Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill

Mon Apr 10, 2006 7:17 AM EDT

world-news, odd-news, dollar, phone, bill, trillion, phone-bill

Associated Press

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Regions: Malaysia

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5.8

4.6

{"commentId":91313,"authorDomain":"starr"}

Nathan Starr

Ha. That sucks.

{"commentId":91313,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"starr"}

3 votes

#1 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:23 AM EDT

{"commentId":91326,"authorDomain":"misterc"}

MrC

I recently read someone's personal account (no pun intended) of dealing with his bank. He had checked his account from work to see it $8.2 million in the hole, which quite literally caused him to pass out. When he called the bank, he was calmly told that it was a standard tag they used to denote an account that may be involved in some fraud. Turned out his ex-wife tried to cash a $4000 check.

Still, not something you'd want to see first thing in the morning.

{"commentId":91326,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"misterc"}

1 vote

#2 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:38 AM EDT

{"commentId":91341,"authorDomain":"column"}

AnchormanDeleted

{"commentId":91378,"authorDomain":"labsji"}

labsji

He just got a good piece of paper to auction at ebay. May be he will get a small percent to pay the bill!

{"commentId":91378,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"labsji"}

1 vote

#4 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:33 AM EDT

{"commentId":91392,"authorDomain":"allgood2"}

allgood2

I'm sorry these are the types of things that are really just unjustifiable. Even if the phone line was used illegally after his fathers death:

Besides from closing the account, and paying off the last bill he shouldn't be responsible for his father's debt.
Obviously this is different country and laws may play out differently; but his responsibility for anything other than the last bill submitted after the account was closed really should change that much from country to country;
There is no reasonable statement for any telephone company to allow phone charges that are equal to or greater than the national debt of various countries.
I don't think its wrong to assume that for a bill that size to be accumulated that someone would have had to spend 24/7 online, probably on overseas telephone calls for weeks. A 24hr telephone call from the US to China would be large, but most likely would be under $75,000. Even if we raised the cost to $100,000 per day, there's less than 90 days between January 2006 when he paid his last bill and April 2006 when he received notification. At the $100,000/day rate that would still bring the bill in at under $10 million dollars.

$218 trillion dollars is a significant amount. I can't imagine any company allowing an individual to gain credit for a bill over $1 billion dollars, but 100s of trillions, is just ridiculous. It would seem that someone/anyone from the company could with reasonable certainty declare this bill a mistake and stop the pursuant of legal action against the guy.

I hate when companies become unwilling to admit to a mistake, even when a mistake is obvious. Sure there's getting advice from your lawyers and checking for repercussions, then there's this.

{"commentId":91392,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"allgood2"}

11 votes

#5 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:42 AM EDT

{"commentId":92319,"authorDomain":"darkside"}

Mykola Bilokonsky

Just wait til you see next month's bill, with the late fees ;)

{"commentId":92319,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"darkside"}

2 votes

#5.1 - Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:24 AM EDT

{"commentId":91426,"authorDomain":"mimizhusband"}

Mimizhusband

Telekom Malaysia must be using Verizon for billing.

{"commentId":91426,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"mimizhusband"}

12 votes

#6 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:08 AM EDT

{"commentId":91430,"authorDomain":"mikerupert"}

Mike Rupert

I would sue the phone company if i were him. I would not even ATTEMPT to pay that...amount of money.

{"commentId":91430,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"mikerupert"}

1 vote

#7 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:11 AM EDT

{"commentId":91559,"authorDomain":"nickford"}

Nick Ford

No, really?

{"commentId":91559,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"nickford"}

13 votes

#7.1 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:11 PM EDT

{"commentId":91501,"authorDomain":"denniswright"}

Dennis M Wright

I did once get a gas bill for about £4,000 when it should have been a couple of hundred pounds.

It turns out that the man who came to read the meter had read the numbers off the electricity meter not the gas meter. I found this when (after nearly fainting) I compared the readings on the bill with the meters in the garage.

It seems standards are falling and the utility companies outsource the meter reading to commercial companies who hire idiots off the street.

I rang up the gas board's customer services line, a bit tongue in cheek because I knew I would not have to pay the bill, and saw the funny side. The lady at the gas board on the other hand did not see the funny side at all. She was very apologetic and promised to get it resolved, but seemed very nervous as if she thought I was going to sue.

Heh! Heh!

{"commentId":91501,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"denniswright"}

1 vote

#8 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:21 PM EDT

{"commentId":91556,"authorDomain":"tallman"}

Isaac Halstead

My power company (Dominion Power in VA) started doing their meter readings from the street with these radio (or some other transmission type) devices and several thousand have lost their jobs because of it. And to top it all off, they still don't get the readings right!

{"commentId":91556,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"tallman"}

1 vote

#8.1 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:07 PM EDT

{"commentId":91554,"authorDomain":"blakehelms"}

Blake Helms

Will they take PayPal?

{"commentId":91554,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"blakehelms"}

3 votes

#9 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:06 PM EDT

{"commentId":91574,"authorDomain":"lifeinjersey"}

John Patrick

I wonder what PayPals fee would be.....

{"commentId":91574,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"lifeinjersey"}

2 votes

#10 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:20 PM EDT

{"commentId":92420,"authorDomain":"ISPY"}

I SPY

2.9 % pay pal fee

{"commentId":92420,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"ISPY"}

2 votes

#10.1 - Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:38 AM EDT

{"commentId":91583,"authorDomain":"kazman"}

KazMan

For that amount of money he could BUY every phone company on the planet... actually probably could buy EVERY CORPORATION on the planet and still have trillions left over...

{"commentId":91583,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"kazman"}

#11 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:30 PM EDT

{"commentId":91600,"authorDomain":"fastfinge"}

fastfinge

Obviously, the man making the payment would not be charged any fees by paypal. The fees are charged to the merchant on receiving the funds. These fees would work out to about $432000000000.8USD, assuming I'm doing it right.

{"commentId":91600,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"fastfinge"}

1 vote

#12 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:46 PM EDT

{"commentId":91604,"authorDomain":"crynyd"}

crynyd

After he's paid that, can we tap him for the national debt here?

{"commentId":91604,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"crynyd"}

1 vote

#13 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:48 PM EDT

{"commentId":91764,"authorDomain":"kimming"}

kimming

@!$%# happens in malaysia. i know. coz i live here. sue ASAP.

{"commentId":91764,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"kimming"}

#14 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:44 PM EDT

{"commentId":91792,"authorDomain":"ethanbodnar"}

Ethan

wow hats crazy

{"commentId":91792,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"ethanbodnar"}

#15 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:06 PM EDT

{"commentId":91811,"authorDomain":"patrickD"}

PJ Davis

man, that looks like my telephone bill.

{"commentId":91811,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"patrickD"}

#16 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:18 PM EDT

{"commentId":91845,"authorDomain":"superfive"}

ericfive

The bill was 806,400,000,000,000.01!

{"commentId":91845,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"superfive"}

1 vote

#17 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:40 PM EDT

{"commentId":91879,"authorDomain":"faruk"}

Faruk Ates

Makes you wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a rounding error somewhere in the system…

{"commentId":91879,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"faruk"}

2 votes

#17.1 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:09 PM EDT

{"commentId":91852,"authorDomain":"MissDev"}

Miss Dev

I have attempted to cancel my service from Xcel Energy at my old apartment (that I moved out of a year ago) 10 times - and am still getting bills - as are the people who currently live there.

The company that handles GAP Credit Cards also has no idea how to do accounting as I had a $5.00 overdue payment (that's right folks - $5.00 US) and I get a late fee of $60.00 the month after the $5.00 is due. It took over 6 months and talking to 40 (that's right - 40) different people to finally get it sussed.

I agree with the rest - as much as I hate litigation - if this poor guy's phone bill isn't cleared ASAP - I'd sue. Especially since getting one's credit rating up and going after something like this is akin to getting a politician to admit he was wrong.

{"commentId":91852,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"MissDev"}

#18 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:50 PM EDT

{"commentId":91993,"authorDomain":"gleuch"}

gleuch

if the postage date was 01 april, it could warrant a few laughs.... if they celebreate april fools over there.

{"commentId":91993,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"gleuch"}

2 votes

#19 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:39 PM EDT

{"commentId":92273,"authorDomain":"nautis"}

Nautis

LOL! Come on people, this was a billing error. The GDP of the U.S. in 2005 was only $12.47 trillion. If you added up all the money in the world it not equal $218 trillion.

{"commentId":92273,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"nautis"}

1 vote

#20 - Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:21 PM EDT

{"commentId":92351,"authorDomain":"ics"}

Daniel Kwok

ROFL .

thats great news material. the world would be a happier place if there was original news as incredible as this everyday.

{"commentId":92351,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"ics"}

#21 - Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:06 AM EDT

{"commentId":94629,"authorDomain":"cjlewis"}

cjlewis

wonder what his credit score will be if this happened in the US and he decided not to pay.

{"commentId":94629,"threadId":"30771","contentId":"161946","authorDomain":"cjlewis"}

1 vote

#22 - Wed Apr 12, 2006 7:36 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"30771","isPrivate":false}

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Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill

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