Think your phone bill is high? Try $218 trillion

[Brewmaniac]

What would you do? I would laugh in their faces. Go a head try and collect or maybe I'd send them a check.
I can't believe collections would go after this guy, it's obviously.a mistake.

What a hoott! Made me laughh.



Malaysian man hit with gigantic bill, ordered to pay up or face prosecution
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:21 a.m. ET April 10, 2006

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a U.S. $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84-ringgit (U.S. $23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death.

"If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it," the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. "In fact, I can't wait to face it," he said.

Yahaya, from northern Kedah state, received a notice from the company's debt-collection agency in early April, the paper said. Yahaya said he nearly fainted when he saw the new bill.

Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest telecommunications company.

A company official, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Telekom Malaysia was aware of Yahaya's case and would address it. She did not provide further details.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12247590/

[stevie667]

Its the complete opposite of the spectrum of the bill i got this morning for 1p on a card i havn't had for a year. Morons all around.

[Kadath]

"It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death."

It wasn't? I want to know how in holy hell the writer thinks it's even possible to make that many phone calls. Clearly it's a mistake. 218 trillion dollars of calls in three months? Sure, they just rang up 300 billion dollars of calls a day.

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by stevie667

Its the complete opposite of the spectrum of the bill i got this morning for 1p on a card i havn't had for a year. Morons all around.

These are my favourite types of bills... costs them more to send than they will collect.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

These are my favourite types of bills... costs them more to send than they will collect.

I had about $1.60 balance on a Discover card for over a year. They sent me a notice every month telling me that there wouldn't be any late payment fees incurred if I didn't pay it because the balance was less than $2.00. I finally got bored and paid it.

[Tamerlain]

Originally Posted by Kadath

It wasn't? I want to know how in holy hell the writer thinks it's even possible to make that many phone calls. Clearly it's a mistake. 218 trillion dollars of calls in three months? Sure, they just rang up 300 billion dollars of calls a day.

Yeah no kidding - I can't even see how this could be an April Fools joke article, let alone an article on a regular day of the week. It's totally unbelievable.

There are 1440 minutes in the day. Multiplied by the 90 days in 3 months makes 129,600 minutes. Divide $218,000,000,000,000 by 129,600 and you get a $1,682,098,765 per minute charge. It's unfathomable.

How does this article even get published?

-Tamerlain

[xepherys]

Uhm, the article got published because the occurance happened. It's called an interesting article. It also helps point out the absurdity of the company and lastly helps to protect the victim since now more people KNOW about the issue. Why WOULDN'T they print an article like this?

[Brewmaniac]

[QUOTE=Tamerlain

How does this article even get published?

-Tamerlain[/QUOTE]

I thought this was outrageous that's one of the reasons I posted it.

[CSflim]

Originally Posted by xepherys

Uhm, the article got published because the occurance happened. It's called an interesting article. It also helps point out the absurdity of the company and lastly helps to protect the victim since now more people KNOW about the issue. Why WOULDN'T they print an article like this?

It's not that it's stupid to print an article reporting on this story. It's stupid to print an article stating that "it wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death", in reference to a $218 trillion phone bill!

[Charlatan]

Dial 1-976-she-hott...

A charge of $3,000,000 applies... Five minute minimum.

[kutulu]

The scary thing about this is that it shows that there is no oversight in the issuance of past due notices at that company and the collections company. If they can let a 218 trillion dollar invoice be sent out, how can you trust any invoice they send out?

[Tamerlain]

Originally Posted by CSflim

It's not that it's stupid to print an article reporting on this story. It's stupid to print an article stating that "it wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death", in reference to a $218 trillion phone bill!

Thank you, I guess I wasn't clear about what I felt was absurd.

Originally Posted by Brewmaniac

I thought this was outrageous that's one of the reasons I posted it.

I wasn't commenting on you posting it here, just about it being published in general.

-Tamerlain