always to companys fault
 

Teen Racks Up $21K Cell Phone Bill
Teen Downloaded 1.5M Kilobytes Of Data

POSTED: Friday, December 11, 2009
UPDATED: 1:09 pm CST December 11, 2009

HAYWARD, Calif. -- A Hayward man is hoping his cell-phone service provider will work with him after receiving a massive bill for over $21,000 largely made up of charges incurred by his son after the teen was added to the family account, KTVU-TV in San Jose reported.

When he first got the bill in the mail, Ted Estarija couldn't believe his eyes.

Estarija said he thought adding his 13-year-old son to his cell-phone account would cost him an extra $50 a month. Instead, the recently unemployed Hayward father now owes Verizon $21,918.

"I was completely caught off guard," said Estarija. "This is outrageous. It seems like it comes to almost $100 a minute."

Estarija said he asked Verizon to restrict his son's usage to phone calls and texts, but the bill shows his son downloaded about 1.5 million kilobytes of data with his phone.

"This is not completely his fault," said Estarija. "I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn't allow this to happen."

A Verizon spokeswoman told KTVU-TV she couldn't comment specifically about the issue while it is being investigated, but said the company planned to work with Estarija to resolve the problem.

Estarija admitted there may be a lesson to be learned here, but at almost $22,000 it comes at too high a cost.

"There's no way I can pay this, so (I'll do) whatever I can to get this resolved," said Estarija.

He said his biggest concern right now is not how to pay the bill, but helping his son. Estarija said his son has become despondent over causing his dad so much financial and emotional distress.

I don't care what the fuck who downloaded, those charges are fucking crazy and totally out of hand.

always to companys fault ?

WTF is that?

You should write fortune cookies, or instruction manuals for weed wackers.

JC

assuming this ISN'T the case

"Estarija said he asked Verizon to restrict his son's usage to phone calls and texts, " but the bill shows his son downloaded about 1.5 million kilobytes of data with his phone.

if jr D/L all that info and pops signed the contract.......why is the co. at fault?

My verizon account had to be unlocked to allow me TO download stuff :idk:

They set mine up the way I asked them too. Calls and txt ONLY. I can't download ringtones or anything unless I call to unlock, then I call them to lock it back

Don't they understand how scared of responsibility the public is?!?!!??!??

i dunno, my guess is, dad called to get phone hooked up, didn't bother to read the details...........then JR D/L's the whole i-net, and it's the co's fault.

do phone co's cap D/L info?

next somebody will be sueing cuz they asked for a D/L cap, and the cap hit just as they need to D/L something important and they loose billions cuz the D/L was cut off.

It cost 21G to move a gig and a half?
How long would it take to download 1.5 gig over a typical Verizon cell connection?

Not to defend the father, but many adults can't figure out the remote on a TV....so they don't KNOW whats out there to grab.

My son has a phone (he's 12) and thankfully we've talked about what he CAN use the phone for, and everything else he ASSUMES will be considered to default to "no you can't unless you ask Dad"

My step-daughter gets one this month (she turns 11) and we'll have to sit her down and make sure she understands that principle as well

Because twenty one thousand motherfucking dollars is too much for a month of ANYTHING short of 24 hour nursing care.

$21K plus for a month of data? On the moon, I can see it.

:lol

How is Verizon not completely out of hand?