Verizon Waives Teen's $21,917 Data Fee

[Manos]

$21,918 for 1,4BG data? Bad BAD image to the public Verizon.. wtf costs so much over their services for 1,4GB? lol are you fn serious?

 

[doomtomb]

13 year old kids don't deserve cell phones with data capabilities. Back in my day...

 

[kbarber29]

Verizon should drop data charges and simply charge for content purchased.

 

[gti88]

a-hm. 15$ for a 1 megabyte? It cant't be so expensive.

 

[shqtth]

I think when someone signs up to a cell phone, a data plan (or a variable rate data plan) should be added automatically, and it is activated once a person reaches a certain threshold (like $15 etc).

But they are so bent on charing someone 7 cents per KB.


But what is studpid, is, if you dont pay your internet bill for cable/telephone, you wont have internet access, so i dont see how cell phones can give you access (or allow access) to internet without giveing you a proper bill for it with such internet access added. It just a big scam.

 

[decepticon]

$22,000 for 1.4gb worth of data? WTF is verizon charging per kb? I don't use the data plan so I would not know what their standard charges are.

 

[jonpaul37]

tell ya what, i don't think AT&T would have wiped the bill clean, they will most likely need the $$$ for when Verizon takes up the iPhone contract & AT&T has nothing left...

 

[snurp85]

Why does an unemployed person have a cell phone? This is fault number 1. Next, why the hell does a 13 yo need a cell phone? Fault number 2. Why does a person with no money buy another phone for a person who doesnt need it? Fault number 3.

Im thinking the person is a moron and deserves the fine for the mere fact that he is a moron, and probably doesnt legally belong here in the first place?

 

[tsnorquist]

Why does a 13 year old even need a cell phone?

If they must have a cell phone, then why not a prepaid phone? The blame here lies with the parents.

 

[xaira]

i dont approve of any teen having mobile internet

 

[jitpublisher]

Why does an unemployed person have a cell phone? This is fault number 1. Next, why the hell does a 13 yo need a cell phone? Fault number 2. Why does a person with no money buy another phone for a person who doesnt need it? Fault number 3.

Im thinking the person is a moron and deserves the fine for the mere fact that he is a moron, and probably doesnt legally belong here in the first place?

1. It's pretty hard to land a job if no one can get hold of you. You need a phone, and most people today are turning off their land lines for cellular. It's cheaper. Just because he is unemployed, why do you jump to the conclusion he has no money? I didn't read anywhere in the article one thing about the guy being broke, did I miss something? If you are going to comment, you should stick to the facts, you won't look quite so ignorant if you do.
2. A 13 year old does not "need" a phone, but it is not a bad idea. You can come out from under your rock and join the rest of us in the 21rst century anytime now.

It should be illegal for a phone company to operate in this manner. If they are going to charge you for something, and charge a complete obscene unheard of amount for a service, it should be something you have to add to your service, not something that is simply there, hidden in the small print, and available on a secondary phone, and if you happen to use it, they are going to rob you blind for it. 21+ grand for 1.4 gigs of data??? Come on, that is simply unfair, completely and insanely out of line. This is not an isolated incident, it happens all the time. All the time. I know several people with children that have had the exact same experience.(not quite for that amount though, but I have seen bills that range $1000-$1500) It should be illegal, and the phone company should be fined for this nonsense.

 

[Guest]

Here in finland even first graders get their own phones.
Landline phones are close to death. (pretty much no household has one).
Even unemployed people have phones.
And filling up 1.4gigs? easy. My friend can get easily up to 600kb/s download with his connection. IF you do not put on a plan it is unlimited on speed but charged per megabyte. I have a 1Mbit plan where I pay a bit under 20 per month and it works. Even minimal months can go up to 100 megs due to email and stuff.

 

[bildo123]

[citation][nom]AdamB5000[/nom]And there is the problem.[/citation]

Yea, if you don't have a job, why do you need a cell phone? And if so he should have a pre-paid.

 

[c_schwab]

[citation][nom]supertrek32[/nom]What could you possibly do on a phone that uses up 1.4GB, anyway? Get a computer ffs.[/citation]
Music, videos and pictures

 

[eyemaster]

How do you rack up 1.4GB's on a phone? So easily. Not to mention you can use it as a modem on the computer when you don't have internet access.

 

[t2couger]

1.4 gigs for porn no doubt i know i would

 

[razor512]

with the abilities of modern phones, it is easy to rack up that much.

I have seen many people who have gone over their data cap of 5GB and get overages, and it turned out that they installed a ton of crap that constantly downloads stuff from the internet.

they also streamed a lot of youtube videos keep in mind that 5 minutes of youtube streaming can use 20-30MB of bandwidth

watching 50 youtube videos can throw you over your limit easily

many webpages will often use anywhere from 500KB- to well over 50MB depending on the page

TCP connections use a lot of bandwidth to maintain them self so a 100MB download may take probably 105-110MB of bandwidth.

many people also like installing random free apps on their phones with out researching (many apps are ad supported and some may monitor usage for advertising purposes, they can waste a lot of bandwidth.

my friend has a windows mobile based phone and with out much web browsing, mainly just using various apps to chat with friends, he uses about 2GB a month because of the random programs he has in the startup that run in the background wasting bandwidth.

 

[Guest]

1. It's pretty hard to land a job if no one can get hold of you. You need a phone, and most people today are turning off their land lines for cellular. It's cheaper. Just because he is unemployed, why do you jump to the conclusion he has no money? I didn't read anywhere in the article one thing about the guy being broke, did I miss something? If you are going to comment, you should stick to the facts, you won't look quite so ignorant if you do.
2. A 13 year old does not "need" a phone, but it is not a bad idea. You can come out from under your rock and join the rest of us in the 21rst century anytime now.

It should be illegal for a phone company to operate in this manner. If they are going to charge you for something, and charge a complete obscene unheard of amount for a service, it should be something you have to add to your service, not something that is simply there, hidden in the small print, and available on a secondary phone, and if you happen to use it, they are going to rob you blind for it. 21+ grand for 1.4 gigs of data??? Come on, that is simply unfair, completely and insanely out of line. This is not an isolated incident, it happens all the time. All the time. I know several people with children that have had the exact same experience.(not quite for that amount though, but I have seen bills that range $1000-$1500) It should be illegal, and the phone company should be fined for this nonsense.





Please get off your f*****g analitical high horse dude. If any of you owned a corp like this you would be in it for the money just like them. Verizon was just called out but all of these "wireless tycoons" charge outrages amounts for their data if you dont have a package and all of them have pissed off customers somewhere with s****y coverage. Just like the father may have "forgotten" to ask for the data restrictions so did verizon. He should have monitored his kid just like he wanted verizon to monitor his bill. Next time you decide to give a minor a phone and you dont want extra charges get the crappy flip that cant do s**t and read the fine print D**K!



Hey E, my kids want a cell for x-mas can you spare a few more lines?

 

[Guest]

Of course the father blamed Verizon. What other recourse did he have. He should get down on his knees that Verizon reacted to the publicity. The retarded, irresponsible, narcissistic personality that stayed on the phone 24/7. If the father had a job then he could take him to therapy. Of course that unemployed mule now has a $22,000 charge off on his credit history. Verizon will probably cancel his account as soon as his contract is up. Good luck on getting anything but a "last resort" carrier. It will probably affect the father's future job possibilities (bad credit history & probably no cell phone). The child is the kind of personality that text will driving in the snow while going 20 miles over the speed limit (at night). The father's best future day is when he can talk this loser son into joining the Army & send him off to the war of the week!

 

[rooket]

since when is 1.4gb an obscene amount of data? I find that data on cel phones is way way overpriced and I don't buy any data plan. it is either horrible primitive technology that costs a lot of money to maintain or just corporate greed...or could be a combination of both.