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121 Comments
- Reliant, on 10/10/2007, -5/+64Unless there was a reason for "no communication" on her vacation, why couldn't she radio telephone AT&T and tell them the phone was stolen and request it to be locked until she got back?
- mishabear, on 10/10/2007, -7/+65I love this idiot in the comments:
"If you can afford to charter a sailboat in the Virgin Islands then you can certainly afford to just forget about a $450 billing problem."
Gee, maybe she got it as a GIFT? Maybe she SAVED for 6 years to do this? Maybe her boyfriend took her along? There are so many reasons why she might not be able to afford a $450 loss.
I think it sucks that AT&T does everything it can to make life difficult. Yes, she should have found a means to call AT&T even if the boat had to wait another 30 minutes. I suspect there is a lot she could have or should have done but didn't. It'll cost her $300 for not doing it. You know she will next time! - starfisch, on 10/10/2007, -2/+38I think we all know the real lesson here: if you're going to look at porn on a stolen cellphone, don't waste your time with softcore.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+33You have to look at it from their side of things, i don't know how many times i have "customers" tell me " i didn't do "insert here" and it happens so much, so many people claim things are stolen, or they didn't do it. That unfortunately the ones telling the truth get put in the same category as everyone else.
What if someone gets a phone, runs the bill up, and then a week later says it was stolen. ? Can't expect them to credit everyone that says "it wasn't me" - evanrousso, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22Maybe I am just playing devils advocate, but if your phone gets stolen it is your responsibility to report it. That fact that this person was unable to is not at&t's fault There needs to be some personal responsibility and logical reasoning involved in some of these consumerist articles. The consumerist always seem to be like "COMPANY X CHARGES CUSTOMER FOR RENDERED SERVICES!!!!". Plus it is pretty clear to me that the consumerist is less about consumer empowerment and more about trashing the big evil profit making corporations for charging customers for products and services.
Everytime I go to the consumerist the front page is always filled with overblown stories about individual retail employees not giving a ***** about their $7.50 an hour (should they?). There are very few stories that aren't:
A. About The Geek Squad, telecoms, and wal-mart
B. Ranting about company policies "after-the-fact" instead of properly educating readers about these policies so they can make a better purchase decision.
and.
C. Unfinished customer testimonials that are void of personal responsibility. - MellerTime, on 10/10/2007, -1/+23I totally agree. It takes 5 minutes to call them up and tell them it was stolen. They have no way of verifying it wasn't you that downloaded that porn and that you're not really just trying to get out of the bill. She was lazy, didn't report it stolen, and this is her hard lesson. Get over it.
- merwin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14When I worked for T-Mobile Customer Care (then known as Voicestream), I got so many calls to the tune of "My daughter couldn't possibly have used that many minutes/text messages! I want a credit!"
- LethalAmbition, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13Plus, even if she could afford to just write it off doesn't mean she shouldn't fight for it. It is 450 dollars, not 30.
- jmpeagle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7a neighbor's house, the company she borrowed the boat from, a family member's phone, whoever she was on a trip's with phone, etc... I doubt her phone was stolen but she instead accidentally broke it and is just trying to get out of the charges because what she did makes no sense.
- Dolomite, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6just hit "0". it takes you to a live operator and they can direct your call.
- ggofthejungle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Correct. How do you prove to AT&T that you didn't download those movies yourself ? AT&T sucks, but in this case you should have called them earlier.
- rnreekez, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7It has and always will be this way. You have protection when a credit card is stolen but NEVER when a cellphone is stolen. It is not the company's responsibilty to handle the bill because you can't keep track of your own equipment. I hate that ***** website. Why do people feel entitled to special treatment because they had a bad experience? You had your phone stolen, life sucks, they are you wireless provider not your daddy, act like a big girl.
- Depthfunction, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6What kind of loser seeks out (and pays for) soft core porn? If you are going to download anything with a stolen phone, why not go for the hard core stuff?
- nogahide, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Maybe her "wingman" paid her way (hoping to get lucky). She deserves to pay the bill for what she put her Platonic boyfriend through :-)
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6here we go again, digg at&t bashing.
i swear, if the iphone was on verizon, digg would be bashing it for being on the mathmatically impaired service, or if the iphone was on sprint, people would be bitching about their disasterous customer service.
IT WAS HER DAMN FAULT she lost it and didn't think to contact at&t by radio telephone or SOMETHING, even if it cost her $5.00 a minute it would've been worth it! I don't leave expensive ***** around for people to steal. She should've PASSWORD LOCKED it!!! - grumpyrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5pay phone?
- Ceadda, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Because we all know there is absolutely no software on any cellphone that provides a locking feature and lets you make sure that people cant... oh, wait. Hrm.. maybe this is why the contract, salesman, manual, and half the other stuff you read tell you to LOCK YOUR DAMN PHONE.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7Agreed! Stupid emo brat "oh noes, I didn't report it stolen and now the thief did something with it, oh noes, I will make the internets hate AT&T, whinewhine".
I bet she'd cry if she got a red car but wanted a blue one... - Dolomite, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6the little slut probably scammed her way onto the boat just like she is trying to scam AT&T to pay for her porn addiction.
- nullmind, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6I've worked for Vesta (the company that is outsourced to handle billing for AT&T and gets calls about iPhones) and it's very difficult to get through to a CSR without your phone. If she was on a vacation and tried to call us, she would have had to jump through a ***** load of hoops without her phone (because the IVR is very redundant and most of the time directs people to Customer Service, which is usually the wrong place and they must start all over again)
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5well maybe she shouldn't have lost her damn phone. or, like others have said, used a radio telephone to call at&t and have them deactivate it.
it's not at&t's fault at all. - bigtomrodney, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Yeah. I am sick of people who won't help themselves and then when they don't get their way scream 'it's so unfair'. Seriously. Your phone is gone for a week and you didn't think to report it? This is common knowledge. If your credit card was stolen would you have left it a week to report that stolen too?
Idiot. - roberto_deneero, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3If she had an iPhone she would have had an unlimited download plan and not been charged one red cent. Lesson learned: iPhone = Optimal Mobile Porn Appliance.
- RickFu, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I used to work for Cingular (same regime, different name) but it was 3 years ago and policies change there on a daily basis, but they used to at least give an adjustment for 1 week for such situations. It's assumed that you will notice your phone missing after 7 days (or less). But that was the absolute limit and only after escalating (usually, asking for a manager). But again, this may not be the current policy.
It's true that she should have locked her phone, but how many of us do? Not very many. And, yes, she should have reported it missing as soon as she knew. That IS a screw up, but it's hard for the company to say that she didn't report it immediately.
I think she should keep trying for an adjustment to her bill. Eventually she will get a useful rep. There are some (I was one) who would correct customer's bills regardless of how long it will take on the call (you're penalized if it takes too long) or how many corrections you've made already that month (you cost too much to ATT if you adjust people's bills even when it's the company's fault...and you will be terminated for it).
I would also like to add that just before I left Cing, I was advised that we were not to point out and correct invalid charges on a client's bill unless the client pointed it out specifically. For example, if a client called about incorrect SMS billing and we saw roaming charges that were wrong, we could get "corrective action" for pointing that out. It felt dirty. Especially when those roaming charges were the big problem on the bill.
And you guys that a bitchin' about "another iPhone story," this isn't one. Thanks for looking like an ass. - Jonsey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Didn't say anything about iPhone...
- kcap122, on 10/10/2007, -6/+9i think AT&T would be wise to accept a $450 loss of revenue, because she would certainly stick with them after that, and probably praise AT&T to her friends for letting her off such a huge bill when she did something wrong. One year's contract alone is what, $50 a month? That's $600 in revenue over a year that they will lose if she doesn't resubscribe. Customer service is important here.
- awa64, on 10/10/2007, -0/+31) She didn't know that the phone was stolen until she got on the boat.
2) She was unable to place any phone calls until she got back home because the boat didn't have a phone on it, was out of cell service, etc.
3) She called AT&T as soon as she got back.
So whyfore do you choose to blame her? - aazn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3When you lose things, do you instantly have a sense that tells you "Oh no, I've lost something?"
No. You go to look for it and assume you misplaced it for about a couple days, then you realize that you ***** lost it. - myfanwy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+6and? why didn't she report it? it's her own dumb fault, she's responsible for it and all that happens on the contract till she tells them otherwise. idiot.
to the submitter: you don't have to report every item that has 'iphone' in the title, you know. oh, wait, this is digg - it's in the t & c that you must submit all stories relating to apple - thunderer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3That'd be a rather awkward conversation...
Person: Hello?
ATT: We've been seeing some unusual activity on your cell phone. Mainly threesomes. - PopcornDave, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3What kind of loser watches porn on a 2 1/2" screen?
- nogami, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3My credit card company will phone me to verify any "unusual" purchases outside my normal spending habits. They obviously have some decent software that tracks spending trends and flags anything out of the ordinary for confirmation. Seems odd that cell phone companies don't have the same sort of systems to protect their customers. Maybe it's easier to just stick the customers with the bill instead of trying to preemptively solve the problem.
- Dolomite, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4yeah, and can you imagine how many more friends they could make if they forgive everyone else who runs up huge bills and don't want to pay?
- ultrahombre, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Every part of this we all foresaw exept the softcore porn. Somebodies thinkin diffrent.
- anarchyx34, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3It was a Motorola RAZR and the pr0n was purchased through AT&T's video download service.
- jackcall, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3There is no iphone involved in this story, please wait for the next story about phones to rant because you can't afford an iPhone.
- Ricapar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Porn on larger screens probably made the guy feel smaller than he already is.
- Jonsey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2A cellphone company in Canada (Rogers Wireless) had the same policy as AT&T up until approx a year ago. There was someone who lost their phone (failed to report it) and had someone wrack up $1000s in roaming and long distance charges. She ended up taking it to court and won (despite offers to have it waived without court).
Rogers now will credit any usage after a phone is lost or stolen up to a reasonable amount then after that the fraud department will get involved and investigate the usage first. - quazywabbit, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4I am all for someone being able to sue a company, but call action suits don't help the customer, instead they give most of the money to the lawyers and the customers still get screwed and many times are left with coupons that can be used to purchase other products that company offers.
- anarchyx34, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I think it sucks to be in that situation whether or not it was her fault, but how's this for a hypothetical situation? Say she was hit by a car and a passer-by picked up her cellphone off the street and made off with it. Then suppose he racked up a $2000 bill while she spent a month in the hospital in a coma. I wonder if AT&T would make an exception then?
- merwin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Besides, the bitpim website says it's for CDMA phones. The iphone is GSM, and is most definitely not supported.
- merwin, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3What if you need your porn fix on-the-go?
- shakestheclown, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This is an absolute travesty!
Stop supporting soft core porn. Jesus, the last thing we need is Debbie Does Dallas Softly, Romancing the Bone [under the sheets], or the Sperminator [edited for USA channel] - craftyguy, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5Unfortunately Chingular outlawed class-action suits from their customers.
Thank you, come again. - magus_melchior, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Although I agree with your sentiments, spamming every comment in support of AT&T in this manner is excessively annoying.
- TaeBoX, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I work for a credit card company. Some people expect a credit, and thinking making their payment is doing you a favor.
- jinu123nyc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2This is probably going to be buried but if YOU had your phone stolen right before you sailed off into the middle of nowhere (where cellphone towers DON'T exist), I'm pretty sure you wouldn't blame yourself for not calling AT&T to cancel the service.
- aazn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2When you lose things, do you instantly have a sense that tells you "Oh no, I've lost something?"
No. You go to look for it and assume you misplaced it for about a couple days, then you realize that you ***** lost it. -
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