(…from customers who did not have a BillShockSafe Mobal Worldphone!)
With over one in six of us having fallen victim to “Bill Shock” while traveling, there are many horror stories out there from travelers just like us. International cellphone bills can total many thousands of dollars and leave a sour note at the end of a trip abroad. There are dozens of ways to fall victim to exorbitant cell phone rates, especially when traveling internationally. Below are a few of the most shocking stories (we’re very pleased to say that these are NOT from Mobal customers!).
Facebook Nightmare
A huge cell phone bill can make you feel sorry that you ever went on your trip. One traveler returned from Turkey to find a phone bill that cost her over $30,000.
Helen Christie simply wanted to upload some photos to Facebook to share with friends and family while she was in Turkey. However, she quickly fell victim to outrageous roaming charges that added up to thousands of dollars each day she was on her trip. In fact, some cell phone providers charge customers a huge amount per megabyte, which can add up even if you only use small amounts of data.
Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that Christie’s cell phone bill ended up costing far more than her vacation, which came to about $1,100. Although Christie plans to fight the bill tooth and nail, outrageous phone bills are quite common during vacation. In fact, approximately one in six travelers experience bill shock when they return home.
Automatic Updates Equal Automatic Headaches
You may think that you won’t face a huge phone bill while traveling if you send only a few emails here and there. However, one unnamed employee of Texas A&M University came back from a trip abroad to a $10,000 bill after doing just that.
Sending highly data intensive emails can increase your bill, but an even bigger program can occur if your phone is set to update automatically. It’s suspected that automatic updates were partly responsible for this employee’s extremely large bill. You might be downloading photos, e-mails, and application updates unknowingly while you’re roaming, which can result in huge bills. Many travelers forget to turn off the automatic update features for their phones and rack up substantial charges without realizing it.
This One Will Make Your Jaw Drop
If you think the other bills were bad, this story would leave anyone begging for mercy. An Australian man and his son were vacationing in Europe, and the son’s cell phone was stolen at some point during the trip. Of course, like most other vacationers, they reported the phone stolen and thought that was the end of story.
Unfortunately for them, they received a bill that cost $500,000 for only one day’s worth of calls. That’s no typo: the bill was actually for $500,000. Essentially, once the phone was stolen, numerous phone calls were made to Somalia, which resulted in a bill totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Their cell phone service provider demanded that they pay the bill. The company indicated that the phone was reported stolen a day late, but it was later determined this was only because of time zone differences. However, this story is a scary reminder that you too could become a victim of a $500,000 bill very quickly.
No more bill shock when you travel abroad – We guarantee it!
The Mobal Worldphone is the first international cellphone to give you a 100% BillShock Safe Guarantee. With your new Mobal WorldPhone, you can finally use your cellphone overseas with the confidence that you won’t be returning home to “Bill Shock”.
Here’s our BillShockSafe promise to you:
We’ll keep you informed
We’ll text your call, text and data rates to your phone each time you arrive in a new country so you always know exactly what the costs are. Plus, if you are using Cellular Data, we’ll text you regular updates on your usage – so you can keep track of your spend and you will never suffer any nasty surprises.
You control your usage
With your Mobal WorldPhone, you set your own maximum usage limit – just tell us the maximum you want to pay in a calendar month and we GUARANTEE that you will never spend more – period. Your usage will stop automatically when you hit that limit – so, you’ll never be hit with a high bill that you are not expecting. You can increase or decrease your usage limit at any time – just give us a call or send us an email to let us know. Now, you are finally in control of your usage – removing any change of Bill Shock.
With your Mobal Worldphone, you can finally use your cellphone overseas with confidence that you will not return home to Bill Shock.
Now all you need to worry about is booking your next vacation!
