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Trip to Canada costs family $17,000 in cell phone data fees

May 6, 2015

A family trip across the border to Canada ended up costing an Illinois family $17,000 in cellular data fees, and what makes the bill even worse, the data was tied to a work cell phone.
Mike Domzalski took his family on a spring break trip to Canada when his son picked up an iPad to pass the time, watching YouTube videos.

But according to WJBK, the iPad was tied to Mike's work cell and he found out about the cost during a meeting when the company's IT department forwarded the bill. 

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It was all international roaming charges.

According to the bill shown to WJBK, Domzalski, or rather his company, was billed $11,733 for the first hour and another $5,000+ for more than five remaining hours for a total of $17,465.86.


Domzalski said his wife and son's phones were set up for international roaming, but not the work phone. 

He told WJBK, "By not making a phone call to set up something on an iPad which I might have missed, I shouldn't have to pay $17,5000."

He is also upset that despite getting the huge bill, he claims the iPad's screen went blank and lost the signal as soon as the family crossed a bridge to Canada and that the family had no connection for the time they were billed.

AT&T spokesperson responded to WJBK's inquiries with the following statement:

"Because the data was downloaded outside of the U.S., International rates apply.  In this case it was more than five hours of continuous data usage. We encourage people to enroll in our international plan."

Domzalski said he has the support of his company when it comes to the bill, but WJBK did not explain what that support actually entails.

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