AT&T iPhone Roaming Charges $7,757.29
Incident
I am a Cingular AT&T customer for the last 5 years with 2 family accounts including 7 mobile phone numbers for my wife and 5 kids. I switched my Mobile phone from Blackberry to AT&T iPhone first week of December last year just before leaving for a 2 weeks business trip to Israel. The iPhone was so slow in downloading my emails and in most of the cases failed to do so. The iPhone constantly checks back and forth for data until you lose your patient.
Upon my return to the US, I have reported these miserable performances to AT&T store where I got my iPhone and the sales representative has told me that Apple iPhone are aware of the slow performances and going to come out with a new software revision to fix the slow download process. I called AT&T customer service to tell them about it and asked for the details of my bill in Israel; they didn't have the details and said they will notify me as soon as they get it from Apple.
10 days later, January 16th. I left for a 3 weeks business trip to the Fareast with my iPhone, hoping for a better performance. Guess what? It was the same never-ending downloads.
A week later my wife called my hotel and told me we got a bill of $7,757.29 for my roaming charges in Israel. I switched immediately the roaming button on my iPhone to “off” and asked my wife to wait for my return to discuss it with AT&T customer service. My wife spoke with AT&T and they promised to check the roaming charges and even reduced it by $938. The next day my wife went to the AT&T store to complain and been told that the notes on the account says it is in a “Review status” and we should wait a couple of days. On January 29th AT&T disconnected all 7 phones including my iPhone without any prior notice by phone, email or letter. I was caught and trapped in Mainland China snow storm without any way to communicate by emails or mobile phone.
I have returned back to the US on Feb 6th and called the AT&T customer service. They told me that Israel is not on the list of roaming countries and I should not have used it there, I asked her to log on AT&T web and see for herself, it clearly says Israel is included and support the iPhone; Click to view the link: http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide/coverage/roaming/step4.jsp?CIDL=376&CTN=7189094093&MNC=CING&DID1=309&DID2=&devicenum=1&STEP=4
In anyways, they refused to answer my question, why they have decided to close my 7 mobile lines even before my bill was due, and never warned us before doing so. I asked to talk to their legal department which they refused to refer me to, and said only my lawyer could do so.
My advice to all businessmen traveling in the US and overseas, forget about the iPhone Gimmick, and stay away from AT&T. It doesn’t work for us, Switch back to BalckBerry; there is nothing like it!
Damage Resulting
I was using my iPhone for my business and was trapped in the snow storm in China without my emails and mobile phone; missed 2 important meeting, tones of emails and phone calls. My wife and my 5 kids were left without any phones to communicate between ourselves.