Florida man’s trip overseas ends in sticker shock over $143,000 phone bill
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- Опубліковано 15 кві 2024
- Floridian Rene Remund and his wife toured Switzerland last September. But when they got home, their cell phone bill had jumped higher than the Swiss Alps. Remund and his wife said they travel frequently and always notify their cell phone carrier before they leave the United States. In this case, Rene said he visited a T-Mobile store to share his travel plan. He's also been a T-Mobile customer for nearly 30 years. “They said you’re covered. Whatever that meant. You're covered,” Rene said.
contacting the media was better than hiring the attorney
Technically it was his attorney who called the media so I mean I guess he did get it resolved lol
Yes. Nowadays in situations like this, oh yes.
$2500 vs $143k. No brainer.
Try again🙄
Once the media puts it out there, attorney's will be licking their lips from all over
$143,000 for 10GB of roaming data. Sounds reasonable in 1990.
I find this randomly recommended video funny as I type this comment using wifi at my hotel room in Tokyo that I traveled to by train from the airport, with the help of Google Maps and an eSIM with 10GB of (pretty fast) data for $17 instead of using T-Mobile’s free unlimited 256Kbps data that I didn’t know came with my plan until they texted me about it after I landed.
You mean 1909.
I'm sure it wasn't just data. It was also calls.
probably his original 30 year old plan lol
Exactly
Note to self: don't call a lawyer for legal action. Call a news reporter.
Only when its a company that isnt paying or opening the News Then your on your own
My neighbor was being overcharged rent & electricity &fees by our landlord. State notified landlord about violating TX law but landlord ignored it & continued overcharging. Neighbor contacted our local news station in TX. The station ignored his complaint and did positive story on landlord. Nothing about Tx finding landlord/property breaking law. Now the neighbor is being evicted because he couldn't pay erroneous charges. Property still breaking the law.
most companies are more afraid of the media than lawyers, cuz even if they lose the case and have to pay like 500k or even a million, they really don't care, they have the money, BUT if some big media group reveals their scam, they will lose hundreds of thousands of customers, which can potentially cost them millions.
The lawyer may not have been the aggressive type that you need
It wouldn't hurt to try the news, but if the story isn't sensational enough, they won't cover it.
Unless you're roaming on another planet, this just doesn't make any kind of sense.
Really old plan, probably 20+ years old with no roaming included
Alien wouldnt charge us that much😂
@@theeraphatsunthornwit6266 Make sure to bring your patience with you. Signals take 10-15 minutes to get to Mars.
Lol true
when he thinks $143 was a reasonable phone bill, yeah hes definitely still living in the 90s...
What is criminal is we are expected to think $143k is a reasonable price for less than 10gigs of data, even with roaming charges. This is ridiculous and predatory. How is this justified?
I don't even think Inmarsat has the cajones to charge that much.
Do other countries have prepaid phones? Because it would be much cheaper to just get a new phone over there each time he travels then the bill he got.
American capitalism
@@royroy8697they're actually owned by a German telecommunications company.
@@newYorkStories corrupted capitalism, not capitalism.
why does it take someone calling the news for a company to do the right thing?!!?!!?!?
Because the company would prefer to sweep it under the rug so they don't have to deal with it.
It's because T-Mobile is slimy never trust them . I learned years ago don't trust especially after being lied to about device contracts and wrong prices listed on phones. I am no longer with T-Mobile they can thank the short term greed that I'll never use them again.
@@ColZep Imagine all the other people this has happened to that didn't get lucky finding a news station that does these kind of stories..
But if anyone successful, companies usually refrain from wrong doings
It would have been squashed, but this cut through the 6 months of bullshit, late fees, demand letters etc. they did the right thing.
As someone who worked for a major provider, and subsequently resigned due to their unethical activities, my advice is collect record of EVERYTHING. Record conversations with sales reps, collect written documents of any and all interactions. Protect yourself, because they most definitely do not have you covered
I blame the subscribers IF they don't check with the provider before leaving. In this case, the blame entirely belongs to T-Mobile because the employee misleads him by telling him he's covered. That's a scam.
I'm curious about one thing, do cellular providers pay their roaming partners THAT much for roaming? Does T-Mobile actually pay their roaming partner $100K to use their network?
@shaggydawg5419 you don’t know what he asked the phone rep. Unless he specifically asked about international roaming charges, they probably didn’t lie. Most likely he only asked can I use my phone in Sweden.
@@shaggydawg5419And I blame you.
Bro. They do have you covered. For $143k
@@RoundzMusicyou're not funny bro
Those were extortion charges. No phone or data should cost that much, about $15,000.00 per gig!
Maybe his Plan is stuck in 1990😂
@RHpanzerstar he's been with them for 30 years so it was 100% due to an old grandfathered plan.
What t-Mobile said: We're sorry.
What we all heard: We're sorry that we were exposed in the media, so we're going to wipe out the bill to try to make it seem like we actually give a shit.
Yup and they will just do it again and again. They won’t learn and they don’t care. They just give a meaningless apology when caught.
I agree completely ! Says alot about T-Mobile
On point!! The telcos wont learn until they find themselves on the losing end - that they’re liable for charges like these. Right now, it must make them a lot of money to be as difficult (hiring lawyer AND reporting to the news - how is that sorry?!) and indifferent to a $143k bill.
That wiped out bill counts as a loss applied as a tax credit.
@@fredflintstone5356the Dude at fault, t mobile under media pressure made him whole but it was a valid debt.
Guy was still ripped off. $2500 for an attorney? To do what? He could have contacted the reporter himself with the bill.
seems like everyone thinks they need to get an attorney before realizing they can do it themselves
Actually, $2500 is a warning sign as that is far too cheap to retain an attorney of any quality at all.
I hear this complaint often as a repair man. It's not about how hard the task is to perform, the homeowner do not know he he could receive results going to a reporter, which is pretty normal when thinking about potential legal issues... It's knowledge you're often paying for, so could you do it yourself? Probably but first you need to acquire the knowledge then hopefully succeed
@@Im_just_super_sayin UA-cam has videos how to repair stuff. Nobody is going to pay you for simple repairs when they are one google search away to fixing stuff.
@@Im_just_super_sayin You must make lots of dough with just a high school diploma.
$2500 Lawyer was useless. Tryin to mail the president of T mobile, seriously? Only took this reporter 1 phone call to make things right.
So mainstream media are useful after all?
TV media have lots of power they cant piss off. with lawyer it one to one but TV you talk about millions.
The lawyer... is literally the reason this was reported on lol... come on man...
You guys online keep proving you have literally NO IDEA how ther real world works. That comment is beyond the pale lol. I won't even bother explaining...it should be obvious to you by now. The lawyer was key, trust me. Its not like youtube where anyone can clickk and get the same result.
@@stoneneils That's correct, lawyer will leave a trail of paper T-Mobile cannot slither out of. Everything will be official and dated, also proving they had tried to get things corrected via the normal channels first before going to the media.
Im a small ISP customer. Theres a credit limit of 250 or 500 dollars so insane charges like this would never happen. What t-mobile did to this customer is unacceptable.
sprint has been doing it for decades
He actually probably just had a very old grandfathered plan that caused it. The rep he spoke to was likely outsourced as well and they often get robotic and policy strict because they are punished heavily if they aren't. Combination of 2 things led to this. Likely would've been solved had he sent a fax to the corporate office with the situation.
T mobile customer service representative gave him the wrong information before he went for his trip 🤷🏼♂️, they need to train their customer service better.
I know when he got the roaming alert and enhanced charges will be assessed, he totally didnt beleive it because customer service told him different 😂
I beleive it
He didn’t give wrong information, he LIED to him. T-Mobile is sneaky like that.
@@Eleahchris Yeah because the fully expect some random guy to pay their $140k bill.
Customer service don’t care. They won’t feel it. Get it in writing. They say the call is recorded, where is the recording?
for anyone to say yeah this looks right should be punished
😂😂😂😂😂
@@techshabby0001 He's referring to the T-Mobile customer service people.
So, what is someone at a support desk supposed to say? They don't have the power to credit something like that to the customer. They can only verify that the amount is correct according to the plan the customer has and the consumption of data. The only other thing they can do is escalate it.
And this guy was lucky that he media attention helped. I once saw a 10k phone bill and the carrier was willing to credit back half the amount.
@@techshabby0001 It was said by the T-Mobile rep the man spoke to about the bill before the attorney and media got involved
reminds me of the 1.4 million doller speeding ticket in georgia
I made an 8 mins call to Samoa with T-Mobile, the bill came at 77$, I switched to another carrier the same day. T-Mobile’s billing is out of control.
🗑️
Should get back his money from that attorney
The attorney used his connections to have his story broadcasted on the news which ultimately got T-Mobile to credit the account I think the attorney earned his pay but T-Mobile could definitely reimburse him
The SAME THING happened to me when I traveled over to London a few months ago!! I called T Mobile before I left and I paid for the upgraded data plan for my family of 5 which the woman in the phone said would be unlimited. Almost as soon as I landed, it said we’d used up all of our data. I called them from London and was on hold for over an hour. Thankfully I was able to resolve it over the phone and they credited my account the thousands of dollars, but it was not easy. I genuinely feel for this guy. Glad it worked out!!
Is this a frequent thing with T-Mobile? I've had roaming issues with them as well.
Oh, jeez. I'm scared now. I use T-Mobile and I'm going to France soon.
@Needsmoreflash close it and switch to Verizon, they have better service.
@@Needsmoreflashmy advice would be to switch providers. “Better safe than sorry” is what I’m thinking.
Happened to my wife with AT&T on a trip to London and Belgium.
Even roaming data of 9.5Gb shouldn’t be $143,000…. Nobody is that rich or that stupid.
He should file a case for emotional distress.
Sue them for $250,000
You watch way too much TV.
Oh yes data is that much. Now each carrier is different in what they charge. But on average a pay per use for min is about 2.99 a min, text is like .50 per text and data is about 2.00 per MB. Yes that is per MB. And these days it's nothing to use a MB of data.
I agree…
@@chuckm6274 $143,000 for 9.5Gb is $15 per MB so definitely still gouged him, $13 more than your alleged average
My T-Mobile plan was free for roaming data. I was in Japan, keep using it. No charger
Thank you for helping this man!
They charged that man like it's 2004 again. Insane that even a lawyer couldn't help him.
How can it be THAT expensive? With Verizon I have the option of paying an extra 90 bucks for the month I’m overseas to get unlimited data and text. Or I can get charged 10 dollars for every day that I use my phone overseas. How can it possibly get to 143K??? What is T-Mobile doing differently from Verizon?
When we were with Verizon our phone bill was quadruple what it is with t-mobile so there's that.
Sounds like he was on a grandfathered plan being with them for 30+ years that maybe didnt have the correct 'rules' coded.
It looks like the roaming data killed his bill.
I’ve been with T-Mobile for over a decade, paying $25/month-line. When I fly overseas, I avoid all international voice calls, but still use SMS and international/local data, WITHOUT roaming. If I need to voice chat, I’ll use FaceTime or Line over WiFi or data. My bill? Still $25, no change.
Gotta read and follow the fine print. You can’t depend on badly trained cheaply paid overseas support to get this right, unfortunately. He’s lucky T-Mobile waved the fees to avoid bad publicity.
It’s called racketeering or price gouging…
You should file a court case for emotional distress. Sue T-Mobile for $250,000.
Yea, same with A T & T....this is bizzare...he could have had the 10.00 per day deal at the very least.
So it sounds like the attorney didn’t do anything more than ask someone else for help who ended up getting it resolved. Who got paid again?
Low quality attorney charging the bare minimum because he doesn't know what he's doing and has to get someone qualified to help him.
The attorney was the one to contact this news channel, so ya you're an idiot.
The attorney solved the problem. The attorney knew how to solve the problem. So it sounds like money well spent.
paying $2500 to erase a $143,000 bill seems like a fair trade to me tbh 😂😂
And he still has to pay $2,500.00 for the attorney to get someone else at the News reporters to help him
Looks like that attorney owes the reporter $2500 lol
The attorney is the catalyst the to problem being resolved though lol.
I think it's money well earned.
Thank you for helping.
Criminal corporate over allowance of ridiculous fees and this is allowed. Thieves
😂😂😂😂😂
You eat a steak at restaurant without checking for price first? Then don't be shocked when paying.
@@luogl This is a case where you wouldn't know the price until you received the bill. Not the same at all.
@@luoglshows how little you know 😂😂
@@TheLucidSpecterI know right? This guy is literally advocating for being responsible. Like, this is 2024 bruh, get with the times!
Why, in this modern age, do phone companies even charge huge, exorbitant fees for a 'roaming' calls? Sattelite communication is so connected now that all calls are just local calls anywhere in the world.
No, it's not. You are talking about 2 different things. Satellite is not cellular. A Sat phone can be used anywhere but are very expensive and there are not a lot of carriers for that. When you use cellular and you are in another country you are not using T-Mobile, att, or Verizon, etc. you are using that countries local carrier and that means that carrier charges your carrier to place or receive that call or text or data. Just like in the days where you were roaming if you just went out of your county, it's the same thing.
You probably mean fiber infrastructure instead of satcomm infrastructure.
I bet this is a forgotten about grandfathered plan
The only reason T-Mobile dropped the charges is because it made the news if it wasn’t talked about he would’ve been forced to pay it
"credit your account for the entire amount" doesnt matter if its roaming data 9.5 gigs never costs anywhere near that much no matter the case.
This exactly what I fear was with international roaming charges. I went to talk to a T-Mobile store employee and bought a 15GB international pass for data, calls, and texts for $50 before my trip to visit South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
I grabbed an orange sim in Spain for like 20 euro for 10 gigs or so. Best 20 I spent the whole trip.
Thanks for the tip!
T-Mobile's international pass is great for me, too. I'm on an old T-Mobile plan that doesn't include international roaming. That pass is a must when I travel internationally.
I got the global plus plan when I traveled to the Philippines. No issues until I got home and turned it off. They removed the global plus data but didn't add my previous data. I could make and receive calls and text but no internet data.... A huge ordeal. It as great using the global data plan but I'll probably use a local esim next time. Couldn't use a local email because my phone was locked and I'm pissed off about that as well.. Strike 2 for me with T-Mobile.
@@Love2Cruisecurious as to what plan you are on?
Iv seen this before. I worked for a competitor. The customer came in beforehand to see if there would be charges like this. I was instructed to tell them no, they were covered. The came back with 1,500 bill. Fortunately it was resolved.
You destroyed someone's life for a mediocre week's salary. Are you proud of that? This will be your legacy on this earth. And your step papi said you'd never accomplish anything!
Been charged $103 dollars for calling one hotel internationally, these international usage scams need to be shut down
Shocking and useful story 😮. Thanks !
In the next news story Rene is suing his lawyer for doing nothing.
I had one of those once. Not humorous really!
The lawyer got into touch with the media, which is what triggered T-Mobile to make things right with his bill. The guy could've done it, but he didn't and his lawyer did. That lawyer earned his 2500.
2500 is a retaining fee
His lawyer literally did everythibg
Works out at $15 a MB. Ridiculous!
And here he thought PornHub was free.
How is roaming even a thing in 2024? T-mobile has a big set of balls. They must have a team of lawyers making up rules buried deep in contracts. Personally I would have switched providers and told t-mobile to kick rocks.
When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work - the most you will make is 5 dollars.
People dont understand that the prices of things are never going back down. This inflation is deeper than we think. Those buying groceries are well aware that the real inflation is much over 10%. The increments dont match our income, yet certain investors still earn over $365,000 in stocks and assets. Wish I could accomplish that.
Very possible! especially at this moment. Profits can be made in many different ways, but such intricate transactions should only be handled by seasoned market professionals.
Brian demonstrates an excellent understanding of market trends, making well informed decisions that leads to consistent profit
I'm surprised that you just mentioned and recommend Mr Brian Nelson. I met him at a conference in 2018 and we have been working together ever since.
Sounds interesting. I was planning to invest some few £ in some coins, stack them up and leave them for a few years, but seeing this changed my mindset. Thank you very much
You can file an FCC complaint for free and get the exact same response, from the exact same people at T-Mobile. No need to pay a lawyer, or get the news involved, when all you have to do is fill out the right form!
Finding the right form may not be straight forward. The lawyer should have found that form in this case - but for $25, not $2500.
yeah right. the FCC will go: lolz you didn't pay for an international roaming plans.
@@cmdrls212 FCC doesn't make a ruling. They elevate your complaint to the corporate office of the carrier, so you are not dealing with offshore representatives who are paid to end your call as quickly as possible.
@@rb810810 so you'll be ignored twice, get put on collections, and get your credit destroyed
@@rb810810this. I don't think T-Mobile would have expected actual collection. Guy likely never talked to anyone outside the call center. Still scummy though
How many people are getting screwed like this by big companies but never getting justice because they couldn't get a news station to cover their story like this lucky gentleman? I'm betting on...A LOT.
We are all getting screwed by big companies. Look at what they are charging for cars, groceries, services, etc. People love to blame the government, but the government doesn't set the prices of products and services.
@johnnolan5579 Maybe not directly, but the government is failing to properly regulate or reign in these thieving companies. Often because the companies have spent billions of dollars bribing them via lobbying.
He actually could've solved this himself within a week by mailing or faxing the corporate office with details. They likely would've made him change his plan because it's most definitely grandfathered with that kind of roaming cost.
Thanks you all
Holy hell. You talkin' to someone on Mars?
This is criminal.
It is not. It's an issue with grandfathered plans and a big reason why the mobile companies say to get off of them. He could've solved this easily by himself by calling more times or mailing corporate for an escalated case.
@@TheBulge it's, my ISP's roaming service is always off by default, to use it you need to manually enable it, this is how it should works. for any plan/prepaid that doesn't include roaming balance, should be disabled by default. and you tell me that T-Mobile can't do that??
@L2002 I'm saying it was his responsibility to know what his plan details and coverage was. But just like with anything, people ignore the details. His plan was likely 20ish years old with those rates do yes, very much his fault. And again, very easy to fix with a letter at ZERO cost. Instead he got a lawyer and assumed the worst and that's why he is in the position he is in.
Well, if his contract is 30yrs old.. those roaming fees make sense 😂😂😂😂
I too had T-Mobile. I called to let them know that I was traveling to Asia. I checked my phone daily on roaming charges.
thats criminal.
For anyone who plans to travel just get a prepaid SIM card it so much easier there are even apps now too.
If they're stupid. I am old and know better, but I'm a techie.
New phones have Esim. Can’t do that.
@@garypinskermy family all bought eSims for travel to Spain this past summer. Very, very cheap and worked great!
@@garypinskerYes you can. I use Airalo. Look them up. esim right to your phone.
@@garypinsker it's even quicker with eSIM. You don't have to buy any physical SIM card. Just sign up at the destination or buy eSIM for international use before leaving. Instant delivery.
So they charge $15 for each MB of roaming data. That’s criminal!
I’ve roamed international with T-mobile and it was something like $10/day for up to 500MB a day. Never had an issue like this. Still $300 for a full month but it was manageable.
they should pay his lawyer fees
Why? He hired the lawyer…why should they pay for that? Or is going to claim ignorance to how lawyers work too to try and get out of paying that bill too?
The lawyer was joke. He didnt do anything that the guy couldn't have done himself.
@@TWORARETWOSPARE the lawyer worths every penny. They sent the bill to the media. Great move.
I'm sure he's happy that the lawyer was smart enough to get the media involved. 143k off the hook vs 2.5k. I'd happily pay the lawyer.
To all people who go oversea, never ever turn on data or roaming. You will accrue giant charges and T-Mobile will come after you. Never ever use data or roaming overseas. If anything set another network and buy another eSIM for your trip to prevent having to pay roaming charges. Never ever believe T-Mobile that you're cover. That's just then saying, we will scam you.
Or you can just read what your coverage gives you. I have AT&T. I sometimes buy an eSim package if I'm by myself. Sometimes, I just use the $10/day package they offer if I can't be bothered with the eSim stuff, or if the country I'm going to doesn't have eSim.
Not true. I have T-Mobile and have used it in several countries without incurring any additional charges. You have to know how to read and understand your international plan, though, because unfortunately, their customer service reps are not well trained. But that's true of all the cell phone companies, I've found. Just poor customer service.
Verison only charge$100 for overseas calls and unlimited data when ypu re out of the country.
moron i have att i can use what ever i want still the same price. 200 a month.
Google Fi uses Tmobile's network among others and it's dead simple pricing. Data, text and wifi calling are same as domestic. Cellular calls are a flat rate per minute comparable to what domestic long distance used to cost. $143k phone bill is inexcusable.
Its not like he was on mars trying to phone home 😂
Wow 😱 but glad it got handled quickly
If you're not sure, just get a local sim card.
In the U.S., it is very common for phones to be subsidized by the carrier and locked to their own SIM cards. You need to buy an unlocked phone (or get your phone unlocked once the contract is up) before you can use local SIM in other countries.
Exactly. Or inform myself before I travel to an Non-EU country. People forget all time that phone call in / out, SMS in / out, MMS in / out, data in / out, are eight different things how can charge different the provider. So own phone company brand (here German Telekom) is differently to non-contact phone companies too! So do you can have in this situation sixteen different prices! 😂 All paid from customers of course, no company give you a free gift!
@@yvr2002rtw Then you buy a $30 phone, never once have I used my sim overseas and if need be buy a cheap phone that yes can actually connect to the internet and do everything as our $1000 phones do.
@@yvr2002rtwit’s actually cheap to buy a small phone in Europe. Give up screen time on vacation
Now sue the attorney to get your $2500 back 😂
Note to self: Don't go with T-mobile
Just change your bank card get a new provider and ignore it 😂
I also have t-mobile for over 23 years and I been traveling all over the world always have free text and roaming data.
He has a grandfathered plan.
Wow, that's crazy. As someone on T-Mobile, I am very surprised that those kinds of charges are even possible. That's completely out of control.
They guy was an idiot and should have paid the full the amount
You should be surprised, he was one grandfathered plan. These charges don't happen and this is why plans are constantly updated. He could have solved all of this by himself easily with a plan backdate
Maybe the problem is any phone company not giving older plan holders an automatic upgrade to the better terms offered in the newer plans. This incident happening in 2023/4 is ridiculous.
Legally they can't just "change the rates" automatically without breach contract, even for lower rates.
@@luoglwhat they do to get around that is to switch you to a new plan that has less benefits for the same price, but they let you opt out of the switch - if you know about it ahead of time.
Why should leaving the country make internet any more expensive? I don't get it.
Roaming charges were a thing 15 years ago when we didn't have as many towers, today roaming doesn't exist, but T-mobile, Verizon and At&t will never miss an opportunity to take your money. What worked here was public shaming a greedy company. I left T-mobile years ago and I will never go back.
Your traveling to other countries. The rules don’t apply the same.
I agree I had Tmobile years ago I'll never use them
Pesants LOVE to throw around the word "greed" with a complete lack of self-awareness.
First, roaming involves using another carriers towers. That's what dictates the charges, not the quantity of towers.
Second, you're the one demanding to use another carrier's towers for free, so that makes you greedy. For for the shjt you use, honey.
@@pearlsswine
There’s a difference between free and $143,000.
@@pearlsswine Learn to spell and write cohesive sentences, then maybe we can have an exchange. Until then, be quiet.
Switch carriers, and then don’t pay the bill. Ridiculous, why would this old man fall for this
He has assets. T mobile can sue and take his assets.
@@jerrynadler2883Lol no they can’t. It’s a phone company not the IRS.
Leaving won’t stop collections agency.
@@CarlosG1111 Of course, they can. You think the IRS is the only organization that can file a lawsuit?
@@majorlagg9321 But can the phone company seize your property or assets like the IRS?
The true winner: Attorney
Roaming charges are for your provider, not you. T-Mobile is supposed to pay that fee. This is why you only do prepaid unlimited phone plans.
I would never pay that ever scam
The fact that t mobile had such a calculation and issued such a bill et's me know that for me and my family...they will never ever get my business.
Dude had a plan from 20 years ago before international cellphones and smartphones were common. All of T Mobiles up to data plans include international roaming. This dude sticks with his $30 outdated grandfathered plan and then goes and uses international data. T Mobile has new phones, international, and more included in there $90 and $100 plan(1line). They beat the price of Verizon while doing 24 month financing not 36 month like AT&T. And if you’re prepaid well ur data must suck.
I suspect a lot of people will see this as a virtuous decision on the part of T-Mobile. But T-Mobile billing software does not seem capable of detecting a single customer bill that was a thousand times larger than normal. And what if the erroneous amount had only been double the amount the couple expected? Who would have caught that?
I'm on Rogers in Canada and roaming to Switzerland is $15 (CDN)/day, with maximum charge of 20 days per billing month. This includes calls, texts and data. Also, if I the customer has a Rogers credit card, 5 days are included for free. Another option would be for him to get a local SIM while traveling.
I have been a member with T-mobile since 2007. They lost part of my record when I renewed in 2009. But only have my files since then and 2011. Since the buy out of Sprint and out sourcing call centers to the Philippines, the service has suffered for T-mobile. It has nothing to do with with the out sourcing, but lack of care for their customers.
First thing I do when I head overseas is to remove my SIM and I buy a temporary SIM in the destination country.
Mobile companies are a disgrace and need to be severely punished for excesses like this. In this case, the CEO should have been jailed for 12 months.
That’s insane. The bill should never be more than $500.
Roaming charges are an outright scam.
T-Mobile should kick in the $2,500.00 that Mr. Remund had to pay to an attorney and they still refused to respond until the media got in on this~! Shalom
Anyone with T-Mobile u have been warned lol
He probably has a old grandfathered in plan from around 2008 when international data was $14.99 per MB. When people used packet data to look up news or send emails on wap sites. The customer service rep was in the wrong, I'm sure the phone company has a policy in place for when this happens. The roaming company in Switzerland isn't charging anywhere near $143K to T-Mobile for 10GB of data now days, it was probably $75 max.
The video is vague about it but you are probably right. Roaming rates are pretty much nowhere this high.
If you owe the phone company 1000 dollars, it's probably your fault. If you owe them 100,000 it's theirs. Just don't pay it.
Haha right
I always use a top up SIM card.
I told my carrier that i was going to Switzerland and I still got charged around 500 bucks. You gotta tell the carrier every time you go
What's crazy is all they do is shift service to a close by network, which is all done automatically.
So true
I went to Switzerland and AT&T was only $10 a day. We told them we were going.
@@zaram131 I have att as well but I didn't just go to switzerland :/ I went to 6 other countries for a period of 3 1/2 weeks
I use Google Fi and all I have to do is swap to their international plan for my trip (unlimited everything for $65) and swap back to my regular plan when I return home. It's waaaay easier than traditional carriers
To avoid 143k bill put it on airplane mode 😂😂
@2:50 The news states that if you're on an older plan, that doesn't include international roaming.. If it doesn't include it, why does TMobile let you do it??!!.. What a stupid suggestion to turn on aeroplane mode while you re overseas if you're on one of these plans!.. If it's not included in your plan, they shouldn't provide it plain and simple.
That's why I like ATT - When on an International trip, it's $10 per day flat fee for unlimited data, voice, text, etc...very easy, plus they only charge up to $100 per billing cycle. I was on a 3 week trip overseas, using my phone as if I was at home, and the cost was $100. No worries at all.
But if you make a local call in a foreign country you get banged by the minute plus the ten dollars a day. It happened to me when I was in St Maarten, I called a girl I knew there from an ATT carrier and they charged us like 6 dollars a minute for the local call plus the 10 dollars a day. you can only make calls to the US and it's territories from a foreign country for the 10 dollars a day not local calls.
Same, been in Japan since Oct and my bill is $100 more a month but unlimited everything
@@robwebster1098 We got ripped for the local calls in St Maarten.
And that's still an exorbitant fee.
That's with your rate plan. There are plenty of grandfathered AT&T plans which would put you in the same predicament as this chap in the video.
Wow what a nightmare
Thank you ABC for covering this.
Notifying the company doesnt give you free roaming anywhere
He likely asked them what he needed to do not to be charged an exorbitant amount and they gave him incorrect information.
You must be fun at parties @joe
What kind of response is that from t-mobile? If the customer has been with you for so long that their outdated plan does not include international roaming, freaking update their plan for free rather than setting up that trap for your loyal customer to step in.
Outsourced call center I bet.
Don’t look at your bill, look at your contract
I had this happen to me when the Motorola 500 first came out and it was analog. The phone store I purchased the phone from sold my number to others and i received the phone bill in a large business envelope totaling $9k. Calls to Portugal , mexico, Chicago, TJ etc.. we went through the bill line by line and identified the calls I made and when it was over I was responsible for $45 of the bill.
A better plan is not to take your primary phone and expose your information to theft or loss. Take a throwaway or even BETTER *buy* one in country with a months service.
The attorney did his job regardless how it got done the client is off the hook on the payment.
Now have this attorney go after T-Mobile to pay up.
I can’t understand why cell phone carriers think it’s okay to charge for “roaming” fees when it’s all digital data on a connected network. They are taking advantage of their old contracts from the early 2000s.
But who actually sent that? Who sat there, printed out a $140,000 bill, put it in an envelope and sent it to this man as if he's going to pay it? Even if he did misunderstand how roaming data works, why have a system where someone can ACCIDENTALLY spend $140,000 in three weeks, without their knowledge!? Kind of a stupid ass system isn't it?
A computer did that, not a person. Please understand the world you live in.
Boomer fell asleep on his Percocet in 1975 and woke up in 2024 and doesn't understand the concept of automation
Ai dont care...
I do feel like there should be a max amount that you use before it warns you and you have to approve to continue using.
This entire thing was automated. And voided when someone who knew what happened noticed.
The international travel plan only costs $50. Obviously T-Mobile office he went to didn't know what they were talking about. It's too bad he had to spend $2,500.00 for an attorney and still got no response. That was bad. This piece of story just cost them tons of customers. I have to remember to call a TV station if I come into an outrages situation with a company.
It's because he definitely had a grandfathered plan probably 20+ years old.
The $2500 was well spent.
The lawyer is the reason the TV station reported
@stra2g not well spent. It didn't even need reporting. He had a grandfathered plan, all he had to do was check his bill for an address or fax number and spend 5 minutes writing his situation. After a week tmobile would have called him to change his phone plan and backdate the international charge to its usual amount. He is 2.5k under for pretty much nothing.
@@TheBulge That's insane talk lol.
You think T-mobile is going to do that when they literally just ignored an attorney about the issue?
The Attorney knew contacting the station would be an appropriate solution and it worked. He did his job and was the catalyst to the solution. It's a job well done.
@stra2g yes, it's a difference between departments. I used to work for one of these companies. You need to go through the proper channels.
People don't read their contract or understand it And then when something like this happens, they are surprised.
So much for contemplating switching to T-Mobile.
They still need to be sued, they just kept letting him run that bill up without saying a word. Electric will cut you off for less than 500 USD
Not their responsibility. It was his responsibility to read his plan details and keep up to date. He 100% had a grandfathered plan and didn't pay attention. Easily solvable issue too. It's called a backdate, all they need to do to fix it is change the plan, pay the difference over a few weeks so like $10 probably and any overcharge is gone. The issue is that he is old and thought he was tricked. If this happens to you or somebody you know. Have them check their bill, there is contact info for escalations beyond call center authority. This could've been fixed within a week with maybe 5 minutes of effort
@@TheBulge they wrote that ridiculous plan and should change it immediately and stop trying to scam people. If the average American tried something like that we would get in trouble in court.
Thats why i cancelled Tmobile years ago
They are the biggest bunch of liars and thieves.
😂😂😂
Plenty to see here, happy travels
What is very interesting is he knew and I know he knew because I have Tmo and travel internationally and when I land and take it off of airplane mode i get a text message as soon as it ocnnects to a tower greeting me to the country and letting me know what rates I have to pay if any.
That why I hate eSIM because your locked to the carrier that you use in the states. That why I ended up buying my iPhone 15 pro max in uk since it has nano sim. Most underdeveloped nations don’t use eSIM
So the UK is also underdeveloped.
IPhone in the USA is eSIM only.
My unlocked Samsung galaxy s24 ultra can work on a eSIM or a physical nano SIM.
As long as your phone is "un-locked" you can do as you wish. If you "lease to buy", i.e. pay for the purchase of your phone monthly to your carrier, then you don't have many options. Always buy your phones outright. You're free to do as you wish. I have an eSim for one provider and a regular SIM for another provider in my phone daily. I can use both for calls and texting and can choose which is my data, and if I'd like to switch over to the other when data is slow or non existent. Most people don't know about this. I will not carry 2 phones around (1 for work and my personal). Work SIM is moved into my phone. If you don't own your phone outright, you are locked into the carrier that holds the deed to your phone.
@@JT-lq4yd Since when? I have an esim for one carrier and a sim for another in my iPhone. I refuse to carry 2 phones.
@kirk1618 I am not an Apple fan so don't quote me. I remember hearing that the 14 series and up is eSIM only.
International Roaming charges are something every traveler should be aware of. There was a story years ago of a man who watched a movie on his phone while the cruise ship he had boarded was still docked in Miami. His data however went though the ship's cell service, and international roaming charges applied...
That's obviously absurd.. Nothing should be that expensive regarding a phone bill and data.