Man Runs Up $26,000 T-Mobile Bill Pursuing Text Message Record; Thumbs in Stable Condition
A pair of friends in Pennsylvania decided to pursue the world record for text messaging. After they reached 217,000 texts, they learned that one of their providers, T-Mobile, really had an upper limit to "unlimited" texting, and sending 217,000 texts led to a $26,000 phone bill that cost $27 just to mail.
Theoretically, the plan is unlimited, but T-Mobile's system does technically have a limit of 100,000 messages. Procedures for what to do when a customer exceeds that limit didn't exist, since no customer ever had.
The member of the duo who had T-Mobile has been promised a credit to his account. No word yet on whether Guinness will accept the record.
$26,000 Bill Follows Texting Record (Thanks, Bruce!)
(Photo: xanteen)
Post a comment
Comments:
well, they should have done their research before embarking on a frankly stupid quest....
The thing that should be illegal is calling something "unlimited" when it is, in fact, limited. That's the absurd part.
Someone needs to come out with a "legal" definition of "unlimited". It would help in that lawsuit I am currently involved in with The Olive Garden.
Why would it cost them $27 to mail his bill? Does T-Mobile list every text sent/receive on some kind of log?
@yso: Which would have told them what? Does T-Mobile actually disclose the limit anywhere on their "unlimited" text service?
Unlimited means UNLIMITED! Unless there is a specific disclaimer made at the time of sale, it means AS MUCH AS YOU WANT.
Andes said he was told the mix-up happened because when T-Mobile set up its system it had to set some limit, even though the plan is technically unlimited.
Why would their system require the limit? Even with that requirement, couldn't they just say that at 100,000 the price becomes $0? I don't see why that has to be a problem.
His phone is already showing his normal balance, but he said the representative told him it still must be cleared with corporate.He just hopes that happens by the May 3 due date because he does have automatic bill pay.
NO!
Five bucks says there's another story on Consumerist on May 4 because they charge the $26,000 to his account anyway.
One TXT every 12 second, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 30 days! Let's say they slept/ate/whatever for 6 hours a day... that drives it up to once every 9 seconds!
That is more than unlimited, but abuse and waste of resources... I mean didn't they think that T-Mobile should have been involved in this stunt. It's like running an eating contest at the olive garden without asking their permission first.
@When'sUranusDay?_GitEmSteveDave: Haha. I used to always fill up on the bread and salad and then save the meal to eat for later back when I was in college. What? I was poor!!
@camman68: Probably that's how AT*T does it. Haven't yous seen the youtube videos of iphone bills with txt messaging logs?
@snowmoon: Waste of resources? They're not cutting down trees to send text messages.
No one is going to ask permission to do something they've already been given permission to do. Being allowed to eat, even all you can eat, is not the same thing as being allowed to hold a contest. But T-Mobile already gave them permission to send as many text messages as they wanted.
Sounds like the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since Lionel Hutz's case against the film "The Never-Ending Story".
@missdona: Most places seem to be carefully wording their "unlimited" useage. I believe my ISP covertly changed their wording to "Unlimited Access" since they used tiered access plans with bandwith caps.
I agree however that if a company says it's providing unlimited somethings, it needs to provide that. You can't just make the limit really really high and assume that no one's ever going reach it.
@snowmoon:
That is more than unlimited, but abuse and waste of resources...
Your opinion. I expect these people feel it was exciting to see if they could beat a world record. Most world records are, when it comes right down to it, a waste of resources.
I mean didn't they think that T-Mobile should have been involved in this stunt.
Did Evel Knievel let the manufacturer of his bikes know he'll be using them to jump (insert item here)? No, because he can do whatever the hell he likes (assuming it is legal) with what he's paid for.
There'll come a time - in the distant future - when they invent a gadget where one presses just few buttons to exchange real time audio. Then all this will seem a total waste of time.
Oh, wait...
@yso: My guess is even if they had asked T-Mobile they would have been told that in fact their unlimited plan was unlimited. They would not have gotten the 100,000 max texts per month information. Only in the world of information can unlimited mean something other than unlimited.
I once had DSL way back in the day. I got it because it was cheap and it said it "Unlimited". I was downloading non stop for 2 weeks off Napster (when it was still leagal). Then I got a call from the DSL company saying that my bandwidth usage was off the charts and that I should slow down what I was doing or they'll disconnect me. I told them that I ordered the "Unlimited" Package and was entitled to do what I wanted, when I wanted, and for how long I wanted. They told me no and canceled my contract.
It was a 9 month contract but they let me cancel it anyways because their service wasn't "Unlimited". I got cable afterwords and never looked back, although Comcast is pretty shady too.
@Erik Schlange: How hard would it be to say this plan is the 100,000 tx/month plan??? That seems just as easy as this plan is the unlimited plan.
@lannister80: Agreed, that would have to be a pretty big asterisk if they didn't tell you in person that unlimited doesn't mean unlimited.
@Rectilinear Propagation: Yes they in fact told them they could send out an unlimited number of text messages each month. Unlimited would be as many as possible if you want. They paid for it, they own the ability to do this on T-Mobile's system.
Read the article people. T-Mobile isn't trying to charge him anything. They're not making up their own definition of "unlimited." They're not imposing a 100k limit - that was just a deficiency in their billing system that caused him to be mistakenly billed. They've already credited his account! Nothing to get worked up about here.
@shepd: Evel Kneivel *owned* the bikes and could melt them down to use as bathtubs. It's different if he was, for instance, renting the bikes or using a toll road.
They were using t-Mobile's service to break the world record. It would have been wise if nothing else to contact them first.
@Chantillian: Yeah, but when that far off day comes, when people buy the unlimited "talk" plan whatever that may be they will talk 24 hours a day 28 to 31 days per month and they will be in trouble because their unlimited "talk" plan wasn't really unlimited. People will call them dumb too because they didn't research whether or not they could actually have their cell phone actively receiving and sending audio the entire month.
Speaking of illegal, isn't it against the law to take somebody's picture when they're in a public bathroom? I'm pretty sure that's one place where we have an expectation of privacy.
make the attempt. eone found out there's a "technical" limit, so whose to say a well placed phone call wouldn't have been the clue phone?
it's not as if he was just doing his normal thing and got hit with a big bill. It was a stunt.
@Kogenta: As much as I hate lawsuits, advertising 'Unlimited' usage when you secretly don't have it 'Unlimited' is false advertising and can start a lawsuit. I think if an advertiser promoted their service to be Unlimited, it should be Unlimited.
@lannister80: No, unlimited should mean unlimited. No exceptions, no asterisk, nothing. It's like saying, "No exceptions, aside from ...". That's not "no exceptions", that's "one exception".
@snowmoon:
SMS messages cost nothing to send, every 10c is pure gravy for the telephone companies.
Text messages travel in the spare room between the data that alerts your the towers where your phone is, who you are, etc.
From Wikipedia:
The GSM system is optimized for telephony, since this was identified as its main application. The key idea for SMS was to use this telephony-optimized system and to transport messages on the signalling paths needed to control the telephony traffic during time periods when no signaling traffic existed. In this way unused resources in the system could be used to transport messages without additional cost.
@yso: Heck, if they had been wise and contacted T-Mobile I'm sure they could have scored some free service in exchange for the publicity.
Like walking into an "All you can eat" Buffet with the intention of setting a world record ( without asking first ).
@lannister80:
This is a mountain being made out of a molehill.
I used to work for T-Mobile, and here is the issue; There are only 6 characters in the field for any "unlimited" portion of the account, and what we did was enter all "9"s. So, for unlimted texts, the number "99,999" is entered. When it rolled to 100,000, it started billing.
T-Mobile is going to issue a credit, since no one has ever exceeded the limit before.
The field was originally intended for minutes, and it's impossible for there to be more than 44,640 minutes in a month.
didn't it get released a last year that text messages DON'T put any strain on the network, nor require extra bandwidth? it might have been on here or somewhere else but i'm pretty positive i read that, and there was a little bit of an uproar that whatever is being charged for texting is basically allllllll profit for the cell co.
@Gokuhouse: Even more to the point, T-Mobile is refunding the charges based on exceeding the technical limit, so it would seem to be a truly "unlimited" plan.
@W10002: Yeah most companies like "unlimited" because it sounds good and will draw customers, the problem comes because most products and services aren't necessarily unlimited.
If someone uses the service an ungodly amount, to the point where its costing the company too much money compared to the flat rate they are charging for the "unlimited" service, you can be damned sure the company is going find some way to put a limit or stop to the activity.
Is it fair? No.
Is it legal? Probably not.
Does it happen all the time? Absolutely.
When will people learn that "unlimited" never means unlimited. Internet bandwidth, text messages, minutes... there is always a limit.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
@Rectilinear Propagation: NO! Five bucks says there's another story on Consumerist on May 4 because they charge the $26,000 to his account anyway.
Oh, yeah. Andes better make sure he deauthorizes that agreement quick... with T-Mobile, with his bank, and with his God, 'cause that won't just be an overdraft for the ages, that overdraft would be a full-blown felony, nu?
And is there a single person out there who thinks that T-Mobile won't press fraud charges, despite promises of pending credits?
@Lisa Newman: Just so I'm clear--you're saying it's not that the plan itself actually has a limit, it's that a software-entry convention turned out to be problematic?
at least now they have paper evidence of it...
@RB_Bhoy: Yes, you are correct. Text messaging uses spare network bandwidth to send the messages. It's essentially free to the company. To the end user it's one of the most expensive forms of communication on the planet. NASA claims it's less expensive to communicate to the Hubble Space Telescope than to send a text message. The only thing that might be more expensive is sending a (snail mail) letter, and only a little.
@fatcop:
I send around 2-3k texts a month on T-Mobile, and my bill is 3 pages long, one for each number. On that page, they list the total number of texts sent, not a list of every text sent.
I don't know how they got that bill.
Theoretical "unlimited" anything (texts, bandwidth etc) should be illegal.
I mean, this is absurd.