Did you know you'd spent so much?
Piotr Staniaszek, from Calgary Canada, recently received a mobile phone bill for nearly $85,000 from his mobile provider, Bell Mobility.
Mr Staniaszek, subscriber to a "$10 unlimited mobile browser" plan had been using his mobile device as a modem to provide web access on his computer unaware that his plan only offered unlimited data on the mobile itself. He then went on to download movies and other material (yes, we're thinking explicit material too) until he received a bill of $65,000 in November. When he spoke to Bell Mobility, the bill had already risen to nearly $85,000.
Bell Mobility, being the kind company that it is, has offered to reduce Mr Staniaszek's bill to a mere $3,243. Mr Staniaszek however plans to contest the charge and says "I told them I wasn't aware I would be charged for hooking up my phone to the computer. I'm going to try and fight it, because I didn't know about the extra charges."
Having read about Mr Staniaszek's predicament on the BBC website, it got me thinking. How many of us run up big bills that we're either unaware of or worse still, aware of but do it nonetheless!
A prime example would be my partner, she's currently serving a 12 month mobile contract with service provider O2 that entitles her to 100 free text messages a month. Yet, she'll continue to send closer to a thousand text messages to me and somehow found herself shocked at the £93 bill she'd received in the post just the other day. We know these bills are getting larger but do we subconsciously think "nah, it can't be that bad yet, can it?".
I've since convinced my partner to switch to an Orange mobile plan that'll allow her unlimited texts for £30 a month. She'll have to pay a lump sum to terminate her O2 contract early, but even by doing so, the long term savings will be significant.
Though my partners mobile phone bill doesn't come close to Mr Staniaszek's, I've had my moments myself. As a youngster, I remember when I first landed on the worldwide web. I signed up to go online via Compuserve and the dial up service of the time was charged on a per minute basis. When you're online, young and just discovering chat rooms, those minutes sure can pile up! The first bill to come through the letterbox, and unfortunately right into my Dad's hands, totalled a good £600. As expected, I was then "afk" for a month or two.
So, HEXUS readers, I'll pass the question to you. Which excessively large bills have you racked up, or worse still, do you continue to rack up? Share your experiences in the HEXUS community.
