Update 1: More info via this CTV news article. Looks like Telus cut her off, then she called to get it turned back on. Ouch.
But Telus spokesman Shawn Hall says that the phone company noticed a spike in Fero’s data use almost immediately after she left Canada. The company cut off her service, and representatives spoke to her over the phone.
“She asked us to turn the data back on,” he said.
Hall says Fero used about 1,600 megabytes of service during her trip.
“That’s a lot — an average song is about four megabytes,” he said.
“You can’t go overseas and expect that the data plans and the wireless rates that you’re going to get are going to be the same here. You travel to North Africa and the rates are going to be a lot higher.”
But Hall says that Telus wants to work with Fero to reduce her bill.
“Bottom line, we want to talk to this customer and sort it out. We know it’s a huge bill; we want to talk to her and figure it out,” he said.
Vancouverite Alanna Fero went to Egypt for two weeks with her iPhone. Prior to leaving, Fero says she spoke with Telus to ensure she was on the right plan. When she got home, she was shocked to receive a monthly bill of $37,694.53.
She contacted Telus, hoping they would investigate. However, Telus responded according to her, “No, this is your bill–Africa is expensive.” Telus is in talks with Alanna to reduce her bill. I wish her the best of luck.
Data Roaming on the iPhone is turned off by default. Unless toggled on, it is impossible to get charged for roaming overseas. It’s probably one of the most important settings you should check when you leave the country. Here are 18,000 and 6000 reasons why Data Roaming should always be OFF.
On the other side of the coin, it’s unbelievable that Telus is able to send a customer a $37,000 bill, and expect them to pay it. There should be checks and balances in place warning customers if they exceed data, such as cutting off service or sending a SMS warning message. Is that too much to ask, or should overage charges and profit come above all else?
What do you think? Who’s at fault? The user or Telus?
You can watch an interview that Alanna did with CTV News here.
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This is why I bought an unlocked iPhone 4. I remove my Rogers SIM card when I leave Canada & use a local paygo SIM.
This is why telus are scammers. She called before hand to have a roaming add on. Telus probaly paid max 20-30 bucks to the roaming carrier for this usage. I hope they get this cleared up asap.
Telus DID cut her off. Then she called them and told them to reactivate her line.
Honestly, since Telus confirmed that that indeed is her bill, I would think Telus has valid grounds for it and they did their homework.
Lets admit it, some iPhone users are just not knowledgeable enough to safely handle an iPhone. We may have to convince them that iPhone is not for everybody.
Lastly, we also need to be responsible for our own actions.
Absolutely! My 3GS is unlocked and I use whatever local carrier there is when I’m overseas. To do otherwise would be inviting trouble like this woman. She’s not the first nor the last to get a bill like this.
Before talking our of ur ass do your research, do you actually know TELUS’ roaming agreement with that country, do you know how much TELUS is charged by the overseas carrier…. No I didn’t thank so , so do your research, then speak.
TELUS was named most outstanding philanthropic corporation with global award recognition for a reason. She didn’t do her homework, didn’t listen to client care, and doesn’t understand how to use her phone. Plain and simple.
The article does make it sound like she verified with telus beforehand. So either, they gave her incorrect information on how much it would cost, or put her on the wrong plan…. Without knowing the specifics of what was said between her and Telus its tough to say.
how did u know that?
Imagine she had her bills set to auto-pay.
She fails. The 36k charges she racked up were on her data charges. She got a roaming plan; that only covers voice. A cellphone company would never tell her it covers data when it doesn’t. She should pay every penny, imo.
She should have paid the $50 to get it unlocked and get a plan there.
Maybe the Telus iPhone unlock is still not supported yet though…
You’d be supprized by how many people rack up crazy roaming bills like this and then expect the “provider” to cover these charges. It’s not like the “provider” is charging these people, these are charges that are from the “foreign providers”
If your gonna use your phone outside of the country, make sure you do your homework and use it correctly. If they did give her incorrect info, telus should definatly should reverse these charges, however she should pay for something…
It’s on CTV’s website:
“But Telus spokesman Shawn Hall says that the phone company noticed a spike in Fero’s data use almost immediately after she left Canada. The company cut off her service, and representatives spoke to her over the phone.
“She asked us to turn the data back on,” he said.
Hall says Fero used about 1,600 megabytes of service during her trip.”
Check her Facebook. She might have uploaded tons of pictures to show off her trip. None of the providers has the roaming data plan covers intensive roaming data usage. She did not do the homework so it is her fault. Pay the bill and suck it up.
I’ve had a similar problem with Rogers a few months ago. I had requested a $300 monthly cap on my account and added a plan for Europe. When I called, they told me they had no plan for Europe AND that they did not honour my cap because they did not want to interrupt my service while I was away from home… but they finally ended up paying.
There should be an easy and efficient way to set a cap – that they would honour, no matter what. And they could send a SMS when we reach x% of that cap.
The iPhone even has a big message stating: “Turn data roaming off when abroad to avoid substantial roaming charges when using email, MMS, web browsing, and other data services”. This message is clearly printed right below the on/off toggle for ‘Data Roaming’. She would have had to dive into the settings, totally ignore this message and turn the toggle to ‘On’ seeing as how it is set to ‘Off’ by default.
A woman. No wonder
The first thing most people would do if they got a phone bill like that is say that they talked to the carrier before they left and confirmed that they were ‘on the right plan’, even if they didn’t.
She’s a dweeb and I hope they make her pay.
I put this story up as a notice at work to all our iPhone users. This could save a lot of my users a lot of money. Thanks!
I am so tired of hearing about naive people who travel with their cellphones, and don’t confirm what they will pay for voice calls and data usage first. It’s over $1.50 a minute to call when in the USA. I really wish the cell companies would stop backing down, just because people cry to the media. Stupid is, as stupid does.
it probably cost telus no more than a few hundred dollars at the very most.. so it’s utterly ridiculous even if it’s her fault for leaving data roaming on.. gouging gouging and more gouging.. a Canadian telecom company.. big surprise …
Both. telus because all wireless providers are evil..the user for being stupid.1600mb’s…maybe she had the new iOS with personal hotspot and was sharing the whole time with all of North Africa…
Hey retard, you probaly have your head up ads if you actualy believe roaming. An telus paying more than max 100$ and then charge $37000. And if you can tell me the true cost of 1.6 gb of roaming cost being actually 37,000 than you need to get your head outta your ass. It’s all markup profit.
I’m less than sympathetic… I don’t even use 1GB of data in a month here in Canada. For her to use 1.6GB of data is a shit-ton of activity. This wasn’t just a few e-mails, this was hardcore data usage… in a FOREIGN COUNTRY.
Telus tried to help and she asked for data to be turned back on. This is no one’s fault but her own.
can anyone explain why data roaming charges are so insane in the first place? at current rates even a wealthy person wouldn’t want to incure the charges just on principle. if data roaming charges were a little (ok, a lot!)more reasonable you could see people impulse using them when out of the country occasionally for directions or emails etc. and the phone companys would probably make more money as opposed to having these astronomical prices that nobody will pay (unless its by accident like this poor soul.)
1.) Turn on Data Roaming.
2.) Not read the warning that is actually on the phone.
3.) Demand Telus to turn on the data roaming after they turned it off.
…4.) And not do a single bit of research or due diligence
I can understand the people who make mistakes but how many safe guards do you need before you accept responsibility for your own actions?
Shocking!
Ouch… wait… wasn’t cellphones cut/blocked in that area due to the recent president issues? who knows i havent been following so closely. To every story there is three sides. Her story, their story, and the truth. I wonder if any of us will really ever know. 37 Grand is crazy, but if she screams loud enough and to the right people im sure she can have this waved.
dose she deserve to have it waved? thats a tough one
You’re a moron. You cant just say TELUS. Look at all the other service
Providers. This is not the first time we’ve heard of outrageous bills and it’s not always TELUS. I travel all over and I don’t come home to a shocking bill because I did my research ahead of time.
I hope she has to pay every cent. I don’t want people like her to cause my rates to increase. Everyone knows that overseas data charges are insane. The rep probably told her to turn off data and use Wi Fi
They should make her pay the bill. She ignored all warnings and used an insane amount of data. I am a Loyal Telus customer and I don’t think it would be fair to me or any other Telus customers for them to have to eat the cost. This would be eventually passed onto every Telus customer with a rate plan increase. People like this need to pay attention and do some research. Fair would be for everyone to pay for what they have used.
Wow! I’m amazed at the comments on here! The reason we (those of us who frequent sites like this) know about the huge price of data roaming is because we have some interest in it.Â
The vast majority of people have no idea, nor would it be rational for one to expect them to.
It’s very conceivable for an average individual to use a lot of data outside the country without a preconceived notion of the true cost! As an example – what if an individual had the 6gig $30 data plan, and never used wifi at home. They could easily hit 2gigs or more in a month (especially if they streamed music or video).Â
Now, let’s say that person thought to themselves, “Well, my monthly bill shows I only use 2 out of 6gigs, obviously that’s not very much, and it’s only $30 for the full 6. It is very understandable for that person to think, “Well, I’ve heard it’s expensive to use overseas, but I’m willing to pay a few hundred bucks to use my phone like I do at home. $30 at home, $300 or so away, big markup but that’s okay”. No normal, non-techie, could ever imagine the same usage would cost 37 grand! Â That amount is simply out of the realm of an average person’s worst-case-scenario estimate.
Yes they cut her off, and she asked for it to be turned back on – but do we know how that conversation went down? Was she told, “You’ve already incurred $1000 in overage charges, and it’s likely to be thousands more.”? Doubtful. The magnitude of data prices is WELL above the average consumer’s point of reference.
I’m quite ashamed of many of you on here who say she “deserves what she gets”. No I’m not saying Telus is evil, but for those of us who obviously follow tech issues, to criticize an average person who doesn’t is just misguided and mean-spirited. We know what we know. There’s also a lot we don’t know. I for one would hate for somebody who was learned on a topic to chastise me for not knowing what they know.Â
Be kind people.Â
Irrelevant. Every single point you made is completely irrelevant.
And I’m not meaning to say that you’re making bad or stupid points. But they are irrelevant. And you know why? It all comes down to one simple little fact;
She signed a contract.
Every single piece or pertinent information was made available at the time of signing. It’s all outlined in the contract. Fact of the matter is is she chose to not read a legally binding contract to which she was applying her legally binding signature. Telus could demand blood from her and it wouldnt make a difference.
It totally sucks that she got hit with a huge bill. Bummer. That sucks, lady. But she’s got zero sympathy from me. Ignorance is not an excuse.
Actually, my points are not irrelevant.
Contract law is a very complex issue. My comments were not meant to address legality. My comments were meant to address the mean-spiritedness of individuals who seem to think “it serves her right”. Would you feel sorry for your mother if she found herself in this situation? Or your best friend?
If you re-read my comments, I’m not suggesting any moral or legal wrongdoing. I’m simply amazed at how quickly people can feel superior, and lack empathy.
This woman did not get herself in this situation by being “stupid”. Her mistake is one that could easily be made by the majority of average people, simply by not being in the know.
I had a friend who fed his dog leftover pasta sauce with lots of onions. The dog died. Onions are toxic to dogs. Most people aren’t aware of that. Did he get what he deserved?
Compassion people.
Ok,…two sides of things
1. for the telecom companies, why is there no official unlock for iPhones when the roaming is way toooooo ridiculous to use?? Many carriers from other countries offer this server at a very low cost (max $35 Min free) even their longest contract is max to 2 years. We, in Canada, “enjoy” the longest 3 yrs prison of cellphone and are facing to the fact that our iPhones aren’t really ours. I guess along with official unlock, this kind of trouble will be largely decreased.
2. Some dudes down there worried that other customers will have to eat the cost for this case. I have to say, it ain’t happen. Because the actual cost is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy lower than the bill. How do I know about this? My buddy works for fido.
3. In this case, this woman deserves the bill. Ignoring all kinds of warning is just stupid……… People like her deserve a lesson because next time she might not be lucky of just having a trouble with her phone bills, it might be something terrible that costs more than money, like life.
Telus is stealing her money. Mobile internet services in Egypt is miles ahead of Canada. Vodafone Egypt offers amazing prices for Monthly bundles such as :
Bundle Free MB Extra MB Price Monthly Fees
Bundle 25 150 MB 0.30 LE 25 LE
Bundle 50 500 MB 0.30 LE 50 LE
Bundle 100 2 GB 0.30 LE 100 LE
Bundle 150 Unlimited 150 LE
150 Egyptian pounds for unlimited one. That’s less than 30$CDN so give me a break.
She is 100% responsible for the full price of the bill, but I bet they will end up charging her only “cost” due to the publicity.
======
“But Telus spokesman Shawn Hall says that the phone company noticed a spike in Fero’s data use almost immediately after she left Canada. The company cut off her service, and representatives spoke to her over the phone.
“She asked us to turn the data back on,†he said.
======
If that’s the case, then she DESERVES to pay every single cent.
While she does deserve to have a large bill…
Let’s be realistic. 37000$ 1.6gigs? Telus should not be able to charge a customer a house-downpayment sized CELL PHONE bill.
Some of the coments on this are seriously embarrassing…some of you need to stop taking your stupid pills and think before you type. If you got that kind of cell phone bill you wouldn’t be on the news saying “Well I deserved what I got! Oh well hee hee”
You’d be freaking out.
That’s the rate. Don’t like it? Don’t use the service. Telus IS NOT a charitable organization. They are a business.
Dude, I do not think you had your coffee yet. The price you quoted is as if the user used the Vodafone’s sim card. The poor lady here used Telus. Way different charging scheme. ROAMING. That is why when one travels, it is important to instead use a local sim rather than your own.
I’m very sorry to hear about your friend’s dog. As someone who’s lost a family pet I know how hard it can be.
With that said, your friend was incredibly irresponsible, much like this woman was. When one decides to take a living, breathing animal under your care, a really good thing to do would be to look up thing you should NOT feed your animal. Chocolate and onions are the two things that are highest on that list.
By nit doing proper research in how to care for this dog, it died. And make no mistake about it, it is your friend’s fault. And that sucks, that’s a super shitty reality. But it is the truth. Your friend made the CHOICE to not actually look in on how to care for their dog.
This woman made the CHOICE to not read and understand her contract. She made the CHOICE to turn on data roaming. She made a CHOICE to ignore the substantial roaming charge warning. She made a CHOICE to ask Telus to turn her data package back on.
These were all choices she made while blindly charging forward. Her choices led directly to her accruement of this RIDICULOUS bill. And I’m not trying to be mean-spirited. But nothing irks me more than the “but in didn’t know!” card.
That’s the price Vodafone gives Vodafone customers. You have no idea how much Vodafone charges Telus.
But you raise an excellent point! That is much cheaper! I guess she should have used that instead
Googled. The lady is a busy business woman who wants to monitor her business while on a trip. She should just suck up the bill. Plain and simple.
She is like that lady who filed a suit agains McDonalds because she spilled hot coffee on her lap while driving!
I guarantee you that’s not the case. Though I too googled her earlier and can confirm your findings, as a pretty heavy iPhone user, I can tell you her usage is hardly indicative of “checking up on the office”. I can guarantee you it’s one or both of these 2 things;
-Skype to phone home. Maybe even using the camera to display live images to loved ones at home
OR
-it was rainy one day, so she stayed inside and watched Netflix instead.
“My buddy works for Fido” makes you an expert on international roaming costs?
Wish I had known that. My roommate actually develops and does support for a major piece of security software with clients like Disney and NASA. I should just start doing that, I’m clearly very qualified.
And as a resident of Edmonton, BioWare’s home office, when I’m on my lunch after break protecting DARPA from North Korean moles, I’ll just fire out a multi-million grossing video game.
Your buddy probably works at a kiosk in the mall. He has NO IDEA what Vodafone charges Telus.
She should return her phone and Telus should cancel her contract. She is obviously too stupid to own a SMART phone
True. I bet Canadian companies get charged high roaming charges becuase all the forigen telecom known they are not allowed here in Canada.