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Dad Distraught Over Son’s $21,000 Phone Bill
Well then maybe you should have monitored the boy a little closer?
According to this story, father Ted Estarija bought a phone for his 13-year-old, claimed he made Verizon put limits on the plan and then was shocked to discover a $21,000 bill for the month.
Ouch.
“This is not completely his fault, I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn’t allow this to happen,” the father was quoted as saying.
The story goes on to tell about other kids who were charged similarly scary amounts for texts, and it makes me wonder: Is it really the phone company’s fault?
Is it Verizon’s job to make sure your kid isn’t spending every waking moment with his thumbs on a phone keypad? Was it AT&T that sent the thousands of texts a day that are required to produce such a horrendous bill?
Didn’t you, as the parent, notice your kid was on the phone all. the. freaking. time?
I feel slightly conflicted about writing this. It’s incredibly difficult to monitor kids all the time. I used to call 1-800 porn numbers and hang up after a few seconds of hearing that seductive, sultry voice on the other end. I wonder how much my parents would have paid, if only I had access to a family credit card or calling card number?
Then I think about my own daughter, who is 3 now, but will grow up in a world filled with all manner of fantastical texting devices. It scares me to think of our future phone bills, despite the fact we plan on not letting her have a phone until she’s much older and then plan on hammering home the idea that she has to pay for all her dumb ass texts.
On the one hand, it’s easy to say, “Watch your damn kids!” But on the other, I know kids are sneaky, smart little monkeys. So who’s to blame here?
The parents, the kids or the phone company?
I’m still going with the parents. That’s an awful lot of time these kids are spending on the phone. How can that go unnoticed?
Your thoughts?
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8 Comments
Derk commented on Dec 12 09 at 9:39 amThe blame is equally shared by the child and father; the child for sending all the messages and the father for not monitoring the child. In this age parents are quick to buy things to “keep kids busy” and give no thought about what the kid may be doing. Wonder how many months Verizon will spread the payments over?
Lisa commented on Dec 12 09 at 5:34 pmDon’t you think it a bit unreasonble to charge $21000 for texting when unlimited texing is less than $20? Furthermore, if the father asked for limits, shouldn’t that be respected?
Yoav commented on Dec 12 09 at 11:30 pmIt’s like when you rent a car, you pay by 20$ an hour, but above 2 hours they charge the daily rate. Service provider should know what best plan for usage and apply it to the bill. I guess that is too much to ask.
bobba commented on Dec 14 09 at 10:57 amthe 13 year old child who had the cell phone is deaf. that means he has to text to be able to communicate. the father put restrictions on the plan but it did not go as planned.
Beth commented on Dec 14 09 at 1:38 pmComments I am so sick of no one accepting responsibility for anything. It’s always someone els’s fault. If the father has a contract of request in writing then that’s valid. If not, why is it Verizon’s responsibility to monitor their users habits. Get a grip and be a parent. Teach your child what the word RESPECT means.
None! commented on Dec 14 09 at 6:25 pmIf the writer would have looked into the actual story, the $21, 000 bill was mainly from the son downloading over 1 million kilobytes!
Rachel commented on Jan 06 10 at 10:50 amGeez another cry baby blaming the cell phone company. I dont put verizon at fault all. It is 100% the fault of the parents. I bet just to pay the less possible they put him on the lowest text plan and they were fine with that for a couple of months but all of a sudden when the kid goes over BAM !!! The parent said oh I had it blocked …whatever if you use it you pay for it. The lesson learn from this dont be cheap modify your plan to your usuage and dont blame the cell phone if YOUR child uses something that is not included in your plan because all the charges are valid!!!
mystic_eye commented on Feb 09 10 at 7:53 pmIf the parents were told by a sales rep that there were limits on the plan =ie that it wouldn’t let the kid run up more than x dollars then its not entirely the parents fault. Sales reps sometimes LIE rather than admit they “don’t know”. I bought a camera a few years ago because I asked at least three times if it required software for the computer to see it (as opposed to just reading as a flash drive) and I was told that it did not, well it did. And before you say I should have done more research the camera I wanted to buy wasn’t in stock.
Just like it wasn’t entirely my cousin’s fault when he didn’t realize that when he went to Niagara Falls his “unlimited roaming within Canada” didn’t count if he was in Canada but the cell tower was in the US. His phone should have let him know, and in that case the cell company agreed and cut the bill in half -which is better than nothing I suppose.
So if the father was told by a sales rep that the phone wouldn’t allow charges after a certain point then he didn’t really do anything wrong. Also the phone company should have called the dad if there was a dramatic change in usage in case the phone had been STOLEN
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