A 570,000 dolláros telefonszámla

Aussie traveller hit with a $570,000 global roaming mobile bill – despite reporting the phone stolen 

An Australian man was gobsmacked to discover he was stung with more than half a million dollar bill for his mobile phone that had been stolen while he was overseas. The incident happened while he was on a European holiday, which he reported to his provider in Australia but due to the time difference the phone company recorded the theft as occurring the day after it actually happened.

During those 24 hours, someone racked up $571,000 in calls including to Somalia. When the man lodged a complaint with the provider he said he was told to pay the charges because the calls were made from Australia but the hefty bill was finally waived after the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) stepped in.

The nightmare incident was one of 138,946 complaints about landline, mobile and internet services lodged with the industry watchdog across Australia in the last financial year. One woman had excess data charges of $76,103 because her phone cap had not been set at 25 GB as requested while small business owner was hit with a $36,225 bill for supposedly going over her 300 GB monthly plan.

Ombudsman Simon Cohen said there were 3,105 more disputes made than the previous year with half of the complaints totalling $440 or more, while at least 60 consumers lodged gripes involving more than $10,000.

source: Daily Mail