Woman files suit over $5,000 3G data bill

In yet another case of excessive wireless data usage resulting in astronomical bills, Oklahoma resident Billie Parks received a bill from AT&T for a whopping sum of $5,077 for data charges incurred on her netbook. The netbook in question was purchased from RadioShack as part of a promotional tie-in between RadioShack and AT&T.

The promotion obligated Parks to sign-up for a DataConnect plan costing about $60 per month for two years. Unfortunately, it seems that someone forgot to tell her about the Internet usage cap of 5GB for her plan, which resulted in her astronomical bill.

As such, Parks is suing both companies for misleading advertising and convenient omissions. In addition, she is also trying to have the lawsuit classified as a class action, and have similar contracts canceled outright. Now, it would have been a relatively clear cut case in favor of AT&T and RadioShack if not for the fact that RadioShack didn't in fact make any mention of the 5GB caps.

While I don't have much sympathy for some of the other demands that Parks included in her legal complaint, the question of just how many customers are in fact misled by such omissions of fact is a pertinent one. My guess is that AT&T will probably just offer to waive the bill and get Parks to quietly drop the suit.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from Ars Technica

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