I think AT&T is trying to screw me, can I do anything about this?

[Argo]

About a month ago I travelled outside of the country and I had my blackberry with me. The whole time the blackberry was sitting in my backpack, apparently hapily connected to their network churring through data. Today I got their bill for $472 in data charges.

I called their service and they tell me that the charges are valid. Apparently, I need to call *every time* I travel outside of the country to disable the dataservice or it will continue charging me for whatever data transer the blackberry does (automatically receiving e-mails, etc).

To me this is BS, you can't expect people to know that. It looks like a pretty shady practice - "we'll be charging you unless you call us ahead of time".

Now to my question - do I have any recourse or am I SOL? Did they get me with a small print somewhere?

 

[KLin]

Holy high frigging roaming charges Batman!!! :Q. Definitely talk to a supervisor or something about that.

 

[KLin]

http://www.arcdesignconsulting.com/iphone_horror.html

You're not the only one with that problem apparently!!! :laugh:

 

[AMDMaddness]

Why didnt you simply turn off your phone? This has been an issue with Iphone users as well.. you should really know better, But call and argue your way up to the "office of the president" they can get your bill taken care of.

Pete

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: AMDMaddness
Why didnt you simply turn off your phone?

The thought never crossed my mind. I guess the idea that your phone can cost you money even when you're not using it never crossed my mind. I'm lucky I have my blackberry configured to shutdown from 12 to 7 or my bill would've been much higher.

 

[Sphexi]

First off, it is NOT the same thing as the iphone problem. The iphone uses data all the time, not just for emails. It's a lot worse with the iphone because even voicemail is done with data, hence why they've been doing massive rerates for people effected by it, as well as came out with international data plans and have upgraded the firmware/OS with a new data roaming off/on switch.

Secondly, they are 100% valid, and the best you can hope for is a rerate. Most people don't start service with international features automatically on the account, only if you signup in a corporate store and have the highest two levels of credit does it automatically appear on your account. Otherwise, you have to either call in to request it, or add it online, after 90 days of uninterrupted (no suspensions for non-pay) service. You obviously knew that your Blackberry was setup for email/data, and knew that it was using it as you travelled. Did you seriously think that you use your phone for free outside of the country?

There's links all over the website with international roaming info, tables with various rates, even a planning center that you can use to get info on the networks and costs associated with travel in various countries. Everywhere that you go it'll cost you about $.0195/KB to use data, no matter what plan you're on. For Blackberries there is an unlimited data plan that includes international travel/roaming, but it's about $65/mth and requires you to accept a 1-year verbal contract, complete with a $175ETF to have it.

Anytime you travel outside of the country you should take at least 10 minutes to go to the website and check these things, they're no hidden by any means, they're actually very easy to find through the menus, or by simply searching for "International" in the search box. You can also go to a store, call in ahead of time, any number of ways to make sure you're all set for international roaming BEFORE you go.

Originally posted by: AMDMaddness
Why didnt you simply turn off your phone? This has been an issue with Iphone users as well.. you should really know better, But call and argue your way up to the "office of the president" they can get your bill taken care of.

Pete

Good luck with that, won't ever happen. Something this small would be dealt with in-house by whatever call-center you get ahold of, and they'd either simply deny it, and then notate that in the account so future claims for that issue would be denied as well, or offer you a rerate to a proper data plan, meaning you get some/all of the overage credited, but back-pay for that correct plan for the time you would've been using it. The latter is generally the course of action taken, unless you're constantly doing this and calling in to have them do it, in which case they'll simply deny it.

 

[zach0624]

That sucks. But the charges are valid and you are supposed to be responsable for all data you use. If you try hard enough though some customer service rep will be mericful and refund your money and just tell you to switch off data, even at&t has real people working in customer service

 

[Zugzwang152]

the iphone has an option to shut off data if you're roaming. handy feature. that silly guy with the $5k bill must have disabled it, because it's enabled by default.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
the iphone has an option to shut off data if you're roaming. handy feature. that silly guy with the $5k bill must have disabled it, because it's enabled by default.

That only came out with the update on 9/24/2007, before that there was only airplane mode.

 

[Colt45]

user error

 

[toekramp]

this happened to me while in prague, they reimbursed me