cellphone overages - a rant!!!

[shanti]

i think i'm going to freak out. i just got the cellphone bill (for my 14 yr old son). he has the max t-mobile minutes - 3000. does anyone not think that is enough minutes??!

WELL, IT WASN'T! he was up to his 3000 on the 21st of the month. at that point t-mobile charges me 35 CENTS A MINUTE for the remainder of the month!!! can you guess how many extra minutes he had used? 2000 freaking minutes!! can you guess how much my cellphone bill was??


900 fucking dollars!!!!! does ANYONE know how i can get this bargained down, is that even possible? i only had 1 more month on the friggin contract and was planning to cut it off then anyway!

HELP!!!!!

[CornField]

1. Ugh!

I really don't have an idea, except maybe being honest with the cellphone company and begging.

Maybe he needs one of those pay-as-you-go phones?

Sorry... that really sucks.

[Dora]

2. Ouch. Offer your son in trade.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Now this...this here is a good idea.

:thumbsup:

[arcos]

3. wow... you would pay $330 for 5000 minutes here...

How can he talk 5000 minutes anyway?

[shanti]

10. his phone is glued to his ear

like a typical teen.

[BoX o BooX]

4. This kid needs a vigorous beating.

Does he never hang up? Is this child never in school?

Geez, that's outrageous. You can TRY to bargain, but they have all the cards.

This is an incredible story. Makes me feel better about trying to keep my nephew (age 25, no job, sleeps on my couch) under 350 minutes for the phone I got him so he could get a job. Which he hasn't.

[democraticgator]

5. cingular has a 6000 minute plan

[On the Road]

6. Call Them -- Tell Them Your Position

and ask if they can lower it. Tell them you were already buying the max and they didn't offer any bigger plans. Ask them if they have phones that will cut your kid off after 3000 minutes. It makes you look more responsible. Tell them you can't afford the entire $900, and that you don't want your credit rating to suffer but you don't have much choice.

Don't get their back up and make them fight. Be distressed but be nice. And be insistent that you can't pay the whole thing, even if they say they can't do anything.

Also tell them you've been a satisfied customer. Don't give them the idea you've already made up your mind to leave or they'll have not incentive. If necessary, agree to sign up for another year to get a break on the $900.

I've had a little experience with policies for giving credits on the local telephone side, but not with cellular. So I can't promise it's going to work. Good luck.

[miss_kitty]

7. MAKE THE DEAL BEFORE YO U TELL THEM YOU ARE SPLITTING

and pre pay the kid's next phone. It stops working after he hits the limit. 50 hours on the phone. that's a lot for one month

[YellowRubberDuckie]

9. Dude, sounds like your kid is irresponsible....

You can set those phones to only call certain numbers. And I think you should have him only calling you and the members of your immediate family, like his other parent, his grandparents, and bros or sisters. Actaully, Why does a 14 year old boy have a cell phone anyway? And why the hell did you give him 3000 minutes!? How insane are you?! I mean that with all the love in my heart. Pay the bill, and make him start doing odd jobs to pay it off himself. He'll learn a lesson and you'll recoup the money, hopefully. You live, you learn, and then you beat the crap out of that kid. (And I mean that figuratively and with all the love in my heart.:evilgrin:)
Duckie

[shanti]

14. i'm a single mom

and the cellphone is my lifeline to my son, literally. he is involved in sports, etc. there's no way i can stay in touch without it and i feel more secure with him having it.

i swear i don't know any other kid that talks on the phone so much, he is the consumate yakker, worse than any girl, and he has a ton of friends. really, if t-mobile HAD a way to just limit the calls he makes, i would've gotten it. i am being charged for incoming too.

when this contract is up, i will get the unlimited metropcs phone. you have to buy the phone up front, but i have learned a hard lesson here!

yes, i screamed and yelled until i'm now hoarse. i told he he he was extremely irresponsible with other people's money (MINE!) and i don't even know if i am going to let him get his license now. just when i thought he was becoming more responsible, this happens....:-(

[YellowRubberDuckie]

16. OK...I understand.

But you should have the company restrict the phone to only calls to you and his other adult figures.
Duckie

[BoX o BooX]

18. I promise you won't like this response.

If you've got things coordinated, then you only need to talk to this kid on the phone 10 minutes a day, maximum. I don't care how busy you are or how busy he is... you set a schedule and you use the phone for when things get out of whack.

I can prove it.

Every DUer over 30 managed to grow up without a cell phone.

That's it. Simple. Slow down. Simplify.

I am sure you are beating yourself up, so I don't want to pile on... you fucked up, he fucked up... you bear a certain amount of responsibility because you gave him rein, and he takes his cue from you... but he is also responsible. This is an absurd situation. As soon as we are provided with the ability to communicate instantaneously, we believe that instantaneous communication is not just essential, but a right.

Good luck with the phone company. Ypu got some good suggestions on this thread.

[fortyfeetunder]

23. As one of those over 30, can attest to that

I think the kid's phone has to be converted to prepaid.

Does he have a savings account? I would make him pay for that $900 our of his savings. And if he has less money than that? Well, he needs to earn $$$ to take care of it.

This is a tough lesson on responsiblity and if it hurts (ego, financial) then it's a lesson learned.

[Skittles]

11. take that damn thing away from him

nt

[shanti]

15. believe me, it's gone!

he won't have this one back even if i have to pay the bill next month for nothing.

[LeftyMom]

12. Holy Crap.

That's THREE AND A HALF DAYS on the phone. One tenth of his time on the phone. I use my phone for business and I'm not on it a tenth ot that time. Check out his call log to see who he needs to talk to that long. This could be indicative of a larger problem. Probably not, but it's worth looking into.

What I'd do if my kid did that: No christmas. If any realtives send presents they get returned and applied to the bill. If he's got a bike or a video game system or anything like that I'd put it on ebay and apply the proceeds to his bill. Then he's is mowing lawns until he dies.

I'd call T-mobile customer service but unless you have a long account history with them I don't know how helpful they'll be. The fact that you're due to renew soon helps. It costs a lot of money to secure a new customer, so they have a good incentive to keep you even if it means reducing the bill to somewhere out of the stratosphere.

If your son ever gets a cell phone again, look into a unlimited minutes plan. I don't know how competitive your market is but they run $35-60 a month here, depnding on the carrier.

PS Have you checked the call log to make sure your son really did make all those calls? If it were anybody other than a teenager my first thought would be fraud of some sort.

[shanti]

17. jesus, now that you put it that way!

*shudder* that IS a long time. unfortunately, they were HIS calls. he has his first little girlfriend and the time these calls were made was when he and a group of his friends were planning their homecoming dance details. it's always the girls that are behind running up these calls it seems.

oh, and i told him already that he WON'T be getting any christmas. that was the first to go!

[tjdee]

13. Pre-paid cell phones...and YOUR SON should pay for it.

Your son knows he's on the phone every second. If he's responsible enough to have one, he should be responsible enough to say gee, I bet I'm going over my minutes and I should get off the phone.

I would pay as much as you think is reasonable, and get him to pay for the rest somehow. I don't think you're going to have luck with the phone co.--they NEVER want to listen to my sob stories, LOL. They just want their money.

[Skip Intro]

19. I do this for a living

I had a guy in my office today who had a $500+ bill, due to overages. The company, Nextel, would not budge on the amount. I explained to the guy clearly when he signed up, and put it in plain writing (my own, not the "fine print" stuff) what plan he had, when his bill cycle was, how many minutes he had, etc...

Honestly, tho, the company wants to keep you an active customer more than they want to charge you outrageous fees. Nextel is its own beast, and not flexible in the least, but that doesn't mean T-moblie is the same way.

Approach it ratoinally with them, and explain simply that you would like to find a solution, and keep to the terms of your contract, but that you just cannot pay this amount of money for a month's usage of a cell phone. Always, if you are not getting satisfaction, ask for a superior (even supervisors have superiors). And, I hate to say this, but it does matter how long and how hard you push, to the results you get. Politely refuse to take no for an answer, but keep in mind that in the end, they do hold the winning hand (if you refuse to pay, this will eventually wind up on your credit report). Strong, persistent persuasion will work better than emotional arguments.

Just my two cents, fwiw.

[shanti]

20. thanks for the advice

i'm compiling everyone's advice here so i can make this call tomorrow. i'm afraid that if i call now, i will lose it.

peace.

[PatsFan2004]

21. Does T-Mobile let you see usage online? I have Cingular

and watch my family usage on a regular basis. One of our family phones is in the hands of an in-law, so I need up to date data.

[Flaxbee]

22. call the $900 his first credit card bill...

or whatever amount you have to end up paying, hopefully not the full $900! But... if he's 14, he might be able to do odd jobs, deliver a newspaper (lol - do kids even do that anymore? does anyone even read a newspaper anymore?), mow the neighbor's lawn, babysit, whatever. Tally it up, tack on 10% interest and he has to pay it to you, over however many years or months it takes to pay it down. You could put whatever $$ you were planning on spending for Christmas towards the balance, any money his relatives give him, etc. And you can let him choose how much of his earned money goes toward it-- either the minimum or a full payment (I guess I'm saying don't force him to put all of his earned $$ toward it, but maybe 1/2 - 3/4 of it each time he earns some money).

And if I were you, I wouldn't take away ALL Christmas, but maybe just give one gift... yes, he was irresponsible, but this is a good chance to teach him the value of money w/o being too punitive. If he feels like he's fulfilling a responsibility rather than being 100% punished, maybe the lesson will stick with him once he's a young adult.

Maybe I'm a softie, but we all screw up, and I always responded better to punishments from my parents when there was also a little incentive and/or something to be learned. I never did well with straight punishment - it made me very resentful - but a rational plan to fix whatever I'd fucked up always appealed to me... and if he's a sensitive kid at all, which he probably is, he probably feels pretty bad anyway.

[OneBlueSky]

24. um . . . time to take the phone away . . .

if he wants one, he gets a job and pays for it himself . . . jmho, of course . . . good luck . . . :)