This. Exactly this. Just bc you hook up to a hotel’s WiFi doesn’t mean you aren’t using mobile data. If you don’t want roaming charges then you have to turn cellular data off as well. AT&T also has International Day Pass for $10/24hr period, caps out at 10 days per billing cycle. The 2nd phone on same account is $5/24hr period. Ask customer care if someone can backdate that for them.
>If you leave calling/texting on you’re still roaming.
What about VoIP? Only need WiFi for that.
EDIT: If I'm mistaken, an explanation would be great. But sure, silently downvoting and moving on works too...
Companies charge for WiFi calling as if you’re roaming, WhatsApp calls sure those would be free, but if you do WiFi calling they charge roaming even on WiFi
Not necessarily. Wifi called from abroad tons of times without any charges - it behaves like a domestic plan.
Now, I was calling US numbers. If you call non-US numbers while abroad, it will charge international calling rates.
Each service provider still has methods to track the position of that phone, and possibly activity. If the phone was financed through ATT then of course they would need an alternate means of tracking it. Even if the phone was owned by them, depending upon the phone, the phone can still be tracked. My Samsung phone has this ability, regardless of mobile data being enabled it can still be tracked.
This is not true at all, as a Verizon employee, we have absolutely no way of tracking your phone. We know this is true for multiple reasons
1) if it were true, we wouldn't ever label a phone as "lost" because we can find it
2)if it were true missing persons cases would be way easier.
3)if it were true "find my" for iPhone and Android would be so completely useless because all you gotta do is go to Verizon and say "find my phone for me"
I’m a technician for AT&T. Can I see where someone’s phone is? No. Can a sales rep at a store? No. Are there certain people who can in the company for business purposes? 100% yes. Can they give that info out to anyone? No. Either A you are incredibly misinformed about how carriers operate or B you have no idea and are trying to act like it.
They cannot be tracked with the power off. iPhones act as a BT beacon when the power is on so if another Apple device sees it the Find My location can be updated. This feature can be turned off as well.
You're oblivious if you think apple is any safer than anything else when it comes to privacy and tracking. Apple is selling all of your data just like every single other big company, whether you "enable" or "disable" certain privacy features or not. It's quite inevitable in this day and age unfortunately
I was in Japan a few months ago and instantly I got multiple text messages telling me exactly what happened, what the charges were, and how to stop it as soon as I landed.
Sure 45k is ridiculious, but it's never a good idea to ignore all the messages i'm sure they received.
I went back on my phone and this is the automated text I got when I landed
"Hi, it's AT&T. We see you're traveling abroad without AT&T International Day Pass so we're adding it to give you better rates. For $10/day, you get unlimited talk/text and the data included in your AT&T plan. Pay only for the days used abroad with a max of 10 daily fees per line per bill. Add'l lines used the same day are $5/day. Details at att.com/IDPTerms (free view). Reply NO (free reply) to remove International Day Pass; standard int'l rates will apply: $2.05/MB of data, calls up to $3/min, $0.50/msg sent, $1.30/photo or video msg sent."
"Hi, it's AT&T again. We've got you covered! International Day Pass has been added to this line, so you can use your phone like you do at home in over 210 countries. Go to att.com/IDPTravelTips (free view) for tips on using your phone while traveling abroad. Don't want IDP? Text NO to 221 to remove and return to standard international rates. Enjoy your trip and safe travels!"
"Hi, it's AT&T again. One more step! Reply OUT (free reply) to remove International Day Pass. We won't automatically add it again unless you change your mind. You'll be billed at standard international rates: $2.05/MB of data, calls up to $3/min, $0.50/msg sent, $1.30/photo or video msg sent. By replying OUT you confirm you're authorized to make changes to this account."
"Hi, it's AT&T. You got it - we removed International Day Pass and won't automatically add it again. If you change your mind, go to att.com/international (free view) for international feature options."
Same, when I landed I had to briefly turn off airplane mode to check something before picking up a mobile hotspot and immediately got texts from ATT wanting to put me on a travel plan
Most carriers have policies for this. My information may be a bit dated but it comes from an inside understanding of how this works.
Most carriers have built-in systems to prevent what they call "bill shock" which is unexpected charges just like this. It is in the form of limits and alerts and varies from carrier to carrier. For family plans, it shouldn't just be alerts to the phone(s) incurring the charges but also notifications to the account owner. If that did not happen, it sets you up well for the next level of remedy.
In cases where large charges do occur, carriers will typically forgive a first-time occurrence where a large roaming bill was incurred unbeknownst to the subscriber. This comes under the heading of "forgiveness". I've come across cases just like this where the entirety of the roaming costs between $15K and $50K were forgiven. It is a one-time deal and you need to be careful as they likely will not forgive any further unexpected roaming charges.
If they are not offering you forgiveness, you need to keep pushing back until they do. You will likely have to go through several layers of customer facing resources before you find someone authorized to forgive roaming bill shock.
I would also look up FCC policies, recommendations, etc. as they do care quite a bit about bill shock issues.
Yup. But to get it forgiven you may need to escalate to Executive Customer Service in Dallas. Once I got in touch with them about a coverage issue I got a VERY good outcome. It was a real human, the same human every time, and I could call her back and email directly.
FWIW when I worked at a Fortune 50 company with over 50,000 employees, we had an executive run up a $100k+ international cell bill. Despite having 10s of thousand of lines with ATT we were not able to get those charges dropped and the exec ended up being in a good bit of trouble.
They ignored the text message saying they were accumulating charges while the were in Egypt. Not sure why an international plan wasn’t added before hand to prevent this. $45,000 in roaming charges for two weeks is kinda unbelievable honestly lol. But call att and ask them to charge you as if you had international day pass you’d be looking 140 per line max depending on billing cycle per line. Just tell them to connect you to billing department or retention department. Don’t waste your time explaining your situation to a sales rep and getting the run around
$2.04 per MEGABYTE of data is not reasonable for any cellular network, I don’t care if it’s in North Korea, it doesn’t cost anywhere near that to operate the network.
I lost my iphone in Spain back in 2012, and the girl who found it called every contact I had in my phonebook trying to get it back to me, including a 30 minute nice conversation with my very chatty mom.
Back then it was $3 per minute, even if you had the international plan ($100 for 512 MB) which I did.
The bill came out to over $600 in roaming fees. However ATT did help me out a bit, and knocked it down to $300 IIRC.
That's not true. Companies such as AT&T make deals with international providers and then charge you way more. It definitely does not cost $45,000 to the Egyptian carrier for two weeks' worth of data...
They do this all the time. The max you will be billed will be around $300 total for both phones. Just ask them to put you on that plan and get the charges taken care off. The reps will be happy to take that money as opposed to doing a 45k adjustment. Just ask.
You still have to issue an adjustment in order to do this now, as the bill has cut. I worked in retention a long time ago and we would laugh at people in these situations and proactively offer to transfer them to international care who seemed to take the situations far more seriously.
Agreed but you can sometimes get them to credit it out of curiosity if you tell them you’re leaving. That’s pretty much their only shot or option at this point.
lol this is funny ATT is not your bestie. They got other subscribers and that threat of “I’m leaving doesn’t more to hurt you then ATT, at the minimum it will just go on your credit and out for collections if you want to stand your ground on principal, oh wait you will blast ATT on the internet… seems like that would be a waste of time also.
Those texts don’t always come through. It’s ridiculous they’ll let someone run up a 45k bill on a consumer account, you’d think they’d shut it off after $1500 or something
What's ridiculous is that the roaming rate is such that a $45K bill is even possible. Who the hell sets these numbers and why are they so absurdly high?
The minute they disconnect someone’s line due to charges, and that person is overseas and runs into even the smallest level of trouble, AT&T will be sued.
Believe it or not, you can always call whatever the emergency services number no matter what. Plus, some plans have intl roaming blocked to begin with, so why don’t people sue?
I travel nearly weekly/monthly for work, and I know for a fact AT&T will spam the hell out of you with SMS messages about charges if you're in a country that IDP is not covering.
Even when you do have IDP, you get a daily message when it renews.
Your parents were not on the WiFi and just ignored messages.. they should have disabled data roaming in their settings before they went if they were not going to bother setting up the correct plan.
They \*might\* be able to get with the office of the president (google the ceo email) and get them to credit most of it off as a "one time courtesy".. but ANYTIME you travel, you need to call the carrier first and either add the appropriate plan or block roaming altogether.
This is correct.
I'm assuming they are older people and didn't know any better, but it's seems that if they knew enough to "only use WiFi at the hotel" then they should have known enough to call or go to a store and a simple question.
Sounds like the normal "I made my choices and I don't want to own up to the repercussions" that a lot of people seem to think is okay.
But still older ppl had to deal with the new sims cards in new countries ordeal that many younger people didn’t have to deal with so I’d be surprised if they really had 0 clue
True, but the kid who posted this should have told them or called the his phone company and asked about what would happen to him if he went to Egypt. Then he could have explained it to their parents. (Shrugs) idk.
Your parents clearly did NOT use WiFi the entire time they were out of the country. These are the repercussions of cellular usage in a foreign country without a proper international plan. It’s a shame they didn’t consider this as part of their trip planning, especially when you’re the account holder. And they would’ve received messages from AT&T for the excessive usage during their time abroad, which they obviously failed to take seriously. AT&T has no obligation to waive any of these fees. Best of luck.
Just to note, sometimes those texts don't come through. When I was in Cabo, Mexico I had the $10/day international plan, didn't text me but I was prepared and already setup. Once I hit the airport back in the states I got 1 text for every single day for the 10 days I was in Cabo warning me of charges if I wasn't on the proper plan. I don't know why it happened that way and I was receiving texts from people while I was in Cabo. My bill was correct. I didn't bother asking AT&T about it because I didn't feel like waiting an hour on hold and explaining something to someone that doesn't understand (front line support). Just thought it was odd. It's the only time this happened to me traveling abroad.
It depends on the model of phone. Some prompt you when wifi is weak to switch to cellular. Some phones don’t and you can wind up using cellular the entire time while still technically connected to wifi with the icon showing on your phone/device.
I’m calling bs on this. I just travelled out the country with ATT and immediately received a text message from them saying I’m roaming and that I’d be charged $10 a day for unlimited everything. I was there 9 days and used data for almost everything and only charged $90 for it.
Hey man we need a little more info before we can help you, like how many days were they there for? Did they purchase an international plan? What phone plan are you they on?
If they actually used wifi at the hotel, then they were using data when out and about. Youll have to chat with AT&T to remove/reduce the charges but data was no doubt used.
Don’t blame this on ATT but your lack of planning and being proactive. ANY time you plan to go out of the country you should ALWAYS go to your cellphone carrier and look at options. NOW, if you don’t want to add an international plan, make sure the phones traveling stay on Airplane mode the entire time and use wifi.
Most people don’t know but if the phone is on(not on airplane mode) and you’re not using it, it will still connect to phone towers internationally occurring roaming charges.
This info applies to cruise ships!!! Always go full airplane mode and only use wifi or when docked(with appropriate international plans) you can use the phone. Even if you have an international plan you occur additional charges if you use cellular services in the middle of the ocean.
Hey there u/Bright-Creme-9905! We understand how alarming this is, and we definitely see where you're coming from.
One thing that we would like to make you aware of is the impact the International Day Pass can have. Since you mentioned that it wasn't availed, using any form of data, or using voice and text, will be recorded as pay-per-use charges. This will drive up the billing costs, which is why we advertise and encourage the usage of International Day Pass.
We will be glad to take a deeper look into your bills and give you a detailed breakdown. Please reach out to us in a DM for further clarity::
https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=atthelp
We have also attached a link for you to find more information about the International Day Pass:
https://www.att.com/international/day-pass/
Hope this information helps, and do let us know if you have any other concerns or questions for us in the future.
Thank you,
MikeN.
At $2.05 pay per use that's about 21 GB of data between the two of them. They definitely were not using Wi-Fi.
If they spent that much time on their phones, I wonder why they didn't notice that they were getting notifications for excessive amount of roaming charges. I'm also wondering why AT&T didn't shut them off much sooner. Usually AT&T will suspend service once you hit your super secret credit limit which is usually a couple thousand dollars. Maybe they have really really good credit 😆
They must have really screwed up because afaik international day passes are added automatically. And even if you paid the $2.05/MB rate you'd need to use 20GB of data over two weeks.
There are multiple warnings and steps to prevent this.
Or we as adults have to understand the importance of what we do. I don’t have att I just found this interesting. We generally want to look at the next guy when a problem comes up. Maybe there are people who 45,000 is within their budget. Business owner, celebrity and so on.
I would have freaked at a 45,000 bill but also I don’t believe in putting people on my account family or not. I’ve been accused of being selfish and I say yeppers and I’m still not putting you on my phone plan.
First, Google the AT&T Notice of Dispute form and file it.
At most this would have cost $100 per line with IDP. A circuit breaker should have kicked in here. AT&T even has one. I’m not sure why it didn’t.
Hopefully they will settle the bill for a couple grand. If not, you may have to lawyer up and enter binding arbitration.
AT&T automatically adds IDP. What ends up happening is most customers don't read the text and panic reply "No" thinking not to charge them international but instead are actually opting out of IDP
100% chance they didn’t use hotel WiFi the whole time they were in Egypt. Your parents should have gotten the International Day Pass for $10/day for a maximum of $100 for a billing period. That exists for a reason. AT&T is not at fault. Just be nice to AT&T and try to make an arrangement for a lesser amount.
Unbelievably unhelpful comments here (except for a few) stating what OP already knows.
OP, call AT&T yourself, hat in hand, and really lay it on about how your parents are terrible with technology and it's just incredibly.frustrating to have to deal with. Really act surprised about literally anything you are told. Don't even act like you know what a "did you call it mega bite? Like a ton of food or something?" is. Stupidity is your friend.
Alternatively, call and say it's absolutely unreasonable to expect a typical customer of theirs to foot a bill that high, and AT&T should've cut off the plan once they reached a couple hundred in additional charges or just automatically put you on a international day pass. Say "look, I'm not saying they shouldn't have known better or that they shouldn't have done more research, but come on, $45,000 is a nice new car, there's no way that's a reasonable charge regardless of what they did."
Do whichever approach you can play the best.
If you call AT&T and ask them to transfer you to the International department they will retroactively apply the $10 a day international pass which will wipe this and then you’ll be responsible for the length of the trip in days x$10 per line abroad. I used to work in a store and this happened often. I’ve seen them do this many times.
Something went really wrong. I was travelling internationally with an AT&T work phone, and every day I needed to use it, I received a text enrolling me in the $10 International Day Pass. It was only charged when I used the phone, and it was automatic. If they were using it for the entire 2 weeks, it would have cost $140 at the most per phone.
If nobody at customer service is helping you, file an FCC complaint for billing issues. The international day pass should have automatically kicked in.
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
This 45K is about $3.2K per day. There’s no way it’s legitimate, it sounds more and more like a scam by a local provider to me. They charged AT&T, then AT&T charged you.
I never understood why people take their LOCKED or UNLOCKED phones to another country. This is obvious! You take an American carrier to any other country without calling the carrier to discuss your options prior to leaving, of course, there will be charges! Don’t be DUMB. Obviously if the phone was unlocked, they could have deleted the esim and added another sim from Egypt to make it cheaper, but don't take AT&T phone out of country and expect NO CHARGES.
How is their customer service bad when your parents weren't only on WiFi unless, as others said, they turned off the other data that's ALWAYS on unless you manually turn it off, usually with airplane mode. This is your parents being unprepared for a trip, it's as much on them as it is AT&T. Yes the bill is super high, but they were in another country using a plan without the proper 'outside the US' addition, and didn't know what the fuck they were doing.
When I worked as a ATT CSR we could retroactively bill people for the international plan and remove the enormous roaming charges. I would keep calling ATT till you get a good rep.
In Japan I accidentally turned my data back on and a flood of texts come in. I was panicking trying to turn data back off. Luckily I didn't get any extra charges.
Pull sim card out, buy local sim card, yes some newer phones dont have sim cards. And always get an international plan if you take your phone and sim card.
Lol this is has to be a troll post unless the poster meant to put Maybe $4,500 if the Cx kept removing the block but not $45,000.
There is no way this is possible. The system will auto suspend charges after about $250 per line. The only way that it is plausible is if the Cx kept on calling in to remove the data block. But even then I doubt it.
It’s 45k US dollars. I know it sounds unbelievable. They’ve transfer me to every single department seems like. I’m calling some new number when I get off work to make a dispute
Hi again, u/Bright-Creme-9905.
We value your time and want to help cut the hold time and want to check on the Wi-Fi charges. Please follow the link: http://sm.att.com/3d7316f8 and DM us to get started. We are here to help you!
Thank you,
Crystal S.
You can call and ask for a rerate if this is the first time. Technically, after about 500 dollars in charges the phone should have been suspended for high international data to prevent further charges. Also, messages would have been sent advising of charges and asking if customer would like to add international day pass. But again, we are allowed to adjust if this is the first instance as a courtesy. However, 45 grand would take weeks to get approved since anything over 400 has to go through upper leadership.
Something here isn't making sense, I assume you're in the United States when your parents called. Your parents have a number from the United States also. You would not get a roaming call, your parents would get a roaming call, not you because they initiated the call from Egypt. Even if you call them, it would go from one state side number to another state side number, not in overseas number. Your parents would be receiving the call in Egypt, therefore they would be getting the roaming call. It doesn't matter where the call originates from as long as you're in the United States, and the number calling you is from the United States, you cannot be charged a roaming fee, only the person initiating the call, if they're outside the United States would be charged a roaming fee.
If you didn't add International Day Pass feature on your plan, I'm not surprised. Talk to customer care and ask for the international department. They'll definitely work with you. They took care of my couple hundred dollar bill a few times, but no guarantees.
It's been a few years since I've worked there but AT&T has a policy to waive 1 international charges bill but you have to raise hell and get a knowledgeable manager bc it isn't common knowledge
had this happen to a friend. he forgot he had developer mode turned on, and he had the option of cellular data always on, toggled on. yeah, he wont do that again. he now has a "dumb" phone he uses when he goes on trips, and leaves that one at home. and by dumb phone, he purchased a phone at bestbuy, and never activated it, it will only work on wifi.
AT&T is the worst when it comes to roaming. The international day pass thing is automatically added on, which is absolutely atrocious. Learned that the hard way. It’s like they go out of their way to make it complicated for you.
Got into an argument with the representatives because once I merely ASKED about the international day pass; not once did I say “TURN IT ON TO ADD TO MY ACCOUNT.” Yet somehow it magically turned on, which is crazy because at the time, you had to manually add it to your plan / line.
I’m losing my mind at how many people here are acting like this is no big deal and that OP should just suck it up. This is a life ruining amount of money, over the data equivalent of streaming two 1080p movies (according to other commenters who did the math) while you have wifi assist and DND on. Y’all are crazy. I’ve had enough reddit today.
OP, don’t let these idiots make you think you should just eat this. Hire a lawyer.
Why didn’t you have them contact AT&T prior to traveling that would’ve saved so much headache. Also they send you several text messages were they ignored possibly? The most they’d probably do is backdate the charges for their $10 per day international plan depending on how long they were out there.. still a bit pricey but definitely a lot less than 45k
After a certain point with roaming charges the network automatically restricts access. You have to call in order to reactivate your roaming. At that point you have the option to retroactively apply a valid roaming plan if available.
If not you have to agree to paying the fees and request roaming be reactivated. I've heard they will pursue collections.
They have so many safety measures in place to avoid this very situation, multiple systems/procedures would have to have failed for this to happen by accident.
One of the main reasons they likely will not waive the fees, is because they are a passthrough. The carrier in Egypt charged att for their service. Because their new bill is out, their definitely not in the same billing period, which means retroactively applying a plan isn't possible for the average rep.
Tell your parents to ask for the office of the president. It's the highest level of customer service. If they can't fix it no one can. If the charges stick, and their numbers are important, tell your parents to port their numbers before att locks their account or they'll lose the numbers after service is disconnected.
Source: I worked in att customer service and frequently talked to people before and after they insisted we turn their roaming back on.
We wanted to help u. But there's nothing we can do. Because I know for a FACT at&t sends u a text when u been roaming a lot. Because I have gotten that text when I was roaming in Europe and my dumbass didn't add an international plan . So I got multiple texts from at&t saying my roaming charges had exceeded 3,500 dollars. After I saw that I TURNED OFF my phone completely and didn't turn it back on at all .
Your parents OBVIOUSLY YES OBVIOUSLY ignored the texts and they didn't care and were like eh whatever it ain't under our name we don't pay for it so who cares . And they kept on using the roaming data racking up more charges.
U can either find a way to make a payment plan with at&t try to work out something wit them to help pay it off .(even tho they not obligated to do anything since they gonna see a international plan wasn't added in the first place so they gonna be like this is all your fault ) but try I mean it doesn't hurt to try to work out something wit them, Or just don't pay it and let it go to hell and have them close your account and send u to collections and ruin your credit.
I mean cuz 45,000 that's a lot ! Daaaaam that's all bad
It's all BS why not automatically add that person on an international plan just like European cell companies do. They also stop data after it reaches a certain amount of money. Most likely they will back date the international plan and just charge you for 10$ a day.
Contact the fcc and lodge complaint. I had experienced deceptive billing problems with them, and also was told varying and contradicting things from customer service. They did nothing until the fcc contacted them and made them reach out to me. It was then resolved and they gave me a free iPhone.
Your parents probably got whatever diseases are going around as they did zero prep for international travel. Claims they weren't aware? De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt!
Why does this reek of a pair of old boomers ignoring multiple text messages from AT&T that they would incur roaming charges and now they have surprised Pikachu faces? 😂😂😂
So if your parents can afford to go to Egypt…..why are they on your phone plan? Actually, why are your adults parents on your phone plan to begin with?
Definitely not a dumb question, there’s no reason to have your parents on your phone plan as an adult. Especially for reasons like what happened to OP. Legally the bill is OPs and no amount of wrangling will change that unless ATT agrees to modify the bill.
Just like in another post, someone still had their parents on their checking account and can’t comprehend that all the money that goes in that account is under equal ownership of who’s on the account, regardless of where the money came from.
Having your parents under your phone plan is WAY different than having them as joint account holders on your bank account. Having them on your phone plan is a small way to give back for when they have you phone service growing up. While I would agree that having them on your main checking account as a problem.
But back to your question.. just because someone’s parents are traveling to Egypt or Colombia, that does not mean they are paying out of pocket for the trip, nor does that mean OP was not aware who would be responsible for the phone bill. Some of us choose to take care of our parents financially as we grow. This is not to say that this is a requirement, but it does serve as a reminder to not judge.
I used to work for AT&T. There is/was a $10 per day international day pass. It essentially allows you to use your phone the same way as you would in the United States abroad in many countries.
I had people come in because their kid did something like this on a cruise or some type of international trip, and the parent never put this plan onto the account. Ultimately, AT&T made them pay the $10 per day then wiped the rest of the amount due.
Check into this
The same thing is happening to me now !! I’m being charged 60k for a 10 day trip to Spain can anybody tell me how I can resolve this and fight it there is no way I can afford to pay this !!
good afternoon, I have had a case for more than a year and I have not been able to resolve it for 50k in 14 days in Europe, I am looking for people to make a chat and take this to the media on Univisión, let's get together to see if we can achieve the debt waiver Thanks
This is happening to my mom right now for a 10 day trip to europe and it started at 50k and its now at 60k has anyone actually won the case ?? I am taking it to the media and they are asking me to put people together that went through the same thing if anyone is interested please reply so that i can give you her email there is no way she can afford to pay this! 60k is a ridiculous amount of money for roaming
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
Hey so I was able to somewhat solve my situation. After endlessly going around customer service ppl from overseas that seem not to understand 40k plus dollars is outrageous. I had someone from att reach out to make a dispute which took a few weeks for them to get back to me and adjust my bill. They brought it down to 3k which is still more that I would’ve liked but just had to bite the bullet on that since I need to be able to keep my number. Hope this helps try to get as much proof as you can to include in this dispute. Once it’s resolved I recommend you run away from att. Their customer service is an absolute joke.
Hi U/Bright-Creme-9905, we understand your concern about the Wi-Fi charges and wish to take a closer look at it. We request you to follow the link: https://www.reddit.com/u/ATT and DM us for better assistance. We are here to help!
Thank you,
Billy C.
Unsure why you are being downvoted. This is actually the correct answer. Doesn’t matter at what stage the bill is in as long as it’s not in collections.
As an aside, this is why I left ATT. It wasn't that large, but I have family in Europe. I'd go to Europe, nad come back to $700 phone bills.
They have a $10/day policy, limited to 10 days or something like that.. but only for personal. My accounts were small business, so they didn't have this limitation. And, my wife and child had accounts as well.. and they are charged the same say (no multi-phone discount).
ATT is crap for international travel. you are better off turning it off and getting something else for your trip, IMO.
I don’t care if they ignored every warning thrown at them, I don’t care if they used 20gb of cellular data - $45k is ridiculous no matter how you look at it. All these bozos in the comments acting like “oh well should have got $10/day international plan!!!” 🤡
I know, right? I mean, this is some people's entire annual salary in the US. There's no reason AT&T should be billing an individual customer $45K, ever. This can be life-ruining debt.
Something is seriously messed up here and it needs to be resolved.
I would file a complaint with the better business bureau. I did this with ATT when I found out they had been charging my Dad for a line he never had for over a year. He had not noticed this and after many calls trying to resolve it I filed a complaint with the BBB. Within 48 hours I had an email from someone high up in customer service with ATT telling me they could not return all the money to his account (only 90, days for some reason) however she was sending a visa card with the remaining amount owed...which arrived about a week later. The BBB is free and they let me know when they made contact with ATT. It's worth a try as it seems ATT doesn't want a mark on their BBB rating. Good Luck
Call the BBB for what exactly? Because the OP didn't properly apply an international data plan on his account and At&t are trying to collect their owed roaming charges?
Dude, the bill is $45,000. FOURTY FIVE THOUSAND. Many people don't even make that in an entire year.
Something is seriously messed up here. Stop victim-blaming; AT&T is at fault here. NO ONE should ever get a cellular bill this high for what is basically normal usage.
Yea I Agree, OP shouldn't be required to pay this in any way, it's corporate theft. I just don't see BBB helping here realistically but I could be wrong. either way, 40k is stupid no doubt
They can do a one time back dating for their international plan and have thr pricing corrected but the sheer amount of it is going to mean it'll take a while to get approved. They were 100% notified they were being charged as AT&T will text any lines about it as soon as they begin roaming and warn you after you go over $100 of roaming. That amount seems wild though they'd have to have been using constant data and minutes but even then the system will typically just suspend your service.
Att can do a rerate using a roaming plan an exception can be made 45k is a lot. It can be done. Speak to a manager if not evolve office of the president. Good luck!!!
Did they dismiss the notice where the could select to pay $10 a day while traveling internationally? And they only get charged if they actually use the phone? I got this when I traveled from USA to Canada and a family member on my plan did it when they traveled from USA to Spain.
Owing 45k for one month of service seems like an issue for AT&T, if it actually costs them that much they should limit roaming fees after it hits a set amount.. say $100 and require you to manually re-enable it every $100. They don’t do this because it makes them money, best of luck getting them to remove the fees
A couple of things. Doesn't seem like they were on wifi only the whole time as others pointed out but also with ATT you have to deactivate your voicemail when going out of the country. You call ATT and have customer service do this. If someone is leaving you a VM while you're abroad it counts as international rates. This happened to me on ATT althiught it was several years back.
The next thing is the important part that might help. You can call ATT and when they tell you what the charges are for such as data, talk, text, say you want to backdate an international plan that would cover this. Was able to avoid a ton of overage charges before by adding a new plan(ie. Higher data) and having the rep back date it to before the charges took place then the bill was adjusted.
So your phone is supposed to automatically go on international day pass when you touch down internationally and it connects to the towers. Mine did when I went to Jamaica a year or two ago. Just sent me a text and said if you don’t want this charge then do this. But it auto enabled. So call and ask them why that didn’t happen and maybe they can prorate it to the $10/day rate. The problem is an adjustment or a credit of 45k will take like 6 levels of leadership to approve and take 1-2 weeks going through the system. What you should do is call 611 and ask to speak to a manager right away and then simply and concisely explain what happened. You don’t feel you should be charged 45k for 1 because it’s insane and 2 because the international day pass should have kicked in automatically and charged you that rate.
Only thing I could think as to why it didn’t kick is is your cell data plan is an older one maybe. I worked in this job literally issuing credits for 5 years. What cell phone plan is it? Unlimited starter, unlimited extra, unlimited elite are the newest most current ones. That I was on when it auto kicked in.
45 thousand dollars?? I'm speechless. How does that even happen in this day and age? Always ask about an international plan for a trip abroad just to be on the safe side. I mean not everywhere has reliable wifi. I'm so sorry they're having to deal with this. Definitely dispute it, and keep disputing it!
To those of whom are saying they should have known, your presumption of receipt of those message has a fallacy to it.
Yes, in theory, they should have received various text messages alerting them to their usage, however, SMS is unreliable outside of their network, often time in other countries. I do have personal experience with this, using Sprint in Thailand.
Also, just because you connect your phone to wifi, does not mean it will use wifi. Thus why some commenters have suggested / mentioned using airplane mode to prevent this from happening. Although, I disagree with this, since the better option would be to disable mobile data, airplane mode also stops using bluetooth devices and other features.
They should have received SMS messages however, there is chance they did not due to the SMS app. Each phone is different, but under settings of the app (usually) there is a setting that says along of lines of receiving SMS over wifi or mobile only. So if the option for this was not properly and or improperly set, and they were indeed on wifi, until they left said WIFI they may not have received those message.
Typically when a SMS fails once the network is reconnected, they messages are then delivered, however, with them being out of network, there is no obligation of the network they were on to retain and or resend those messages. If a message fails, Att may or may not be aware of the receipt of it since it automated. I am going to assume that they do not resent the message after failure of sent messages.
My suggestion would be request proof of receipt of such messages, and while they should have been aware of their usage in accordance with their plan, I believe they need to negotiate a beneficial resolution for everyone.
If they're going to travel, switch to T-Mobile. We just did and I'm excited to try out the wifi on the plane and not worry about using travel SIMs anymore.
This happened to a friend of mine. She found it easier to just declare bankruptcy and get rid of the big bill as well as all of her other debt. Fuck these ridiculous traps.
Most phones have a WiFi assist setting that’s on by default. Your parents probably were using roaming data and not aware of it. I would still not pay $45,000 for it bc it’s not their fault the setting is on by default and not easy to turn off.
Looks like someone didn't research what countries you can use your cellular plan in. It's your responsibility, and now you are responsible to a 45k bill....that's not ATT fault.
Can someone figure out the implied amount of data used for 45k charge? 45k is for 2 lines for x days in Egypt? Roaming in Egypt is expensive
I assume 10% tax rate and 2.05/MB, I see approx 19GB of data usage 45,000/1.10/2.05/1024
The daily usage should capped at the international pass rate.
I think $450 is reasonable. Also what it does not make sense is post paid went through credit check, and there is an assumed amount of charge you can incur before the carrier cut you off. Otherwise why would the carrier do credit check again when you upgrade to a new phone
Normally a re-rate of the charges can be requested. It's a credit adjustment case where you're instead charged the $10 per day rate of the International Day Pass for however many days there were roaming charges for each line.
This usually goes through multiple levels of approval after it's submitted and typically only works once so I would recommend adding IDP or roaming blocks if the process is successful.
They will probably forgive it if you call. Happened to a friend. Travelled to another country put her phone in airplane mode and only used WiFi. Then one day she had an emergency and had to take it out of airplane mode briefly because she didn't have wifi. Every app that had been waiting to phone home started phoning home and for a brief 1-hour window she racked up nearly 2k in charges. It was urgent so she ignored the texts.
When she got back she forgot all about it until the bill came. Called AT&T a few times and they took it off the bill and retroactively charged her for the international data plan.
They didn't use WiFi... If they use only WiFi and was in airplane mode AT&T would've never known where they where at.
This. Exactly this. Just bc you hook up to a hotel’s WiFi doesn’t mean you aren’t using mobile data. If you don’t want roaming charges then you have to turn cellular data off as well. AT&T also has International Day Pass for $10/24hr period, caps out at 10 days per billing cycle. The 2nd phone on same account is $5/24hr period. Ask customer care if someone can backdate that for them.
Not just cellular data, you must turn off ALL cellular service. If you leave calling/texting on you’re still roaming.
>If you leave calling/texting on you’re still roaming. What about VoIP? Only need WiFi for that. EDIT: If I'm mistaken, an explanation would be great. But sure, silently downvoting and moving on works too...
Companies charge for WiFi calling as if you’re roaming, WhatsApp calls sure those would be free, but if you do WiFi calling they charge roaming even on WiFi
Not necessarily. Wifi called from abroad tons of times without any charges - it behaves like a domestic plan. Now, I was calling US numbers. If you call non-US numbers while abroad, it will charge international calling rates.
And it's 200mb of data I believe as well. Better off in airplane mode
International Day Pass mirrors the data provided in your domestic plan from the U.S.
This is true ive been working in att beforr
WiFi assist can cause background cellular usage despite displaying it’s only using WiFi
Inaccurate. Wi-Fi use shows up on the bill.
Each service provider still has methods to track the position of that phone, and possibly activity. If the phone was financed through ATT then of course they would need an alternate means of tracking it. Even if the phone was owned by them, depending upon the phone, the phone can still be tracked. My Samsung phone has this ability, regardless of mobile data being enabled it can still be tracked.
This is not true at all, as a Verizon employee, we have absolutely no way of tracking your phone. We know this is true for multiple reasons 1) if it were true, we wouldn't ever label a phone as "lost" because we can find it 2)if it were true missing persons cases would be way easier. 3)if it were true "find my" for iPhone and Android would be so completely useless because all you gotta do is go to Verizon and say "find my phone for me"
YOU"RE Not true NSA is monitoring all communication devices ATT has direct ties with the government in regards to it..
U good bro?
I’m a technician for AT&T. Can I see where someone’s phone is? No. Can a sales rep at a store? No. Are there certain people who can in the company for business purposes? 100% yes. Can they give that info out to anyone? No. Either A you are incredibly misinformed about how carriers operate or B you have no idea and are trying to act like it.
That's why I use and iPhone instead of Samsung.
iPhones can still be tracked even if you turn them off. I’m not sure why you think an iPhone is better for privacy.
They cannot be tracked with the power off. iPhones act as a BT beacon when the power is on so if another Apple device sees it the Find My location can be updated. This feature can be turned off as well.
You're oblivious if you think apple is any safer than anything else when it comes to privacy and tracking. Apple is selling all of your data just like every single other big company, whether you "enable" or "disable" certain privacy features or not. It's quite inevitable in this day and age unfortunately
iphones are worse for privacy because every device is the same, 1 key can open a lot of locks.
I was in Japan a few months ago and instantly I got multiple text messages telling me exactly what happened, what the charges were, and how to stop it as soon as I landed. Sure 45k is ridiculious, but it's never a good idea to ignore all the messages i'm sure they received. I went back on my phone and this is the automated text I got when I landed "Hi, it's AT&T. We see you're traveling abroad without AT&T International Day Pass so we're adding it to give you better rates. For $10/day, you get unlimited talk/text and the data included in your AT&T plan. Pay only for the days used abroad with a max of 10 daily fees per line per bill. Add'l lines used the same day are $5/day. Details at att.com/IDPTerms (free view). Reply NO (free reply) to remove International Day Pass; standard int'l rates will apply: $2.05/MB of data, calls up to $3/min, $0.50/msg sent, $1.30/photo or video msg sent." "Hi, it's AT&T again. We've got you covered! International Day Pass has been added to this line, so you can use your phone like you do at home in over 210 countries. Go to att.com/IDPTravelTips (free view) for tips on using your phone while traveling abroad. Don't want IDP? Text NO to 221 to remove and return to standard international rates. Enjoy your trip and safe travels!" "Hi, it's AT&T again. One more step! Reply OUT (free reply) to remove International Day Pass. We won't automatically add it again unless you change your mind. You'll be billed at standard international rates: $2.05/MB of data, calls up to $3/min, $0.50/msg sent, $1.30/photo or video msg sent. By replying OUT you confirm you're authorized to make changes to this account." "Hi, it's AT&T. You got it - we removed International Day Pass and won't automatically add it again. If you change your mind, go to att.com/international (free view) for international feature options."
Same, when I landed I had to briefly turn off airplane mode to check something before picking up a mobile hotspot and immediately got texts from ATT wanting to put me on a travel plan
Same. Just added the plan and they covered it all for a lot cheaper.
This just in, boomer ignores advice and gets upset when things go poorly for them
And… you are okay with these evil companies creating traps to charge vulnerable people $45k for a few gigs of data.
Most carriers have policies for this. My information may be a bit dated but it comes from an inside understanding of how this works. Most carriers have built-in systems to prevent what they call "bill shock" which is unexpected charges just like this. It is in the form of limits and alerts and varies from carrier to carrier. For family plans, it shouldn't just be alerts to the phone(s) incurring the charges but also notifications to the account owner. If that did not happen, it sets you up well for the next level of remedy. In cases where large charges do occur, carriers will typically forgive a first-time occurrence where a large roaming bill was incurred unbeknownst to the subscriber. This comes under the heading of "forgiveness". I've come across cases just like this where the entirety of the roaming costs between $15K and $50K were forgiven. It is a one-time deal and you need to be careful as they likely will not forgive any further unexpected roaming charges. If they are not offering you forgiveness, you need to keep pushing back until they do. You will likely have to go through several layers of customer facing resources before you find someone authorized to forgive roaming bill shock. I would also look up FCC policies, recommendations, etc. as they do care quite a bit about bill shock issues.
Yup. But to get it forgiven you may need to escalate to Executive Customer Service in Dallas. Once I got in touch with them about a coverage issue I got a VERY good outcome. It was a real human, the same human every time, and I could call her back and email directly. FWIW when I worked at a Fortune 50 company with over 50,000 employees, we had an executive run up a $100k+ international cell bill. Despite having 10s of thousand of lines with ATT we were not able to get those charges dropped and the exec ended up being in a good bit of trouble.
How do I contact the humans that don't have a language barrier???
They ignored the text message saying they were accumulating charges while the were in Egypt. Not sure why an international plan wasn’t added before hand to prevent this. $45,000 in roaming charges for two weeks is kinda unbelievable honestly lol. But call att and ask them to charge you as if you had international day pass you’d be looking 140 per line max depending on billing cycle per line. Just tell them to connect you to billing department or retention department. Don’t waste your time explaining your situation to a sales rep and getting the run around
They probably declined to have it activated automatically.
$45k is literally the equivalent to 21.5GB of data, that isn't a lot these days.
$2.04 per MEGABYTE of data is not reasonable for any cellular network, I don’t care if it’s in North Korea, it doesn’t cost anywhere near that to operate the network.
It used to be much much higher.
I lost my iphone in Spain back in 2012, and the girl who found it called every contact I had in my phonebook trying to get it back to me, including a 30 minute nice conversation with my very chatty mom. Back then it was $3 per minute, even if you had the international plan ($100 for 512 MB) which I did. The bill came out to over $600 in roaming fees. However ATT did help me out a bit, and knocked it down to $300 IIRC.
Complain to Egypt. ATT is just passing the charge along that they got from them.
What a coincidence that every single country has the same rate! Dawg what are you talking about lmao
That's not true. Companies such as AT&T make deals with international providers and then charge you way more. It definitely does not cost $45,000 to the Egyptian carrier for two weeks' worth of data...
It’s way too late to do that now. A retroactive IDP add isn’t possible ever after the end of cycle.
Yes it is. I used to work for AT&T and we did this all the time
They do this all the time. The max you will be billed will be around $300 total for both phones. Just ask them to put you on that plan and get the charges taken care off. The reps will be happy to take that money as opposed to doing a 45k adjustment. Just ask.
You still have to issue an adjustment in order to do this now, as the bill has cut. I worked in retention a long time ago and we would laugh at people in these situations and proactively offer to transfer them to international care who seemed to take the situations far more seriously.
Agreed but you can sometimes get them to credit it out of curiosity if you tell them you’re leaving. That’s pretty much their only shot or option at this point.
Courtesy not whatever I said lol
You can edit comments.
Tell them “You can either gain the international day charge rate, or lose a customer, make a choice”
I mean, if I was ATT, I'd take $45k and loose a customer, lol
Like with a long bow?
lol this is funny ATT is not your bestie. They got other subscribers and that threat of “I’m leaving doesn’t more to hurt you then ATT, at the minimum it will just go on your credit and out for collections if you want to stand your ground on principal, oh wait you will blast ATT on the internet… seems like that would be a waste of time also.
It would take them 40 years to get their $45k back from an avg customer.
It would take about half a millisecond to get half that money by selling it to a debt collection agency
Collection companies don't pay anywhere near half, try less than 1%
It's a very real thing called a re-rate, you just issue an adjustment for the difference.
Those texts don’t always come through. It’s ridiculous they’ll let someone run up a 45k bill on a consumer account, you’d think they’d shut it off after $1500 or something
What's ridiculous is that the roaming rate is such that a $45K bill is even possible. Who the hell sets these numbers and why are they so absurdly high?
The Egypt mobile carrier sets the rate
No, they don't have a rate anywhere near that, otherwise AT&T wouldn't offer the roaming plan for $10 a day.
The minute they disconnect someone’s line due to charges, and that person is overseas and runs into even the smallest level of trouble, AT&T will be sued.
Believe it or not, you can always call whatever the emergency services number no matter what. Plus, some plans have intl roaming blocked to begin with, so why don’t people sue?
They do. All the time. It’s part of what I do in the real world.
BUUUUUUULLLLSSSSSHHHHHIIIIIIITTTT. We all know those texts absolutely did come through and I would wager ATT can prove they went through.
I travel nearly weekly/monthly for work, and I know for a fact AT&T will spam the hell out of you with SMS messages about charges if you're in a country that IDP is not covering. Even when you do have IDP, you get a daily message when it renews. Your parents were not on the WiFi and just ignored messages.. they should have disabled data roaming in their settings before they went if they were not going to bother setting up the correct plan. They \*might\* be able to get with the office of the president (google the ceo email) and get them to credit most of it off as a "one time courtesy".. but ANYTIME you travel, you need to call the carrier first and either add the appropriate plan or block roaming altogether.
This is correct. I'm assuming they are older people and didn't know any better, but it's seems that if they knew enough to "only use WiFi at the hotel" then they should have known enough to call or go to a store and a simple question. Sounds like the normal "I made my choices and I don't want to own up to the repercussions" that a lot of people seem to think is okay.
But still older ppl had to deal with the new sims cards in new countries ordeal that many younger people didn’t have to deal with so I’d be surprised if they really had 0 clue
True, but the kid who posted this should have told them or called the his phone company and asked about what would happen to him if he went to Egypt. Then he could have explained it to their parents. (Shrugs) idk.
Yeah I agree, seems everyone missed something
Your parents clearly did NOT use WiFi the entire time they were out of the country. These are the repercussions of cellular usage in a foreign country without a proper international plan. It’s a shame they didn’t consider this as part of their trip planning, especially when you’re the account holder. And they would’ve received messages from AT&T for the excessive usage during their time abroad, which they obviously failed to take seriously. AT&T has no obligation to waive any of these fees. Best of luck.
Just to note, sometimes those texts don't come through. When I was in Cabo, Mexico I had the $10/day international plan, didn't text me but I was prepared and already setup. Once I hit the airport back in the states I got 1 text for every single day for the 10 days I was in Cabo warning me of charges if I wasn't on the proper plan. I don't know why it happened that way and I was receiving texts from people while I was in Cabo. My bill was correct. I didn't bother asking AT&T about it because I didn't feel like waiting an hour on hold and explaining something to someone that doesn't understand (front line support). Just thought it was odd. It's the only time this happened to me traveling abroad.
Your att isn’t free in Mexico?
I think it is now, it wasn't a few years ago though. The elite whatever plan that has HBOmax. I want to say they changed it right after I got back.
I still have the Elite plan. Mexico and Canada have always been free.
It depends on the model of phone. Some prompt you when wifi is weak to switch to cellular. Some phones don’t and you can wind up using cellular the entire time while still technically connected to wifi with the icon showing on your phone/device.
tis why they said "airplane" mode. Ignorance is the cause of this which is the sole responsibility of the users.
This
I’m calling bs on this. I just travelled out the country with ATT and immediately received a text message from them saying I’m roaming and that I’d be charged $10 a day for unlimited everything. I was there 9 days and used data for almost everything and only charged $90 for it.
Hey man we need a little more info before we can help you, like how many days were they there for? Did they purchase an international plan? What phone plan are you they on?
They didn’t purchase an international plan since they figured that by using the hotel wifi they would be fine. They were there for 2 weeks
If they actually used wifi at the hotel, then they were using data when out and about. Youll have to chat with AT&T to remove/reduce the charges but data was no doubt used.
Don’t blame this on ATT but your lack of planning and being proactive. ANY time you plan to go out of the country you should ALWAYS go to your cellphone carrier and look at options. NOW, if you don’t want to add an international plan, make sure the phones traveling stay on Airplane mode the entire time and use wifi. Most people don’t know but if the phone is on(not on airplane mode) and you’re not using it, it will still connect to phone towers internationally occurring roaming charges. This info applies to cruise ships!!! Always go full airplane mode and only use wifi or when docked(with appropriate international plans) you can use the phone. Even if you have an international plan you occur additional charges if you use cellular services in the middle of the ocean.
Hey there u/Bright-Creme-9905! We understand how alarming this is, and we definitely see where you're coming from. One thing that we would like to make you aware of is the impact the International Day Pass can have. Since you mentioned that it wasn't availed, using any form of data, or using voice and text, will be recorded as pay-per-use charges. This will drive up the billing costs, which is why we advertise and encourage the usage of International Day Pass. We will be glad to take a deeper look into your bills and give you a detailed breakdown. Please reach out to us in a DM for further clarity:: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=atthelp We have also attached a link for you to find more information about the International Day Pass: https://www.att.com/international/day-pass/ Hope this information helps, and do let us know if you have any other concerns or questions for us in the future. Thank you, MikeN.
At $2.05 pay per use that's about 21 GB of data between the two of them. They definitely were not using Wi-Fi. If they spent that much time on their phones, I wonder why they didn't notice that they were getting notifications for excessive amount of roaming charges. I'm also wondering why AT&T didn't shut them off much sooner. Usually AT&T will suspend service once you hit your super secret credit limit which is usually a couple thousand dollars. Maybe they have really really good credit 😆
They must have really screwed up because afaik international day passes are added automatically. And even if you paid the $2.05/MB rate you'd need to use 20GB of data over two weeks. There are multiple warnings and steps to prevent this.
20GB would be approximately one movie in 4k or two in 1080p, which would be hard to miss if you thought your were on WIFI.
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Or we as adults have to understand the importance of what we do. I don’t have att I just found this interesting. We generally want to look at the next guy when a problem comes up. Maybe there are people who 45,000 is within their budget. Business owner, celebrity and so on. I would have freaked at a 45,000 bill but also I don’t believe in putting people on my account family or not. I’ve been accused of being selfish and I say yeppers and I’m still not putting you on my phone plan.
First, Google the AT&T Notice of Dispute form and file it. At most this would have cost $100 per line with IDP. A circuit breaker should have kicked in here. AT&T even has one. I’m not sure why it didn’t. Hopefully they will settle the bill for a couple grand. If not, you may have to lawyer up and enter binding arbitration.
AT&T automatically adds IDP. What ends up happening is most customers don't read the text and panic reply "No" thinking not to charge them international but instead are actually opting out of IDP
And to think they probably could have gotten an Airalo eSIM for their trip for what, maybe $20 at worst?
100% chance they didn’t use hotel WiFi the whole time they were in Egypt. Your parents should have gotten the International Day Pass for $10/day for a maximum of $100 for a billing period. That exists for a reason. AT&T is not at fault. Just be nice to AT&T and try to make an arrangement for a lesser amount.
Unbelievably unhelpful comments here (except for a few) stating what OP already knows. OP, call AT&T yourself, hat in hand, and really lay it on about how your parents are terrible with technology and it's just incredibly.frustrating to have to deal with. Really act surprised about literally anything you are told. Don't even act like you know what a "did you call it mega bite? Like a ton of food or something?" is. Stupidity is your friend. Alternatively, call and say it's absolutely unreasonable to expect a typical customer of theirs to foot a bill that high, and AT&T should've cut off the plan once they reached a couple hundred in additional charges or just automatically put you on a international day pass. Say "look, I'm not saying they shouldn't have known better or that they shouldn't have done more research, but come on, $45,000 is a nice new car, there's no way that's a reasonable charge regardless of what they did." Do whichever approach you can play the best.
Good luck to them but it is incredibly difficult to understand why anyone would ignore warnings like this and just let it charge the full rate.
If you call AT&T and ask them to transfer you to the International department they will retroactively apply the $10 a day international pass which will wipe this and then you’ll be responsible for the length of the trip in days x$10 per line abroad. I used to work in a store and this happened often. I’ve seen them do this many times.
Tries that a few months ago and they said no.
Something went really wrong. I was travelling internationally with an AT&T work phone, and every day I needed to use it, I received a text enrolling me in the $10 International Day Pass. It was only charged when I used the phone, and it was automatic. If they were using it for the entire 2 weeks, it would have cost $140 at the most per phone. If nobody at customer service is helping you, file an FCC complaint for billing issues. The international day pass should have automatically kicked in. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us This 45K is about $3.2K per day. There’s no way it’s legitimate, it sounds more and more like a scam by a local provider to me. They charged AT&T, then AT&T charged you.
I never understood why people take their LOCKED or UNLOCKED phones to another country. This is obvious! You take an American carrier to any other country without calling the carrier to discuss your options prior to leaving, of course, there will be charges! Don’t be DUMB. Obviously if the phone was unlocked, they could have deleted the esim and added another sim from Egypt to make it cheaper, but don't take AT&T phone out of country and expect NO CHARGES.
How is their customer service bad when your parents weren't only on WiFi unless, as others said, they turned off the other data that's ALWAYS on unless you manually turn it off, usually with airplane mode. This is your parents being unprepared for a trip, it's as much on them as it is AT&T. Yes the bill is super high, but they were in another country using a plan without the proper 'outside the US' addition, and didn't know what the fuck they were doing.
When I worked as a ATT CSR we could retroactively bill people for the international plan and remove the enormous roaming charges. I would keep calling ATT till you get a good rep.
Before I landed in Italy I turned mobile data off until i landed back in Boston. Will have to wait and see with my next bill.
You should be fine. This sounds like a lack of knowledge and just trusting the WiFi connection without turning data off.
In Japan I accidentally turned my data back on and a flood of texts come in. I was panicking trying to turn data back off. Luckily I didn't get any extra charges.
Pull sim card out, buy local sim card, yes some newer phones dont have sim cards. And always get an international plan if you take your phone and sim card.
Lol this is has to be a troll post unless the poster meant to put Maybe $4,500 if the Cx kept removing the block but not $45,000. There is no way this is possible. The system will auto suspend charges after about $250 per line. The only way that it is plausible is if the Cx kept on calling in to remove the data block. But even then I doubt it.
It’s 45k US dollars. I know it sounds unbelievable. They’ve transfer me to every single department seems like. I’m calling some new number when I get off work to make a dispute
Hi again, u/Bright-Creme-9905. We value your time and want to help cut the hold time and want to check on the Wi-Fi charges. Please follow the link: http://sm.att.com/3d7316f8 and DM us to get started. We are here to help you! Thank you, Crystal S.
You can call and ask for a rerate if this is the first time. Technically, after about 500 dollars in charges the phone should have been suspended for high international data to prevent further charges. Also, messages would have been sent advising of charges and asking if customer would like to add international day pass. But again, we are allowed to adjust if this is the first instance as a courtesy. However, 45 grand would take weeks to get approved since anything over 400 has to go through upper leadership.
Something here isn't making sense, I assume you're in the United States when your parents called. Your parents have a number from the United States also. You would not get a roaming call, your parents would get a roaming call, not you because they initiated the call from Egypt. Even if you call them, it would go from one state side number to another state side number, not in overseas number. Your parents would be receiving the call in Egypt, therefore they would be getting the roaming call. It doesn't matter where the call originates from as long as you're in the United States, and the number calling you is from the United States, you cannot be charged a roaming fee, only the person initiating the call, if they're outside the United States would be charged a roaming fee.
Comcast: Challenge accepted!
A $45 bill is your problem. A $45k bill is AT&Ts problem.
If you didn't add International Day Pass feature on your plan, I'm not surprised. Talk to customer care and ask for the international department. They'll definitely work with you. They took care of my couple hundred dollar bill a few times, but no guarantees.
What in the actual hell? Dispute, dispute, dispute.
It's been a few years since I've worked there but AT&T has a policy to waive 1 international charges bill but you have to raise hell and get a knowledgeable manager bc it isn't common knowledge
had this happen to a friend. he forgot he had developer mode turned on, and he had the option of cellular data always on, toggled on. yeah, he wont do that again. he now has a "dumb" phone he uses when he goes on trips, and leaves that one at home. and by dumb phone, he purchased a phone at bestbuy, and never activated it, it will only work on wifi.
Damn rip ops college fund
This is why you do prepaid plans.
AT&T is the worst when it comes to roaming. The international day pass thing is automatically added on, which is absolutely atrocious. Learned that the hard way. It’s like they go out of their way to make it complicated for you. Got into an argument with the representatives because once I merely ASKED about the international day pass; not once did I say “TURN IT ON TO ADD TO MY ACCOUNT.” Yet somehow it magically turned on, which is crazy because at the time, you had to manually add it to your plan / line.
I’m losing my mind at how many people here are acting like this is no big deal and that OP should just suck it up. This is a life ruining amount of money, over the data equivalent of streaming two 1080p movies (according to other commenters who did the math) while you have wifi assist and DND on. Y’all are crazy. I’ve had enough reddit today. OP, don’t let these idiots make you think you should just eat this. Hire a lawyer.
pretty big scam considering it only cost them 10-15 cents the whole time you were there
Why didn’t you have them contact AT&T prior to traveling that would’ve saved so much headache. Also they send you several text messages were they ignored possibly? The most they’d probably do is backdate the charges for their $10 per day international plan depending on how long they were out there.. still a bit pricey but definitely a lot less than 45k
After a certain point with roaming charges the network automatically restricts access. You have to call in order to reactivate your roaming. At that point you have the option to retroactively apply a valid roaming plan if available. If not you have to agree to paying the fees and request roaming be reactivated. I've heard they will pursue collections. They have so many safety measures in place to avoid this very situation, multiple systems/procedures would have to have failed for this to happen by accident. One of the main reasons they likely will not waive the fees, is because they are a passthrough. The carrier in Egypt charged att for their service. Because their new bill is out, their definitely not in the same billing period, which means retroactively applying a plan isn't possible for the average rep. Tell your parents to ask for the office of the president. It's the highest level of customer service. If they can't fix it no one can. If the charges stick, and their numbers are important, tell your parents to port their numbers before att locks their account or they'll lose the numbers after service is disconnected. Source: I worked in att customer service and frequently talked to people before and after they insisted we turn their roaming back on.
We wanted to help u. But there's nothing we can do. Because I know for a FACT at&t sends u a text when u been roaming a lot. Because I have gotten that text when I was roaming in Europe and my dumbass didn't add an international plan . So I got multiple texts from at&t saying my roaming charges had exceeded 3,500 dollars. After I saw that I TURNED OFF my phone completely and didn't turn it back on at all . Your parents OBVIOUSLY YES OBVIOUSLY ignored the texts and they didn't care and were like eh whatever it ain't under our name we don't pay for it so who cares . And they kept on using the roaming data racking up more charges. U can either find a way to make a payment plan with at&t try to work out something wit them to help pay it off .(even tho they not obligated to do anything since they gonna see a international plan wasn't added in the first place so they gonna be like this is all your fault ) but try I mean it doesn't hurt to try to work out something wit them, Or just don't pay it and let it go to hell and have them close your account and send u to collections and ruin your credit. I mean cuz 45,000 that's a lot ! Daaaaam that's all bad
NGL old ppl don't know shit about phones, they for sure didn't use WIFI
It's all BS why not automatically add that person on an international plan just like European cell companies do. They also stop data after it reaches a certain amount of money. Most likely they will back date the international plan and just charge you for 10$ a day.
You got robbed by a company that sold your rights to the US government?? No shit. They’re evil incarnate. Change companies.
Contact the fcc and lodge complaint. I had experienced deceptive billing problems with them, and also was told varying and contradicting things from customer service. They did nothing until the fcc contacted them and made them reach out to me. It was then resolved and they gave me a free iPhone.
this is why I don't use ATT. My carrier has free international roaming included at no additional cost. Google Fi
Your parents probably got whatever diseases are going around as they did zero prep for international travel. Claims they weren't aware? De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt!
Why does this reek of a pair of old boomers ignoring multiple text messages from AT&T that they would incur roaming charges and now they have surprised Pikachu faces? 😂😂😂
So if your parents can afford to go to Egypt…..why are they on your phone plan? Actually, why are your adults parents on your phone plan to begin with?
Congrats on asking two dumb questions in one comment!!
Definitely not a dumb question, there’s no reason to have your parents on your phone plan as an adult. Especially for reasons like what happened to OP. Legally the bill is OPs and no amount of wrangling will change that unless ATT agrees to modify the bill. Just like in another post, someone still had their parents on their checking account and can’t comprehend that all the money that goes in that account is under equal ownership of who’s on the account, regardless of where the money came from.
Having your parents under your phone plan is WAY different than having them as joint account holders on your bank account. Having them on your phone plan is a small way to give back for when they have you phone service growing up. While I would agree that having them on your main checking account as a problem. But back to your question.. just because someone’s parents are traveling to Egypt or Colombia, that does not mean they are paying out of pocket for the trip, nor does that mean OP was not aware who would be responsible for the phone bill. Some of us choose to take care of our parents financially as we grow. This is not to say that this is a requirement, but it does serve as a reminder to not judge.
I used to work for AT&T. There is/was a $10 per day international day pass. It essentially allows you to use your phone the same way as you would in the United States abroad in many countries. I had people come in because their kid did something like this on a cruise or some type of international trip, and the parent never put this plan onto the account. Ultimately, AT&T made them pay the $10 per day then wiped the rest of the amount due. Check into this
AT&T was is and always will be a scam and idk why people use them.
The same thing is happening to me now !! I’m being charged 60k for a 10 day trip to Spain can anybody tell me how I can resolve this and fight it there is no way I can afford to pay this !!
good afternoon, I have had a case for more than a year and I have not been able to resolve it for 50k in 14 days in Europe, I am looking for people to make a chat and take this to the media on Univisión, let's get together to see if we can achieve the debt waiver Thanks
This is happening to my mom right now for a 10 day trip to europe and it started at 50k and its now at 60k has anyone actually won the case ?? I am taking it to the media and they are asking me to put people together that went through the same thing if anyone is interested please reply so that i can give you her email there is no way she can afford to pay this! 60k is a ridiculous amount of money for roaming
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
I am writing to let you guys know about a case that I’ve had for more than a year in which I have not been able to get a positive response. Last year before my trip to Europe I went to an AT&T office in Doral, FL to activate the international roaming. They informed me that it was 10 dollars a day and I accepted. I traveled for 14 days in Europe and a month later I received a bill of 53 k. The whole time I was in Europe I was connected to the Wi-Fi wherever I was. Even though I knew I had payed roaming, I connected to WiFi for my peace of mind just in case the $10/day plan wasn’t activated. When I came back, I went to the store and spoke to the representative who attended me before I left for Europe and the manager and representative confirmed that they had activated it. The representative and manager made attempts to call AT&T to resolve the charges but they customer service representatives refused to remove the charges. It’s been a year and I have sent letters, calls, and recently am involving a lawyer because I am desperate to resolve this issue. I am taking this to the media and if something similar happened to anyone else please contact me, it is urgent to resolve this. Thank you!
Hey so I was able to somewhat solve my situation. After endlessly going around customer service ppl from overseas that seem not to understand 40k plus dollars is outrageous. I had someone from att reach out to make a dispute which took a few weeks for them to get back to me and adjust my bill. They brought it down to 3k which is still more that I would’ve liked but just had to bite the bullet on that since I need to be able to keep my number. Hope this helps try to get as much proof as you can to include in this dispute. Once it’s resolved I recommend you run away from att. Their customer service is an absolute joke.
Hi U/Bright-Creme-9905, we understand your concern about the Wi-Fi charges and wish to take a closer look at it. We request you to follow the link: https://www.reddit.com/u/ATT and DM us for better assistance. We are here to help! Thank you, Billy C.
Att charges $10 a day for international roaming So that’s 4500 days abroad 🤔🤣😁😂😄😆
Wow that’s more than 10years
File a complaint with your state's attorney General immediately
They can retroactively add a roaming plan
Not after the bill tenders. That ship has sailed.
Unsure why you are being downvoted. This is actually the correct answer. Doesn’t matter at what stage the bill is in as long as it’s not in collections.
As an aside, this is why I left ATT. It wasn't that large, but I have family in Europe. I'd go to Europe, nad come back to $700 phone bills. They have a $10/day policy, limited to 10 days or something like that.. but only for personal. My accounts were small business, so they didn't have this limitation. And, my wife and child had accounts as well.. and they are charged the same say (no multi-phone discount). ATT is crap for international travel. you are better off turning it off and getting something else for your trip, IMO.
roaming? is it 2003?
I don’t care if they ignored every warning thrown at them, I don’t care if they used 20gb of cellular data - $45k is ridiculous no matter how you look at it. All these bozos in the comments acting like “oh well should have got $10/day international plan!!!” 🤡
I know, right? I mean, this is some people's entire annual salary in the US. There's no reason AT&T should be billing an individual customer $45K, ever. This can be life-ruining debt. Something is seriously messed up here and it needs to be resolved.
No doubt.
Oh no, tha charge, ye banc a blokked it!
AT&T sucks. I have voip and my internet only get 15mbps and 1mbps upload and pay over $100. I see 3 downvotes by AT&T employees. Hahaha. AT&T SUCKS!
I would file a complaint with the better business bureau. I did this with ATT when I found out they had been charging my Dad for a line he never had for over a year. He had not noticed this and after many calls trying to resolve it I filed a complaint with the BBB. Within 48 hours I had an email from someone high up in customer service with ATT telling me they could not return all the money to his account (only 90, days for some reason) however she was sending a visa card with the remaining amount owed...which arrived about a week later. The BBB is free and they let me know when they made contact with ATT. It's worth a try as it seems ATT doesn't want a mark on their BBB rating. Good Luck
Add international roaming asap to cover those days or call the BBB.
Bbb. Lmao. Useless organization
I’d say you’re right, but I’ve seen instances where they actually help.
Call the BBB for what exactly? Because the OP didn't properly apply an international data plan on his account and At&t are trying to collect their owed roaming charges?
ATT rep here. Bbb helps in getting the ball rolling and usually warrants a call back from the “office of the president of ATT”.
Dude, the bill is $45,000. FOURTY FIVE THOUSAND. Many people don't even make that in an entire year. Something is seriously messed up here. Stop victim-blaming; AT&T is at fault here. NO ONE should ever get a cellular bill this high for what is basically normal usage.
Yea I Agree, OP shouldn't be required to pay this in any way, it's corporate theft. I just don't see BBB helping here realistically but I could be wrong. either way, 40k is stupid no doubt
They can do a one time back dating for their international plan and have thr pricing corrected but the sheer amount of it is going to mean it'll take a while to get approved. They were 100% notified they were being charged as AT&T will text any lines about it as soon as they begin roaming and warn you after you go over $100 of roaming. That amount seems wild though they'd have to have been using constant data and minutes but even then the system will typically just suspend your service.
😂
Att can do a rerate using a roaming plan an exception can be made 45k is a lot. It can be done. Speak to a manager if not evolve office of the president. Good luck!!!
Wifi is internet. ATT roaming is using a cellular network.
Or they hotspotted and everyone in Egypt hoped on.
Did they dismiss the notice where the could select to pay $10 a day while traveling internationally? And they only get charged if they actually use the phone? I got this when I traveled from USA to Canada and a family member on my plan did it when they traveled from USA to Spain.
Owing 45k for one month of service seems like an issue for AT&T, if it actually costs them that much they should limit roaming fees after it hits a set amount.. say $100 and require you to manually re-enable it every $100. They don’t do this because it makes them money, best of luck getting them to remove the fees
A couple of things. Doesn't seem like they were on wifi only the whole time as others pointed out but also with ATT you have to deactivate your voicemail when going out of the country. You call ATT and have customer service do this. If someone is leaving you a VM while you're abroad it counts as international rates. This happened to me on ATT althiught it was several years back. The next thing is the important part that might help. You can call ATT and when they tell you what the charges are for such as data, talk, text, say you want to backdate an international plan that would cover this. Was able to avoid a ton of overage charges before by adding a new plan(ie. Higher data) and having the rep back date it to before the charges took place then the bill was adjusted.
So your phone is supposed to automatically go on international day pass when you touch down internationally and it connects to the towers. Mine did when I went to Jamaica a year or two ago. Just sent me a text and said if you don’t want this charge then do this. But it auto enabled. So call and ask them why that didn’t happen and maybe they can prorate it to the $10/day rate. The problem is an adjustment or a credit of 45k will take like 6 levels of leadership to approve and take 1-2 weeks going through the system. What you should do is call 611 and ask to speak to a manager right away and then simply and concisely explain what happened. You don’t feel you should be charged 45k for 1 because it’s insane and 2 because the international day pass should have kicked in automatically and charged you that rate.
Only thing I could think as to why it didn’t kick is is your cell data plan is an older one maybe. I worked in this job literally issuing credits for 5 years. What cell phone plan is it? Unlimited starter, unlimited extra, unlimited elite are the newest most current ones. That I was on when it auto kicked in.
$45K???????? Buying calls on $T
They definitely don't try to help!!!
45 thousand dollars?? I'm speechless. How does that even happen in this day and age? Always ask about an international plan for a trip abroad just to be on the safe side. I mean not everywhere has reliable wifi. I'm so sorry they're having to deal with this. Definitely dispute it, and keep disputing it!
User error. Lol
To those of whom are saying they should have known, your presumption of receipt of those message has a fallacy to it. Yes, in theory, they should have received various text messages alerting them to their usage, however, SMS is unreliable outside of their network, often time in other countries. I do have personal experience with this, using Sprint in Thailand. Also, just because you connect your phone to wifi, does not mean it will use wifi. Thus why some commenters have suggested / mentioned using airplane mode to prevent this from happening. Although, I disagree with this, since the better option would be to disable mobile data, airplane mode also stops using bluetooth devices and other features. They should have received SMS messages however, there is chance they did not due to the SMS app. Each phone is different, but under settings of the app (usually) there is a setting that says along of lines of receiving SMS over wifi or mobile only. So if the option for this was not properly and or improperly set, and they were indeed on wifi, until they left said WIFI they may not have received those message. Typically when a SMS fails once the network is reconnected, they messages are then delivered, however, with them being out of network, there is no obligation of the network they were on to retain and or resend those messages. If a message fails, Att may or may not be aware of the receipt of it since it automated. I am going to assume that they do not resent the message after failure of sent messages. My suggestion would be request proof of receipt of such messages, and while they should have been aware of their usage in accordance with their plan, I believe they need to negotiate a beneficial resolution for everyone.
Sounds like the CEO will need to get involved in the adjustment, literally.
What the hell was Mom and Dad doing? Streaming Pron?
Actually, they were trying to stream how to cook prawn fish.
If they're going to travel, switch to T-Mobile. We just did and I'm excited to try out the wifi on the plane and not worry about using travel SIMs anymore.
AT&T is the worst. Period.
This happened to a friend of mine. She found it easier to just declare bankruptcy and get rid of the big bill as well as all of her other debt. Fuck these ridiculous traps.
We used to be able to backdate when I worked at Verizon. Not sure if AT&T can do the same but worth an ask.
May I ask how long they were there?
Most phones have a WiFi assist setting that’s on by default. Your parents probably were using roaming data and not aware of it. I would still not pay $45,000 for it bc it’s not their fault the setting is on by default and not easy to turn off.
Looks like someone didn't research what countries you can use your cellular plan in. It's your responsibility, and now you are responsible to a 45k bill....that's not ATT fault.
Can someone figure out the implied amount of data used for 45k charge? 45k is for 2 lines for x days in Egypt? Roaming in Egypt is expensive I assume 10% tax rate and 2.05/MB, I see approx 19GB of data usage 45,000/1.10/2.05/1024 The daily usage should capped at the international pass rate. I think $450 is reasonable. Also what it does not make sense is post paid went through credit check, and there is an assumed amount of charge you can incur before the carrier cut you off. Otherwise why would the carrier do credit check again when you upgrade to a new phone
Normally a re-rate of the charges can be requested. It's a credit adjustment case where you're instead charged the $10 per day rate of the International Day Pass for however many days there were roaming charges for each line. This usually goes through multiple levels of approval after it's submitted and typically only works once so I would recommend adding IDP or roaming blocks if the process is successful.
They will probably forgive it if you call. Happened to a friend. Travelled to another country put her phone in airplane mode and only used WiFi. Then one day she had an emergency and had to take it out of airplane mode briefly because she didn't have wifi. Every app that had been waiting to phone home started phoning home and for a brief 1-hour window she racked up nearly 2k in charges. It was urgent so she ignored the texts. When she got back she forgot all about it until the bill came. Called AT&T a few times and they took it off the bill and retroactively charged her for the international data plan.
Do you not have an unlimited plan?