Your teenager's $1,400 phone bill
description: What would you do if your T-Mobile cell bill arrived, and it was more than 200 pages long and totaled more than $1,400?
Tags
Avoid Rip-offs
Avoid Rip-offs
cell phone
cell phone
Home Finance
Home Finance
Raise Kids
Raise Kids
telecommunications
telecommunications
telephone
telephone
T-mobile
T-mobile
Comments
Last month my T-Mobile bill was $2500 and they did nothing to try and help. My parents just had to pay it. And I'm the only one on that account. They both have Sprint. -
rreho
well. never think you have something unless you verify it first...i used the same service but i have unlimited txt msg..so is no problem -
RickSensation
There is not enough communication between mother, son, and phone company!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not assume. -
elsiea123
Why should they credit it? He used the service and sent the messages now pay the bill. Stop trying to cheat these companies out of money you owe them. I have never had any problem with TMobile. -
jdh32771
what a complete idiot. he is old enough to know how a cellphone billing plan works. and as for the "mom",maybe talking to your son about his cell phone plan and what he is allowed and not allowed to do would be a good idea. good for tmobile not giving a discount,the family looks like they can afford it. i went over my tmobile plan and did not request help,i paid the bill,changed my plan and controlled myself. MAYBE WHILE VISITING HIS GRANDMOTHER THE LIUTTLE INTROVER MIGHT HAVE ACTUALLY TREID INTERACTING WITH HER INSTEAD OF COMPULSIVELY TEXTING GOOFBALL FRIENDS HE WOULD SEE AGAIN IN A FEW DAYS. sad kid,sad parenting...wah wah we aren't responsible. -
wonka561
I had the same problem with AT&T and they gave me bull crap till they took it off.. that's a total ripoff you're using the same effort to provide text messaging wither they add it to the plan or not.. they don't care about us -
Faris6341
T-Mobile is HORRIBLE. A similar thing happened to me where I was not told that I would be charged for incoming texts and my bills would be over $200 a month. I cancelled the service, switched my phone number over to Cricket, and then about 2 years later got a call from a collection agency saying that I had a debt of over $600 from T-Mobile. After investigating, I found out that they re-instated my service after I paid the $200 to cancel it, and were billing me for monthly services without me knowing (or using the phone - I had my number switched to a different carrier!). I had to fight hard, but finally got high enough up to get the charges removed. I would never recommend that company to anyone. Horrible customer service and big time scammers. -
jchughes111
Um i find it a bit strange that they say its tmoblie yet the kid is clearly using a verizon phone. Tmoblie doesn't have the Samsung U 740 and even if it did it wouldn't have the tradmark verizon check mark on it. so either the scene is staged with the wrong props or they have the info wrong once again on the news. -
SailorAriez
a teenager can not enter into a legally binding contract period especially with the push of a button therefore don't pay the freaking bill hire a 200$ lawyer fools! -
AllieCatEGorey
I must say that T-Mobile is the absolute worst service I have ever had. Something similar occurred when my kids racked up a $60 charge with my verizon service, ordering games on my cell phone. I called verizon and they immediately took the charges off, when I explained to them that I didn't authorize to do so. While I don't know if they would be as gracious with text messaging, I would expect that they would be much more understanding that T-Mobile. It is my experience that T-Mobile has lousy customer service. AT&T and Verizon, in my experience, has been much better when dealing with issues such as this. -
mom11051
When I gave my 2 lazy and immature daughters cell phone I wanted them to love me and make me feel like I had value, worth and meaning in my life. I thought I was doing the right thing by asking them to do chores to "pay" for their cell phones but they refused to do chores around the house to help me. I believe that because I shave the mustache and beard hair off of my chin that is the real reason why he left me. He knew that I had the ability to grow a goatee if I wanted to when we got married so I don't understand why it became an issue later in life. I'm too lazy and stupid to get electrolosis done because I think coloring my hair, paying for fake nails and smoking cigarettes is much more important to me. I eventually remarried my husband. I have reason to believe my husband is having gay sex. So in conclusion I would much rather pay a cell phone bill that my children unnecessarily created than lose the love of my children. Sue "Fuzzy Face" Willison -
uglyfatfuzzyfaceSue
Just another example of a parent not keeping informed of what their child is doing and expected everybody else (T-Mobile) to sympahthize with them. This is one the lesser evils that can happen to an unsupervised child!!! -
Lacey71730
This story illustrates the fact that parents buy this stuff for their kids and fail to educate themselves. Before you sign your kid up for a mobile line, you need to call and ask what is included. It isn't rocket science. These stories keep popping up. If you take advantage of a service, you pay for it. That is an expensive phone depicted in the video, and if they had paid what would probably have been $20 or so per month, their kid could have sent all the texts he wants. Also, they should have made sure their kid understood the phone before he was allowed to use it. As was also mentioned here, that phone is clearly meant for messaging. I don't feel one bit bad for parents who fail to understand what they're giving to their kid and then learn a hard lesson. Just get the unlimited text plan. It isn't hard. -
Katelanta
Funniest thing about all this mess is that whey would have avoided these outrageous claims if they hadnt been cheap in the first place and paid for the text msging plan.. most unlimited text plans start around 10-20 $ extra .. sure beats a 1500$ bill. -
VcdVaultOnDalNet
14OO $$ ISNT N0THING MINE WAS 1700.00 -
BRiiTHAK0OLKiD
I can empathize with this mother. I actually had the same catastrophe happen to me. My cell phone was actually over $1,000 due to text messaging. However, my teenage daughter actually does not have a cell phone but managed to put an old sim card into my other daughter's (who pays for her own phone) old sidekick (made for text msg) without my knowledge. I contacted T-Mobile and after speaking to several people, credited some of the bill and giving me time to pay it. I appreciate the assistance and do not believe that T-Mobile is at fault, but believe text messsaging should be blocked access by children. -
irrmom1
BEFORE you give your child a cell phone, make sure you know everything there is to know about that phone, what features it comes with, what the costs are associated with those features. In my opinion (and yes, I am a mother) the dear Doctor should definitely be resposible for that cell phone bill... but her son should be made to pay her back with whatever allowance he gets AND his cell phone should be taken away until he pays her back. And the type of cell phone her son has is marketed for instant messaging, text message and the like. Anyone who has ever walked into a T-Mobile store or seen a commercial for that phone knows that. -
Lucy_Fir430
It would have been much more informative and helpful to have specific information as to how this happened and what to be aware of, so parents can inform their children of the consequences. All this video did was instill uncertainty of unknown facts omitted. -
gpwmom
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