(WFLA) – Venessa Bucheli returned from her honeymoon cruise to Cozumel, Mexico excited to begin married life. Then, she turned her Sprint cell phone on and received an alarming text message.
She was charged more than $10,000 in roaming charges.
She said the charges are an error, and that at first Sprint agreed, but now continues to charge her and threatens to disconnect her phone.
“We called Sprint and we advised them that we were going on a cruise,” Bucheli said. “They advised us not to occur roaming charges, to put our phone on airplane mode, which we did.”
In airplane mode, a cell phone can be used for things like taking photos, but does not use data, a sure way to protect yourself from roaming charges.
So how did this happen?
Her bill is a now a whopping $10,929, mostly for roaming charges from Belize, even though she was in Mexico. Her bill shows no phone calls were made during the cruise, between Nov. 14 and Nov. 20.
After no answers from Sprint, Bucheli turned to 8 On Your Side’s Better Call Behnken.
Sprint spokeswoman Roni Singleton looked into the situation and said the company decided to waive the whole bill.
She said it is still unclear what happened ,but that the company wants to do the right thing.
In order to protect yourself when you travel, phone carriers recommend you call your service provider before you travel and make sure you understand their policy.
You could upgrade your service to use your phone during that time. If you don’t want to use your phone, make sure your company tells you how to disable data so you don’t end up with hefty roaming charges.
