Post Five: The Cell Phone Bill From Hell & Attitude Adjustments

Yesterday, my mother got her cell phone bill.  I'm on my mother's plan (yes, I am twenty-six and she still pays my phone bill - this is largely because I've had the same number for a decade and have no desire to get a new one) with her line and my brother's line, so our bill each month takes into account all three of us.  It's usually $200-ish, depending on whether or not we've gotten new phones, added anything onto the plan, etc.  Last month I got a new BlackBerry, my mother put an international calling plan on for the month which would include our vacation in Cancun (we learned that one the hard way two years ago), and I got an international data plan for the same month to cover data usage while out of the country... I need my blog-friends and my Pandora.  And my Facebook!

So when I purchased my new BlackBerry Bold ($209) I had a normal, unlimited data plan for the phone ($30) added to my bill every month.  I did this the last time I renewed and got a BlackBerry, so that was no surprise to the account.  I also requested that they add the international data plan for the month ($50) and the salesman assured both me and Dave that this plan was also unlimited and data usage would not be a problem.  And we asked several questions - all in the same vein about the data plan - so that there wouldn't be any surprises come the first week of March.

Well, it's the first week of March.  And guess what?  SURPRISE!  $1100 phone bill.

That's right.  a twelve-hundred-fucking-dollar phone bill.  And who was to blame?

Well, $209 was listed for "new equipment" ... but I already got my $150 rebate and sent that in to my Mom.  So now we're at $950.

And $50 was for the new "unlimited" international data plan.  So $900.

And $100 covered all of our phones on the international calling plan... but should not have still been on there for the billing cycle beginning on February 20th.  So that's another $100 we can get rid of.  $800.....

And then there's the $200 for general usage for the three of us.  Jason is normal, Mom's is a little higher than normal...

And then there's the $598 charge for "roaming and data usage" that I racked up in a week.  Because the data plan Mr. Verizon promised was UNLIMITED actually was LIMITED.  And no one informed me of this, so I blithely read my blogs, posted on Facebook, texted my friends, and listened to Pandora... for a week.  Yeaaaaaaaah.

So I did the only thing I could think of - I made Dave call the International Assistance Hotline offered by Verizon and talk to them about it.  Not only did he get them to refund the added month of international calling service, he got them to refund the ENTIRE $598, based on his argument that we were told it was an unlimited plan by a misinformed salesman.

Mom loves him now.  For at least another 15 minutes.

He's really turning around his attitude.  He's been so pissy and snippy lately, and we REALLY had a knockdown, drag out fight over the weekend that's resulted in his actually showing up on time, helping around the house, cleaning up after himself, being mindful that I've worked a long day too - and I still have to cook, clean, shop, and do laundry.   I'm enjoying it a little too much.

More tomorrow.