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FCC Calls Out for "Bill Shock" Complaints

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Federal Child Care

island-guy

May 20, 2010, 5:23 PM
When did the FCC turn into the Federal Cry babies Care? Aren't we all adults that should be responsible for ourselves?
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Mentat

May 20, 2010, 6:00 PM
if we had responsibility we wouldn't be able to say "I didnt kill that guy, the gun did. If I didnt have access to a gun he would still be alive!" or "It wasnt my fault the Bar kept selling me drinks!" or (my favorite) "I am sorry I slept with all those prostitutes and gave you HIV, Honey. But I am addicted to sex and its not my fault."

The guy and his family had not problem traveling across Europe and calling friends and family to gloat about their trip. Verizon had to pay for the guys international uses so why shouldn't he have to reimburse Verizon?

Using excuses give the FCC power to control stupid stipulations like this.
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pingpong

May 20, 2010, 6:42 PM
Actually the 18k bill was a little different. What ended up happening was on their account Verizon had given them free internet access on their account so the whole time the guy's son was tethering his phone. I believe something changed on his account and he no longer had free data so that month that his son was tethering ended up charging him $18,000. It wasn't like he went to Europe and was talking on his phone for like 30 hours.
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RobbieJnn

May 20, 2010, 7:53 PM
your right! the kid did have unlimited data but tethering is different ;)
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Menno

May 20, 2010, 8:06 PM
That was poor researching on the journalist side, and further proves the stupidity of that family.

What happened is that they were under the old america's choice plan, which billed data usage on non-smartphones as minutes because the data features were few and far between. Seriously, you could get the weather and play tetris. Mobile optimized sites largely didn't exist.

This meant that if you surfed online over the weekends, it was "free" just like calling was free. this plan NEVER INCLUDED TETHERING. In fact, Tethering like this was against the TOS and it stated that you would get billed PER KB for data used if they caught you.

When they upgraded, they got the Nationwide plans (I'm assuming), which give much better roaming opti...
(continues)
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island-guy

May 21, 2010, 2:00 PM
This kid was tech savvy enough to know how to tether you know he knew full well what he was doing and the implications of it.
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ecmark00

May 20, 2010, 8:17 PM
There is a gray area that both sides tend to ignore. I am anti-big gov as the next guy, but the carriers also must step up and share the responsibility. Between mis-information and ignorant users, there is a huge gap that is left unfilled. I do not feel the FCC should regulate it, but if the carriers refuse, then they get what is coming for them.

We all know a system like this isn't implemented because it would cut into the carriers profits. A $9000 bill is ridiculous. They could have settled for $500 and still pulled a hefty profit. Im all for a company making profits, but do it fair. Don't ride on the backs of ignorant customers.
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SprintCC

May 21, 2010, 11:51 AM
How is it not fair to expect a customer to pay for the usage of their phone? Menno did an excellent job going over what happened, and how Verizon explains the changes. If the customer refused to follow the rules, he should be forced to pay the bill.

If I were in Verizon's shoes I wouldn't have offered to cut half of it. I'd offer to block data so it didn't happen again, and offer to get a payment arrangement in place for the customer to pay the $18,000 they owed. Anything else is just a gift that the customer does not deserve.

Does anyone else feel Atlas shrugging?
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