh well.

Ridiculous data rates aside, though, I agree that it's the customer's responsibility to be aware of the charges and use the service appropriately. Adam screwed up, he's lucky AT&T was willing to work with him on this.