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Virgin gives $6k credit and still loses customer
Remember a couple days ago that Calgary-resident named Jason Boutang who went on vacation in France, turned on his iPhone’s roaming and racked up a $8k bill by using a translator app and streaming live radio. Boutang said “Eight grand is pretty much extortion, it’s unjustifiable.”
I guess it actually does pay to become a “Member” of Virgin Mobile because Virgin has credited a whopping $6,000 off his bill to have it reduced to $2,000. Virgin’s Erica Faltous stated that “We reviewed the bill and since then, we’ve made the decision to re-rate his bill as though he had the roaming bundle. These are things that are evaluated on a case-by-case basis; hopefully it will never happen again.”
The kicker is not just the price reduction but that Boutang actually is now leaving Virgin Mobile to go with Rogers on Prepaid. So Virgin misses out on $6k in revenue and a subscriber.
Via: Calgary Sun
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114 comments for “Virgin gives $6k credit and still loses customer”
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At least Virgin will still get a bit of an Idiot Tax out of him with an Early Termination Fee if he is cancelling. Then he’ll probably complain about that too….
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And he went to ROGERS? He should know that Wind is operating in Cowtown.
He went from one evil to another.
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The guy is a straight up moron.
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What an i***t. Jason Boutang you are an i***t. This is the reason why companies charge us an arm and a leg, because of people like you.
Who come along, use services outside their purchased services and expect things to be on their side, because “they didn’t know”. If you don’t know something or not sure about it, you ask.
Its better to ask than be sorry, i***t.
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Did the guy expect to get a full credit for being careless and ignorant or something?
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While the whole situation sucks for him, he must be a first time traveler. Let this be a lesson to everyone:
- If you plan to travel outside of the country, make sure you unlock your phone before you leave and when you get to your destination, you can buy a prepaid sim card that comes with a phone number and you can even get prepaid data if you want because, you know, the rest of the world is ahead like that in the wireless space.
If you have a CDMA phone, you blew it. GSM ftw.
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I think we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of these stories as more and more people are buying smartphones and dont really understand data plans or roaming.
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This guy would have done the same no matter what carrier he was with, they let him off easy. He is the reason we have i***t laws in place, what a goof.
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We will be reading about this guy winning a Darwin award, mark my words.
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Seriously this guy deserves to pay the full 8K plus another 2 for being an i***t. Just cause you own a smart phone doesn’t mean you can be dumb.
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I agree this guy is an i***t, really, going to PREPAID (??!) after the fact, with Rogers none the less, just cements that fact.
However, WHY do carriers let charges get this high to begin with without alerting him, or even temporarily cutting service until he calls and inquires?
The cell companies could save themselves a huge PR nightmare if some basic checks and balances were included to avoid these situations!
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Yeah, guy is an i***t. If consumers can be this ignorant, ill informed, play dumb and get what they want, then clearly there is no hope for humanity.
Rogers prepaid? Are you kidding? Probably the only thing he could get; his credit no doubt shot to hell this guy is so stupid.
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LOL! he wants to save money, so we went with Pre-Paid?! whata moron.
At least Virgin did the right thing for the customer and for their PR. They’re a fantastic carrier. Best customer service in Canada.
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Vast majority of us abide by the rules that we agreed to when we sign up to various services. Nobody forces us to sign up in first place, it’s a choice, and if you do that then please honour your contract.
Vast majority of us live by that, and limit ourselves to what we can afford. When I was in Europe, or Cuba, I did not go crazy racking up phone calls and data, because I knew, I will have to pay up in the end. I don’t want somebody that cannot exercise the same self-control to be sponsored by my fees! If it was reasonable to expect that my fees would be dropped just because I thought they’re too high, wouldn’t you think I would’ve enjoyed my mobile phone just a tad more overseas?
It’s people like that that mess up the society, from those suing McDonalds for coffee they spill on themselves to Boutangs of the world. The government is babysitting us like some irresponsible kids that cannot be allowed to make any decisions, this kind of thing will only lead us further. It’s becoming ok to be an i***t, and it’s always someone else’s fault.
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This guy is just unbelievable.
Vast majority of us abide by the rules that we agreed to when we sign up to various services. Nobody forces us to sign up in first place, it’s a choice, and if you do that then please honour your contract.
Vast majority of us live by that, and limit ourselves to what we can afford. When I was in Europe, or Cuba, I did not go crazy racking up phone calls and data, because I knew, I will have to pay up in the end. I don’t want somebody that cannot exercise the same self-control to be sponsored by my fees! If it was reasonable to expect that my fees would be dropped just because I thought they’re too high, wouldn’t you think I would’ve enjoyed my mobile phone just a tad more overseas?
It’s people like that that mess up the society, from those suing McDonalds for coffee they spill on themselves to Boutangs of the world. The government is babysitting us like some irresponsible kids that cannot be allowed to make any decisions, this kind of thing will only lead us further. It’s becoming ok to be an i***t, and it’s always someone else’s fault.
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It’s people like that that mess up the society, from those suing McDonalds for coffee they spill on themselves to Boutangs of the world. The government is babysitting us like some irresponsible kids that cannot be allowed to make any decisions, this kind of thing will only lead us further. It’s becoming ok to be an i***t, and it’s always someone else’s fault.
Vast majority of us abide by the rules that we agreed to when we sign up to various services. Nobody forces us to sign up in first place, it’s a choice, and if you do that then please honour your contract.
Vast majority of us live by that, and limit ourselves to what we can afford. When I was in Europe, or Cuba, I did not go crazy racking up phone calls and data, because I knew, I will have to pay up in the end. I don’t want somebody that cannot exercise the same self-control to be sponsored by my fees! If it was reasonable to expect that my fees would be dropped just because I thought they’re too high, wouldn’t you think I would’ve enjoyed my mobile phone just a tad more overseas?
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You have to be an i***t to go to france and think that you can just use all the data you want. Anyone under the age of 80 should know this. Buy a local sim card when you get there and purchase pre-paid service as you need it. It’s a simple no brainer. There is all sorts of information available – most companies will even send you a text when you arrive in another country, warning about the costs. They should have had a credit limit on his account – fido does this. But still, anyone with a shred of common sense would look into this before turning it on. International roaming is a big no-no! Get a brain first and then maybe you can think about using a “smart” phone!
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What people need to understand is that there is little to no profit for a company off of roaming charges. Roaming charges reflect the charge that the foreign carrier is charging your carrier (whether it be virgin, rogers, bell, etc). The costly rate is determined by the other carrier, not your own. I do work for a telecommunication company and I get the most frustrated when people moan and complain about their roaming charges and expect me to do something about it to help them out. They are legitimate charges, albeit expensive ones, and even if you’re not entirely aware of the charges you face when roaming internationally, it is your responsibility as a mobile user to inquire about them.
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Im guessing he has no option but to take out a prepaid – ill guess not paying his $8000 will have rightly destroyed his credit rating.
Idiot
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While I agree that this guy was crazy to be streaming radio while roaming, I also think the situation speaks to the enormous rip off that mobile phone services are in Canada. There should be no way for anyone to be able to accumulate these kinds of bills in a 1 month period, regardless of how the service was used. He didn’t have the “roaming bundle” so the cost of service was an additional 400% ???? I think that is the cellular equivalent to loan sharking.
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So basically, in order to get a large credit you have to mess up REALLY bad. If this was a $1000 bill (which is still outrageous) we would not have heard a thing about this d*****s?
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This man is a fool. People like him shouldn’t have an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. This whole “I didn’t know” business is getting out of hand. Consumers need to read the fine print and understand what they’ll be charged. He’s lucky Virgin gave him a $6000 credit (kudos to them by the way) but this is ridiculous. If I were in charge of Virgin, I’d tell him he’s SOL. And hey Jason, if I see you on the street I will spit on you. You are a disgrace.
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I seriously cannot believe how many i****s out there are calling this customer an i***t. He called Virgin before he went abroad and he was not offered an international roaming plan. You people seem to think you are intellectually superior because you are familiar with cell phone roaming charges for iPhones and data plans? Get a hobby.
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The problems are rooted in the extortion costs Canadians pay for the services they are offered compared to the EU, Far East, and other European nations. Canada is not even in the ball park when in comes to money spent for services rendered. We can blame this man for stupidity and ignorance, but there needs to be a whole revamp of how Canada does business in the realm of cellphone and smartphone packages. That is why some of us just use a cell as an emergency or backup phone on pay as you go. I think if there are “morons” to be named, it is the general public that keeps paying by the nose for all these services when we could have so much better, and so much more, for less money. I ask you, “who is calling who stupid”? Those who cave in and pay, or those who are ignorant of the costs, and spend without paying attention to how much or why?
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it does show how badly things are marked up when dropping 6k off a bill means nothing, but the fact is this guy is an i***t and should get nothing in the first place.
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He is now on Prepaid with Rogers! this i***t should have paid the full $6000.Kudo Virgin., leaving a good company and going to Rogers !!! good luck
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I think his shirt in the picture says “I love (heart) bad credit”
What a goof.
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For all those people saying he’s a moron for going to pre-paid you need to do some homework. I was only Virgin prepaid for years paying about $12 a month, mind you I only had about 20 minutes a month usage. Point is it can be cheaper depending on how you use your phone.
I left when Bell bought Virgin and customer service became useless.
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Also I think he’s talking to a TV remote control.
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Idiot, learn how to use the Device.
I wouldnt have credited him jack squat.
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CJ: whether he was or was not offered a roaming plan, how do you explain that this excuse for a ‘h**o sapiens’ did not even bother to inquire what the charges will be to use his phone overseas while being on the phone with Virgin, knowing that he will be traveling???
Tomorrow someone like that might kill somebody and then claim that he knew it was not good, but didn’t know there’s a lengthy jail term for that, and therefore should be let off? Is that the society we want to live in? Take responsibility for yourself!!!
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What a tool! Is there an island we could abandon these people on? Or like, can we fly them into space and then push them out of the spacecraft? Honestly. Common sense FAIL! What a douche!
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and what this particular version of the article doesn’t mention is he was messaged a warning that the phone is roaming and roaming and other charges would apply. So, he can’t say he didn’t know.
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How about this: when on vacation in France enjoy France. Don’t sit around like a douche playing with your iPhone. Seriously, translation: okay I can kind of see that one. But really how much stuff was he using other than translation? The guy probably was surfing youtube and other crap all week in addition to his “streaming music”.
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In light of the fact that this issue made the papers, seems Virgin Mobile was considerate enough to give this guy a 6k credit. But what I don’t understand is why this guy is going to Rogers prepaid. Is it cause he can’t pay the remainder 2k of the bill? Beyond his bruised ego, he should remain a Virgin customer. Not everyday a company shows this type of loyalty towards a client…
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So this moron is going to skip out on his virgin bill and go to… ROGERS?!?!?!?!
This guy is too stupid to own a phone.
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Really this guy is stupid. I think this guy is salesperson, I think he should know how to use smartphone. I don’t know how is he selling stuff……….
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To Him and his defenders
MORON, MORON, MORON
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this guy is an i***t, he is in Europe and he is listening to a Calgary music stn,,,,,,,the $6K should be paid, as stupidtax
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I can confidently predict that Boutang will NOT be happier with Rogers than he was with Virgin. Virgin sounds like a reasonably responsive company. Rogers? Hah! Good luck to you, buddy!
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Virgin isn’t to blame for this — it’s the legion of hollow-eyed fad following iPhone r*****s that are.
That’s my position and I’m sticking to it.
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I hate being ripped off!
*walks over to Rogers*
2 years later
DAMMIT!
I felt sympathy for him since there is a general lack of education on costs like roaming from the phone companies and CRTC, but this just makes him a moron.
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The worst thing is that in another article he states he was expecting a bill for $1500, not $8000! If he was already expecting a large bill then he knew what was coming to him and he’s using the media to bring his bill down to what he expected.
What a loser. . .
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This guy’s a total i***t…
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WHY reduce anything for these kind of people!?!
I want a $6000 credit applied to my account for not being a d*****s!
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Maybe next time butt head goes to a foreign country he will spend more time looking out the freakin window or walking down to a cafe instead of staring at a smell screen. Wake up dude. Sometimes the real street view is even better than Google’s.
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this jason guy is oh my god a stupid i***t. he should just stop using a phone, period. apparently smart phonse are too smart for you.
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Wind mobile is very limited still in Calgary. And, since Jason lives in Airdrie, wind does not have coverage there.
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When I travel overseas I leave my phone at home. In Europe cell phones are REALLY cheap, just go in and buy a pay-as-you-go phone in the country that you are in. That way no roaming charges most of your calls will be local ones. I got a Virgin phone in the UK and used it for 2 years holidays over there and didn’t have to put a penny into it because it came with airtime that didn’t expire after 3 months like here.
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Well, I think the general feeling is that the guy is not too smart. It’s unfortunate that companies have to deal with guys like him. Maybe his “smartphone” should be replaced with a smarterphone to make up for what he lacks.
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what an i***t.
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what a moron if virgin screwed him with $8000.00 rogers will screw him for $80.000.00
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In this world of instant information and web enabled phones and devices, Mr Bootang has absolutely no excure for his carelessness. I would bet that he knew exactly what he was doing and wanted to “test the system”. The fact that Virgin reduced his charges to the “roaming rate” and it was still 2000 tells you that he abused the system, plain and simple. Who doesn’t know that there are exorbitant roaming rates outside of canada?
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For F*’s sake people! Stop giving this guy such a rough time. He isn’t an i***t, the laws are Fµ¢ked!
True: he went to France
Also true: Virgin Mobile is in BOTH Countries.
How was he roming? He was on his home network (Virgin) in both France and in Canada, so how the hell should he be racking up a bill even close to a Grand? It dosn’t matter that Bell ownes the name in Canada… the fact is the underlying networks have elected to participate in the same network, as the same brand.
This kind of raping should be brought in as a class action suit against the likes of Virgin, and whoever has elected to use that branding, but not participate in the proper billing when someone does NOT leave the Virgin network.
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The sad thing is, he knew damn well what he was doing. The iphone told him he was accruing roaming charges and he ignored it because he KNEW he could plead ignorance and take advantage of the system.
He probably thought the whole time he would get off the hook completely by causing enough of a ruckus.
The fact that he wracked up the bill makes him a moron.. that he left his carrier after they did him a great service makes him a
dishonest moron.
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I think this guy was perhaps a Mole working for Rogers or some other carrier just to defame Virgin.
Virgin Mobile is an excellent Carrier Handsdown Customer Service even if you call their PPD queue.
What I dont understand is how can he go to Prepaid knowing the fact he is prone to high usage :-S beats me !!!
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“The problems are rooted in the extortion costs Canadians pay for the services they are offered compared to the EU, Far East, and other European nations. Canada is not even in the ball park when in comes to money spent for services rendered.”
The above is about the only intelligent post following this story. Only 2 percent of people on this forum have enough brains to realize why we have extortion rates in this country. It’s because 98% of the population support them!
This kind of scam is rapidly disappearing in Europe where new laws force companies to impose reasonable caps on roaming charges, sms, etc.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/regulation/index_en.htm
What 98% of the people don’t know here is that Canadian companies go out of their way NOT to offer caps because for every incident that turns into a public relation’s nightmare, there are thousands of highly profitable incidents that never get reported because they are “only” several hundred dollars.
As a matter of fact, the HTC Touch OS was tweaked by Bell (and possibly others) to make it impossible to completely turn off the data service. I found the Sprint manual for the very same phone in the US (Sprint is also a CDMA provider) and it has a function that shut off data completely. There are plenty of posts on HoFo about this particular Bell scam.
This is also the reason why companies are extremely reluctant to unlock phones. Just try to get Rogers or what was once a decent company –Virgin– to unlock your iPhone before you go overseas! They want your phone to be a leg iron with a meter in it.
The result of this mess is, as someone said above, that many people leave their phone at home before they travel anywhere. Isn’t that great for commerce?
The real cost of data is dirt cheap. The most expensive part of a sms is the billing process, no matter where you send it in the world. I’m still paying $5/month for unlimited internet with the HTC Touch. At $5/month Bell still makes money from me. Two and half years ago the same internet access would have been more than $20,000! Magically, overnight, in anticipation of Rogers’ iPhone, the price went down to $5 bucks! Does this mean that Bell is losing $19,995/month because they now charge me $5? Of course not! I never used mobile internet when prices were astronomical.
Judging from what 98% of the people say on this forum, we definitely need more Quebec style Bill 60 to protect consumers across Canada.
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It’s really amusing to read all your comments
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The guy is an i***t. Hopefully this will go against his credit rating. Nobody should feel sorry for him. Any mobile knows about roaming rates. And what the hell is going to France for?
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this i***t was a product of a defective condom
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This guy is an i***t, but the amount being charged for data is the real problem here. The EU limits the amount carriers can charge for data to amout $1 per meg. Virgin are getting the bill from the european carriers but when it’s all said and done those bastards are still marking up the data by 8000%. The CRTC needs to get involved with the wireless racket and start regulating this s**t before we start becoming non-competitive as a nation. The future is in wireless data and the greed of the wireless carriers is holding back the country.
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look at his face wow . what a jerk
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He went to prepaid because he didn’t pass Rogers credit check, obviously.
Mustafa, this is not a problem with one carrier vs another. This is about a dumb customer, and they are more and more prevalent in all industries. People are dumb.
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CJ, he’s still an i***t… cell phones have been a commodity for what, 20 years now? There’s been all sorts of news articles about previous i****s like Jason racking up horrendous roaming charges, and yet he still goes travelling and racks up a bill? I’m sorry, the “I didn’t know, I’ve been living under a rock” excuse can only be used so many times.
Yes, the cell companies are making lots of money – the point is to be informed and don’t assume, or you make an a*s of yourself.
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at the end it says virgin is going to miss out on 6k of fees….?????um the fact he had 6k credited and he is leaving means they just saved 6k..??? plus the 2k outstanding and the termination fee….all in all score 1 for virgin zero for the i***t who usess his phone in another country…if u travel buy a prepaid phone when u get there and leave your phone at home.
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Listen folks… This guyshould have read the writing that makes up his contract or in the very least given Virgin a call and inquired about roaming fees when he wasn’t on a roaming plan. It’s these left-wing “expectarians” that make things suck for everybody else. An attitude of intitlement breeds a culture of complaint and this guy needs to be the posterboy for that level of foolish stupidity.
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I agree that this guy is an i***t but come on, Virgin a good carrier? they took money from my credit card without authorization in the past and they wouldn’t even credit my bill!!! they just did this because of the press
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Andy Janssen:
you have no business sense, Virgin in Canada is a different company than Virgin in Europe. They have different infrastructure and make money differently. Your thoughts are liken that to saying that if you buy a drink at a mcdonalds and they offer free refills, that when you go to another mcdonalds or the same one the next day that you don’t have to buy another drink because you have free refills from the one you paid for yesterday?
boutang is an i***t, you made a mistake, you should pay for it. someone should ask CRA to audit him and find out if he wrote off the $2000 bill.
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he has entered the english lexicon: oops, i pulled a boutang (f/d up)
oh, sorry -that was a boutang (farted)
what a boutang! (works on many occasions)
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Well what a lot of nonsens From all you employees of the smart-phone compans that have have had your say in this matter. The fact is this is day-light robery. Selling air waves for $8000. 6-7 hours. Did Bill Gates put you up to supporting This bare face robery. So you can keep your Shitty little jobs. jd- Over&Out.
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I can’t believe the number of comments that actually defend Virgin. They are crooks!!! So what if this fellow was ignorant (OK, dumb), how can you possibly justify $8k in usage??? Com’on… YOU are the i****s for putting up with this crap.
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What would you say if this was a hype ? If it was part of the plan ? Virgin look pretty damn good now, don’t they .
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I hope his new phone is “smarter” than his last one.
He got off cheap, just imagine the full roaming rates if he had been to Mexico
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Wireless Telecomm seems to be this mythical little universe now where you can make up any and every excuse as to why you’re not to be held liable and someone else is. How about a little homework before you f**k up on such a large scale for such a simple fact…phone use outside of your home country and expensive jackass. Best of luck in whatever else you encounter in life for being such an i***t and lets see how many other situations come up where you’d fare this well because my guess is there won’t be too many, Moron.
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Ill agree with everyone who says that while this fella is likely a moron for not realizing the rates, Virgin and pretty much all cell phone companies are nothing better than thief’s. To any and all who are defending this company, wake up you freakin losers, Canada pays waaaay more for service than the Americans do because of your stupid complacency.
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With some people it is just one bad decision after another.
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@jack
First off, try heading back to school so someone can teach you when it’s appropriate to capitalize your letters, wiener.
Secondly, they aren’t “selling air waves”. This guy was f****n’ ROAMING. Maybe a big word for the genius with the incredible career path by comparison to the lowly retail worker, but get it straight. He wasn’t using Virgin as his provider, but rather someone else as a convenience service, likely so he could translate “How do I pull my head out of my a*****e” to French. If he acted as a responsible consumer and headed the warnings every bone in his body and anyone he knows would have surely been screaming at him while possibly even considering using his phone there, he’d be a quietly suffering, lesser known t**t, rather than the internet abused forum hated i***t he’s made himself to be with this media farce.
You two, along with some of these other f****n’ douche bags, should form your own secret little pre-paid club and f**k off to leave the CONFUSING world of monthly billing to the big boys.
FACE.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the iPhone actually come with the Data Roaming feature turned OFF by default? Which would mean this guy manually turned ON a feature called DATA ROAMING.
I hope he enjoys the international roaming rates he’ll have on a prepaid plan
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So you go overseas, and you are logged online for 5 hours to get a Calgary radio station? And you didn’t think you’d have to pay?
This guy IS too dumb to own a phone!
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This story is nonsense. Here’s what usually happens (having worked for a wireless carrier.)
1. Customer calls in and asks about how much it costs to use the phone overseas, customer is advised it costs something like 1.30$/min … no mention of data.
2. Customer calls when they get the bill, outraged that they were billed roaming charges that they weren’t told about. Which is BS since it’s in the terms of service and on the website and on the bill.
3. Customer complains until someone (usually the first representative) finds a way to rerate the bill to cause less of a PR bomb. Depending on the company, the policy can be anything from “we only rerate 50$, max (major US wireless provider)” to “We will rerate to how much it would have cost had you changed the plan before leaving. However you are now on this plan for *contract length*, and subject to a new ETF”
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Wow, those commenting on the story got it right! It’s nice to see people saying “you’re an i***t” vs. “poor baby”. The “I didn’t know” defense needs to stop, now. Virgin was incredibly nice to credit back _anything_ at all, great PR on their part. I hope Jason Boutang is proud that his name is well on its way to becoming a verb!
Boutang: (v) To whine about a mistake you made to try to get around your responsibility to that mistake.
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…and they let guys like this have children and vote.
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KUDOS TO LAURA, Yup, moron he is – hey Rogers, can you refuse him? You should. And, yes, we pay too much, but there should be a stupidity tax !!!
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Last I heard, and correct me if I’m wrong, there are radio stations in France. I am in Korea, and guess what? I didn’t bring my Canadian phone!
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Reply to Dez- Thanks for pointing out My different use of Enlish. Its not ment to piss people off. This is my second language-
I can understand That the people in the smart phone industrie will do every thing they can to justify This deceptive abuse- but its the ones who sell the phones and servises who will be doing the justifying. This they will not be able to do-
and Dez- Pog-ma-horn.
jd-Over&Out.
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You people are all i****s for being slaves to the cell phone and other useless trinkets in your lives.
Think about what is important to you.
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This writer techno insane?
He downloaded just over 130Mb of data in 7 days for $8,000 dollars.
That’s $23,193,040 MILLION DOLLARS if you let your home (5Mbps) DSL/cable run FULL out for 7 days.
Do the math in google. (130 megabits) / (5 Mbps) = 26 seconds.
That’s 26 seconds of downloading at home for $8,000 dollars.
In MP3 download terms it’s like download 32.5 songs for $8,000
Insane, just insane you guys/gals need to learn basic math.
-Ian
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It boggles my mind why all you customers, think these minutes have such a great cost to them? This is high profit stuff here.. Costing what air does in a balloon. It’s been a money factory for decades. How does a 50 dollar roaming fee offset a $8000 bill think about it.
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I’m with toysandme on this one, Canadians get over-charged for so many things and we all go along like little sheep and open our wallets everytime something else wants more of our money. Until we stop acting like zombies and start protesting these faulty business practices we will always be paying more for less. Look at our healthcare and internet we pay through the nose for it and rank at the bottom of the lists for cost per service, yet we all think it’s just fine and go about handing over half our paycheques to a govt that has nothing better to do then spend our money on insane things.
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Like all mobility devices you should be careful to check the contract before enabling or using the Roaming features.
My provider for example “TELUS” charges $25.00 per MB for International Data Roaming. I travel extensively thought Europe and Asia and nearly always turn off the Data services. I have associates that will download 1GB in data on their IPOD. These are with US Providers that provide unlimited data services in their contract. IT is easy if you get into downloading or streaming movies to your smart phone to rack up the MB’s in a hurry. IGB of data will cost you $25,000.00 on the phone bill.
This information is well published on the Web site of the Service Provide and is basically Caveat emptor
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Reply to Andre. Thank you Andre.
For those of us not well versed in Latin- Caveat Emptor- (Buyer beware)Yes I had to google it.
jd- Over&Out.
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Idiot he or not but I believe cell phone providers must have a “fuse” to prevent this from happening. For example as soon as more than $100 used in a month account automatically suspended to prevent further damage.
Instead they seem to enjoy customer falling into this pitfall.
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wah wah wah you’re unfair and exploiting complete fools like me, now gimme my money back
thanks for the free money, now f!@# off
i wish my life was like that
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Yep… this guy is an absolute i***t… and if Virgin is going to credit his account, why would he leave them? For Rogers???? On a prepaid plan???? It was basically his own fault!!!
Sure the carriers are ripping everyone off, but at least Virgin did credit him back as if he had the right bundle. What more does he expect them to do? A smart phone in a moron’s hands…
Virgin is a good company, but I agree that ALL of these carriers should have systems that block these users or somehow notify them if their usage is obviously out of wack with their normal pattern…
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If he had any brains at all he would have done some research on travel rates and packages, and why would you need to listen to the radio for 3hrs at a time. I geuss you might miss that important ad. It’s an iphone IDIOT, listen to your uploaded music!!!
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In my opinion, the guy totally deserved it. In fact, he’s VERY lucky Virgin gave him that credit – they didn’t have too. Consumer awareness these days is ridiculous. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but a little research on his part was necessary. In one of the other articles about this the guy was quoted saying something like “I only thought it would cost $1,500, not this much” (not the exact quote)… If he was expecting a number like that he REALLY should have looked into it. He also said he’d mentioned that he would be going on a trip to Europe to Virgin – and expected that they’d tell him about the hefty roaming rates. Not their responsibility, if he didn’t ask.
The guy certainly isn’t too bright…
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worked for AT&T when iPhone first came out and beleive me, it can happen very quickly – racking up the bill. Only a fool would go to another country and expect that he will not pay for the services when he doesn’t have any international coverage.
Virgin was very generous, customer didn’t understand.
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tnsf Wrote that the Iphone has a device called (Data Roaming) Is it called data roaming on the Iphone- jd- Over&Out.
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WHAT A TOOL!!! Who thinks they can use their phone as much as they want in another freaking country, not just that but another continent, and not be charged for it. Virgin should have added an i***t tax onto his bill and charge him double!!
TOOL!
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this guy is not that stupid. he
got $6000.00, didn’t he
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this guy is not that stupid, he
got $6000.00, didn’t he
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Clearly, two things stand out:
1: he’s a complete moron, incapable of even travelling without an adult
2: he shouldn’t be allowed to use electronics since he can’t read rules and cellphone obligations/restrictions.
Oh, and he’s from where? Well that explains it. f’tard….
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This guy is the dumbest person in Canada, how do you go to another country and expect to stream a radio station for 5 hours, check everything under the sun and send texts to your clowns of friends.
I bet your good friends with the guy that didnt think using his internet on his phone for his computer and downloaded movies and everything else. While not having any browser plan.
If you dont know dont do it, dont do it then blame a decent carrier.
Your pathetic
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I think the “i” in iPhone stands for “i***t” in this case. I told my 9-year-old about this guy and even he even shook head in amazement.
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I think they’ll survive. That being said I think the blame actually falls with the consumer for his ignorance.
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I am totally on the side of the consumer in this case. He checked with Virgin customer service beforehand and they failed to mention the better deal. Also, keep in mind that Virgin Mobile is really Bell Canada (the worst carrier in Canada) in sheeps’ clothing. Mobile phone companies are ripping off Canadians who live in urban centers everyday, and they deserve the bad press, scrutiny, and impending deregulation.
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First, the author is a shill.
Secondly, you r*****s are morons for eating his i***t story.
Think about it, these cell phone companies mark up for using services outside of your plan is what?
10,000%?
If they charged a reasonable markup of 20% or even 100% extra for daring to use services outside of your plan, no one would complain.
Of course, no one would ever get an $8000 phone bill either.
Oh wait, it’s only $2000? Pocket change…hahahaha, how generous.
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I’m impressed no one has mentioned how much profit is being made from these kind of charges, even at $2k, a few electrons flowing through the air never had such a markup
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He’s lucky he got that refund.
Maybe he’s frustrated because he had to notify the media to actually get someone to help him.
Really its his fault for not verifying the cost of roaming data.
It was nice of Virgin Mobile (Bell) to give him a break.
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what an i***t, he should win the award for the biggest moron in the world.
what a GOOF BALL, he should learn how to use a tricycle before using a cell phone.
2010 IDIOT AWARD WINNER
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WHAT A FUCKING MORON!!!! If I had anything to say about anything, I would put an extra 4grand on his bill as a moron tax. WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT!!! They were so good to him too!! And he STILL left! Fucking a*****e! I want to hit him.
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what a fool !!!! i mean virgin/bell are known to put charges on the bill then only give u a partial credit as appose to full credit even if its a mistake.. but this guy seems to be a traveller and a smart phone user. if he was smart he would have gotten a smart phone without contract on a month to month plan. but he still did right by leaving virgin. there is nothing “virgin” about that company.. they seem to be pretty “experienced in screwing” peoples bills on a regular basis. and i also understand why he didint goto wind.. maybe they dont have the coverage he wants or needs.
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@Ian: uh, your math is completely wrong. Thanks for trying though
He downloaded 130 MB (Megabytes) over France’s network which runs at about 21 Mbps (Megabits/second, yes there’s a difference), which is limited to about 7.2 Mbps (avg) over a 3 day period. Costing $61.5/CAD per MB data transport charges.
Each byte = 8 bits
130 megabytes = 1 090 519 040 bit
7.2 megabits = 7 549 747.2 bit
130 Megabytes / 7.2 Mbps = 144 seconds
$8000 / 144 seconds = $55.55 CAD/second
Provided that this was a perfect world and data transport was 100% stable: 3 days or 86400 seconds @ 7.2 Mbps = 77760 Megabytes x $61.5 CAD = $4782240
7 days or 604800 seconds @ 7.2 Mbps = 4354560 Megabytes x $61.5 CAD = $267805440
Do your research before trying to be condescending and insulting everyone else here.
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This comment is to CJ:
Get a hobby? What moron doesn’t read the fine print when entering into a contract, including pay per use charges? Roaming rates are pretty equal across the board for all telco companies; the reason for this is that is what the company you’re roaming onto is CHARGING! The rates have very little to do with Virgin and everything to do with the lack of common sense that steaming radio would use data.
People really REALLY need to stop trying to pass the buck for their own stupidity.
It is not a matter of “getting a hobby” as you stated but intelligence, which is clearly something he AND YOU lack!
Good luck in life pal… with that attitude, I’m sure you’ll have issues trying to manage day to day finances!
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