This is why...

[5-90]

I wouldn't get cellphones for my kids, and made them get their own and pay their own damned bills!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091216/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_huge_phone_bill

Sounds like an arse-whippin' would be in order. That, and you'll be mowing my lawn and cleaning my house until you're ninety years old...

[97XJ2]

I didn't get one until I started driving their car. And they made sure everything else was locked out on it. Things changed with my own vehicle and upon moving out. But middle schoolers with cell phones is ridiculous.

[Johnnie Walker]

Interesting, most companies.. contact you if they think there is something ab-normal about your usage. There was something similar a while back about some girl who sent over 14,000 txt in a month.. on a FULL TOUCH SCREEN! insane. But yes, especially now you can block anything/everything on any of the phone on your account. My sis ran up a few cell phone bills with txt'ing partially due to my mom NOT blocking it. Damn kids.

[5-90]

Yah - block things to keep the bill down.

- Voicemail: OFF.
- Texts: From T-Mobile only.

Got the pay-as-you-go gig, and my bill is a princely $25 per quarter. About $100 per year - and I think even that is high...

Access control is also a key element - the only people who have the number are either directly related to me, or have "MD", "OD", or "DO" after their names.

I probably have one incoming call for every fifteen outgoing calls, I mainly use the thing to co-ordinate activity. It does come in handy from time to time (like with my wife in hospital having just had her hip replaced this past Monday. Easier than going through the room phone in hospital...)

[vincepru]

^100$ a year?! holy shit. my bill is pretty much 100$ a month with verizon. but that has gps, email, full internet browsing, unlimited txt and minutes, and i have global service (i travel alot)

[5-90]

^100$ a year?! holy shit. my bill is pretty much 100$ a month with verizon. but that has gps, email, full internet browsing, unlimited txt and minutes, and i have global service (i travel alot)

Hm.

I can roam within the States (I don't travel overseas much anymore. Airports make that too much of a pain in the arse...) I don't need GPS. I set the autoresponder on my email when I'm going to be on the road. I take information with me so I can work. I don't text. If I'm on the phone - cell and landline combined! - more than two hours in a month something big happened. There are people who use their cellphone more in a month than I use telephones in general in a year. I don't like phones. I have never really liked phones (unless I'd plugged a MODEM into them,) and after working in Telecom for a couple of years, I tend to answer my phone with a hammer. I won't buy a phone unless I can turn the ringer all the way off...

Having CID is a bonus, and I've always got a machine on the line. That was also a bone of contention with the boys - but I told them if they wanted the phone answered, they could answer the damned thing, and take a message if it happened to be for me. My buddies don't call - that's why we get along so well. They email me instead. My family (which is literally spread out coast-to-coast. We're based in IN, but I'm out here in CA and my kid sister is in VA. I've got a kid brother in Germany still as well...) either emails or chats - which is better than having a phone stuck to your head.

So, yeah, I still think $100 a year is a bit much. But, it's better than the $100/month that Sprint once had us locked into (she wanted her mum to have a 'phone for some odd reason. I told her it wasn't necessary, I was borne out by the fact that her mum never could plug the damned thing in and couldn't figure out how to use the thing, and she never went anywhere without one of us taking her there in the first place.

(I hate being right.)

The Sprint "plan" was the lightest we could get - 500 minutes among three 'phones, and I don't think we ever used them all! Pay-as-you-go is cheaper and easier (reminds me, I've got to put another ten bucks or so on my 'phone to-morrow...)

Why is voicemail on my 'phone turned off? Because it costs me everytime someone else leaves me a message. Therefore, if you can't get hold of me on cell (and, if it rings a couple of times and then I pick up and hang up, I'm in the middle of something and I'll call you back. I need to get my daughter-in-law trained on this...) leave a message at the house and I'll check it when I get home, or just email me and I'll check it when I have access. Wi-Fi rocks.

[RichP]

My son ran up a $3xx bill one month when he was working at Camel Back ski area on the top lift station about 6 years ago. Then two years ago the daughter ran up a few hundred from texting. Four phones, 1400 minutes, unlimited texts, insurance including roadside assistance [$6 a month LOL], got that mainly for my son when he was doing the back country ranger thing in New Hampshire this past summer just in case he broke down somewhere. My bill is $200, got the photo storage thing to for sending pics.
Then I got my iPhone from work, still have only actually made less than a dozen calls on it send or receive, great for internet stuff though, handy in the can...

[kastein]

^100$ a year?! holy shit. my bill is pretty much 100$ a month with verizon. but that has gps, email, full internet browsing, unlimited txt and minutes, and i have global service (i travel alot)
you don't need any extra service for GPS, except data plan for downloading map images if you want. If Verizon is charging you extra for that they are ripping you off.

I pay about $75 a month - unlimited data, 600 minutes + free nights/weekends, 400 texts/month. I had the 1000 text plan, but then... breakup. I really should kick the minutes back down to the cheaper plan too, don't really use them either, not working remotely as much as I was this spring.

[Coastie]

I just reduced my plan back to basic phone and text. No more paying $100 to check my Facebook and Gmail.

[97XJ2]

Yeah, I'm a little bit of a gadget geek so I've got a loaded plan. I have internet, email, pix & txt, unltd nights/weekends, free incoming for about $45/month.

[Darky]

I'm with Verizon on the 1400 minute Connect plan (had to to get friends & family - wife's family is all AT&T and she talks to them a lot). Unlimited text/multimedia messages and data, 4 lines. We switched to Verizon and took a slightly bigger plan than we needed to add my Mom and step-dad on. Verizon is the only carrier with reception at their house, and now we can talk free. She loves it because I send her pictures of the kids alot. My wife loves it because she finally has a phone that can go online so she can keep up with her Facebook (I have the only net connected computer in the house, and I take it to work with me). I love it because I love my phone, and it actually is capable of online banking, which has come in handy a few times. We also have the 5 gig MyFi wireless internet for my laptop (only "high-speed" internet that'll reach my house for less than $100/month). I only use 1-2 gigs a month, but their plans are retarded. It's $60/month for 5 gigs, or $40/month for 250 megs. What? :dunno: The overall plan comes to $260/month, but I get 20% through work, and it's split between me and my Mom.

[kastein]

Yeah, I'm a little bit of a gadget geek so I've got a loaded plan. I have internet, email, pix & txt, unltd nights/weekends, free incoming for about $45/month.
What provider? That's way cheap, I might transfer to them after my contract is up.

... in two years :banghead:

[97XJ2]

Start by moving to Wisconsin, it's a local provider. And its more like $55, I stand corrected as I had to go double check. With the phone I have (Motorola QA30) I don't have to get the expensive data plan that they require for blackberry's ($35/month for data OR pic/vid/txt). My data plan is $15/month for all the above.

[goodburbon]

Kid in trouble, yes. Company gouging, most certainly.

[themangeraaad]

I am also a bit of a gadget geek. I currently have 2 cells (one was given to me by my company, so I have the blackberry for work and my personal line).

I looked at that site and the kid downloaded 1.4Million kilobites... which translates to 1.3GigaBytes. Not all that much really. I have easily done more that that over the course of a weekend (I had my phone tethered to my laptop while traveling, so using the internet on my laptop... and streaming movies.) If I paid for the official "tethering" service I would be out another 20$ per month, but I have a program that shares my internet for free :eyes: Technically it could get my plan canceled, but if it is used sparingly no one will ask questions, I only use it for a weekend of travel here and there or if house internet goes down and I need to look something up online.

I have sprint and pay something around 65 per month, including unlimited web browsing, text, picture/video mail, nights/weekends start at 7PM, and 450 minutes. So I have essentially everything except the sprint radio and TV. I really dont need those :laugh: I esp like my plan because I have 450 but I am still on teh fair and flexible plan, so if I go over my minutes the plan automatically buys me minutes at $0.10 per minute, so no absurdly high rates.. though I never go over so it's not a problem anyway.

Edit: Oh, and some providers have their own GPS service that does cost $$ per month. My phone has a built in GPS unit so I just use google maps and it's free. Though the provider one usually does turn by turn and has more features than google maps goes.

And I also have full insurance for something like 7$ per month on my plan. I lost my phone earlier this year (or last year? I cant remember). 50$ and 1 day later I had a new phone. They actually sent me the newer model of my phone cause they were out of the old model replacemnts. SO I got a shiny new in box (not refurb) phone, that was a newer model than I had... and I only paid 50$ for it (something like a 500$ phone) and I didnt have to extend my contract. win win win! :D

[themangeraaad]

Oh, and just thought about it again becuase I am still dumbfounded by that bill...

...the article said verizon charger per MegaByte, based on the number of 1.4 Million KB that means he used approx 1367 MegaBytes. Now assume that the father has familyplan or something and the "normal" bill is $150, just to pick a number (wont really change the end result much at all anyway so it doesnt matter).

So doing the math, it comes out to verizon charging approx $15.92 per megabyte which is absolutely absurd.

To put that in other terms, if you used whatever plan this kid was on to download *picks random song from music library*... Aerosmith's 'Sweet Emotion' it would cost you $74.84 (plus whatever you paid for the song).

[5-90]

I am also a bit of a gadget geek. I currently have 2 cells (one was given to me by my company, so I have the blackberry for work and my personal line).

I looked at that site and the kid downloaded 1.4Million kilobites... which translates to 1.3GigaBytes. Not all that much really. I have easily done more that that over the course of a weekend (I had my phone tethered to my laptop while traveling, so using the internet on my laptop... and streaming movies.) If I paid for the official "tethering" service I would be out another 20$ per month, but I have a program that shares my internet for free :eyes: Technically it could get my plan canceled, but if it is used sparingly no one will ask questions, I only use it for a weekend of travel here and there or if house internet goes down and I need to look something up online.

I have sprint and pay something around 65 per month, including unlimited web browsing, text, picture/video mail, nights/weekends start at 7PM, and 450 minutes. So I have essentially everything except the sprint radio and TV. I really dont need those :laugh: I esp like my plan because I have 450 but I am still on teh fair and flexible plan, so if I go over my minutes the plan automatically buys me minutes at $0.10 per minute, so no absurdly high rates.. though I never go over so it's not a problem anyway.

Edit: Oh, and some providers have their own GPS service that does cost $$ per month. My phone has a built in GPS unit so I just use google maps and it's free. Though the provider one usually does turn by turn and has more features than google maps goes.

And I also have full insurance for something like 7$ per month on my plan. I lost my phone earlier this year (or last year? I cant remember). 50$ and 1 day later I had a new phone. They actually sent me the newer model of my phone cause they were out of the old model replacemnts. SO I got a shiny new in box (not refurb) phone, that was a newer model than I had... and I only paid 50$ for it (something like a 500$ phone) and I didnt have to extend my contract. win win win! :D

Nice thing about not needing the Crackberry or anything like that - our 'phones are last year's Motorola flips (I don't recall the model number) that I got for ten bucks a throw off of eBay. They weren't listed as having chargers, so I checked to make sure I could get them before I bought the phones (I could. Five bucks a copy after shipping.)

So, $15 a throw, $10 or so a month, and I'm good! That's all I really need...

[themangeraaad]

Well the crackberry was (and is) free to me, so I don't have to worry about that.

My personal phone is a [sprint] HTC Touch Pro. 5 or so years ago I had a Sanyo SCP7300, which I still have... its an amazing phone, drunk buddies in college said they would bet me that they could break it by throwing it against a brick wall.... the most damage that was done was the battery fell off. :D I keep it incase my newer phones ever breaks I can use that until I get a replacement.

Anyway, I originally had the 7300, then a sanyo M1 (which sucked), and then an HTC Mogul. I had the mogul replaced under the warrenty/service plan, and it was replaced with the touch pro. Expensive phones but I bought the mogul used for $150-$200 (I forget the exact price). And the Touch Pro was 50$ since I happened to need a replacement during the 1 month that they were out of Moguls :D

As I said, im a tech geek and I have been having a hard time debating between my next phone. I always upgrade right at my 2 year update period... though lately I would prefer to pay full price for my phone and not deal with a contract and have not upgraded my phone/contract since i was out of contract almost a year ago.

But regardless, my comment was less to say what I have and what I would like... it was more to say how absurd the plan is. I can pay less than 70$ per month and could do that with no extra charge but this kid (or parents) get a 20k bill??? Thats BS. Quite frankly I think if you do suddenly exceed your, for example, data plan limits... they should just bump you up to the price of an "unlimited" data plan... dont chage 20k... charge an extra 50-100$ (whatever teh difference is between the no internet and the unlimited internet plans).