Florida man’s trip overseas ends in sticker shock over $143,000 phone bill 

contacting the media was better than hiring the attorney

Note to self: don't call a lawyer for legal action. Call a news reporter.

$143,000 for 10GB of roaming data. Sounds reasonable in 1990.

Unless you're roaming on another planet, this just doesn't make any kind of sense.

What is criminal is we are expected to think $143k is a reasonable price for less than 10gigs of data, even with roaming charges. This is ridiculous and predatory. How is this justified?

why does it take someone calling the news for a company to do the right thing?!!?!!?!?

As someone who worked for a major provider, and subsequently resigned due to their unethical activities, my advice is collect record of EVERYTHING. Record conversations with sales reps, collect written documents of any and all interactions. Protect yourself, because they most definitely do not have you covered

Those were extortion charges. No phone or data should cost that much, about $15,000.00 per gig!

What t-Mobile said: We're sorry. What we all heard: We're sorry that we were exposed in the media, so we're going to wipe out the bill to try to make it seem like we actually give a shit.

Guy was still ripped off. $2500 for an attorney? To do what? He could have contacted the reporter himself with the bill.

$2500 Lawyer was useless. Tryin to mail the president of T mobile, seriously? Only took this reporter 1 phone call to make things right.

Im a small ISP customer. Theres a credit limit of 250 or 500 dollars so insane charges like this would never happen. What t-mobile did to this customer is unacceptable.

for anyone to say yeah this looks right should be punished

T mobile customer service representative gave him the wrong information before he went for his trip 🤷🏼‍♂️, they need to train their customer service better.

I made an 8 mins call to Samoa with T-Mobile, the bill came at 77$, I switched to another carrier the same day. T-Mobile’s billing is out of control.

Should get back his money from that attorney

The SAME THING happened to me when I traveled over to London a few months ago!! I called T Mobile before I left and I paid for the upgraded data plan for my family of 5 which the woman in the phone said would be unlimited. Almost as soon as I landed, it said we’d used up all of our data. I called them from London and was on hold for over an hour. Thankfully I was able to resolve it over the phone and they credited my account the thousands of dollars, but it was not easy. I genuinely feel for this guy. Glad it worked out!!

Even roaming data of 9.5Gb shouldn’t be $143,000…. Nobody is that rich or that stupid. He should file a case for emotional distress. Sue them for $250,000

They charged that man like it's 2004 again. Insane that even a lawyer couldn't help him.

Thank you for helping this man!

So it sounds like the attorney didn’t do anything more than ask someone else for help who ended up getting it resolved. Who got paid again?

Criminal corporate over allowance of ridiculous fees and this is allowed. Thieves

Looks like that attorney owes the reporter $2500 lol

I had a similar issue back in 2012. I went to university in Germany and had a contract with a local mobile phone carrier. They had a monthly option to pay 10€ on top and be able to use data/texts/phone calls under the same conditions EU-wide. As I was planning a Europe trip I booked that option and on top set my roaming limit to 50€, as I was planning to travel to Moscow and St Petersburg for 4 days as well (non-EU). Back in Germany, my next bill was almost 300€. I called their hotline and was asked to send them an email and explain everything. I did, and 2 weeks later right before Christmas, I got a reply with an apology and an re-calculated bill as a PDF. I only had to pay the 50€ roaming limit in the end.

How can it be THAT expensive? With Verizon I have the option of paying an extra 90 bucks for the month I’m overseas to get unlimited data and text. Or I can get charged 10 dollars for every day that I use my phone overseas. How can it possibly get to 143K??? What is T-Mobile doing differently from Verizon?

Why, in this modern age, do phone companies even charge huge, exorbitant fees for a 'roaming' calls? Sattelite communication is so connected now that all calls are just local calls anywhere in the world.

Been charged $103 dollars for calling one hotel internationally, these international usage scams need to be shut down

This exactly what I fear was with international roaming charges. I went to talk to a T-Mobile store employee and bought a 15GB international pass for data, calls, and texts for $50 before my trip to visit South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Iv seen this before. I worked for a competitor. The customer came in beforehand to see if there would be charges like this. I was instructed to tell them no, they were covered. The came back with 1,500 bill. Fortunately it was resolved.

Thank you for helping.

So they charge $15 for each MB of roaming data. That’s criminal!

In the next news story Rene is suing his lawyer for doing nothing.

How many people are getting screwed like this by big companies but never getting justice because they couldn't get a news station to cover their story like this lucky gentleman? I'm betting on...A LOT.

Maybe the problem is any phone company not giving older plan holders an automatic upgrade to the better terms offered in the newer plans. This incident happening in 2023/4 is ridiculous.

"credit your account for the entire amount" doesnt matter if its roaming data 9.5 gigs never costs anywhere near that much no matter the case.

Works out at $15 a MB. Ridiculous!

You can file an FCC complaint for free and get the exact same response, from the exact same people at T-Mobile. No need to pay a lawyer, or get the news involved, when all you have to do is fill out the right form!

There were days when we went on holiday without using a phone at all. Some of us still do.

Thanks you all

This is criminal.

thats criminal.

Shocking and useful story 😮. Thanks !

Well, if his contract is 30yrs old.. those roaming fees make sense 😂😂😂😂

they should pay his lawyer fees

For anyone who plans to travel just get a prepaid SIM card it so much easier there are even apps now too.

How is roaming even a thing in 2024? T-mobile has a big set of balls. They must have a team of lawyers making up rules buried deep in contracts. Personally I would have switched providers and told t-mobile to kick rocks.

People don't read their contract or understand it And then when something like this happens, they are surprised.

If you're not sure, just get a local sim card.

Wow, that's crazy. As someone on T-Mobile, I am very surprised that those kinds of charges are even possible. That's completely out of control.

I too had T-Mobile. I called to let them know that I was traveling to Asia. I checked my phone daily on roaming charges.

The only reason T-Mobile dropped the charges is because it made the news if it wasn’t talked about he would’ve been forced to pay it

Holy hell. You talkin' to someone on Mars?

Roaming charges were a thing 15 years ago when we didn't have as many towers, today roaming doesn't exist, but T-mobile, Verizon and At&t will never miss an opportunity to take your money. What worked here was public shaming a greedy company. I left T-mobile years ago and I will never go back.

This is crazy. When you land, you get a text that tells you about all the roaming rates . He knew he just didn't care.

I’ve roamed international with T-mobile and it was something like $10/day for up to 500MB a day. Never had an issue like this. Still $300 for a full month but it was manageable.

To all people who go oversea, never ever turn on data or roaming. You will accrue giant charges and T-Mobile will come after you. Never ever use data or roaming overseas. If anything set another network and buy another eSIM for your trip to prevent having to pay roaming charges. Never ever believe T-Mobile that you're cover. That's just then saying, we will scam you.

Switch carriers, and then don’t pay the bill. Ridiculous, why would this old man fall for this

Roaming charges are for your provider, not you. T-Mobile is supposed to pay that fee. This is why you only do prepaid unlimited phone plans.

The true winner: Attorney

Now sue the attorney to get your $2500 back 😂

The fact that t mobile had such a calculation and issued such a bill et's me know that for me and my family...they will never ever get my business.

My carrier notifies me when my roaming charges get expensive -- usually after $50 or $100. They send me text messages and emails. This guy didn't get ANY warnings???

Roaming charges are an outright scam.

I would never pay that ever scam

I told my carrier that i was going to Switzerland and I still got charged around 500 bucks. You gotta tell the carrier every time you go

Wow 😱 but glad it got handled quickly

I once spent 8 days in Spain and foolishly didn't spring for an international plan. It was 2012, I didn't plan on using my phone at all except to take pictures. Well, I got lost a few times and used my mobile data for maps etc, then ended up sending a few texts and it all added up to an extra $300 bucks on my bill. I thought that was bad. Can't imagine getting a bill for six figures!

I have been a member with T-mobile since 2007. They lost part of my record when I renewed in 2009. But only have my files since then and 2011. Since the buy out of Sprint and out sourcing call centers to the Philippines, the service has suffered for T-mobile. It has nothing to do with with the out sourcing, but lack of care for their customers.

That's why I like ATT - When on an International trip, it's $10 per day flat fee for unlimited data, voice, text, etc...very easy, plus they only charge up to $100 per billing cycle. I was on a 3 week trip overseas, using my phone as if I was at home, and the cost was $100. No worries at all.

International Roaming charges are something every traveler should be aware of. There was a story years ago of a man who watched a movie on his phone while the cruise ship he had boarded was still docked in Miami. His data however went though the ship's cell service, and international roaming charges applied...

Wow what a nightmare

T-Mobile should kick in the $2,500.00 that Mr. Remund had to pay to an attorney and they still refused to respond until the media got in on this~! Shalom

When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work - the most you will make is 5 dollars.

Don’t look at your bill, look at your contract

I also have t-mobile for over 23 years and I been traveling all over the world always have free text and roaming data.

Anyone with T-Mobile u have been warned lol

This is wild in 2024. It makes me glad the only time I traveled out of the country I stayed on airplane mode and only used wifi. I was a college student doing field studies and there's no way I'd have been able to afford this, or a lawyer, and I'd have panicked too hard to think of contacting the media.

Why should leaving the country make internet any more expensive? I don't get it.

A better plan is not to take your primary phone and expose your information to theft or loss. Take a throwaway or even BETTER *buy* one in country with a months service.

First thing I do when I head overseas is to remove my SIM and I buy a temporary SIM in the destination country. Mobile companies are a disgrace and need to be severely punished for excesses like this. In this case, the CEO should have been jailed for 12 months.

The worst company never answer the phone if they do ,no results 😒 just wasting time in between line ,if go to the near dealer 🙄 they'll say call customer service, I think it's their standard to not pay what they stole, it happened to me until I changed my debit card

Why is there a cost for roaming? I often wondered that. What is the cost to the carrier if you stay on the phone for 5 minutes?

I always use a top up SIM card.

He probably has a old grandfathered in plan from around 2008 when international data was $14.99 per MB. When people used packet data to look up news or send emails on wap sites. The customer service rep was in the wrong, I'm sure the phone company has a policy in place for when this happens. The roaming company in Switzerland isn't charging anywhere near $143K to T-Mobile for 10GB of data now days, it was probably $75 max.

I love that he didn't even bother to remove the eyeglass strength sticker!

Absolute crooks! They should give him back the money he was forced to pay his lawyer over their greedy charges.

They still need to be sued, they just kept letting him run that bill up without saying a word. Electric will cut you off for less than 500 USD

What kind of response is that from t-mobile? If the customer has been with you for so long that their outdated plan does not include international roaming, freaking update their plan for free rather than setting up that trap for your loyal customer to step in.

I left t-mobile years ago due to a similar issue, was in the hundreds of dollars of bogus roaming charges and they wouldn’t budge. I paid it, ported all of my phones and never used them again.

This is why I buy local SIM the minute I land at a country I'm visiting. Local SIM are available at the airport and they'll give you a plan you can use for a certain GB.

Notifying the company doesnt give you free roaming anywhere

It’s disgusting that the news had to intervene just to get this poor guy some help

But who actually sent that? Who sat there, printed out a $140,000 bill, put it in an envelope and sent it to this man as if he's going to pay it? Even if he did misunderstand how roaming data works, why have a system where someone can ACCIDENTALLY spend $140,000 in three weeks, without their knowledge!? Kind of a stupid ass system isn't it?

I'm on Rogers in Canada and roaming to Switzerland is $15 (CDN)/day, with maximum charge of 20 days per billing month. This includes calls, texts and data. Also, if I the customer has a Rogers credit card, 5 days are included for free. Another option would be for him to get a local SIM while traveling.

Its not like he was on mars trying to phone home 😂

The attorney did his job regardless how it got done the client is off the hook on the payment.

The international travel plan only costs $50. Obviously T-Mobile office he went to didn't know what they were talking about. It's too bad he had to spend $2,500.00 for an attorney and still got no response. That was bad. This piece of story just cost them tons of customers. I have to remember to call a TV station if I come into an outrages situation with a company.

That's obviously absurd.. Nothing should be that expensive regarding a phone bill and data.

I had a 75$ phone call back in 1994, and I was shawked!

Thats why i cancelled Tmobile years ago