What is Digg?196 Comments
- peestandingup, on 12/25/2007, -3/+110A good phone company would have perhaps contacted the customer, oh, around the $1,000 mark.
- dunderballer, on 12/25/2007, -6/+97It absolutely stuns me that the mobile carriers would ever send a bill out that large- They are guaranteeing themselves bad publicity that will far outweigh the cost that it took to provide the bandwidth. They should cap charges at like $500/month/line or something like that. It is also lame that most carriers charge additional fees to tether a modem to a PC wven when the subscribers have unlimited data plans. .
- matx, on 12/25/2007, -5/+65A phone company providing unlimited downloads! That sounds too good to be true!
- drjekelmrhyde, on 12/25/2007, -9/+62He downloaded from Torrents he's lucky the MPAA is not after him
- chris9902, on 12/25/2007, -0/+46he's from the UK. The MPAA mean nothing to us.
- cr3ative, on 12/25/2007, -6/+48I'm on the same Vodafone contract - it states Unlimited Mobile Web.
Mobile web, sure - it is fairly unlimited as it compresses data. 1000 web pages is about 0.5mb on the plan.
You get 120mb a month maximum. TV shows don't compress so well. The 120mb limit is clearly stated, it's not some airy-fairy "fair use" thing which is hidden, it's in black and white.
This man was a fool. - adolfojp, on 12/25/2007, -2/+31Redefining the word "unlimited" to boost your mobile phone business must be defined as fraud.
- Nougat, on 12/25/2007, -2/+30This is why I don't bother getting a cell broadband card. They get to define how I use the "unlimited" service, and they get to make the vague definition specific *after* I've used the service.
That, and I'm a cheap ass. - MScrip, on 12/25/2007, -0/+26That's a nice story... but the phone company is still fooling people with the word "unlimited." You went from a 250MB/month plan to a 3GB/month plan, that's what really happened. The word "unlimited" should never be used at all.
- thechr0nic, on 12/25/2007, -1/+25I guess ill try not to complain about the ~$250 (cell phones + cable internet) that I pay each month.
are there any Guinness records for cell phone bills? - itsameericle, on 12/25/2007, -1/+25They seem to be so civil over there in Europe. The tone of the whole situation seemed....human. I like it because I think it contrasts distinctly to the consumer experience in the U.S. Then again, I'm probably wrong about both arenas? Reply with objections?
- pegisys, on 12/25/2007, -2/+26That doesn't sound unlimited though. Shouldn't that be considered false advertising
- chris9902, on 12/25/2007, -1/+22"Motion Picture Association of America"
the clues in the name. - parkamark, on 12/25/2007, -3/+23I use a Vodafone USB 3G modem for work. It was originally on a 250MB/month plan, with each 1Mb over this costing £1 extra on top of the monthly fee. After realising that usage on it was exceeding this on a regular basis, I phoned them up to switch it to "unlimited".
Them: "No problem at all, we are doing a deal just now where we can keep the monthly cost the same but extend your contract by 6 months, moving you to unlimited."
Me: "Great, I'll go with that then."
*put on hold*
Them: "there you go sir, all done for you - is there anything else I can help with you today?"
Me: "Yes, this unlimited package isn't really unlimited is it? What is your fair usage policy?"
Them: "3Gb/month, we won't charge you extra if you go over this by a small amount, but if usage is persistently above this, we reserve the right to charge at £1 per Mb".
Me: "Great, thanks for your help."
My point here is – it wouldn’t have taken more than 5 seconds for them to just quickly inform me on the phone about this – but at no point where they even hinting on doing this You, as the customer, have to double check and probe to find out. I find this really quite shocking as, the only reason I asked was because I knew there was one and needed to know roughly what it was. But anyone else, who is not so communications savvy, wouldn’t have had a clue.
I guess that’s why “small print” exists eh? - pegisys, on 12/25/2007, -0/+18or just cut him off when he passed the limit
- leexy, on 12/25/2007, -1/+19I dugg you up, but you clearly don't know what a company is after.
- squeevey, on 12/25/2007, -2/+20"Fair Use" != "intended use". I pay for unlimited data, and I find it quite FAIR to download what I want, how much I want, when I want. Quit advertising unlimited amounts if you can't use it unlimited amounts. Using vague terms such as "fair use" and "reasonable amount" is not a tangible value that people can directly define. As long as they define gray areas like this, there will be problems.
- browwiw, on 12/25/2007, -3/+20***** rapidshare.
- sum33t, on 12/25/2007, -3/+17YA RLY
- sum33t, on 12/25/2007, -0/+13Its so stupid how they're allowed to say unlimited when it really isnt. They should be forced to say something like "unlimited up until 3gb" lol
- TurboBeard, on 12/25/2007, -2/+15You're a dick.
- inactive, on 12/25/2007, -0/+13That is *****, he paid the 5 bucks a month for unlimited internet, he gets unlimited internet. And he used what he paid for.
- localzuk, on 12/25/2007, -1/+14We need a court case over here to sort out this whole 'unlimited downloads' crap. It's either unlimited, or its limited - they can't say one and mean the other.
- colincornaby, on 12/25/2007, -3/+15Well, the bills are sent out automatically, so I doubt they even knew this went out... To be fair, ATT calls me thought when something weird happens with my bill.
- slaystench, on 12/25/2007, -1/+12They should have a spending limit like Sprint does. It actually saved me from having a huge ass bill a few months back.
- zoom1928, on 12/25/2007, -1/+12Your session has expired, please refresh the page before commenting.
- thechr0nic, on 12/25/2007, -1/+11in other news, man forgets to bring his 40x magnifying glass to search the fine print of contract.
- wedgemartin, on 12/25/2007, -0/+10That's why I only download midget porn. Smaller images, smaller bills etc.
- Mejogid, on 12/25/2007, -1/+11Where in god's name did you pull that figure from? On second thought, it's probably best you don't answer that...
- Uranium118, on 12/25/2007, -0/+10Normal people don't have $50k to give a phone company, they might as well settle for a "reasonable" amount or they get nothing anyway.
- gharding, on 12/25/2007, -0/+9My credit card company does it. I spend more than $5k in a day or my spending habits change, they call and say "Hey, can you confirm these charges?" Seems like it'd make sense, since cellphones get stolen pretty often.
- schmons, on 12/25/2007, -2/+11ummm it says in the article that he owed "nearly £30,000"
- cr3ative, on 12/25/2007, -1/+10Bartering isn't dead in the UK. I got 6 months off my mobile contract by bartering. I'm not sure what it's like in the US, but it's pretty much accepted that you can always get a lower price than is on the ticket in the UK.
- inactive, on 12/25/2007, -2/+11On a scale of stupidity of 1-10, I'd say you're about a 28.
- nitroburn, on 12/25/2007, -1/+9While ignorance is no defense, the freaking cellphone companies need to have accounts flagged at $500 max and then give a call to the customer to verify they know what they are doing. That or apply credit limits to accounts that don't have millionaire owners.
- inactive, on 12/25/2007, -3/+11out of 200 countries you can only think of 40 makes the other guys point even more valid.
- inactive, on 12/26/2007, -0/+8Unlimited = limit , So we should all start companies and claim product/service X is unlimited for a cheap price, when really it has a limit and the customer gets screwed, apparently we can all get away with changing what the word unlimited means.
- bejayel, on 12/26/2007, -0/+7you paid for throughput, not bandwidth. The terms are not interchangable.
- drjones78, on 12/25/2007, -0/+7Any smart company that does smart business would cap service. Why on earth would you provide $54,000 of upfront service to someone when they dont have the means to pay it? The telecom is gonna lose money on this, and its their own fault.
- gharding, on 12/25/2007, -0/+6Maybe because it's not relevant at all.
- inactive, on 12/25/2007, -7/+13dude...accept the fact that you are on a US website. AS such, most posts are going to be geared to US viewpoints. if you don't like it, start a new website primarily aimed at European users.
- Stevo23, on 12/25/2007, -3/+9Water and electricity are consumable goods. Bandwidth is more akin to a renewable resource. Sure, if you hog a lot of bandwidth, it slows down other people using the service at the same time, but once you stop downloading, it's not like that bandwidth is gone forever.
- shotmonkey, on 12/25/2007, -0/+6It sounds very like something I saw not long ago about a bill for a similar amount. The amount turned out to be the account number of the individual.
- Nougat, on 12/25/2007, -3/+9Oh come on. You know as well as I do that the agreement is essentially, "You have unlimitied access, as long as you don't use it too much, and we'll decide whether you're using it too much."
- skyshock1, on 12/25/2007, -5/+11No, and it really boils down to the education level of the average US citizen. We have piss-poor schooling here when compared to the rest of the world, and thus we get a sub-par workforce with odious social skills.
- colincornaby, on 12/25/2007, -2/+7How so? Some companies probably easily run up mutli thousand dollar cell phone bills.
- gharding, on 12/25/2007, -2/+7Generally companies sign up for business accounts. I imagine it'd be pretty trivial to just filter personal accounts.
- MScrip, on 12/25/2007, -0/+5Phone companies and ISPs have to buy bandwidth too. The internet isn't as "free" as you think. Renewable resource? They don't make windmills and solar panels for free bandwidth.
- Mononuclear, on 12/25/2007, -2/+7There was one that was like 3 trillion once. That is the highest I have ever heard of.
- CryptiniteDemon, on 12/26/2007, -1/+6How about the cell companies be honest and quit defining terms by their own logic and stick to the dictionary meanings? I mean if I write, "You may not kill people*" And then in the fine print write out "Use of the word 'not' is used in the context of "assuredly"" then it's complete *****. If something is unlimited, then it should be unlimited by ***** definition, not some random cap someone pulls out of their ass. Otherwise, IT'S NOT ***** UNLIMITED!!!!!!!! They shouldn't be able to get away with it. Asterisks don't absolve definitions goddammit.
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