Calgary Man Shocked by $8,000 Virgin Mobile Bill

2:15 pm on July 6, 2010 | Category: Telecom Services, Wireless

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Jason Boutang, an Apple iPhone user from Calgary, Alberta, was shocked to receive a Virgin Mobile cell phone bill of almost $8,000 this month.

Boutang apparently racked up most of the charges during a seven-day trip to France in early June, during which time he used two iPhone apps — a translator and a radio streaming service — which made use of the device’s data connection. Because he failed to purchase an international roaming plan before leaving Canada, Virgin Mobile billed him a whopping $7,763.70.

“I opened my e-bill and fell over,” Boutang said. “I had to get three other people to look at the screen to make sure I read it right. It’s criminal … They [Virgin] said, ‘pay up, every penny … you went outside your neighbourhood, you pay the price.”

Virgin has since reconsidered, agreeing to scale back Boutang’s bill to approximately $2,000.

“We reviewed the bill and since then, we’ve made the decision to re-rate his bill as though he had the roaming bundle,” explained Virgin spokeswoman, Erica Faltous. “These are things that are evaluated on a case-by-case basis; hopefully it will never happen again.”

Nevertheless, the experience has soured Boutang on Virgin as well as on the iPhone itself. He has since purchased a more basic prepaid phone from Rogers Wireless.

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    1. OK, I’ve been looking at other sites on this topic, and I have to say, Virgin, you suck!
      Everyone keeps saying “He went out of his calling area.” But that isn’t the full story, is it? He’s with Virgin Mobile, and they have service in France.
      If the mobile company is on both sides of the pond, why the hell should he be paying roaming charges for being out of his area?
      HE’S IN THE AREA OF HIS PHONE PROVIDER!
      I hope he gets his bill down to maybe $500. Shouldn’t be more than that in my opinion.

      I can see it now: But Andy, he’s Virgin Canada, in Virgin France. It’s different. I say phooey. Same branding, and that’s all a cell company is nowadays. Telus = Koodo, Mike, Clearnet and a host of other small fries. Bell = virgin… and the way the two are going, we’re gonna get Belus very soon anyway. I say the CRTC and the French equivilant should throw the book at the two Virgin Mobiles and tell them to shove this bill up their…

      Comment by Andy Janssen — July 6, 2010 #

    2. That’s $23,193,040 MILLION DOLLARS if you let your home (5Mbps) DSL/cable run FULL out for 7 days.

      He downloaded just over 130Mb of data in 7 days for $8,000 dollars. Do the math in google. (130 megabits) / (5 Mbps) = 26 seconds.

      That’s 26 seconds of downloading at home internet speeds for $8,000 dollars.

      In MP3 download terms it’s like downloading 32.5 songs for $8,000

      It’s Insane, just insane please verify for yourselves and you will be as shocked as I am.

      -Ian

      Comment by Ian L — July 8, 2010 #

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