Advertisement

Cingular charges retiree $31,000 for calls he didn't make

While carriers all seem to be hiking up monthly rates every chance they get, it's unlikely that your incessant texting will rack up a $31,000 bill. Unfortunately for Oliver DeSofi, he had to deal with just that, as the 77-year old retiree opened his Cingular bill as he always has and found that his bill was about a brand new vehicle or two above the average. The bills contained phone calls from DeSofi's cellphone number from Nicaragua "at a rate of about 166 calls per day for 35 days, and sometimes four per minute, mostly to New Mexico numbers." The poor sap even got his lawyer to contact Cingular stating that the calls were "impossible" and that the $31,000 bill was bsolutely fraud, but Cingy wouldn't budge. The carrier still insisted that DeSofi set up a payment plan to start hacking away at the ridiculous charges until a newspaper inquiry finally forced the company to "give him the benefit of the doubt" due to how unusual it seemed compared to month's past. Although it doesn't surprise us a bit, Oliver is kicking Cingular/AT&T to the curb, and will probably watch all future bills like a hawk to ensure no similar mishaps start creeping on him.