Some Say He Might Be A Little Shocked: UK man gets $30,000 bill for watching Top Gear
Will Pierce has gotten it backwards. The goal is to get paid for watching Top Gear; instead, Pierce earned himself a hefty bill for catching up on the Best. Car. Show. Ever.
Pierce and his son were on a ski trip in France, where there happens to be a paucity of English-language television. To stave off the boredom, out came the laptop and its Vodafone data card. Vacation saved by internet downloads of Clarkson and friends, father and son returned home to a £21,716 ($30,334.40) internet service bill. Needless to say, the humongous charge was something of a surprise. Thankfully, Vodafone kindly waived Pierce's fees with an admonition to check his plan and whether it covers massive data downloads while in other countries. So, the next time you find yourself in foreign lands with time to burn and a hankering for some quality Stigtime, well... consider yourselves warned.
[Source: Newslite]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kitko 2:34PM (3/18/2009)
I'm afraid it wasn't for watching the Top Gear, the guy was charged for being stupid.
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ack154 2:39PM (3/18/2009)
Ditto, this doesn't really have much to do with what he was watching. Just that he was using a crapload of bandwidth in another country with an aircard. Should have known better.
garlinski 2:48PM (3/18/2009)
in a similar story, if you send your SlingBox to your laptop or Blackberry Bold while on a crusie ship via wireless internet, even while in port, it's considered an international call on your cellular bill and there was a story very similar to this recently, but that guy didn't get the total bill admonished.
Randy 12:27AM (3/19/2009)
And I thought comcast sucked with their rates on 10 year old OnDemand movies! Yeah they charge for them in HD! Can you believe it? Would you EVER pay for Police Academy in HD?
Oh the clarity!
pditty 11:13AM (3/19/2009)
"it's considered an international call on your cellular bill and there was a story very similar to this recently, but that guy didn't get the total bill admonished." - garlinski
admonished... i don't think you have any idea what that word means.
Lucas 2:38PM (3/18/2009)
How'd he manage this, legally?
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Swede 3:10PM (3/18/2009)
It's not hard to download a few megs off the internet. I think data transmission is not regulated like phone or SMS are within the Union.
why not the LS2LS7? 4:29PM (3/18/2009)
No, he means you can watch Top Gear over the internet within the UK legally. But they won't stream it to you if you are outside the UK because they legally don't have the rights outside the UK.
Lucas 4:33PM (3/18/2009)
Exactly.... and if he was in France he would have had a French IP and therefore...
Kitko 4:50PM (3/18/2009)
You can download Top Gear from iTunes UK store. The only thing you need is the ace of spades.... a credit card issued by a UK bank. For your data plan it's only data, no matter what and where from you donwlonad stuff.
goalieguy314 2:40PM (3/18/2009)
They waived his fees!? If this had happened with a US phone company I doubt that would have happened..
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another_one 2:47PM (3/18/2009)
It does quite often in the US.
They know their fee's are absorbent and would be PR nightmare.
I read a trucker was charged $50K (for what I wonder ;) - actually I don't want to know...) and it was waived.
Mobius_1 4:27PM (3/18/2009)
@ another_one
Did the authorities find the dead prostitutes in the truck?
Dave 3:04PM (3/18/2009)
Every company has done this including companies in the US. I believe they have also covered the charges unless it was CLEARLY stated in your contract how much roaming fees are. Which if you read a new contract, they are written in big bold numbers now so no one can make that mistake. Good of Vodafone to take the hit for the good PR, bad for the loser who cant read his contract or cant be bothered to ask about something simple as roaming charges in another country. Escpecially when you live in a place like Europe where there are so many countries so close together and probably state owned cell towers.
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Ben 2:47PM (3/18/2009)
How many times have we heard of people being overcharged by data transfers?
Cell companies ought to cap the amount being spent or automatically go to an unlimited d/l and roaming plan that limits these superfluous charges.
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another_one 2:48PM (3/18/2009)
There ARE limits on the "unlimited" plans.
Unlimited is around 5 to 7GB usually.
u07ch 3:56PM (3/18/2009)
The issue is the time it takes to get your bill; it can take a few weeks (though usually a couple of days) for a cellphone bill to arrive from overseas which means you dont get the bad news till after you get back. I went to indonesia in 2008 and it took 3 weeks to get back to o2 in the uk ... though i take an international plan on my iphone when i travel
shumotoriki 2:47PM (3/18/2009)
So lesson is if you knowingly rack up a reasonably large bill, keep downloading until it's a ridiculously huge bill and Vodafone will let you off?
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tankd0g 3:27PM (3/18/2009)
Also get the press involved. Key ingredient :)
ImSteevin 2:57PM (3/18/2009)
It was the largest Vodaphone bill..................................................................In the world.
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