From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands

Jay Levy went to the mailbox one day to find a 54-page bill from AT&T covering his family's three iPhones.  Now an absurdly long bill printout from AT&T isn't anything new, but this one had a twist.  A $4,800 price tag.

What happened?  Well Jay and his family went on a Mediterranean cruise not too long ago, and they had their three iPhones with them.  Now, they knew if they used the phones overseas, they'd incur massive charges so the phones were turned off for the entire trip.  Unfortunately for Jay, that didn't mean he was safe.  It turns out that even when an iPhone is off, it downloads email so you have your latest messages whenever you do turn on the phone.  So while the phone was "off" it was still accessing international networks for a fee of around $25 per 20 megabytes downloaded. 

Needless to say, Jay is not pleased with Apple or AT&T.  The lesson here is to make sure you read every bit of the contract and familiarize yourself with the phone manual before you take it anywhere out of network.  Who knows what those sneaky little devices are up to!


Comments (Page 1)
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on Sep 11, 2007


read every bit of the contract


Yep. Hidden fees are everywhere.
on Sep 11, 2007
Yikes!  Not a shock, though, AT&T will screw you any way they can.  If you turn a phone off, it should be off, though.  That just sucks. 
on Sep 11, 2007

Jafo has a tool that turns off iPhones.....it's called a 'D9' ....

on Sep 11, 2007
The message is to not get a freaking iPhone.
on Sep 11, 2007
I can't blame AT&T or Apple here.  If you set your iPhone for automatic e-mails or push mail then you should be aware it's going to access a network to get it.  The iPhone also has settings to alert you if you are joining a network.

The theinquirer report that the iPhone downlods e-mail even though it's off, is false.  What most likely happened is they put the phones to sleep, big difference.





on Sep 11, 2007

That's an awful lot of emails, to reach $4,800.00   

Surely there must be a setting somewhere on the phone where 'off' really does mean 'off'...

 

on Sep 11, 2007
So ID, what you are saying is very eye opening.  

iPhone users, as a group, are not all that more IT savvy than the rest of us, well, excluding you. You do have an iPhone? I wonder if this includes the Apple family?  

And here all the time I thought they were all so much smarter than me.      

Okay, just haveing some fun here, this could happen to anyone using any type of service, but it sure does bring a smile to my face. With the hacking of the phone, the big bills from AT&T (paper and money wise), unit cost, makes me wonder if Apple really thought this all out before bringing it to market.   
on Sep 11, 2007
Apple really thought this all out before bringing it to market.


Apple is selling phones like crazy. They thought it out.
on Sep 11, 2007
'D9'


Yep. Right with ya on that one.   
on Sep 11, 2007
LOL @ jafo's pic.

Even when not photshopped it's a big mother!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_D9
on Sep 11, 2007
The theinquirer report that the iPhone downlods e-mail even though it's off, is false. What most likely happened is they put the phones to sleep, big difference.


Word. Stupidity of people is usually to blame...
on Sep 11, 2007
Good grief!!

Yeah..... the stupidity doesn't just lie in the costs of using a phone over international networks, everyone's know those high prices have been around since A.G. Bell first invented the device. If you KNOW you're going to incur a high cost of using your phone overseas.. leave the bloody thing at home!
on Sep 11, 2007
leave the bloody thing at home


That was my thought. If you can't use it abroad, why would they take it with them?
on Sep 11, 2007
If you can't use it abroad, why would they take it with them?
Just because you can't use the on-line functions (phone, mail, web) doesn't mean you can't use the other functions (music, photos, calendar, etc).  Right?

I wonder if there is a setting to disable all on-line activities.
on Sep 11, 2007
I wonder if there is a setting to disable all on-line activities.


Yes, by shutting it completely off. 


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