We’ve all gotten a utility bill that was larger than we were expecting. A $250 electricity bill here. A $100 gas bill there. This family got one, too. Except, it was a cell phone bill for more than $200,000.
Celina Aarons, who lives in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, has five brothers and sisters, two of whom are mute and deaf. So she helps them out with basic tasks, including putting them on her phone plan.
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Her brother Shamir recently took a trip to Canada. But as he was visiting, he didn’t turn his data roaming off. He texted more than 2,000 times. He downloaded videos. A lot of them.
A few weeks later, Celina got her bill. The amount? $201,005.44. Just a bit higher than her normal bill of $175.
“I was freaking out,” Celina told WSVN 7 News in Miami/Fort Lauderdale. “I was shaking, crying. I couldn’t even talk that much on the phone. I was like, ‘My life is over!’”
There was no way she could pay it. It’d be like buying another house. So she contacted the phone company, T-Mobile, and told of her situation. They were remarkably accommodating, even though they had sent repeated messages to Shamir letting him know of the charges he was ringing up. But T-Mobile still reduced those charges to $2,500 and gave her six months to pay them, according to WSVN.
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So remember – if you’re traveling, turn data roaming off; limit your text messages; and remember that the latest YouTube cat videos can wait until you get home.