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Mythbuster Adam Savage Tweets His Way Out of $11,000 Bill

abcnews.go.com — When the host of the Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" learned he had rung up $11,000 in charges from AT&T while in Canada, he headed straight for Twitter. The culprit, he tweeted, was the USB modem plugged into his laptop that was running on a wireless plan suitable for the U.S., but not for Canada.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 30, 2009

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  • digitalArtform, on 06/30/2009, -0/+826So the moral is: if somebody wrongs you, be famous.
  • Vaiper, on 06/30/2009, -0/+625Pfft! Let me know when a normal person fights ATT and wins.
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -5/+527I love how carriers allow you to shoot yourself in the foot so easily and then tell you that you should have read the fine print on page 112 section 10 of the user guide.
  • Astrad, on 06/30/2009, -0/+373Sadly, if he were the average Joe they likely wouldn't have cancelled it. They were only nervous of the bad publicity someone in his position could bring.
  • BudIcer, on 06/30/2009, -15/+339A few notes:

    1. Love Mythbusters
    2. ***** AT&T
    3. Wtf is a 'twoop'?
    4. ***** Twitter

    Any takers?
  • Shogi, on 06/30/2009, -2/+325Bill busted.
  • larryjr88, on 06/30/2009, -6/+216AT&T has been the biggest bunch of crooks since the '70s.
  • Buckwyld, on 06/30/2009, -0/+153I would have never gotten away with this.
  • XkenX87, on 06/30/2009, -8/+1619 Gigs of porn thats what.
  • diggerado, on 06/30/2009, -4/+137Exactly and a ton of people would support them saying stupid things like it's his fault for not understanding what he was agreeing to. BS. These companies know all the tricks and use them against us. If they had known who he was, they probably would have adjusted the bill so as not to draw attention to their dirty tactics.
  • sfcaptainrob, on 06/30/2009, -9/+130I blame Canada.
  • sockpuppets, on 06/30/2009, -2/+106The first rule of page 112 section 10 of the user guide club is to not talk about page 112 section 10 of the user guide club.
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -1/+90It actually solves all of life's problems.

    Just look at Magic Johnson, his famous prevents HIV from becoming AIDS.
  • blitzwing85, on 06/30/2009, -7/+93I think the media hasn't been paying nearly enough attention to Twitter lately.
  • TobiasParker, on 06/30/2009, -0/+70Like this one time they charged me $.002 instead of .002 cents.
  • TheEternal, on 06/30/2009, -1/+70There should really be a point where the phone companies say: "Okay, it's gone over $x,000, maybe we should alert them before this gets out of control." They won't, but it would be a good PR practice.
  • Choobie, on 06/30/2009, -9/+70I thought it was fairly common knowledge that when your plan is "nationwide no-roaming, no-long distance" that you will be hit hard with international fees (calling to or from). Sure, $11,000 is ridiculous (as is $62,000 or $17,000), but if you know you are traveling outside of your plan's area then you really should look up what rates you are going to be paying.

    *brace for bury*
  • EskNerd, on 06/30/2009, -1/+593. If a 'tweep' is a Twitter Peep, then a 'twoop' is a Twitter Troop. (Actually, by that logic, a Twitter Poop.)

    1-2,4. Agreed.
  • commiecat, on 06/30/2009, -2/+59"Mythbuster Andrew Savage recently faced an $11,000 bill from AT&T for using a wireless modem to surf the Web in Canada."

    How do you get his name right in the article, but wrong under the picture?
  • TheVirus, on 06/30/2009, -0/+56If only you had some meddling kids.
  • bkm72, on 06/30/2009, -0/+54I reject your reality, and substitute my own......oooh, boobies
  • wild, on 06/30/2009, -2/+529 Gigs of Kari porn...
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -1/+42Eh ***** you buddy!
  • TobiasParker, on 06/30/2009, -2/+40Please edit in sarcasm tags, quick or i will lose all faith in humanity.

  • centran, on 06/30/2009, -1/+36Not entirely true. They would have lowered it to about half and then say that's all they can do and to pay up.
  • Vaiper, on 06/30/2009, -1/+36Wait a tick...did you just call yourself a d-bag?
  • inigomntoya, on 06/30/2009, -4/+39Whats the difference?
  • Jinkley, on 06/30/2009, -1/+34And that stupid dog!
  • chriswastaken, on 10/27/2009, -2/+34And Michael Jackson, his famous prevents . . . . . .

    oh.
  • oxymoron69, on 06/30/2009, -0/+32Don't blame us, blame Rogers Communications.
  • bobthethird, on 06/30/2009, -5/+37if i were AT&T i wouldn't want the Mythbusters tearing apart all the questionable things my company does on national television either. wise move AT&T, just consider yourself lucky it wan't The Hyneman.... he would have driven a rocket car straight att's ass!!!
  • benderillo, on 06/30/2009, -4/+36Damn Canadians, with all their beady little eyes, and flapping heads so full of lies.
  • seinman, on 06/30/2009, -0/+31Sprint does just that. They cap overage fees at either $75 or $150 (I think it depends on your credit score or how long you've been with them or something).

    I recently switched to a new plan and they forgot to keep unlimited data on my smartphone. I didn't notice until I got the bill, but it was only $75 extra. It would have been thousands of dollars based on their 3 cents per KB charges (I think I used 150 MB that month, which is around $4500) had they not capped it.

    Of course I called to complain, and they took the charge off and fixed the unlimited data issue. Clearly there are better providers out there that care about their customers more than AT&T.
  • sockpuppets, on 06/30/2009, -7/+37AT&T raped my kitten- it cannot be trusted.
  • RatatRatR, on 06/30/2009, -2/+30Especially Digg. You just hardly ever see any mention of Twitter on here. Come on, guys! More stories about Twitter!
  • Imissnaptime, on 06/30/2009, -0/+27chin up guys! just stay HIV positive and everything will work out!
  • darkyplasma, on 06/30/2009, -1/+27Rooby rooby roo!
  • shadowloo, on 06/30/2009, -1/+26http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCJ3Oz5JVKs

    "it's obviously a difference in opinion" lol my favorite line
  • benderillo, on 06/30/2009, -3/+27I'm not your buddy, pal.
  • kuwan, on 06/30/2009, -1/+25"The problem is that for various reasons, American wireless companies are pretty much hated by the rest of the world..."

    They're hated by everyone here too, so make that the _entire_ world.
  • kuwan, on 06/30/2009, -0/+23I call ***** on the warnings. AT&T shut off his phone shortly after his trip to Canada so obviously they could have sent him a warning on his phone, but they didn't. It really should be a crime that they're allowed to rack up such outrageous bills without any warning or communication to the customer.
  • mnemy, on 06/30/2009, -2/+25For all you guys blaming the phone company for such an unfair and ridiculous bill, you should know more of the details. I've talked to my friend who is a Verizon Sales Manager about the absurdity of cases like these, and he told me that Verizon actually LOSES money. The problem is that for various reasons, American wireless companies are pretty much hated by the rest of the world (he went into some details, and their hatred of our carriers seemed rather justified). As a result, they charge our carriers insane prices to use their networks. Verizon actually subsidizes a significant chunk of the cost for running on a foreign network, just to try to remain competitive.

    So yes, it's the fault of our carriers for alienating the rest of the world badly enough for them to want to gouge us as revenge, but no, our carriers aren't using crossing the boarder as a fickle excuse to financially rape us.

    P.S. Savage is lucky he's famous. AT&T must have eaten the cost for his mistake in the name of PR. I guarantee that they wouldn't pay $11k themselves for their user's own mistake if it was someone who couldn't damage their reputation.
  • jtscira, on 06/30/2009, -0/+23ATT & other companies should put in place limits to where your data will cut off after 50 bucks above your average bill.

    And come 11k for 9GB transfter...........
  • benderillo, on 06/30/2009, -1/+23@cjwright79

    It's from South Park, you should know.
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -3/+24So you don't think that AT&T intentionally hides the information in hopes of profiting from ignorance?
  • gaqua, on 06/30/2009, -1/+22Yeah, ruining your credit rating for $53 is pretty much the opposite of a "Gotcha".
  • themastersb, on 06/30/2009, -5/+26That's actually the local rate that he was charged in Canada. That's just how badly overpriced Internet in Canada is.
  • inactive, on 06/30/2009, -8/+29Funny, he got out of it because he's famous - but conversely because he's famous he would have been able to afford it anyway. The rich get richer.
  • lews001, on 06/30/2009, -0/+20I had a similar problem when I went on a cruise. AT&T actually did send me a txt letting me know there was a lot of international activity and even let me retroactively setup an international data plan for the month I was gone. In the end I paid them about 150$ instead of 800$ and some change.
  • Nenja, on 06/30/2009, -1/+21child molestation convictions
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