The $84,000 iPhone Bill

And you thought a $3000 iPhone bill was outrageous. Reuters is reporting that Piotr Staniaszek, a 22-year-old oil field worker from rural northwest Alberta, Canada, received a C$85,000 ($83,700) cell phone bill. The charges have been reduced by C$3400, but his cellphone provider apparently is planning on collecting the remaining C$81,300 - C$60,000 of which are tied to use in November.

The background of the story is controversial and the case whether these charges are justified or not could swing both ways. Staniaszek reportedly received the phone as a present from his father and thought he could use the phone as a PC modem through Bell Mobility’s C$10 unlimited browser plan. The 22-year old went and downloaded massive amounts of data, such as movies, and claims that he was unaware of the charges this would incur.

While cellphone charges of more than $80,000 appear to be unreasonable, this sounds like a case of "should’ve checked the manual first". And as we still believe that sub-par carrier service remains one of the iPhone’s Achilles heel’s, we do wonder how one would go through the pain of downloading movies through the iPhone’s moody and slow Internet connection?