$1000 phone bill

Bullocks.

You were talking on the phone using the minutes. They post their long
distance rates. They do not OWE to you to match rates with an
overseas carrier and vice versa! Grow up and accept that you goofed
and ran your bill up!

yes, you should have read your rates before hand. But yes, they should
be required to notify you at the beginning of the call that it is
going to cost 100X's a normal call.I'm sick of people saying "well ya
should have read this and that or and that 1,000 page packet over
there". I am a fine print reader but can defnitely understand it's not
for everyone. Some contracts are extremely long and filled with lots
of legal jargon. No one is saying you should get away with never
reading them, but I think a little understanding is in order. And if
these companies are going to continue to inconvenience people with
time consuming contracts, why can't we make them waste time notifying
us. Just like the overdrafts from banks

Dear Guthrie,

Minutes are not charged the same way in ALL countries.
But then you found that out already, huh? Sorry I should have caught
this BEFORE you found called all those time, but I have been busy
with this Christmas and Christian thing in the stores.
But next time I'l try to be right on it before you make a mistake such
as this.

Sincerly,

Your guardian angel

People who don't like to take resonsibility for their actions and then
when things don't work out the way you'd like them to, or expected
them to, you blame others for your reality. Get over it dude. You
made the calls. It's to a foreign country. And when you say "how
easy they make it to call Costa Rica"......hey guess what? All phone
calls are "easy" to make. It's not like you have to climb to the top
of a 500 foot tower, stand on your head, and then twirl around 3 times
to make the call, now is it?

Wow.......you're a trip. Pay your bill. Trust me, they aren't going
to reverse the charges. If you don't pay the charges, it will rather
quickly affect your credit and then you're hosed for a very long time.
Have you noticed what the sub prime rate issue has done to this
country lately? And you think you have problems now. Don't pay the
bill and see how many years of agony you'll have to pay. It's not
worth it in the long run!

Peace!

Why didn't you just call Cingular/AT&T before you dialed to Costa Rica
and find out what the rates were?

How do you decide the cut-off point for your warning message? Some
people won't want to pay over $0.20 per minute.

$2.00 per minute for an international call to Costa Rica may be
competitive here in the USA. Not that many people are probably calling
Costa Rica from the USA.

Plus, the Costa Rican government may be adding surcharges or charging
US companies to have calls terminate in their country. I'm assuming
that the Costa Rican government owns their phone service, since many
foreign governments do, but frankly, I'm too lazy to Google it because
it's not my problem. You should check that before blasting your phone
company - it may not be their fault. One way a government can keep its
costs low is by ripping off foreign companies.

Finally, International rates make no sense for wireless or land-lines.
You can call two countries that are adjacent in Europe and pay two
completely different rates. How do I know this? I READ MY SERVICE
AGREEMENT. Try it sometime.

I'm sorry everyone here is being so mean to you. Yes, it was your
responsibility to check the rates first, and I agree with a couple of
the posters that that is not your service provider's responsibilty. At
least you're not asking that the debt be forgiven, or asking for
credit, as some people here are failing to understand.

Buddy, if Verizon won't credit the guy whose house burned down $200,
Cingular (who is WAY worse about giving credits, even for their OWN
mistakes) certainly won't credit you 5x as much because you failed to
check the rates before calling Costa Rica.

I received...
I Noticed...
I Trusted..
I ended up with 500 minutes...
I had a big backlog of rollover minutes...
I trust...
I believe...
I can't believe it costs...7 times more than Costa Rican Ice..
I'm sure I'm not the only one...
I would like....to reverse this policy..
I would like a responsible person...

Here's two suggestions,
Talk less and buy a ticket to visit Costa Rica,

OR

Be responsible and pay your bill!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do...

Veni, Vedi, Visa

I came, I saw, I shopped and I whipped out my Visa to pay my $1000.00
phone bill.

I'm going to touch this hot burner. I trust it won't hurt because the
other burners that are off don't hurt.

Personal responsibility. If the Costa Rican phone company jumped off a
cliff, would AT&T do it, too?

According to AT&T's website, it costs $2.19/minute to call Costa Rica
from the United States. I found that information in under 30 seconds
simply by Googling "cingular international rates." Clicking on the
very first Google result brought me to a page referencing
international calling. That is clearly not "hidden" information.

Googling "cingular contract" brought me to this section of the
contract which you signed when you started service: "Included long
distance calls can be made from the 50 United States, Puerto Rico and
U.S. Virgin Islands to the 50 United States, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin
Islands, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands. Roaming charges do not
apply when roaming within the service area of land-based networks of
the 50 United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.
International long distance rates vary. Additional charges apply to
services used outside the land borders of the U.S., Puerto Rico and
U.S. Virgin Islands." Again, under 30 seconds of internet surfing,
and clearly not hidden information.

A responsible person may or may not read every single word of their
contract prior to signing it, but they could be expected to abide by
its terms after having done so. I'd like to feel sympathy here, but
you signed the contract, and the information was there.

"I trusted Cingular/ATT to provide comparable rates"

That's a misuse of the word "trust." I suggest this instead: "I
assumed Cingular/ATT would provide comparable rates." Cingular/ATT
gave you no indication as to what the rates were for international
calls. You know what happens when you assume? You make an ass out of
you and umption!

It is in the contract. International calling is not free. You signed
the contract therefore you are responsible for it. I'm sorry the rate
was so high, but again, it was in the contract that YOU signed

I agree that the rate was high, however you really need to check out
what you're going to be charged before you make the calls.

Phone companies are among the most notoriously dishonest about
rates, often hiding them when they are, like in this situation,
gougingly high. It does not cost them two cents a minute to make these
calls go through. So two dollars a minute is gouging.
However, this is one of those things a consumer has to learn. It
does not cost ATT more than one cent a minute to call another area
code either, yet if you use any pay phone, you'll be throwing quarters
in there every five seconds. There is nothing you can do about this,
except learn how to avoid these charges. Using a phone card is ideal.
I call the US from Europe using one, for fifteen dollars you get five
hundred transatlantic minutes. But like anything, you have to take
responsability and go look for the deals.

Ohhh here is another one who wants the charges reversed because they
were too lazy to check first before proceeding. Pay the bill, like
many others have already said."or whose kids just discover how easy it
is to call Kazeckstan."-It's the parent's fault for leaving their cell
phone unattended.. and if the kid has a cell phone (not one meant for
a child).. The CHILD shouldn't have one!!

ATT needs an extra $1000.00. This will be for payment of the new
handholding service designed for you.

Wow, unless you have international calling on your cell phone (which
is actually failry cheap), use phone cards. I regularly call friends
in Guatemala and use a combination of phone cards and my international
calling plan on my cell.
You should never assume anything. It is not Cingular/AT&T's
responsiblity to inform you each time you make a call of the rates.

Folks. This is clearly a joke. No one could possibly think this
way.

Or could they?

"I noticed it was very easy to phone Costa Rica on my cell phone,"

I noticed it was very easy to slice up puppies with my new Wusthoff
knife set. I believe this is a corporate strategy to create world
domination for cats.

"...whose kids just discover how easy it is to call Kazeckstan
[sic]."

My kid just discovered how easy it is to pee on the rug. Looks like I
should be writing a letter to the rug people complaining about this.

"I would like a responsible person at Cingular/ATT to respond to this
suggestion."

A responsible people would ignore this ridiculousness.

You're kidding right? You didn't bother to take a few minutes to find
out the wireless (key word here, wireless) rate to Costa Rica and now
you want Cingular to do the responsible thing and reverse the charges?
Yeah right!

Grow up. You should have done the responsbile thing and checked the
rates. Sorry, pay your bill and move on.

It is unreasonable to expect Cingular/ATT or any company to assume
their customers are incapable of finding out the rates or terms of use
or any other easily-obtainable information and to be forced to provide
that information each time their service is used. Can one imagine how
annoying it would be if, every time a call were placed, a message
reminded the customer how much the call would cost?

Even on a very basic level, a company must assume its customers have
read and understood the information necessary to use the service or
will find out that information ahead of time if it is needed.
Obviously, some people will not do this, but is it really a good idea
for the company to second-guess its customers' intentions and assume
that no one has bothered to familiarize themselves with the terms of
use?

In my opinion, doing so requires a company - any company - to make
estimates of the intelligence of its consumers. I believe that most
companies like to think their customers are reasonably intelligent and
educated enough to find out the information they need before using the
service.

I would hate to live in a world where every business is forced to
assume its customers are stupid and ask them each time the service is
used if they mean to do it.

You didn't have time to check rates, but had time to talk to Costa
Rica for 500 minutes. Do you see how crazy this sounds? You are in the
wrong here. Pay your bill and be more responsible in the future.

" I'm sure I'm not the only one who this happens to"

I hope to God you are.
I bet you don't even understand that YOU are the reason toasters have
warning labels like, "Do not make toast in a bath tub full of water",
or why a frozen pizza box needs a label that says, "Not to be taken
rectally".
I don't think I have ever read or heard a dumber complaint letter in
my life. This is just absurd.

So you assumed, and for what reason? And now that you found out your
assumption was incorrect, your question is what?

I'm loving the irony of an unresponsible consumer wanting a
responsible employee to assist them regarding his lack of
responsibility.

The small fraction of folks who fall into what situation? Calling
other countries in non-emergency situations without finding out what
it is going to cost until the bill is a thousand dollars? If you
don't have time to check rates and you don't have a lot of spare money
lying around just waiting to be sent to the wireless company, then you
don't have time to be calling Costa Rica. Period.

You can try to spin this so that the wireless company is doing
something wrong, but you are the one who agreed to these rates when
you signed up or renewed your contract and then went off and did
something really stupid.

PS.

or whose kids just discover how easy it is to call Kazeckstan

I do not take people who spell phonetically very serious.Grow up you
big baby.

You have alot of "trust" in life. You assume no responsibility for
your actions and you wrongly assume people are as stupid as you are.

How exactly can you compare the price of a pre-paid landline card with
the rates for cellular service? They use different methods of bringing
voice communications to you and guess what.....one is more expensive
than the other.

As far as the "ease" of calling internationally goes, I would like to
believe parents would block international dialing. Here is a newsflash
for you: when you sign up for cell service, it is not like your phone
service. You actually have a different set of terms and conditions to
abide by. You are definitely correct: this affects a small faction of
individuals--the ones who do not read contracts, the ones who sign up
for things without reading the fine print and those lovely people who
do all of the above and still feign ignorance and abuse the system.

BTW--while I was typing this, the village called. they were wondering
when you were coming back.

It is your job to find out how much a call is per minutes, not the
phone companies job to baby you through every phone call.