My son's cell phone bill!!!!
 

I am so so mad at him! He was sending text messages out and he only gets 100 a month, he had 5000!! His phone bill was over $500!! His friend was sending him a text a minute for 2 hours:eek: and instead of calling and talking it out, he sent text back to him!! This happened on more then one occasion too according to the atomized bill wich was 157 pages of then showing the time, and caller of the texting!!! Why he did not just call the kid up is beyond me! He is grounded and has to work for me here at home to work off the money now. I told him that now I have to put things aside that I wanted to buy and do to pay off his bill, He is only 14 so it's not like he can go get a job at his age. Maybe once the Ice cream stores open up he could get a job their for a few hours that they allow kids to work a week. I am so mad because he has had his phone for 2 years and know's the rules:mad:For some reason he only thinks that he is grounded for two weeks too! More like months and I might make it longer then that!! What would you do if this was your child? How long would you have the grounding?? All privileges are gone, no games and nothing that would cost money, cause he owse us $500 for the bill!! Or do you think I am being to harsh? i am so so mad!!!

I certainly do not think you are being harsh..I think he should have a pay as you go phone and make him buy his own phone cards..its more money but it will teach him how far a dollar goes in the cell phone world..

Dawn

I don't think you are being too harsh at all. I hope you told him his texting days are over :rolleyes: Hopefully he'll think twice before he decides to do something that again!

:eek: You are not being too harsh at all!! I would surely be dead if I ever did something like that!

You most certainly are not being harsh!!! If the kid knew the time and amount allotted to him for usage, then he would most certainly be paying me back. Situations like yours is exactly why my kids have their phone via pre-paid servicing. They each do chores and the likes to earn their phone and texting privileges wherein I apply funds to their individual phones based on the successful completion of their weekly assignment list. I figured I'd give mine a lesson in life...One must work for what they want!

:eek: WOW.

It wasn't like he went a few over and you could say it was an accident. 4900 over on purpose...that's serious. I think whatever minimum wage is in your state (lets say $5 hourly for easy math but I know it is more), he should have to do housework as many hours as it would take him to pay the bill if he had another job. So that would be 100 hours of housework at $5 hourly to pay you back the $500. I mean, I guess you could cut that in half and be nice but I would be mad. I don't think 14 year olds need cell phones anyway unless it is for emergencies, so he is very privileged.

I don't think you are being harsh at all. I personally would take he phone completely away from him. A friend's daughter did the same thing, and she took her phone away and replaced it with one that only will call 4 programmed numbers.

:eek:!!!!

I would take the phone away and he needs to be grounded for a while. If he really needs a phone, he should do a pay as you go type phone and pay for it on his own by earning money somehow or doing chores for you.

Maybe you can talk to your provider and see if you can block any text messages that are over his limit? I don't know if you can, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

We put a block on the texting once we got the bill, It's not just his phone all 4 boy's share it in case they go someplace or in sporting events, things like that, but he has taken over it and kept it in his room, he even changed the phone message saying "Mason is not able to come to the phone..." It has to stay down on the mantel now and he can't use it at all, he wont be going places for a while!!

Your not being harsh at all but doing what a good mother should do.
Making him take responsiblilty for his actions. That is the only way he
will lean and become responsible. One day he will thank you holding
him accountable for his actions.:thumbup:

I feel for you...been there done that :rolleyes: I blocked the texting while he was on restriction, then after that we put unlimited on all of our phones.

You are not being to harsh...they have to learn.

Now it can say..."Mason will NEVER be coming to the phone..." LOL!!

Those 4 number programmable phones really are a good thing. My 10 year old nephew has one. They've programmed just the numbers he needs like home, mom's cell, dad's cell, and grandparents. It's nice that he has a phone with him in case he needs to get ahold of somebody but it's reassuring to know that he can't abuse the privileges. My 15 year old niece has a regular cell phone but she pays the bill herself so she's learned the hard way to not go over her limit. :rolleyes:

Your not being harsh. I definitley think a pay as you go is best that way he just gets shut down when he runs out of money. Did he know that if you send or if you receive it counts against your usage.

It WAS my child! Only not text messages, he was downloading ring tones to the tune of $200. I took away his phone and made him pay us back. It took forever, but that wasn't the point. We actually dropped our cell phones because the bill was $179 a month. Now we have a disposable one. It was $15 and we put $10 a month on it. It's really only so we can reach him when he's not home and now that he is driving he needs it for emergencies.

I would have taken the phone, too. It's a privilege and one that he abused.

Now on a lighter note...

If you have Cingular the once AT&T you can call them and have them look into the bill and get it lowered.. You may have to be on the phone for 2 hours but I have 2 hours verses $500.00...

I have a 14 year old that pulled this stunt. Yes he was grounded and yes I was mad but we had to get the bill paid regardless so I called the phone company and they deleted and back dated and did all kinds of things because I told them look at my bill .. I never have had a bill this high ever and if you are unable to help me this time I may have to find other services and they helped me and we have NEVER had this problem again.

Hope this helps!
Been there done that and have a tshirt
ARGGHHH
pm me and let me know how it goes ...

Call up the cell phone company and ask them if they can retroactively add unlimited text messaging. It's usually $5-10 a month. Don't tell your kid though! They might do that if they see that you had unusual activity.

I would ground him for being stupid (!!) and then make him work it off. Chores are good but I think forcing him to work scooping ice cream and handing over every last paycheck at $6/hr would take quite a while and make an impact... scooping ice cream is fun for about the first hour then it's HARD WORK!

P.S. We've upped our minutes package after going way over our minutes so we didn't have to pay overages. It really works!

:eek: :eek:
did you have to mention driving... im nervous about it already he is 14 and wants a permit geezzz what more

I dont think you are being too harsh but I think you should make it so he is unable to rack up a bill like that... like make him work per month for the $10 more to get unlimited texts added to his plan. Like he has to do xyz and you will keep unlimited txting on his phone that way you get caught up and surprised by a bill this huge! I would be MIGHTY PO'ed too!!!

I had heard horror stories like that so when we moved, since my dtr had just lost her dad and would be leaving all her friends, I got her unlimited texting and whatever else she needed so she could keep in touch. I was thinking 500 or so texts per month. Her bill ran 13,000 to 15,000 texts per month:eek: . I let them hang a copy of our bill in the cell phone store so they could show parents who were getting plans for their kids what could happen. They have since gone down to less than 500 since her best friend moved here and is living with us. At the time, I felt it was the best way to handle the situation. She had proven her ability to use here phone time wisely up until that time so I felt she had earned it. I shudder to think what my bill would have been. Had my situation been different, I would have done exactly what you have done.

OH MY!!!!! This is why my daughter does not have text on her phone.

Yikes!! Been there, we now have unlimited text and picture messaging. My kids average around 6000

i went through this same EXACT situation last summer . only ... i was at the other end of it :rolleyes:

my parents had a stirct 'no texting' policy for me and my two brothers (we're on a family plan) but, i figured, 'hey, theyre only 10 cents each. why not text just a little?' not smart at all ! i did text a little, but then it became habbit, and i did it without even thinking first. my parents got the bill and my texting was wellllllll over $650. my brothers (18 and 20 at the time) just texted a little. soo ... i got grounded for what was supposed to be 2 weeks, but ended up being 20 minutes, ending with an unlimited texting plan for the whole family ....

definitely not a good example in this situation, but i do not think you are being too harsh. way to go =] teach 'em a lesson. he might 'hate' you for it, but he'll learn. sometimes i wish my parents were more enforcing ...

I have always been the disciplinarian at home and I do believe you are not being harsh . . . they need to learn the value of hard earned money :)

I wouldn't allow him to have a cell phone at 14...I mean, when i was growing up, there was no such thing as them, and we did just fine without them. Our youngest son got his when he was 17 and had a job, this way we paid the cell phone, and if he went over on minutes, he was responsible for anything over..

I dont think you are being to harsh,I would make him work it off at home too ,have him help with spring cleaning .washing windows cleaning the basment and so on ,my girls had to do stuff like that when they got grounded and they didnt like doing that so they got grounded less and less because we gave them jobs around the house they didnt like to do.

I would definitely make him pay off the debt, but in meantime, do call the phone company and see if they will work with you to change your plan and make it retroactive. The worst that can happen is you spend some time on the phone and they say "no". I would definitely get unlimited texting as well. It is very easy to start texting and before you know it, in one day you have done LOTs of text. Think about how much we post on YT in one day!!!

WOW!

You aren't being too harsh!

I do agree though, I would look into unlimited texting. My almost 16 year old sis and me share a plan, and it's like $20 a month for unlimited for both of us.

Texting is so easy, I do the same thing, I guess alot of us do anymore. My brother in law to be
(17) has a text message record of over 10,000 messages in 1 month!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh Teri - That was my son too!!!!! But in addition to ring tones, he downloaded games - Madden 2008, soccer, etc. Just the bill for his phone was pretty close to $200. He has a part time job and he paid me back for it but he was also grounded for a month. I told him that technically, the phone is MINE and I can take it away from him at a moments notice as I added him to my phone. He's usually more responsible than that with his phone but I guess he had a memory lapse - one he won't have again since I made him pay for it.