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Home » AT&T, General

International Use Of AirCard Cost Family $20,000

Posted by Radimus on September 4, 2008 – 1:40 pm  Share
closeThis post was published 1 year 2 months 18 days ago.
It\'s is possible that the information within this article is now out of date or updated.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that Canada is another country and that there is “international” billing

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland family racked up nearly $20,000 on their AT&T bill, local station KPTV reported.

The Terry family said they wished they would have received some kind of warning before receiving their 200-page bill in the mail for $19,370.

In July, their son headed north to Vancouver, Canada, and used a laptop with an AirCard to send photos and e-mails back home. The bill showed he used the service 21 times, but because he was out of the country, the activity added up to thousands of dollars in charges.

AT&T said the AirCard allows users to connect to e-mail, the Internet and business applications while traveling, but the company told the family that international use wasn’t included in their cell phone plan.

The Terry family said they asked an AT&T employee about the service before their son left the country. They said they were told nothing about international fees.

Dave Terry also said they were never contacted by the company to be alerted of the high fees.

“(We) have a bill that runs normally $250 to $300 for our cell phones,” Terry said. “When AT&T saw the numbers getting over $1,000, I would think it’s their responsibility to inform us that something was amiss because that card could have been stolen.”

An AT&T representative said they’re treating the matter seriously and looking into it. According to the company, they hope to have an answer for the family in the next few days.

http://www.wnbc.com/money/17390103/detail.html

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  • $38K was July 2007 charge for laptop connect service thru ATT. I pay $60 monthly for unlimited service, but July had international service charges for data connections from Pennsylvania USA. During July I was always in Arkansas, OK or TX, never in PN.
    ATT assured me PN was still part of United States of America, not subject to international connection charges.
    ATT said it was computer error, do not pay bill and continued to ask me to enable automatic payment from checking.
    August 2007 bill was $45,8xx with many international data connections from PN again. All of August, I was in Sunray TX, did not use my passport, did not enter any other state, did not loan my aircard.
    ATT again said do not pay bill. Next month, ATT terminated service due to unpaid >$45K bill. In January bill was fixed.
  • Actually the Terms & Conditions for this service on AT&T web site states: "Roaming outside of the U.S. and Canada requires international roaming plan."

    Which means, according to AT&T's own Terms & Conditions this consumer does not owe one DIME in international charges.

    ~DM
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