SlashGear Japan
Dave Stolt, an iPhone user and AT&T customer was slapped with a big bill due to data roaming after his travel to England and Ireland. Apparently AT&T does not offers unlimited international data roaming on the iPhone. They do however offers that options for Blackberry users. Here is what Dave has to say about the situation.
I have a caveat emptor to top them all. I purchased an iPhone on opening day to use in lieu of a cumbersome laptop while traveling in Ireland and England for two weeks in early July. AT&T promises “easy, affordable, and convenient plans” in their advertising… turns out I got two out of three.
On the way to the airport, I activated the per-use international roaming data plan – the only one offered to me. The rep quoted me $.005 per KB but did not disclose what that would translate to in layman’s language (i.e., X amount per e-mail, X amount per web page, etc.). I’m a web developer as part of my career and I couldn’t even tell you how many KB the average web page is, no less a text message to my son, an e-mail with a photo to my mother, or a quick check of Google Maps. That’s part one of the trap. However, I now pay $40 per month for unlimited data usage on the iPhone, so really — how much could it be? $100 at the most, right?
Keep reading.
As we know, the iPhone can’t be unlocked to use a European provider’s SIM card for more reasonable rates while traveling. There’s part two of the trap.
To be safe, I went online to My Account at AT&T a couple days into the trip and again a week later and was told “usage data is currently unavailable”… and that’s part three. I had no way of knowing specific usage data until I received my bill over the last weekend.
A bill for $3000.
Two weeks of travel with sporadic AT&T EDGE network usage off and on mixed with wifi when available… $3000.
Doing some research, I learned this morning that AT&T offers unlimited international data usage at $70 per month to its Blackberry customers.
Here’s my bottom line: I want this same usage plan to be made available to iPhone customers and to be applied retroactively to my account.
Billing phone reps offered me a $400 “courtesy credit” on the $3000 charge if I would agree to sign up for a $300 per year international data plan with a max of 20MB per month. (I’m not planning any international travel for a while anyway, but 20MB would be burned in a day or two of average use – they must be kidding.) I have until August 14th to resolve this or all my family’s phones (including my wife’s business line) get disconnected. Obviously, there’s no way I can pay $3000 for something so egregiously wrong.
I’m writing you in the hope that the exposure of my story might force AT&T’s hand in admitting they have an inadequate solution in place for international iPhone users, that they’ve discriminated against the iPhone in favor of the Blackberry, that they failed to adequately disclose the exorbitant nature of their rate plan, that they kept me in the dark about my usage specifics until it was too late to modify them, and that by disallowing unlocking to use a European provider’s SIM with more reasonable rates, I was trapped without knowing it until that $3000 “gotcha” came knocking at my door.
Thanks for your time, and please do not hesitate to contact me (dave@3rdeyedesign.com) with any further questions.
I really do hope AT&T cleans up its act and stop dumb stunt like this. I’ll be keeping in touch with Dave to see how AT&T handles this matter.
Update : Dave just informed me that AT&T has waived the bill charges due to miscommunication.
Thanks Dave! [via boingboing]
8 Responses to “iPhone data roaming bills nightmare”
Billy August 1, 2007
Wow $3000 bucks. ATT sucks. I had something similiar happen to me using roaming to another state with Cingular, which is now ATT. My bill was $700, no where near your $3000.
ATT should forgive the mistake as you are a good customer.
Cell phone companies suck in general as they can do many things to help consumers such as maybe give you a call or email saying, “Wait a minute you have exceeded your monthly plan or something to that effect.” They sure love customers like you and I.
Billy.
Neutralgeraint owen August 15, 2007
i’m afraid i can top that. just had a call from att this afternoon telling me i have data charges of $3444.48 for my 3 weeks in england and france. I knew that the google maps thing was way too much fun…..
Anyway, I didn’t do as well as you. I did sign up for the international data plan as i travel a lot and then the bill was cut to about $700. But its a very expensive laptop replacement for a vacation. Obviously that blackberry plan should be available for the iPhone. Someone is being very greedy..
+2Sherry I December 11, 2007
I have made 4 international trips since getting my iphone. On the first, I used wifi and was spared any significant charges. On the second I got what I thought was a whopping bill – $300, but figured a young person traveling with me had gone wild and it was my own fault. On the third trip, EDGE wasn’t available, so again a smallish bill. On this most recent trip, I got a text message from AT&T a few days in telling me my data usage was high and to call. I will probably save any argument with them by signing up for the data plan for the first 50 MB of use, but may still have up to $1000 to argue about. I think two things are needed: (1) apple and AT&T know who we all are and should send an urgent alert about this situation. (The way I see it, it is not AT&Ts fault that the phone is designed to have such high data usage without real awareness on the part of the user since most of it is happening in the background – that’s a design flaw that Apple should own.) (2) AT&T should offer a blackberry-type plan. Like others, I decided to get an iphone because I did view is as a computer substitute for some international trips. However given the current situation, actually using it in this fashion is cost prohibitive.
NeutralTy December 11, 2007
Wow, that sucks big time.
IT is really good that they waived the bill though, I would hope they waived my bill.
NeutralKelz December 11, 2007
Yo, I don’t realy give a damn. I have 3 iphones that I use daily and get like 5,000 in bills. Well Im rich and rich guys like me don’t give a damn. You can’t imagine how much money I have. So, its coo with me ya know what Im sayin’. All I can say is KEEP IT COMIN’ and remember that I, Kelz, get money. Im RICH B*TCH!
-9David January 11, 2008
I think I can top that… my bill was 4000$, currently I negotiated the bill to be 550$ and all interest waved. I am still thinking maybe I can do better.
NeutralNchurmdaz January 11, 2008
2Kelz
Wow, what would such a rich guy be doing here, reading an article on traffic bills? Aren’t you SO RICH, that you don’t really mind paying 5000$ and never paying attention to costs?
2 Article Author – Don’t tell me you are a web developer, if you don’t even know the average size of a 2000×1500 .jpg image! In addition, you’ve failed to figure that 0.005$ per KB equals 5.12$ per MB.
You somehow managed to leech ~600 mb with that sucky piece of plastic!!! Doesn’t it have a built-in GPRS/EDGE traffic counter or something??? It’s a wildly standard cellphone function for over 5 years.
I send my cheers to AT&T – nice job in emptying the lazy-minded people’s pockets! Keep up the good work!
-1