Watching the Chicago Bears While Waiting for Your Cruise: That’ll be $US28,067 Please

Wayne Burdick just wanted to watch the Chicago Bears game. Using the Slingbox he had set up, he slid in his AT&T wireless card. Two and half hours and $US28,000 later, the Bears won.

Burdick was just waiting for his cruise ship to arrive, when he decided to watch the game via his Slingbox (which streams television though an internet signal). Having an unlimited data plan, he thought everything would be peachy-keen. Unfortunately, he connected to the ship’s network and, as a result, ran up international roaming charges.

When Burdick complained about the charges despite never leaving the country, AT&T offered to initially reduce the bill down to $US6,000. Eventually, through some media attention, the bill was reduced to $US220 in charges. Oh yeah—the score was 27-23. [Chicago Sun-Times via The Register]