"It could be hundreds," he said. "We are going to do what we can to make it right.
While Canadian wireless carriers come under heavy criticism for their data rates, Hall points out that Telus is stuck paying the going rate in Egypt. So Telus will end up footing the bill to the Egyptian carrier for whatever amount it rolls back Fero's bill.
"We will take a significant loss," said Hall. "We will have to absorb those charges, we make almost nothing on this; the vast majority of that charge goes back to the carrier in Egypt."

how long of a customer has this broad been a customer of telus for to help her write off tens of thousands

^ lol wut?

I have friends parents who are so old school they don't have a cellphone nor know how to use a computer.. yet they know to that roaming charges are huge outside of canada.

There is no way this bitch is this stupid. The only possible explanation is to do something SO ridiculous, she can get away with it, but at the same time gain some attention, probably for her stupid business or some shit.

PS. Data in Africa is quite expensive. A person in my company racked it $4,000 cellphone of data in Africa when in Egypt. He was taking plenty of photos and emailing them full size, so the only explanation is that this bitch was watching movies on the tethered iPhone or someting....

When I was applying for internships she happened to be organizing one for this particular company. The way she described she was basically trying to hire anyone for the position. Then after meeting with a representative from the company the job description was nothing that she made it out to be. I can't explain it exactly since it was quite some time back but she had this arrogant demeanor coming off of her which you can just tell with some people. Googled her after the interview only find out more about her.

To quote biggie smalls,


"The williest, bitches be the silliest"

And also,

"Phone bill about two G's flat
No need to worry, my accountant handles that"


Even biggie smalls didn't spend that much on his phone bill, who the fuck does this bitch think she is!?

In the future where a cell can fit in your pocket and where movies play on something other then VHS

:troll:

Someone at Telus needs to "release" the phone conversation to the public anonymously. I REALLY want to know what was said (as I'm sure everyone else does).

Also, do we know when exactly she was in Egypt? Maybe it was when the shit was going down, and she figured she's gonna be like CNN.

The issue is not what the bitch told Telus. The issue is that Telus has designed a lax billing system that allows small time customers to rack up $37K worth of charges, which will be inevitably difficult if not impossible to collect. I can't go to a bank and tell them to give me a $10,000,000 loan just cause I think I'm good for it. Likewise, this woman doesn't have the authority to approve $37K worth of credit on her account based on a phone conversation with some dumb rep making $10/hr.

Though Telus will likely have to write off this account and destroy this woman's credit (Telus will still have to pay the Egypt carrier the contractually agreed charges), they will continue this practice for the simple reason that for every single idiot running up thousands in charges and don't pay, there are a couple of hundred other people who don't realize how expensive it is to roam and will pay their couple of hundred $ bills when they do. So on the balance, it makes sense for Telus to continue this practice and screw over their customers.

Other dumbass companies I had the pleasure of dealing with in the U.S. AT&T that claimed that my Blackberry belonged to them (when it was an unlocked version that I had bought in another country) and I would have to pay it off if I wanted to cancel my contract.

Verizon Communications that thinks it is ok to charge $4.00/min for long distance calls to Hong Kong on a residential landline. Oh but if you subscribe to their monthly long distance plan at a flat rate of $4.99/mo, it's only $0.25/min.

reminds me of this video

You're making an assumption. Telus was quick to cut off her data when the usage (charges) spiked. I wouldn't call that a lax billing system since they "caught" it right away. Same thing has happened to me when I've gone shopping and ran thousands on a CC in only a few hours - my CC company denied a transaction and contacted me to see if it was really me making the purchases, since the charges were not my usual usage habits.

We also don't know who she talked to. Maybe it was some low-level rep. Or maybe it was a manager/supervisor.

Just because companies like Telus have policies that can allow you to rack up large roaming bills, doesn't mean that every single customer with such a large bill is an innocent victim.

I'm with the people who say she should pay the full amount. Especially if Telus is stuck holding the bag for her mistake. I don't think other consumers should have to pay for her mistakes.

For those of you who say that the provider should only charge the amount it actually costs for the bandwidth - how does one begin to even figure out the cost? Sure, that 1MB of bandwidth may only cost 20 cents, but you have to factor in that they have to pay off the millions (if not billions) invested in putting up towers to provide you the service, wages, utilities, etc. The telco providing the roaming service shouldn't have to subsidize anyone who is roaming either so that's why you pay the exorbitant amounts when you roam.

As a consumer, how would you feel if Telus, Rogers, or whoever provides your cell service charged any roaming user the rates you get for your phone service? You're stuck with a 3 year contract, while people on roaming come and go as they please.

Roaming is there for convenience. If you're too lazy to go figure out how to get service locally wherever you are going, they you have to be prepared to pay to play.

I'm with Marco911's suggestion of having them have to pay off their balance when it reaches X dollars. It will make them aware of how much they're racking up and could cut Telus' losses.

Telus did their due diligence by cutting her off the first time. If she said turn it back on, then she's on the hook for the rest of it. A computer will only do what it's programmed to do (which was cut it off the first time). If it's overridden by customer's request then there's nobody else to blame but herself.

Yes the computer is only doing its job... for Telus :)
Dangonay these kind of profit policies to allow racking up of large bills must be the "sheering" phenomenon which your familiar with.

It did it's job the first time by shutting down service when her bill got too high the first time around. It did the job it was supposed to do which was protect her from the rampant charges that were being racked up. She just decided to call in and override it.

It could also be said that Telus really doesn't have to give any notice at all. Don't you think the onus is on the consumer to be aware of what the charges would be when they're roaming? It's posted up on their website. I found the roaming rate for Africa in under 2 minutes. (2.5c/KB) There should be a sense of personal responsibility here. Did she use the services - yes she did. Don't you think that she should have to pay for it?

I've already covered this. It costs telecoms 1000ths of a penny after factoring in all the infrastructure investment.

A couple US companies offer free roaming in Canada cause they have agreements in place. I have friends with cell phone contracts purchased with addresses in Seattle and they use them here and elsewhere in Canada without any roaming charges.

There's no good reason for roaming to cost so much.

Quick, let's get Julian Assange on the case!

Refer to Marco's post, #107. Not even TV personality (Olson on your side) Chris Olsen should be given that kind of credit to start with... I bet the guy drives a cookie cutter worth less then $37grand for god sakes! RS bonus points to who ever finds out what he drives.

i have to disagree. The fact that a 37k bill can be racked up that fast by an individual consumer, there should be better policies in place that, yes protect even the idiot customers. As others have said, being able to rack a bill up that high should require credit approval. Most people here couldn't afford a 37k bill and one mistake like that shouldn't be able to wreck someone financially. I think that when people think the full onus is on the customer, that is a belief you've learned to internalize, partly because of certain ideologies that have been fed to you. I think both parties have responsibilities, not just the consumer. However, she definitely should be liable to pay something adequate to punish her for irresponsible behavior.

would your opinion change if companies built their infrastructure with borrowed taxpayer money? i am not referring to these companies as i don't know their history, but asking a general question. also i think your missing the point, the issue isn't one of roaming rates being the same as regular rates. It's the fact that roaming rates are high to the point they are not justified especially as others have said, it can cost a tenth of actual cost. i don't think cutting off a customer once should be recognized as "due diligence" on a companies part, especially as I have previously said it can get someone over their head in debt. you could even argue that because the company wasn't responsible themselves, they should know there is a high unlikelihood of collecting, thus screwing all the customers that have to foot the bill.

The debate on the topic is interesting to read and all but noones really offered any suggestions as to how to fairly solve the problem.

I say you split up the 37K over monthly payments over the next 25 years. That way, she doesn't get financially destroyed, nor does she slip away from owning up to her own actions. A big part of me would take great satisfaction from knowing that this bitch is paying an extra $125 per month (and that she'll be thinking "fuck, I'm a dumbass" for the next 25 years.
Posted via RS Mobile

its funny how everyone here calls her "the bitch" now

:fullofwin:

Sure they have. It's been suggested she pay the Egyptian charges (whatever Telus would have to pay out) and Telus makes no profit.

Completely forgot there's an ignore list in vBulletin to filter goof trolls like yourself. Added.

So even after the writeoff, they make almost nothing :troll:

Nobody that she talked to can approve her additional credit for $37K within a couple of minutes. Your cc company detected possible fraudulent transactions which they wanted to verify. They would still not allow you to exceed your credit limit. Your credit limit has been set based on evaluating your income and your ability to pay based on your credit history. Companies like Telus shouldn't be able to pull a number out of their ass and give any of their customers huge amounts of credit for something as trivial as a phone service.

Racking up a $37k credit card bill is easy, though... a $37k phone bill takes some serious effort/talent, and if you factor the number of wireless users with the regular monthly bills, probably amounts to a once-in-a-hundred-million event, especially if you figure that 99% of people, when they find out they've hit $1000, would respond with "OMG, I can't believe it! Thanks for stopping me, I must be more careful!"

In other words, a contingency for an idiot like this is probably pretty far down the planning list for most telcos, not just Telus.