AT&T's Bad Math Strikes MythBusters' Savage 305
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by
Soulskill
from the do-they-know-he-has-explosives dept.
from the do-they-know-he-has-explosives dept.
etherlad writes "MythBusters' Adam Savage got a bill charging him $11,000 for 'a few hours' of Web surfing while in Canada, using his AT&T USB Mercury modem. AT&T gave him a quote on the data rate: '.015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb.' Looks like AT&T didn't learn from Verizon's inability to do math. AT&T is also claiming Savage downloaded over 9 GB, which he calls 'frakking impossible.' Savage's huge following on twitter got him a speedy response by AT&T."
Re:He should'a known... (Score:2, Interesting)
Does that mean they "only" over-charged by 100X, so the bill should be $110 for a few hours? That's still outrageous, no?
Re:He should'a known... (Score:4, Interesting)
No, you divide the larger by the smaller.
Re:He should'a known... (Score:2, Interesting)
You can tell I'm slightly bitter but paying this kinda dough just to have 'the right' to do what I want and have the same kind of access other places in the world have the opportunity to use it kind of makes me feel silly being Canadian.
Elementary School Math (Score:1, Interesting)
Verizon, AT&T, etc. need to have WEEKLY sessions with every single employee until they all learn how to read numbers like $0.015 properly out loud. The FCC should make random calls and fine the telecoms for several million dollars each time an operator reads a number like that incorrectly. That will encourage said weekly meetings.
Re:Its 1.5 cents per KB (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been around since data was shoveled through modems that were so slow that you could actually type faster than the modem could transfer, and data was sent dial-up over expensive long distance phone lines.
And it was still cheaper than 1.5 cents/KB.
Does AT&T send a free jar of Vaseline with each new contract?
Re:these insane usage charges (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Iran and AT&T vs. Twitter (Score:3, Interesting)
Twitter is naught but the horn by which the crowd hears itself.
AT&T and Iran are being faced with that most awesome and powerful of forces: human beings. Acting in concert. Each of their own free will. :) Democracy rules.
Re:Let's not be cynical (Score:1, Interesting)
Hmmm, not the way it worked for us when AT&T charged us $1500 for calls on a stolen phone (sim stolen in another country where it was used at 1.99/min roaming for about 15 days before the theft was discovered). They eventually refunded part of the bill, still left us with a big chunk. So I think being famous helped him a bit.
Needless to say, their retention department is not going to be successful with me.
Oh, and they weren't responsive at all before they figured out I actually have the phone plan through a company discount, so it's handled by the business customer services. Normal consumer customer service couldn't have cared less.
Re:these insane usage charges (Score:3, Interesting)
Okay, I'll bite... (Score:4, Interesting)
".015 cents": 9,437,184 KB * $0.00015 = $1,415.5776
"a penny and a half": 9,437,184 KB * $0.015 = $141,557.76
Since the published data roaming rate in Canada is $0.015/KB, let's go with "a penny and a half".
$11,000 of usage at $0.015/KB equals 733,333.33333333...KB or 716.145833MB.
So not only do they not know the difference between a cent and a dollar, but their system for measuring data transfer is also off by a factor of ~12.87... unless they somehow billed him for
Re:He should'a known... (Score:4, Interesting)
I was up in Canada for a coupe months, a while back (like, a few years ago). We learned quickly that the calls were expensive. Luckily, I got my first bill at home shortly after my arrival, so it was very obvious, and only several hundred dollars high. My work reimbursed my phone expense, and my cell calls suddenly became "state your emergency" and "I'll call you back from my land line", which was actually my Vonage phone plugged into a wireless bridge in the hotel. :) They still got me for international roaming, which was still a bastard.
That's actually one of the nice things with the Vonage phone. If I'm out of town for more than a couple days, I bring a spare handset and the box, and plug it in when I settle in. I've gotten some strange looks wandering the halls of a hotel on my cordless phone, but the calls didn't cost me any extra. :)
American cell phone providers are generally terrible. Our phones, for the most part, won't roam to Europe or Asia, but I've had people from Europe come here without any substantial problems. Ya, ya, I know the technical reasons. I don't like them, nor the contractual reasons. Cell phones are for portability, why can't I get on a plane in New York, and hop off in Hong Kong, and call home? For a 1 week job in Amsterdam, I picked up a cheap prepaid just so I had a number people could call.
Solution: prepaid international SIM card (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't use US carrier SIM cards for international travel: you get no cost control and high rates for data.
Your best bet is to get a local, prepaid SIM card. In some countries, you can get day-by-day data subscriptions for a few bucks a day.
If you can't do that, your next best bet is to get an international prepaid SIM card. Their rates are a little higher, but they are still fairly low, and they are fairly low across the entire globe.
Either way, you get cost control: they can't charge you more than you prepaid.
Search on Google; there are many companies offering this service. Oh, and you need a GSM phone, preferably one that supports tethering. Most Nokias running Symbian will work and you just plug them into your laptop and they work as a 3G modem; they also have good E-mail readers.
(Nokias are a bit old-fashioned in that they ask you for every Internet connection you make; normally, that's a nuisance, but for data roaming, it's great.)
Is incredible how outrageous are the roaming fees. (Score:2, Interesting)
Sincerely I really appreciate the market regulation we have in the EU, I think it's a great thing for the consumer. Starting next month the phone companies will be able to charge the maximum of 0,13 EUR per SMS (VAT included) sent while in roaming (in here we never pay for received SMS, in or out the country), well, it's great, but the most absurd is that the plan I have now makes me pay 0,167 EUR per SMS sent inside my own country!
I'm sure EU didn't make this 0,13 EUR price without reason, it's surely enough to pay the home operator and the abroad one their actual service charges and still give them some profit, so just think for a while how much this guys are earning.
They also cut the voice fees to acceptable levels, and in 2 years we shall not pay for received call while abroad and made calls must be charged by the second (at their maximum imposed cap rate per full minute divided by 60) :D
So, all in all, market regulation can be a very good thing if done properly.
Re:Celebrity status? (Score:2, Interesting)
We're charged to receive calls because the phone system in America does not differentiate between cell phones and landlines. I myself find it ridiculous that you have to pay MORE to call someone, just because their cell phone is a number! It costs 2 cents to call a landline in Greece, but it costs 20 cents to call a cell phone (using skype)! What the hell!?
Re:A Billing System Deficiency (Score:3, Interesting)
Now if AT&T invested in it's employees and ensured they were trained, this kind of stuff wouldn't happen so much. But since outsourcing is the answer to everything (except management of course) it'll always be a battle of carrier said, outsourced call center said, customer said.
And of course they should stop with the per-anything billing. Limit the data speed enough so I can still browse, but torrenting an