Mythbusters' Adam Savage hit with $11,000 AT&T bill
It seems that Mythbusters' Adam Savage was doing a spot of traveling in Canada and made the mistake of taking his AT&T USB Connect Mercury modem with him. A spot of web surfing ended up with him getting a eye-watering $11,000 bill for roaming from AT&T.
Note: Some media outlets are reporting that he racked up the massive bill using his iPhone, this is incorrect.
Savage broke the news via Twitter:
Sorry, bit of explanation: device in question wasn't my phone, it was the AT&T usb connect Mercury modem. 12 minutes ago from web
And I got the "data is charged at .015 cents, or a penny and a half, per kb". About to try to explain the difference to them. Sigh. 18 minutes ago from web
They're claiming I uploaded/downloaded 9 million kilobytes (9 gigs) while in Canada. Frakking impossible. 19 minutes ago from web
@sleepingbri you read it right. $11,000.00 about 2 hours ago from web in reply to sleepingbri
Did I mention they've turned off my phone until I pay? #attsucks about 2 hours ago from web
Almost forgot: Hey AT&T! I will fight this bullshit. about 2 hours ago from web
Text messaging fees are stupid robbery? (they are), AT&T is attempting to charge me 11k for a few hours of web surfing in Canada. Pls RT! about 2 hours ago from web
If this is a mistake, AT&T need to sort out its act. If it's not a mistake and it's possible to rack up insane charges while roaming then there needs to be some sort of mechanism in place to prevent people from digging such a deep hole for themselves.
Data transfer charges while roaming are a rip off? Myth confirmed!
[UPDATE: Looks like AT&T have sorted this out for Savage.
"Today the tweeps became twoops. Just got off the phone with AT&T and they've taken care of everything to my great satisfaction."
Still, there's a deeper issue here, since not everyone is Adam Savage, and not everyone has nearly 60,000 Twitter followers that catch AT&T's eye ...]