An American tourist has revealed the moment he received a six-figure bill after a short holiday to Switzerland went horribly wrong.
René Remund and his wife Linda made the trip last September, a trip they had already made given his country of origin.
As always, Remund made sure his mobile operator was informed about his travels, visiting the store to share his trips abroad. He said that as a customer for 30 years, he was told he was “covered.”
But while enjoying the Swiss countryside and sharing some of the magical sights of his trip via photo messages with friends and family, not once did Remund think that those text messages could rack up thousands and thousands in charges daily roaming.
After returning home and receiving his T-Mobile bill, Remund thought it was $143, which he considered “reasonable.”
“I get this T-Mobile bill and it doesn’t bother me much because I read $143,” he explained, adding that it wasn’t until he went to pay the bill that he realized that there were a few extra zeros.
“I look at the bill and say, ‘Excuse me,’” he said.
“$143,000.00…are you guys crazy?” »
According to the cell phone bill, Remund accumulated 9.5 GB of data in Europe, costing him thousands of dollars every day.
And while 5-10 GB isn’t considered a large amount of data, not being covered by roaming fees will cause a user to earn thousands of dollars very quickly.
“I called (T-Mobile) and the girl put me on hold for a while,” he said.
“She said let me check that and I’ll get back to you. She comes back and says, yes, it’s a good bill.
“I said, ‘What do you mean this is a good bill?’ And she said, “Well, that’s what you owe.” »
“I said, ‘Are you kidding me…you’re crazy.’”
After confirmation, his bill was approximately $143,000.00. Remund hired a lawyer to argue that he was “covered” for international roaming to avoid such “exorbitant” charges.
His lawyer sent a letter to the president of T-Mobile, to which no response was given until a few days ago.
T-Mobile’s letter reportedly said the service provider was “sorry” for the charges and that Remund would receive a “credit” to eliminate the entire phone bill.
In an email to local media outlet Scripps News Tampa, T-Mobile said customers should always “check their plan’s travel features, such as international data roaming, before leaving.”
“If a customer is using an older plan that does not include international roaming for data and calls, they will need to ensure they are using airplane mode and Wi-Fi when using data to be sure that the device is not connecting to an international network.
Last year, Melbourne activist and author Sally Rugg received just over $720.00 in fees two minutes after landing in London.
New York Post
