$4,800 Phone Bill for an iPhone That Wasn't Turned On

Yep. Hidden fees are everywhere.

Yikes!  Not a shock, though, AT&T will screw you any way they can.  If you turn a phone off, it should be off, though.  That just sucks. 

Jafo has a tool that turns off iPhones.....it's called a 'D9' ....

The message is to not get a freaking iPhone.

I can't blame AT&T or Apple here.  If you set your iPhone for automatic e-mails or push mail then you should be aware it's going to access a network to get it.  The iPhone also has settings to alert you if you are joining a network.

The theinquirer report that the iPhone downlods e-mail even though it's off, is false.  What most likely happened is they put the phones to sleep, big difference.

That's an awful lot of emails, to reach $4,800.00   

Surely there must be a setting somewhere on the phone where 'off' really does mean 'off'...

 

So ID, what you are saying is very eye opening.  

iPhone users, as a group, are not all that more IT savvy than the rest of us, well, excluding you. You do have an iPhone? I wonder if this includes the Apple family?  

And here all the time I thought they were all so much smarter than me.      

Okay, just haveing some fun here, this could happen to anyone using any type of service, but it sure does bring a smile to my face. With the hacking of the phone, the big bills from AT&T (paper and money wise), unit cost, makes me wonder if Apple really thought this all out before bringing it to market.   

Apple is selling phones like crazy. They thought it out.

Yep. Right with ya on that one.   

LOL @ jafo's pic.

Even when not photshopped it's a big mother!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_D9

Word. Stupidity of people is usually to blame...

Good grief!!

Yeah..... the stupidity doesn't just lie in the costs of using a phone over international networks, everyone's know those high prices have been around since A.G. Bell first invented the device. If you KNOW you're going to incur a high cost of using your phone overseas.. leave the bloody thing at home!

That was my thought. If you can't use it abroad, why would they take it with them?

Just because you can't use the on-line functions (phone, mail, web) doesn't mean you can't use the other functions (music, photos, calendar, etc).  Right?

I wonder if there is a setting to disable all on-line activities.

Yes, by shutting it completely off. 

Ouch.  Steve-o might want to rethink that.

As an aside (since we are a Windows skinning community    ) if you haven't read The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs it's worth a gander.  Fake Steve Jobs is one funny guy.

Bragging rights definitely has its downfalls. All I have top say to them is "SUCKERS"

Apple and at&t are sitting back laughing at all you fools

There's a flight mode, or "airplane mode" as Apple calls it.

the family messed up but at the same time you know many people buy high tech phones just to have it, calling tech support for phone features that can be found in the manual.

If they were not going to use them overseas, they should have just left them at home. That would have not only solved the huge charges, but prevented any chance of them getting lost or stolen.

There is no doubt they should have been more aware.  But, again, it's not just a phone anymore.  They should be able to use it's other features without it calling home.

All I have to say to them is "iSUCKERS".

There, fixed that for you.

They can, they just choose not to. 

Cell phone companies are BS. Don't think for a moment that it was a "mistake" on AT&T's part. Other companies do the same thing with their PDA's. The more net access you have in general, the higher chance you're going to have to be screwed.

I'm with Sprint and have had 4 MotoQ's since February. Just 2 days ago, I sent my "new" one into Motorola for replacement because I plugged it in one night, and the next morning, all of the software was GONE. It displayed a flash screen asking for software. Two of the phones I had before it did the same thing and the 1st one would shut itself off randomly, and Motorola & Sprint said the only thing I could do is replace it. No problem right? Doesn't cost me anything to replace each phone... over and over. But AHAAAA - There's a catch - a $35 activation fee every time I activate a new Q, because Sprints software blows. Times 4 Q's (soon to be 5) that's an extra $140 (again, soon to be $175) I've spent since February just activating phones. My monthly bill is only $100. Personally, I think Sprint has some deal going with Motorola. Moto must get a cut of that $35 activation. Times that by hundreds of customers that have had the same problems with their Q's... That's a good amount of pocket change. They of course counter that logic by saying that thousands of people DON'T have problems with their phones, but really... What's a few hundred lemons in a few thousand. Right? Think it's all bull, and I'm just a complainer?

WWW Link

Hundreds of complaints... Yet nothing done. You be the judge.

Cell phone companies have nothing but $$'s on the brain. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a Treo.

Graviti very good reply and well stated.   

As in most things of this nature the consumers become the X factor, so to say.

Consumers can and have been known to cause many of products to either be imporoved or disappear from the market place. I'm sure the same can be said about services offered.

It's not front page stuff but when products don't sell or services aren't used, people notice, like CEO's, Board of Directors, Stockholders.

Just think how quickly the word spreads because of Internet Fourms!