Are you planning to give your teen-age kid a cellular phone? You better think twice before you do so.
An unemployed dad learned his lesson the hard way. Ted Estarija of Hayward, California now owes Verizon, a US phone company, US$ 21,917.59 (about S$ 30,500) for his 13-year old son’s phone bill for a month.
When he got the bill in the mail, he was totally shocked. He was expecting the bill to only be about $50 but instead he saw a huge amount of over $21,000. He thought there was just a typographical error but upon investigation it was discovered that his son downloaded more than a million kilobytes of data causing such an amount!
Estarija, who claims to have requested Verizon to put limits to his son’s plan, said this in an interview with KTVU: “This is not completely his (his son) fault, I put more blame on Verizon than anybody. They shouldn’t allow this to happen.”
The father said that he was caught off guard. But didn’t he notice that his son was always on the phone – either calling, texting or downloading? He blames Verizon for this but isn’t he at fault too?
I believe that parents who have given their kids cellular phones should constantly monitor their phone usage. Sure, you can’t always check on your kids but then this is one way to prevent the bill figure from escalating!