I have been a Sprint customer for a few years now but when I signed up I was given a free option (which I use) that limits the how much I can be charged per month in overages. Keeping in mind I never go over my unlimited incoming, 300 outgoing, 300 texts and unlimited internet. Say I do go over my minutes or texts, any service that is over my limit would be shut down until the next billing cycle so that my overage cost does not exceed a set amount. I've always had automatic bill pay and I think it's a feature limited to such payment type seeing that I get billed before I even see my bill. Overall after all the BS taxes and surcharge fees, my bill has been going down (I don't understand all the "Sprint PCS courtesy discount"s,) and is now around $78/month.
Almost everybody I know uses Sprint so I never go over my 300 anytime minutes but having unlimited incoming sure helps because I use my cell as my primary phone so all sales calls and junk come to my cell phone but I never get charged for them.

For anybody who has had probs with overage charges going WAY UP, try to setup the Auto Billpay and ask about the monthly charge limit.

That`s why I don`t like cellphone bills... that`s why I have a Net 10.

Make sure you really know your contract, otherwise a suprise is comming. And is not going to be good! I have a Tracfone and the service sucks, but I do not pay USD $10.000 you D U M B A S S!

As usual Bob's blog misses the point entirely by giving Sprint the benefit of the doubt and then offering helpful tips to consumers which involve being more careful. Being more careful is nice advice, but it's not going to solve the problem.

The problem is outright fraud plain and simple. The solution is to catch the thieves, Sprint PCS executives, in this case, prosecute, and put them in jail.

"oh, that's ridiculous and extreme" you say. Why is it so ridiculous?

Why is it ok for groups of thieves sitting in a boardroom to make direct decisions with the direct effect of defrauding *millions* of customers out of millions of dollars ok? There is no difference between Sprint Executives and common thieves. What other companies, aside from Banks, do we let run rampant in this manner?

I promise you, if you we did this, a majority of cell phone fraud and complaints would go away overnight.

People u can fight back if you are disssatisfied with any service you recieve from your cell provider or your credit card company send them a $1.00 payment via the internet several times a month, this one dollar payment will cost them about .29 to process also your banking institution charges the company a fee. If enough people do this they will get the message. It is clear our government is not going to stop these companies, the credit card companies wrote the bankruptcies laws that our current president passed and signed into law. Take a stand this one small act of defiance could snowball and change some very unfair practices

I just got off the phone with Verizon...the vultures at premium text messaging companies have struck again. WHY CAN'T THERE BE A "DO NOT CALL LIST" for these companies? Or, is there a listing somewhere of all these companies so I can email each of them to stop soliciting my daughter?

I don't buy Verizons statement that they have no control over these places. If they share revenue, they share customer information.

I'd like to see consumer protection in the form of the option to block ALL third party services with whom the account holder does not contract directly. If I need to charge something I want to pull out a credit card, select, and go to the vendor directly. It is ridiculous that consumers who would never hand over a credit card to their teenage kids are automatically and unavoidably forcibly signed up for an open line of credit on their cell phone accounts to vendors who have a contract with the telephone company and no interest in providing service of any value to the consumer. It's a blatant lie that we can monitor these things from the Web interface. The Web Interface (for ATT/Cingular, and I gather other phone companies) doesn't show current charges for these things. Nor do the phone company Web sites provide any warnings or lists of these crooks they claim to be offering "valuable" services to us, the consumers. We don't know what the heck is going on with your account until you receive the bill. These 3rd party vendors contract with the phone companies to commit theft.

After reading these comments, it comes to my attention, that- wouldn't it be in the best interest of said billing company to put a cap on the bill amount? Fixed alerts when the bill gets to a certain amount? most services that offer billing after the service is provided counts on the fact that you have the money to pay the bill. If this bill were to go out to someone on a fixed income, the company woould never be able to collect thier money anyways, and so will have defeated thier own purpose. $10,000 is an overwhelming amount to the average family. There are some who would have just cancelled thier service without second thought to paying the bill. You'd think there would be a 'you have reached your credit limit' phone call

Cell phone companies rely on the fact that people often don't understand the full extent of extras they must pay for. They are also not aware that their children can activate services.
They count on this to get as least one large payment from the customer.
I use a prepaid cell phone - no text messaging and no need to access the internet. I pay for my minutes and only need to pay once a year. I use a land line at home and my cell phone for some business and emergencies.
It is a good idea to give your child a cell phone. However, make it prepaid and limit its use to necessary calls. Youngsters will sometimes use their cell phones to talk or text someone in the same mall or school location.

I agree with mindfire. All you monsters who are bashing the father and daughter are indecent, probably rich, and have no heart. You make me sick. The father and daughter have a right to dispute these charges because the fact of the matter if it happened to you, you would Be iching and whining that you have a huge cell phone and be asking for help from America.
You people know who i'm talking about. The ones that are saying "It's not the company's fault, why did the father buy her a cell phone" You as well as I know that a $10,000 phone bill is LUCRIDOUS and absolutely disgusting. Just as most have said before, this is a sensitive case and I believe the father should look for legal help. In business law, as we all know in most cases, almost all the time when a minor signs a contract under the legal age, most of these cases are acquitted and the contract is void. In this case I don't know whether the minor signed a contract but rather the father gave the phone to him. But the father may be able to seek help and get help. Good luck to the father and hope he can reduce that bill to his normal bill. Those people in this blog who are making these obscene comments make me sick. It's just a young girl, we all made mistakes , this just happens to be scam. AND as someone said before" all of you monsters are all going to hell and i'd be happy to join whoever said "I'll see you in hell and I'll be the one slapping you in the back where the sun don't shine with a whip.! lol"

The real question here is not why can't companies block these messages. It isn't even why won't they notify people that these charges are occurring.

No, the real question is, how much do the phone companies skim off the top with these premium messages? Not only do they charge for the service, but I'm sure that they make money off of each message sent.

If the phone cos. stand to make a large profit off of these 'services', of course they will not notify, reverse the charges, or go after these third party affiliates.

Because in reality, its about them making money. Not providing, you, the consumer, with quality service.

ps, if you want a phone for your kid, do what I DID when i was 17 and get a prepaid one. my parents didn't pay for my stuff, I DID and i had to buy the cards too. they do not let you send premium texts or call sex hotlines or anything that would charge your account anything other than minute useage and 10cents to send a text. that phone was great. (of course they never realized that i was getting 411 for free, but you can call 800-free-411 and get it free anyway) when i was ready to move on at 19 and get an actual one that they CHECK MY CREDIT FOR i gave my phone to my ex's mother. she loves not having a huge bill every month for only using it 30 minutes a month at most. plus, prepaid is usually roll-over, so why not do that? people need to wake up and not hand shared phones over when they know everything in this world is turning into a scam, or a way to make money and they don't care how you feel. plus, i don't see it as a scam when it says on the tv or in a magazine that they will charge that amount and most are per day recurring charges. anyone can read them. lessons need to be learned, and people shouldn't have cell phones unless they can pay for it themselves anyway. i even paid for my own pager when i was in high school for my mom to contact me... guess what... i used the schools payphone or the malls payphone! how hard is it anymore, or is everyone just getting lazy with computer technology and not using their brains anymore?

thank you! i was glad to see the comment about checking the account online! if you give your kids a cell phone, wouldn't you make sure it isn't getting up there??? i check mine online all the time, and i don't have a kid with a cell phone! i like to know if they are trying to rip me off or not b/c you NEVER KNOW! my husband left sprint due to them sucking soo bad, and went to nextel.... then nextel and sprint merged. talk about bad luck! you always have to moniter your account with them! they are horrible! thank god i have t-mobile. $40.00 a month with all kinds of messaging and 1000 minutes free nights and weekends (and i don't download anything or try to hook up with hjot guys either).

Oh yeah, by the way, I have SPRINT too and they suck!

Makes me glad I use ATT/Cingular.
a couple of months ago there was an extra $250 on my sons line (family plan). I called to contest the charges. See his phone had broken early into the contract and he was using an old phone from a friend of his sisters that did not have any bells and whistles (no download capacity for ringtones,etc) so it ATT very quickly detirmined that these were fraudulent charges and removed the charges from my account.
But they also told me about parental blocking on his number. Now anytime anything tries to charge money to his phone number I get an email and have to respond allowing the charge or it can not go through.
So if you are a sprint or verizon customer who has been told they can do this...switch to AT&T.

Wow! You can definately tell who has a soul and who doesn't here. You can also tell the salesperson mentality is rampant in this country. You people bashing this dad and his daughter are pathetic. How is a $10,000 bill at all apropriate without his consent? I'm not going to argue with you dumbasses because your minds, if you can call them that, are immoral and already made up. Money rules all. I'll see all of you in hell. I'll be the guy with the whip.

Wow! You can definately tell who has a soul and who doesn't here. You can also tell the salesperson mentality is rampant in this country. You people bashing this dad and his daughter are pathetic. How is a $10,000 bill at all apropriate without his consent? I'm not going to argue with you dumbasses because your minds, if you can call them that, are immoral and already made up. Money rules all. I'll see all of you in hell. I'll be the guys with whip.

This isn't rocket science. The girl is a minor and thus cannot legally enter into any agreement with a service provider. All agreements are thus null and void with the plaintiffs being in their full rights to recieve any payments sent as part of the illegal contracts.
Jerry for President!

I believe the charges for the premium services would be accumulating at the premium text provider, not in the Sprint billing system so not sure they would have been able to alert this customer to the growing charges. More than likely, Sprint receives a data feed when the charges become due so they can add this to the outgoing bill, that is why Sprint would send the customer directly to the provider?

I used to work for a LARGE CELL PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER, and we would always get calls from people that said that they couldn't understand where the money was being charged from. I worked in the pre paid department, and when we found out that ring tones, premium text ect was downloaded, and we found out that they had seen commercials, or articles in the magazine, to send a certain code to like 555, but the small print that you can't read on TV or even in the magazine actually has a reoccuring charge each month. Its a scam, but Unfortunately, because these businesses that have this 3rd party stuff, have on the advertisement about the reoccuring charge it leaves people with the ability to do nothing. I always let them know what has happened, and that I would credit them back their money, and I would notate their account with the stuff. I have Tmobile right now as my service provider and I couldn't be more happier with them. Anytime that my bill goes over the normal, or there is a charge that is not normally there, they will call me and let me know. I had asked for this service because of my kids that are on the acct. They even call me and let me know that someone on the acct had call information and that it charged 1.49. I think that it should be a requirement for cell phone companies to do this, to alert people but thats why they advertise on TV, During the times that your kids are watching the shows that they like. or being in the magazines that they read.

Quote "How is this Sprints Fault for not telling him about third party charges? This guy willingly gave his "developmentally disabled" daughter a phone, didnt talk to her about its usage and now has to pay the price!! You can look online at the usage, and being a responsible parent means monitering your teenagers ESPECIALLY ones who are mentally challenged as he claims his daughter is. Arent these the same kind of people who when thier kid runs off with some predator cry "why?""

Bravo. Put the blame where it lies instead of trying to pass it on. :) Wish more ppl would start thinking like this then perhapse the good old USofA wouldn't be in the mess it is.

if your kids want a cell phone and parents are going to give it to them and not monitor their usage, then get a pre-paid phone or an "unlimited" calling/texting plan like METROPCS! They are wonderful... if you are not traveling outside of a metro area.

Maybe it's just my credit, but anytime I got close to owing $250 on my Sprint bill I would get texted, called, and then have my service interrupted. A bill of this magnitude goes far beyond exceeding "reasonable". If Sprint doesn't take the steps to block scams like this [*and it is a scam*] then they should have to eat the fees. The ONLY people who subscribe to and use services with fees that high are folks who didn't read enough of the fine-print. Now we're at the point where we blame the person who was duped and not the group who maliciously set up a sneaky trap to get them? It is ABSOLUTELY reasonable to assume that pushing buttons on my phone will not cost me hundreds or even thousands of dollars. What if the fine print had read "by subscribing you are agreeing that we will take ownership of your home and/or vehicle"?!? That wouldn't hold up, right?

If you all these customer service centers and act appropriately and kindly, you can usually find a solution. I have been a Sprint PCS customer since 1998 and have had 4 bill related problems since then. 3 of them happened when getting a new phone and it appeared to be bugs in their process when switching to a new plan/setup. I have been able to resolve all of them and never paid a penny mre than I should. I always scrutinize my bill and know what to expect every month. If it is even 15 dollars higher I check up on it. If your kids are not responsible, do not give them the toy. This is a parenting problem and not a Sprint problem. There should maybe be more news stories informing the general public about this, but parents passing the blame on someone else needs to stop. Assuming your child is as responsible as you is ludacris.

If everyone would simply cancel their cell phone services & use prepaid phones these companies would be FORCED to comply to common morality and common sense. I don't see why America seems to be so addicted to these things. I do not have one, & it is one less hassel for me to deal with. Regardless of all the arguments people make, it should be obvious that cell phone companies are crooked. We, as consumers, hold the power. It's time for us to make use of it.

Sprint is a joke. They have no compassion or empathy for anyone. They might as well have robots answering their "customer service" telephone lines, because those people show NO emotion whatsoever. I cancelled my services with Sprint. They screwed out of $600.00 in charges that I didn't know I was signed up for. I cancelled my service early and had to pay the early termination fee, and it was worth it. I can't imagine how much more money they would have got from me with all thier lies and not knowing where charges came from. I am with Verizon now,(going on three years) and I haven't had any problems. Everyone should leave Sprint and let them go out of business. Lets see how they feel when they can't pay their bills.

"I too was a victim of these "Premium Text Messages" I am on a family plan with my boyfriend and he received a bill with extra charges for this service I didn't even know I had signed up for. These services are VERY SNEAKY about it. So beware of this type of thing."

You were a victim? Very sneaky? I died laughing at this one and bet that if you corner your boyfriend you'll discover the truth...bet it was an adult service, yes? Hello?

I would be interested to learn what regulations there are about advertising these expensive third-party schemes in magazines aimed at minors.

They are deliberately getting someone who they KNOW doesn't control the account to sign up for an expensive service, and even at that they're tricking them into thinking it's free.

Anybody else see something WRONG with that?

Switch to Verizon and you wouldn't have this problem. They care about the customer and for what I see the other company doesn't!!!!

With respect to the cell phone provider being able to send you an alert, it would be very difficult. The 3rd party bills the carrier once monthly. The carrier does not know what you have used until they are billed by the 3rd party. Having these companies to provide the cell phone carrier with a daily update would be similar to having your electric company to send you an updated bill daily.

This could not be more ridiculous. First, The provider of the phone (the parent), should take responsibility for the actions of the user to whom they issued the phone. Next, get off sprint's butt. It is not the cell phone provider's fault if you decide to use your phone for something other than a phone. Sprint as well as the bigger companies (AT&T and Verizon) offer a huge network for those individuals who do want the services. A person can get everything from tv to digital music services on their phone so that if they are in an area like a waiting room, they can pass the time with a little more entertainment. The tv stations often offer news through cell phones for people on the go that do not have an option to keep up with current events in traditional ways. Long story short, the phone companies are offering the consumer a huge number of additional services over their network. It is not cheaper for them to offer these services, in fact they spend billions of dollars and several years to develop the technology so that the consumer can get the things that they want (email, text, news, sports, whatever) whenever and where ever they want to get them. The cell phone providers are merely offering a network over which you can get to get the things you want.

If there is an issue at all, it should be with the 3rd party carrier and their lack of approval from the owner of the account, rather than just a user. Here is the thing. If your child uses 20 times the number of minutes that are on the plan, you get a big nasty phone bill. Most people are going to pay this bill because the usage was there. They made the unfortunate mistake of allowing their children access to a phone that did not have limits on it and they went over, but because it is a phone that the parent or account holder provided, they are responsible for the usage. Same thing. The overage was not in minutes, it was in charges through a 3rd party. I can not imagine a post being on here about everyone's phone bill overages due to minute usage. If the developmentally challenged child went over her minutes, would there be a story about the father fussing about the minute overage and how the bill was insanely high? No.

Basicaly you screwed up you gave your child a phone now pay the price does not matter if the child is chalenge or not children should not have cell phone next time give her some loose change for the pay phone and you won't have that kind of bill PERIOD

I agree that there is a responsibility on the part of the parent to monitor the usage of the phone, however, only the person who is financially liable for an account should be able to make any changes resulting in charges to that account. Period.

These companies require you to prove your identity as the account holder before they will discuss your account with you, why not do the same before changes are made?

Calling this man names is unnecessary. The anonymous writer clearly 1)does not have children, 2)does not have or know any developmentally disabled children, or 3)does not recognize the dangers associated with sending a developmentall disabled child (of any age) to school or work without giving that child a reliable way to contact their parents in the event of an emergency.
Be that as it may, this outrageous billing situation is clearly a violation of ADA and this father needs to contact an attorney who specializes in ADA law. Ask for names of ADA cases that the attorney has won. Any attorney can say they specialize, but unless the attorney has actual experience with ADA cases, the client will pay hourly rates for the attorney to learn how to practice this type of law.
Also, check with your local US Attorney's office, this practice might be considered criminal in nature and since it crosses state lines, the interstate nexus is established. Good luck!

Son had sprint, word being HAD. He is in the military, was preparing to deploy for 6 month, didn't need a cell phone where he was going, went to a Sprint office in San Diego and turned his phone off for the 6 month period. Has the paperwork, when he returned his bill was over $500.00. Sprint didn't want to explain why or even want to look at the paperwork. It's all about the $$$$

I have had many issues with SPRINT, terrible service. No service, dropped calls, can't travel and talk to anyone, charges not valid on my bill, VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, they all lie and there is no consistancy within the company. There should be a class action suit brought against this company. I will never use this company nor would I recommend this company to anyone. It is a JOKE!, I have been trying to get away from them and have been told by there company it's impossible. Two of my phone have internal problems, they want me to pay for new phones, I will not buy anymore of their worthless equipment. Stay away from SPRINT/

I have had many issues with SPRINT, terrible service. No service, dropped calls, can't travel and talk to anyone, charges not valid on my bill, VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, they all lie and there is no consistancy within the company. There should be a class action suit brought against this company. I will never use this company nor would I recommend this company to anyone. It is a JOKE!, I have been trying to get away from them and have been told by there company it's impossible. Two of my phone have internal problems, they want me to pay for new phones, I will not buy anymore of their worthless equipment. Stay away from SPRINT/

Sprint, and Switchfire are immoral criminal organizations. Both of the should be banned from doing business --- from offering any kind of text message service except for the cell phone to cell phone individualized message, within the United States. This would teach them what responsibility is.

Criminals like Sprint and Switchfire should be put out of business.

The premium service Sprint or any other service provider charge are not revenues to Sprint. They are 3rd party charges that are billed to Sprint and passed on to the customer provided the service. Blame the scamming short code industries that prey on the kids and people who don't read the fine print. That word "free" sucks in a whole lot of people.

I would say, although this is the fault of Sprint, the father is still responsible because you can't expect a for-profit business to look after his daughter's welfare. Their goal is to make money thro whatever means, be it illegal, unethical, or cheating. It doesn't matter. Shareholders are happy when it makes more money. All for-profit businesses are the same. It is the responsibility of the consumers to make sure they don't close their eyes and trust while doing businesses with these companies. Heavy dose of skepticism is good when doing business with any for-profit business.

On one hand, government in this country stops parents from disciplining kids in the name of preventing child abuse, but on the other hand lets the advertisers and marketers lure the same kids with junk which ruins their life. If the father had said no to cell phone, god knows what that kid would have done. I have heard of kids harassing their parents doing all kinds of horrible things when their parents say no.

Credit card companies are able to send customers automated emails when their monthly bill exceeds a threshold designated by the customer. I see no reason why cell phone companies cannot offer the same service since their billing is also computerized and real time.

ALL I CAN SAY IS CELL PHONE COMPANIES NEED TO BE REGULATED

Sprint?? I have never had to fight with a company like I have to with Sprint!! EVERY month, there is a problem with my bill and EVERY month, they call to warn me that they are going to 'cut me off'! When I bought my new phone, it offered a rebate. Took me months of calls to get it! Once this contract is up, its bye bye Sprint!!

This is a scam by the cell phone monopolies. They are allowing these third party companies to bill thru onto customer accounts and they probably get a percentage of that billing. It should be very easy to block an account from "third party billing" and notify the third party automatically when they try set up access that account. Believe me...if they hit that road block they would immediately stop providing the service to anyone who requested it. But, since they are probably getting a percentage of the profit...why would they want to do that. You think its bad now...wait until they start pushing you to use your cell phone to make debit purchases like they do overseas.
And for those of you who say they are going to switch companies...does the phase "same sh*@ different day" mean anything to you?

This whole texting thing is a joke and spam text is about to hit hard without further changes. Simple solution, charge the sender not the recipient. Right now this would be like having to pay postage for all of the junk snail mail received. Crazy

Well here is my $.02

I'm very educated with a BS, a BA and a few associates.

However, as far as I am concerned, a phone is for making calls.

Imagine my surprise when I audited my last 8 months of bills and found over $400 worth of charges for a ringtone subscription.

My wife wanted a ringtone. The ones that came with her new cellphone were apparently boring.

I downloaded a ringtone for my phone about 2 years earlier and was charged $2.99 one time.

So, I told my wife to log in to sprint. Pick a ringtone and download it.

I also went thru the whole, 'please choose wisely becuase it can really start to add up if you keep changing ringtones. I will authorize one purchase only'.

Sigh... things have changed. Somehow she managed to download a ringtone that was tied to a 3rd party subscription service.

What?! I was there with her. We logged into Sprint, she found the David Bowie ringtone she wanted and we downloaded it. Done...

Nope.

Oh, did I forget to mention that this also started a text message spamming effort from this 3rd party.

I ignored it at first. I didn't realize that these were costing me money.

They got annoying after a few weeks though. So, I spent the next 4 months trying to stop them.

I spent hours on hold with Sprint. I followed their instructions for 'unsubscribing'. I asked them to turn off ALL text messaging on all my families phones. I called back numerous times to redo all that becuase their service person apparently did not turn off text messaging. yada yada yada.

I feel lucky to have been screwed for that measly amount.

While I'm all about personal responsibility (just ask my kids and my wife about my lectures), I also understand that Sprint is allowing this fraud and deception.

On the plus side, I am still a Sprint customer because they have the best nationwide coverage and I travel every week.

Please Sprint... stop the madness. If an educated man such as myself can fall victim, then there is a severe problem.

Thank you.

Just write a nice letter detailing everything to your
state's attorney general's office of consumer affairs.

Also, when when had a foster daughter, who wanted a cool Razr, we said no way in h**l was she getting anything except a "Go" phone - I'm so glad we stuck to our guns. (BTW - biological parents were stupid enough to get her a "real" phone - but it ended up causing so many behavior problems we finally had to put her out).

I think the company making the billing should be forced to prove the texts they sent (each one) was from a hot guy. Otherwise it is fraud.

I had the simular problem with my daughters T-Mobile service and a $600 bill when she blew by her included 400 text messages to the tune of over 6,000 and .10 cents a pop.... Most of them single word or letter responses, plus T-Mobile charges for Inbound messages too.... I got all the charges reversed but had to sign of for two years of unlimited text service at $20 per month. Oh, and while their competition has a way to turn off data services, T-Mobile refuses to do so, so not only can she rack up the text messages she can surf the web and more and there is nothing I can do to stop her but take the phone away. That sucks...
As soon as this contract is up, it is almost cheaper to get out of it, I am going to find another service.

The father was in the wrong to give his daughter a cell phone. But, if she is 18 and she incurred the debt, let her pay it off. I assume that she has no job if she is disabled, so she can declare bankruptcy. Have all her debts wiped clean.

Sprint should be held responsible for allowing this to happen. The trend is for providers to act as billing agents for the third party companies. This should not be the case. The providers responsibility should be limited to sending and receiving data, and charge appropriately. If there is a dispute with the premium text charge, Sprint should deduct it from the bill and refer it to the third party for their own resolution. I worked for a phone company back in the early 80s and the technology was available to detect charges that were out of the norm, any time during the bill cycle. If excess charges occurred during the month, even by a couple hundred dollars, a printout was generated and it was up to somebody to immediately find out what was going on or kill the customers service. I find it hard to believe that a computer did not pick up these excessive charges. Sprint just did not act on it. I don't understand why the state Attorney Generals Offices allow this type of billing to occur. It just goes to show you how unethical all of the (wire and wireless) phone companies are. It is a crime what they get away with !!!

I was surfing trying to find a solution to my text messaging dilemma with my daughter. This is unbelievable; we obviously have an epidemic on our hands. Being able to control text messaging with minors is being asked for by all parents, obviously we have the technology, but the cell service providers are not willing to give up the revenue. It is not only the amount of text messaging, my daughter has surpassed 5,000 a month on more than one occasion; it is the inability control their actions. Providers could very easily give parents the ability to control access to text service or any other service that is provided on their network. We should have the ability to control not only the number of text messages allowed to be sent per day, week, or month; we should be allowed to determine what time of the day messages can be sent. I get more aggravated with my daughter for sending text messages during class at school then I do of the number of text messages. It is like giving a kid a bag full of candy and telling them they can only eat one each day. It would be nice to see a corporation take the role of being a good citizen in assisting parents in teaching our youth to be responsible instead of bleeding the parents during this life lesson. All hail the all mighty dollar!

I asked my 17-year old daughter the other day why you don’t just call the person. After all I have rollover minutes on our family plan that expire every month. Her response was “I would never call that person on the phone”. Puzzled I asked why; she said “It would give him the wrong idea”. I must admit, I had no idea how to respond to that statement. I was speaking with a teacher at my daughter’s school regarding this conversation and I was told that kids will text and IM each other half the night but never even acknowledge their existence when they pass them in the hallway at school. I don’t know about you but I find this a little strange. What type of relationships will our children’s children have with their neighbor? I find this very disturbing.

What is obvious to me is that the parents are the real culprits, not the cell companies. If they have no more native intelligence than to provide a cell-phone to any child who would run up a bill, shame on them. Primarily for having spoiled rotten children who are going to have a terribly hard time in the real world.

The scary part about this as that even if you block text messaging, you can still get hit with the 'premium charges'. Fortunately, the carrier I work for gives me a mechanism to simply request a refund for these things, and to cancel these subscriptions on behalf of the customer. It's a handy thing... I select a few charges, click request refund, and the 3rd Party "content provider" doesn't get paid. They also have a 'purchase blocker' that can be added to a customer's account. If added, it completely interdicts 3rd Party charges, and requires punching in a PIN code for such activities as downloading ringtones in-house.

It's a nifty thing, but the sad truth is that a lot of my co-workers have no idea how to use either system. The purchase blocker CAN be accessed directly by the customer through the handset, but it's a little obtuse. It probably wouldn't have been any help to this fellow since he blocked internet access to the phone.

I don't blame consumers for being annoyed with the situation. These content providers are sleazy dealers hiding behind legal loopholes and international boundaries. Carriers seem to go out of their way to avoid any manner of advance warning to the customers that these things could happen. And when it does happen, most appear to be perfectly content to act as bag men for the third-party content providers.

Beware the, "consumer responsibility" strawmen. They come straight out of the talking points of the content providers. It was straight ouf of my employer's talking points before they had their grudging change of heart. One can guarantee these products are coming straight from the mouths of employees of these outfits, who have had a little too much kool-aid.

Hey. Since we're talking about responsibility here... When will folks ever take responsibility for their own shady business practices? Looking at you, Sprint, and your industry as well.

That's what I thought. Now knock of the crocodile tears for getting your hand caught in the cookie jar.

hmmmmmm... maybe we should become smart and give kids prepaid phones so they don't incur a massive debt. Better yet, make them buy their own prepaid cell phones so they learn the value of it.

by the way, i love sprint's coverage, but i use VIRGIN MOBILE!!!! you don't incur roaming charges and you can still have a PLAN, but it is PRE PAID!!!!

this guy should seriously try that...

You should do a better job of approving these comments before posting (as you claim to do). Some of these are very insulting, definitely attack others, and only show how cruel some people are. If they spent the same effort on solving issues, the world would be a happy place.

If I received a $10,000 bill from my phone company, I would laugh, throw it in the trash, and cancel my contract!

When the bill collector calls, just tell them flat out that you are not paying it and you really don't care how many additional letters they send or phone calls they make.

Consumers are so incredibly scared of getting a "black mark" on their credit report that they feel they have to actually pay all of the bills that they receive. Are we all so scared of getting a "black mark" on our credit report that we'll part with thousands and thousands of dollars just to avoid the dreaded "black mark"? Has everyone forgotten that they are in control of their own money?

My wife and I just recently started receiving unsolicited text messages (some of them in the middle of the night) on our Sprint/Nextel phone. We pay by the text message since it is a feature that we seldom use. I called to Sprint/Nextel today to see if we are getting charged for these messages and they informed us that we are getting charged only if we read them. Ok, so we read two and deleted the others. No big deal. As I have said, we almost never use text messaging so I requested that Sprint/Nextel disable the feature for us. Then the representative informed me that if we do that we will no longer get our voice mail. Ugh!! Best that they could do is try to filter and then informed me that there is no guarantee to eliminate the spam. They really need to do more.

Some posters here are trying to excuse Sprint with the excuse that hese are pass trough charges. Well, Sprint gets money from those "partners". They full well know what's going on. It's rather like the rebate scams Dell computer runs - a check arrives, you think it's rebate and cash it ony to finds out you've signed for some third party product, software or service which is charged to your credit card or Dell even opens/reopens your Dell charge account. And just *try* and get this reversed. Ain't going to happen! No one at the Indian call center will understand what you're talking about. If you return the product or refuse delivery, they send it off for collection. It's a nightmare and *all* of these companies are copying this method of "doing business".

I used to review the long distance phone bills of all retail and food facilities and I always found problems on them and argued with Sprint. One of our facilities was charged monthly with calls to New York, we are in Texas, and no one recognized that number until I called that number and it was one digit off from the number our facility had. So I contacted that number and asked if they knew someone in New York and yes, it was a family member. I said
you will be charged with all these phone calls since they were billed to us. I then cancelled my long distance phone because I saw the same thing happening on my monthly bill, calls to Hawaii for instance, when one has no reason to call Hawaii. I sure don't want to have to argue with Sprint. And why should I waste my time telling them they did wrong. I find that they have so many wayward calls a month and they don't know who to bill it to, so they pick numbers at random to sock it them! I cannot explain it otherwise.

That's what he gets for spawning a retard!
"DUHHHHH! DUHHHHH! DURRRRR! I think I'll get text chat an' score a hottie like duh book wif pretty pictures told me to do! DURRRRR! DUHHHHHH!"
The world is sliding into the abyss of stupidity, and there are plenty of sharks looking to seperate the idiots from their money.

I think the companies are here to rip off consumers to make more profit, but the biggest blame should be on our congress and the senate who is always failing to protect the consumers from greedy corporations. I don't believe there is an excuse for this, I am sure they are aware of what's going on but they keep a blind eye because these are big corporations that they benefit from thru lobbyists. There is no end in sight unfortunately. Just look around you.. corporations are sucking us dry to make money, sending jobs abroad, credit cards at 25% interest or even more plus finance charges, etc. The politicians who are suppose to protect us are protecting the big corporations instead so they can rip us off. Sad, very sad.

There is rampant fraud aimed at pre-teen and teen children.The providers have known about this from day one, and are therefore complicit in this practice. It's a disgrace!

It's a shame that more consumer advocates are not out there, fighting this abuse.

I attempted to have my daughters phone restricted to only local text messaging on our calling plan but was also surprised by this premium service charge.

My daughter feels guilty , but not enough has been said about how she was victimized by these questionable tactics that cell providers allow on their network.

They can certainly block these unscrupulous providers from accessing our children through fire-walling and security measures such as content filtering.

This is a network that we subscribe to and should be protected by the network provider!

AT&T tried me one time.......

I got my phone on 2/18, they told me my billing cycle would occur the 20th of each month. I used it fairly heavily as is my habit. On 3/17 while on vacation in Rhode Isl. my cell was disconnected, I called in to find out I had a $1000.00 bill!!!!!!! I hadn't even gotten a bill yet.
Impossible, but I went ahead and put it on my credit card (I'd dispute it later if needed) and headed home on schedule. I got home to find the bill had arrived, right away I saw late charges being assessed against me which in turn amped up the cost per minute on time I was currently using. I called the operator & ATT&T and told her that there was some shytty dealings occuring here. She told me that by having the phone for 2 days in the old billing period made all the late charges apply, plus I'd gone over the alloted minutes in that 2 day period (shoulda told me & I wouldn't have used it).
We parted by her taking $535.00 in fees off of my bill and promising to look further innto it. 2 hours later @ 2:30 am the same operator called me back to tell me she was taking another $273.00 off the bill yet which put my bill where I'd expected it to be.......

People should keep in mind that there is a fiduciary responsibility between both parties. This is a case of who was more negligient.
Attorney's love controversial cases and I'm certain that the consumer can make headway through their congress representatives.
My suggestion is to compromise and find a solution both parties can live with.
Avoid the blame game. Know what you want and pursue it within reason.
the more you know the better your chances are of finding a reasonable solution.
There is an ethics issue here that should be addressed. Really needs to come from the parties that entered the contract. Plenty of laws and cases to justify either parties point of view.
My initial gut feelings says Sprint would lose in the end on this deal.
There are certain things every business owner needs to recognize and that is how to conduct their business lawfully and ethically. The bigger the business the more then have to lose to these greedy vulchers of attornies.
Can't say out justice system has much to do with justice or mercy. Everything to do with pride and money and power.
As I said, the more you know the better your chances are of resloving and preventing these issue.
Unfortunate, problem for sprint and the victims to fall trap to an industry that has 3rd parties with very little regulation and control on how they behave ethically.
Another reason Sprint needs to develop better policies. Too much money so congress will have to step in and that takes time and patience.
The effort it takes makes the 10,000 dollars merely a downpayment on a expensive venture with futile promises and mere hope.

God, the people commenting here really didn't read the article.

First, the daughter didn't make any changes to the Sprint program. It's like signing up for Internet service, having that service block websites for your daughter, and still allowing your daughter to get email. Your daughter provides information via email to get a service, and suddenly, it's the ISPs fault for you getting charged? No.

Secondly, the father elected not to watch his daughters usage of the text messaging, and didn't bother to review what text messaging entailed. So what, Sprint should not require customers pass an IQ test before signing up for a service? Text message services that charge you have been around for a long time and are nothing new.

Thirdly, it's not the companies job to baby sit you. A lot of people mentioned fraud control. There was no fraud. It was a legitimate transaction and a legitimate service. Really. Customer A wants to sell a service. It clearly spells out its terms to Customer A. Customer A uses said service. Now Customer A is trying to get out of paying. That's fraud. But now you want companies to tell you what you can and cannot do with a service? Seriously? You want companies watching your children because you can't?

As for the people mention pictures and images... unlimited TEXT MESSAGES. When did pictures become text? Really? It spells it out pretty clearly. Just because you are too lazy to read doesn't mean they didn't warn you.

Seriously though, keep raising your kids like this. That way, they can grow up and be just like their sub-prime mortgage taking and now foreclosing on their home mother and father. I like stupid people. They make me money.

The charges applied here were from a THIRD PARTY, not from Sprint. These are companies that make money from idiots who don't read the small print. Sprint doesn't know who's texting you or why, if they did that would be an invasion of your privacy. Blaming Sprint is the equivilent of blaming MTV for showing the ads for these ridiculous text scams. Maybe if this man took a little responsibility for his disabled daughters activities he wouldn't be in this mess.

Refuse to pay it, screw your credit. Dont let these people continue getting away with this. Make sure they dont get any money regardles of what happens to you.

To Pat in Farifax. You don't think the cell phone companies get a cut of the action? They just use their paper, ink and billing prowess out of the goodness of their hearts? Get real this is kickback city and they are on this train all the way. As to you other corporate sypathizers and apologists who state that the companies place the responsibility on the account holder, I do not believe any state permits you to contract your way around statutes designed to protect minors and the disabled. Again rather than calling its gret to go into a retail outlet and speack directly with customer service. If you can't get satisfaction that way then let everyone in the store know your problem (including their potential customers). Once I threatened to subpoena all of their sales staff (effectively shutting the store down for the day) we came to an understanding completely favorable to me.

Corporate sneak + poor parenting decision + unknowing user = $10,000.00

Parental abdication...what a concept. If you do the math, this girl was averaging over 150 texts per day. And dad wasn't even curious as to what was going on until he got the bill? Was there any attempt at instructing this girl on responsible use of this device or was it just another "electronic babysitter"?

Here's an idea. How about you take the phone away and have her read a book or get some exercise for a change?

After Reading this I called Verizon Wireless. The rep on the phone was very nice through the whole conversation but I could tell they do not educate them very well on the Text Premium service Issues/Blocking. Basically if I add a line to my plan, I have 2 Choices:
1 - Block All text messages (equivalent of blocking all outbound phone calls to prevent 900 calls)
2 - use vtext.com and create an account for the new number and block internet and or email sourced messages and of course the account would be protected by a password.
The fun part:
If the child or other user of the line (Thief’s included) so wanted they could have their "forgotten" password sent to the phone. This would allow them turn on the ability, we the parent or guardian, turned off to protect our selves. Please note the Verizon Rep told me that if a child did it, discipline them and explaining “it cost money” would be the solution but of course they would still make money on this!
They had no answer for this loop hole but I did make a nice suggestion.
Put the ability to have the reset request for an account sent to the master account. No Phone number would have to be entered and Mom, Dad or the Boss would know that someone was trying to make unapproved changes. It would also follow the Master phone in the event of Number Changes. And last but not least lets try moving this info where it could be seen. It was not in my contract it was not on the web site and no advocacy group had the information. But you saw it here first :-)

This is our system now. We all believed in allowing companies to do anything as long as they make a profit. This simply means we have to pay more attention as we have all voted since the 80's to stop government interference and allow the "free market" to take its course. So this is our world....get used to it; it's what you've been voting for for 27 years. You can't have it both ways. Sometimes you just get the government you deserve,

I'm just a little confused. They say it took place over a period of only 23 days, 8/23-9/5, not a full billing period. So they must have found out from someone that they were being charged or they realized the mistake and simply stopped making the texts on the 5th. That means either Sprint did look out for them or they figured it out but don't want to deal with the problem they caused. But for a $10,000 bill during that time frame, she would have to make 217 of the $2 texts a day. That is insane.

But he mentions that they did disclose at the bottom of the ad in small print that, "...the per-minute charges revealed..." Was this simply text messaging or was she actually dialing phone numbers and talking? I don't see how per-minute charges could possibly be relevant to texting. Where did the bulk of the bill come from? If she called a pay service number and racked up minutes, that falls under their responsibility.

Yes, net providers should cut your service if it tops a certain amount - like 10x of your normal monthly billing...

Or maybe you should simply begin educating your brats - or do not give them a cell phone, if they are too stupid to avoid costly premium services.

Get a pre-paid phone and this won't happen. If everyone in this country were to cancel their "credit-based" cell phone service and switch to prepaid, we would put the cell phone companies out of business and FORCE them to be more like Europe and Asia cell carriers.

I don't think people understand how this works. This girl did not make changes to the account. She didn't call customer service and make a change. She opened her cell phone, texted a company and sent a message. End of story. No changes made to the account.

This is the Devil's Advocate part of my message:

Most cell phone companies have websites that give nearly up-to-the-minute details of minutes used, texts used, and even premium messaging. I check this every now and then either on the web of via my phone to make sure I am not over my 1000 monthly minutes. Had the father done this, maybe he could have caught this before it became a $10,000 headache.
...............

When I got my first cell phone, I went with Sprint. This was back in 2000. I never once got an acceptable answer to any question I asked a CSR when I called. My bill was constantly wrong and all the other issues that people in here have discussed regarding Sprint. In 2002, my contract ended with Sprint. I took my number to T-Mobile. Never been happier. I love their service and their CSRs are, 99% of the time, comptent in what they're talking about. Anyway, I am still being billed by Sprint. They state I went 1/2 day into the next billing cycle and I owe then $68 + fees + interest now. I have been fighting with them for almost 5 years now. It hit my credit report, but after talking to the 2 agencies that it had been reported to, it has been dealt with. Apparently, even the credit agencies are aware of the s--t that Sprint pulls, or attempts to pull.

I am in the group that says that since the daughter is "developmentally disabled" the contract is null and void the second he tells them to remove the charges. I hope that he finds a lawyer and goes after them. Even cutting the bill in half, I would NOT be surprised if Sprint dinged in credit history.

Companies will continue robbing customers as long as people let themselves be held prisoner to their credit rating. Companies know that they can charge whatever they can dream up and all they have to do to get somebody to back down is to threaten their credit. Most people are so afraid of their credit they would rather just pay a phony or questionable debt than stand their ground.

I’m torn here. On one hand she did use the service you have to take responsibility for your own actions, but on the other hand only the person paying the bill should be able to make changes to the account. I had something sort of like this happen in once upon a time land when we were all on dial up and the internet was shinny and new. It seems like I had somehow set up my internet connection up to roll through different numbers in order to establish a connection. One of the numbers was an 800 number but actually a WATS line. I got stuck with about $500 in long distance charges by the time I figured out what was happening and got it changed. I had one of those fresh out of college jobs so this was over one week’s salary for me. I felt really screwed over and sorry for myself but what can you do. I used the service whether I realized it or not and I had to pay the bill for it. After a couple of months of oodles of noodles and peanut butter sandwiches I have to say that I learned to watch out for this type of thing. That being said you’d think some kind of notice that an account had extraordinary usage wouldn’t be too much to ask. My credit card company noticed that I was charge happy while on vacation and called to make sure that I was, in fact the one running wild with the plastic.

This happened to my family... my mother signed my daughter up for text messaging for her birthday, 500 messages a month. After some months, Sprint called my Mom to let her know that since the volume of text messages was so high she could save money by signing up for "unlimited" texting. They failed to tell her that only text messages were included, no pictures, or any other frills allowed. So after one month, the bill was not less, but a few hundred dollars MORE for the picture messages sent. Luckily Sprint backed down and credited the amount, but not without a fight. Mom talked to three different "managers" until she finally got thru to someone who saw the absurdity of the charges. Keep fighting; never take no for an answer.

It is not just spring, they all do it. I called Cingular to find out why I had a 3.99 text message fee (plus all associated taxes and fees) on my bill when we do not do text messages. The answer, Cingular had sent me a text message to tell me my bill was ready. I signed up for an e-mail, but they decided to send me a text message instead. Did they cancel the charge? only after the 3rd phone call and my insisting that I wanted to talk to a person that was born speaking English, the highest supervisor they would transfer me to. So go figure. It is starting to look like we can't even communicate without paying extra fees to do so. So, my kids do not even have phones. Not yet at least.

A teenager can't enter into a contract? How absurd! First off, how is Sprint suppose to know how old the user of the phone is? It's none of their business. Second, EVERY TIME your son or daughter buys a burger at McDonalds, a pair of shoes or buys a video game, they are entering into a contract with a company. It's the EXACT same thing. The only difference is that you get billed at the end of the month, instead of handing the money over immediately. Raise your children correctly. Give Sprint a break. If Spint broke into the call and requested verification or proof of age, you would be complaining that they were invading your privacy. And one more thing... if you had unlimted calls, would you assume that included 900 calls or interntaional calls? Heck no. This is the same thing. PAY THE BILL.

This is exactly why I have a pre-paid phone. If one of these slime-ball companies tries cramming something onto my cell phone, they can only get as much money as I put into it. When it's empty, it's empty.

How can anyone other than the account holder add services or authorize charges to an account? For instance if you are only a "user" on a credit card you have no rights to any information on that card only the "right" to use it.

Hello people! Since when are children & the mentally challenged responsible for entering into legally binding contracts??? Even parents who are very involved in their children's lives and spend significant time with them cannot be there 24/7. It's ironic that if my child wanted to conduct any other business relating to my cell account or any other account that I am legally responsible for they would be told that they would have to speak with the account holder. In this case, the usual legal standards seem not to apply. And FYI...some of these premium text messages are $10.00 or more per text and the disclosures are difficult, if not impossible, for even adults to understand. I have addressed this situation with my three teenagers and put a stop to it, but not before my Verizon bill cost me additional hundreds$$.

Good luck Sean!

I had a problem with my cell company with text messaging. They charged me $600+ plus for text messages I never made. I don't even know how to use the text message feature.I only use the cell for long distance. When I told the company it was a mistake, they told me it was a legitimate charge and I had to pay it. I refused to pay and now just use a land line. I'm getting by cheaper anyway because my land line long distance charges aren't as much as my monthly cell bill. I don't know if I got a demerit on my credit, but I don't care because I never apply for credit and won't be bullied into paying a bogus charge.

Will cell companies allow you to put a $$$ cap on your phone?

So when you 'accidentally' ring up more than say, $200, they'll cut you off and not charge anymore than that.

That way, if something does happen, fraud or otherwise, you'll know right away when you can't make calls. Which you'll find out when you call customer service to find out why your phone stopped working.

Then you can say, "Thank goodness I have that cap and I didn't lose $10k!" or "Can you raise my cap, I need to make more than $200 in calls and messages this month."

Would solve a lot of "unexpected" charges and abuse.

HOLD ON - THAT'S MY OTHER LINE

For all you idiots who don't seem to be able to catch a clue: "Developmentally Disabled" is the new huggy-fuzzy term for "Mildy-to-Moderately Retarded." There's a good chance this kid is operating at about the level of a seven-to-ten-year-old, irrespective of her physical age and hormones. If Sprint had bent over an actual seven-to-ten-year-old this way, I suspect some of you would be singing a different tune. Hypocrites.

There is no benifit for a wireless company to charge these fees. It angers the customer to receive a high bill and impacts their reputation. At the same time, why should the burden be with the company billing on behalf of a third party. Subscribers are quick to point the finger at their wireless provider instead of taking responsibility for what the user of the phone has done. Is it fair for the wireless carrier to eat the cost of thousands of dollors when they are being paid pennies on the dollar for simply billing on behalf of the third party content provider? The give me generation is showing its tru colors in their postings that they should NEVER be held accountable for their actions or for providing access to something that could generate a bill of thousands of dollars. This is not just occuring with third party billings but also with airtime usage for cell service. When a subscriber complains to their carrier claiming they never exceeded their minutes when the usage clearly indicates that they did, or the users on the account exceed the minutes but expect the wireless carrier to eat the cost.

If you want to provide these technologies for your teen or minor child, then be prepared to deal with issues such as this. I am not saying that you shouldn't allow these things, such as cell phones with text messaging features in your childrens lives, but I tend to be unsympathetic to those who do and then complain when the child is unresponsible. And this happens with those who are NOT disabled as well....it's called "passing the buck" or "failure to take responsibility for yours or your child's actions". The fact that it's always someone else's fault gets quite old.

sprint: number 1 worst custormer service! i have had issues w/ this company in the past, and resolved them w/ the f.c.c.

Before everyone bad mouths Sprint (or other carriers) saying they are just trying to make a buck, maybe you should get your facts straight. These premum text charges are "pass through" charges, Another words, Sprint isn't making any $ of these text messages. Or if they are, it is minimal. For them to give this man $5000 in credit, they took a loss. Control your children, take responsibility for THEIR actions. Don't blame the phone company. They cannot monitor your childs actions. Thats your job.

While a lot fo what you all are saying makes sense, we have to realize a couple of things.

Remember: Text messaging was not the issue, it was the 3rd party suck you into this line of b.s. sales pitch that got her in trouble. All of the other neccessary precautions were taken in order to prevent any issues.

A. She is 18, and she ought to be able to have some amount of freedom, and to be able to feel like a normal teenager. Texting gives her that capability.

B. If phone companies did have a "Fraud protection guarantee" that would onlly take care of x amount of the cost.

If the phone companies sent out an alert to whoever was the primary on the account, the minute a third party was involved, we could avoid any of these issues. That way the primary is still in control, their financial status can in no way be in danger, and the 3rd party guys don't get away with greenback murder.

If the phone companies were truly for customer service they would most likely provide such a service.

P.S. We don't even know how disabled the girl was. This is not about taking away privelages just because you are disabled. This was about giving her a benefit because she is NO DIFFERENT THAN YOU OR I.

She is not a child, she is 18 years old. How would you feel if you were 18 years old and couldn't have a cell phone?

Hell, adults who are medically sound still make these kinds of mistakes. Keep that in mind people.

I had sprint as a provider a few years ago and I remember that they cut off my service when my charges got to $175.00 in a billing cycle. What happened to that? I couldn't make a call until I paid it down, or paid the entire bill. That should REALLY be used for text messages as well. Exactly what every one else is saying. A limit. By the way, I stopped thinking of myself as a "customer" and started thinking of myself as a number. It shouldn't be that way, but its kept me from getting to comfortable and thinking that my phone company is actually sympathic. Its all about the profit.

What it comes down to is thatn to is the fact that parents should not be forced to hand over the equivalent of an unlimited credit card to their child just because that child wants to text message. Sprint is supposed to be providing a service, not a disservice. It would be like forcing parents who gave their child a credit card "for emergencies" to not put a limit on it. Yeah, the child is irresponsible, and the parent is clearly ignorant of some scam technology. But refusing to disable scam technology - particularly when, as in one of the comments above, that scam technology allows someone else to send you a text message that YOU get charged for - is the same as being complicit with the scammers. I believe that this parent should have had absolute control over premium message service, because only then could he truly be culpable for his daughter's actions, and only then would he have had the ability to properly supervise her, as I think everyone agrees she should have been more heavily supervised.

Sprint is horrible...they said that i had requested two phones and they charged me for them..it took me a month for them to figure it out. They over charged me on a phone bill. I pay 7 dollars for insurance and they sent me two phones that didnt work. I canceled a line, they left it on my account so as u can see Sprint is one of the worst believe me in when i say that

I'm sorry, I'm confused. How did the daughter change HIS service? If she isn't primary on the account, they shouldn't have allowed her to make any changes. Are you telling me that anyone who has access to my phone can put these expensive, useless, and unwanted services on my phone???

The bottom line is Sprint makes money by collecting these fees for the "Service" providers. The more the providers charge, them more Sprint makes. They have no incentive to protect their customers from this type of activity. If the charges are small enough, they can go on for years unnoticed. If they are big enough, they hit it big quickly. Either way Sprint moves a bunch of $ to their bottom line.

I sincerely hope Google wins the 700 Mhz spectrum auction. I think its the only way to get the cell company's to wake up and start paying attention to their customers.

This article made me laugh...because it's true. Last week I got a $250 bill from Sprint citing "Data and Third Party Service Fees." If you complain long enough, they waive most of the fees (as they should, seeing as how they were completely false). Sprint has the absolute WORST customer service, not to mention the WORST service in general. It's amazing how these cell phone companies get away with so much.

What this guy should have done was get her a pay-as-you-go phone. And if she wants to text her friends then she can do it from the home computer.
These phone companies have been pulling this kind of stuff for years.
Waaay back in 1988 I got a phone bill for almost $1,000.00 from Sprint. They were allowing third party billing on my munber. From 2 different phones in 2 different states. These calls were all 1 to 3 minutes long. Very odd. There were over 4000 calls in 1 month and the bill was the size of a large book. At first Sprint refused to remove the charges and when I said I would not pay they said they would cut off the phone and them sue me. But when I told them my husband was U.S.A.F and that they would be dealing with government attorneys then graciouly took the charges off and stopped these people fom billing my number. What idiots.

I feel a great deal of sympathy for this man and his family. I don't think anyone can argue that $10,000 a month is a reasonable charge for any "service". He probably didn't even know this was possible. Many cell phone users probably think they are paying for a phone and don't realize a few button pushes can result in a $10,000 bill or recurring charges from some third party that it may or may not be possible to stop. While I question the wisdom of giving a "develoementaly disabled" teen a cell phone, this situation is not of his or his daughters making.

Sprint may suck, but here in the middle of the Mojave desert no other wireless company has service.

For people suggesting to NOT pay the bill, think about the time you will be spending trying to sort out your credit report. Before joining a class action lawsuit against Sprint, I paid the $4,500 bill first and got this back along w/$100/hour for the time incurred.

They look at their customers as fools that have $$$ and their purpose it to rip them off as much as they can before they leave. Sometimes, they'll try to offer some of the customer's money back to milk them a couple more years, but, they'd rather just suck the most amount of $$$ from them at one time.

They know as well as anyone else that they'll probably get bought out at some point and before AT&T...

The phone charges are outrageous, yes. But what I find even more shocking is that a service that purports to hook up young girls with strange men exists, let alone is aggressively marketed in a magazine to teens. Have we learned nothing from Dateline's To Catch a Predator?

Clark might have some hefty and questionable bills to contend with, sure. But at least his daughter is safe and unharmed.

all providers should be required to block access to any feature requested by the primary account holder.
that includes "all features that may incur a fee". not doing so is theft. children and the disabled can not sign contracts.

end of discussion.

I can understand a lot of the points made in the comments, however, I fail to see how the raising of his daughter is anyone else's business. He is not stupid for allowing her to have a cell phone. Sometimes, the best thing to give those who are disabled is a little freedom. Obviously he needs to discuss with her what is acceptable use of her phone, but to call him an idiot? Life is full of lessons we must learn and this situation is one for this family.

As for the cell phone company, give them a break. There are obviously extenuating circumestances here. You are a multi-billion dollar corporation. You aren't going to lose much. To me this is a customer service issue.

As much as I hate getting the government involved in anything, legislation should be enacted that requires these wireless services to block premium services per your contract with heavy fines if they don't.

I think the thing thats the most disturbing about this whole article are the comments from company apologists. “Oh it's his fault cause he got his daughter a phone” - “It's her fault cause she's 18” - “No refund is due- it was all in the fine print!”. News flash to all of you – bad, deceptive and abusive practices like this are what get industries regulated – and just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Loan sharking was perfectly legal until the law was changed to prevent that abuse. Bait and switch advertising was legal until the law was changed to put an end to that deception. In case after case, businesses come up with schemes to make money in shady ways, and they only stop when the law makes them. Well, if the cell companies keep it up, they are going to face a mountain of regulation and oversight, and despite their inevitably loud complaints about how oppressive it is, they will only have themselves to blame.

Those who know me know I almost always side for the company on issues like this as most often it's stupid people who can't RTFC (read the F contract), but in this case it seems unconscionable act by sprint to not provide a mechanism for these services to be disabled and therefore allow a developmentally disabled person enter into contract with third parties. This is exploitive. Parents and guardians shouldn't have to forgo providing a phone for their children on the fear of their children or wards entering into contracts with third parties will drive them into bankruptcy. I'd argue that if she wasn't capable of understanding the ramifications of what she was doing, that the charges are all voidable. As someone said, get an attorney that deals with developmental and disability issues and fight this one.

Virgin Mobile has the best service. They have a variety of plans including pay by minute and monthly charges. No unexpected fees. all you pay is they set rate. And you can cancel anytime with no charges. I like it best and will have them for a long time to come.

Does no one think that Sean as a customer is responsible. I work in customer service & no one ever wants to be responsible for there own account. Companies give you access to you own account thru online & automated systems. Why should companies take all the responsiblity when the cust should know how to check there account & what transactions they are processing on there account. If you don't know what you are being charged for then you should never have opened the account to begin with because you didn't care how much you were going to be charged.

Funny. I remember all of of this happening in the late 80s- early 90s. Only then, it was centered around the newly created 1-900 services.

Telephone and telecom will always get their cut.

Regarding the guardianship comment, most cell phone companies have a policy in their terms and conditions that if a minor (or guardee based on need) is given a cell phone, the guardians are responsible for any charges incurred, such as downloads and internet time. Although I feel for the man's problem, he should be monitoring his account daily for any signs of fraud. We all check out credit card and bank websites and balances regularly, why not cell phones? My provider, AT&T offers free text messages to tell me my minute balance, account balance, or data usage any time of the day.

Oh, wake up! I work in a corporate position for AT&T, formerly for Cingular Wireless. Both my prior employer and now my new employer both had (have) the same policies and long term goals...Take as much money out of the pockets of the consumer for as long as possible until the government looks into regulating us. It's simple commerce. We are raping the consumer and mostly through the kids phones and by extending contracts and selling cheap phones at exorbitant prices.

If you have a problem, do something about it. Quit complaining and write letters, start a campaign of some sort or just get everyone you know to cancel their phone service simultaneously!

Is there no such thing as customer service any longer.
With my credit card, the company will call me if they see excessive charges being posted to confirm the charges. That is good customer service, and at the same time protects the credit card company. I do not see why the cell phone companies can not implement the same type of policy and service for their customers. There seem to be very few businesses that offer good customer service these days.

Sprint and customer service is an oxymoron. Sort of like Civil War. There is no such thing. I hope the originator of this story reads and takes some of the good advise offered here. As for Sprint, they've got enough money to buy into Nascar (Nextel, and now Sprint Cup). Wanna bet hidden charges are responsible for the positive cash flow?

Do they even MAKE cell phones that are JUST Phones? I don't WANT A text message EVER.

>This is just one more example of how our government does not protect us or our children.<

It's not the job of the government to protect you or your children from your own negligence. This girl enjoys texting her friends -- what was the government supposed to do to 'protect' her from that? Her father should have been monitoring her activities. That isn't the government's responsibility.

Quit looking for someone else to be responsible for you. We have enough 'nanny-government' as it is!

It is no wonder that SPRINT has the worst reputation of ANY company in the USA. My son has been fighting with them for 3 months

I find it strange that so many people who have posted comments are being so critical of this man. He was obviously trying to give his developmentally delayed daughter a chance at feeling normal, so try to be empathetic when judging other people...I find it difficult to believe that none of you have ever made a bad decision that had negative consequences. If so, kudos to you...and good luck not screwing up in the future. As for Sprint, they are scammers all around. I personally have had trouble with them in the past regarding a mail in rebate, and I am an organized, competent individual...they take advantage--bottom line.

The dumbing of america.....why do we have to text someone, when it is cheaping, faster, and increasing the vocabulary & comprehensive skills needed for communication when looking for a job and succeeding in America. Why do we find the easy way out, and blame someone else for the families mistake....do you all know how many legitimate scams are out there?

i agree with the pro-active parents. All parents should be going through their childrens drawers, inspecting their backpacks, checking for drugs, etc...because its called prevention....don't wait until you find out, be active in their lives and assist them in their decisions....its obvious that these parents who passify their kids, neither know what they do and care about it, until something happens (like this phone bill). I go through my kids drawers, personal items without them even knowing and have never mentioned it to them, unless i find something illegal or anything i dont want in my house. i feel better because it lets me know about their decisions they are making. Kids are going to make mistakes...its the kind of mistakes we parents do not want to affect the family, in which this phone bill will.

as you all can see, i bet this parent will monitor every cell bill going forward....lol....there is one born every minute of the day....lol!

I found some of the comments here completely rude. To call the parent in this situation a "moron" is not right. First off if his daughter is developementally disable all the more reason to get her a cell phone to protect herself. Being a teenager in today's society means text messaging, I know I have 2 of my own. Text messaging is not the problem, it absolutely the companies that lure kids who do not understand the consequences of their actions, nor do they understand what is associated with the costs of such services. Yes checking usage online is great way to monitor your children it is not always effective either. It may tell you how many text messages were sent and recieved, but you may not see the costs for those services until the bill arrives in the mail. Cell phone companies continuously take advantage of their customer's and this includes all of them. I have tried several over the year and have yet to receieve a bill anywhere near what you expect it to be when you sign up. There are always some hidden little fees that they don't tell you about and when you call and try to get resolution most of the time you will find none. Cell phone companies are so competitive they have lost sight of the customer and only see greedy little dollar signs. While some may say they have gone whithout cell phones and will continue to do so, that is a great for you, but society and technology have changed. I know for me my kids cell phones provide me more than a way to contact them. I can track them anywhere they go. Not only does this provide me piece of mind, but if God forbid something ever happened to them, they are traceable with the click of a button.

It is possible that the father could file a complaint against the provider with the FCC. We did that in 2004 when we discovered that Verizon had over billed us to the tune of 1300+ in 12 months. We had signed up for a family plan for shared minutes which they did bill us for the correct plan, however, they billed us at 0.45 cents a minute for the 2nd phone on the family plan. I'm not talking about overages at all, I'm talking from the beginning of the billing cycle when both phones were supposed to be "sharing" a pool of minutes. When we contacted Verizon they said theres nothing we can do, no refund. Well we continued to call and demand a refund, they finally said well, we can only give you a refund for the past 3 months becuase we only keep records going back 3 months. Yeah right!! If they only keep records going back 3 months how was it that when we asked for an itemized bill for each month in the past year they were able to send it immediately?! Well, long story short we filed a complaint with the FCC against them, providing the FCC with copies of all 12 bills. Verizon contacted us 3 weeks later and said they had credited our account with 1300.00+ refund, including the amount we had been overcharged on tax and fees. If you are unable to resolve it yourself, then file a complaint, it works!!