Roaming Charges

[slacker]

Irregular News for 01.29.07

 

Sarasota, FL -- Oliver DeSofi's normal cell phone bill is about $150 on a family plan, and he used about 183 minutes on his phone in October.

 

But when the 77-year-old retiree opened his Cingular Wireless bill in November, he saw $21,420 in roaming charges for more than 4,500 calls from Nicaragua -- where he's never been -- to numbers he's never called.

 

DeSofi immediately called Cingular and found out another $9,554 in charges from the Central American country were already on his next bill.

 

DeSofi told the company it was fraud. Cingular's fraud department disagreed. The company has spent the past two months trying to collect the $31,000 bill.

 

The former computer systems expert and bank vice president told Cingular that he spends most of his time caring for his bedridden wife, Phyllis, and hasn't been out of the country since 2003.

 

"I told them this is impossible," DeSofi said. "They said, 'These are all calls made from your phone.'"

 

The company canceled his service because he refused to set up a payment plan on the huge bill, even though he insisted on paying his typical fees for the phone, DeSofi said.

 

His wife's voice computer, needed to make telephone calls because of her multiple sclerosis, was set up on one of the lines.

 

"It has an impact on your whole mind-set," said DeSofi, who had it weigh on his mind while trying to sleep. He spent much of his savings after retiring early because of his wife's illness.

 

The phone bills contain calls from Nicaragua at a rate of about 166 calls per day for 35 days, and sometimes four per minute, mostly to New Mexico numbers. Many of the numbers have been disconnected. About 50 calls are to a number listed as 000-000-0000.

 

Cingular ignored a November letter from DeSofi's attorney saying the bill was impossible. This month, Cingular sent a letter to DeSofi saying the fraud department didn't find any fraud in his account.

 

But Cingular looked at the bill after a Herald-Tribune inquiry into the situation Thursday and "gave him the benefit of the doubt" because the roaming charges didn't fit into his previous usage patterns.

 

Cingular spokeswoman Kelly Starling called it an "atypical" situation.

 

"It's the first call I've got about a $31,000 bill," Starling said. "We are researching how it was handled from beginning to end."

 

A company representative called DeSofi to say they were crediting his bill for the full amount, apologized for the inconvenience and left a $120 credit on his account -- in case he wanted to come back to the company.

 

"It's like a big rock has been taken off your chest. I thought about it every day," DeSofi said, adding that he's done with Cingular.

 

"I'll call her on Monday and say I'm not coming back."

 

source

[husker rob]

there was a soldier in Iraq that brought his cell phone with him and got a huge suprise when he got his first bill. $2.00 a minute airtime plus roaming charges if you get a signal. he said that he only used his phone a couple of times and his bill was almost $2000.00

[Nicole]

my phone bill right now is $468.85 thanks to long distance text messages to someone with a different provider.

how wonderful.

woo hoo.

verizon is so effin expensive.

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

Must of been checkin up on his mail order bride.

[huskernumerouno]

there was a soldier in Iraq that brought his cell phone with him and got a huge suprise when he got his first bill. $2.00 a minute airtime plus roaming charges if you get a signal. he said that he only used his phone a couple of times and his bill was almost $2000.00

Does he go by the name Husker Rob????????