You’ve heard it once before, and I’m going to tell you over and over again until you learn to switch your damn phone off when you go abroad. Two Houston, Texas children, brother and sister, Sam age 13, and Sarah age 11, went on a trip to the Dead Sea in Israel, and even though I’d thought until now that Israel utilizes GSM technology, their operator was Verizon Wireless … so they’ve must’ve had a world phone. Anyway, when they came back they got their bill, and no surprise, it was insane.
Two small children can, and should be, forgiven for such a small mistake, but Verizon isn’t going to have it. They said they’ll knock $4,000 off the bill, but that’s as low as they’ll go. It’s a bit deplorable, especially since Cindy, the mother of the two children, claims that she didn’t receive any notifications telling her that she’s racking up a phone bill big enough to buy a new Hyundai.
We’ve heard this sort of stuff happening to iPhone users because the iPhone was the first device that taught Americans that mobile devices can do more than talk and text, so naturally when they go abroad they used their device like they do at home and then BOOM. The biblical phone bill from AT&T comes in the mail and makes the first person who reads it go blind for a few years.
Do yourself a favor. If you’re going abroad, just turn off your mobile phone, or better yet, buy a really cheap quadband GSM device and shove a local SIM card inside. Yes, you’re not going to have email, but you’re on holiday. And if you need email, then chances are you work for a company that is paying your phone bill anyways. Be safe out there, because you never want to be in the situation where you have to choose between paying your phone bill or paying your mortage.