iPhone bill unboxed by i-Justine
For those new iPhone owners who have been wearing that touchscreen keyboard out by sending as many texts as your thumbs can muster, you've probably been greeted by an unexpectedly large box from your neighborhood carrier. For Justine, that meant receiving "over 300 pages" of detailed billing from AT&T that spelled out every single SMS (and call, we presume) sent and received. If we actually needed another reason to choose eBilling over the obvious alternative, this would definitely be it. Check out the video after the break.
[Thanks, Alex]
[Thanks, Alex]



















is this for real
Apple sure is a green company. Yup.
apple isnt the one who sends the bill you moron!
To be fair Apple actually isn't very green, but for different reasons.
I totally buy that this is real. My latest AT&T bill is several pages long, and it only includes a few days with the iPhone data plan. I just switched to paperless billing--as easy as a single mouse-click--to avoid an unboxing photo gallery of my own next month!
Everyone who reply takes things too literal. Demaar is making a sarcastic statement.
yes its for real, the iphone data plan (the one with 900 min) cost $120 a month and if you want' to text, give it up!
that's what you get for choosing detailed billing
it's not that she chose it, it's an automatic thing...you have to specify that you don't want it
how much was it? her bill i mean? is everyone's bill going to be like that? i just dont understand why they sent her a 300 page bill
it showed every single call and text she made or received...it's a lot more common that people would think
Not just every single call and text, the main part is when you access the EDGE (data) network, for mail or internet, etc. It shows up on your bill. 20kb here, 4kb there, but every time you access the network.
Funny thing is, the data plans are unlimited, and for each listing on the bill the charge is, of course, $0.00
Nowadays, you have a choice between electronic billing and mailed billing. So, if you're ending up with a crap load of paper like the girl in the video, then you can easily solve this problem.
However, if you're a compulsive texter and a non-stop blabber mouth, then maybe the answer lies beyond electronic billing and involves talking to social workers to receive quick mental help.
Think of all of the people who work at AT&T. Not one of them said, "Wait! This is colossally stupid!" Right down to the guy who had to order thousands of tiny boxes for the bills, no one stepped up.
It's because the country runs on apathy.
I somehow just caguely remember another competitor's AD about their bill being so huge and heavy it broke their dining table... I wanna say T-mobile but I could be wrong til I find a proof of that old commercial...
Well, we know for a fact her video wasn't taken with the iPhone. Probably needed Windows Mobile for that. ;)
no, she just need a camcorder since no camera on any phone sold in us is capable of that type of frame rate and resolution. not even a window mobile
Oh. Have you ever had a phone that costs more than $250? Pretty much all of them shoot video like that. All N-series phones with 3 megapixel cameras or better shoot video like that, as well as some 6-series phones I.E. 6500 Slider and that one slider that's really popular in Asia (forgot the name). And what does the fact it's in America have to do with it? Plenty of Americans have amazing foreign phones, albeit very few of them would consider committing to the iPhone. Actually, I see your argument; no one committed to their iPhone would own any phone that I previously mentioned. Good call.
I say FAKE!!! Just an ad for eBilling.
i have customers that have bills like this all the time...they're actually usually shipped by fedex
i get bills that are extremely thick from at&t as well.
Thats nothing. When people were cloning cell phone numbers years ago we got a bill in a box about 3 times the thickness of that one for roughly $10,000...should have saved it.
Something tells me that if she can afford the phone, she can pay the bill. But if you wanna save that money from paying her bill, and invest it in a nice wedding ring, I'd be happy to marry you*.
*Ellianth will only marry you if your in your late 80's, close to death, and have a HUGE life insurance pay out waiting. Please note that in order for this marriage to go through Ellianth must be the only name on your will!
The most annoying part is corporate America won't offer a discount for electronic billing. They cynically couch e-billing it in terms of saving a tree or the environment. The cost of printing a bill that large has to be almost the equivalent of the mailing cost. And, though I shred every bill sent to me, I'm still going to get them until they offer me a tangible reason for e-billing. Why should ATT or any other business get the savings? They certainly won't be passing it on to any of us, will they?
That's because they outsource the billing to a third party. The third party gets a deal that makes sure they get paid by the account. It doesn't matter what the customer requests (otherwise AT&T would just coach their people to push e-billing instead of detail billing). Besides, it is a holdover from the bad old days of massive per minute charges and monthly trips to the phone store to have a sales rep explain the charges, and why they never matched what they said the charge would be when you signed up.
Flashback to 1993... Top of the bill says something like "$39.99 free weekend plan," list of several phone numbers called, almost all of them off peak (which should have been free, right?), bottom of bill shows total of $125.99 or so. Sales guy can't explain why a $40/month plan becomes a $125/month plan, but is good at handwaving, and goes over each and every call I made (thanks to the free detailed bill), and I storm out of the place.
Well in that case I would have regular mailing and sell the paper to a recycling plant :)
Hell why not keep up the stuff she is doing and collect all of that paper and recycle it and make some money? It could help pay for the huge initial investment of the Iphone..
This is nothing new. I currently have a Cingular 8525 and my bill is 70 pages long. 2 years ago when I had the 8125 it was also 70 pages long. AT&T.com has on option to disable bills being sent through the mail.
Dude, I don't want to disable getting a paper bill, I just want to disable them tracking all my Edge packets as line items for no legitimate reason: all the data plans are unlimited data.
-- Terry
Dude, I don't want to disable getting a paper bill, I just want to disable them tracking all my Edge packets as line items for no legitimate reason: all the data plans are unlimited data.
-- Terry
My bill was upwards of 30 pages and fit in an envelope.
The problem is that it gives you EVERY SINGLE time you access the EDGE network, which is unlimited. That combined with a social butterfly that abuses the unlimited nights and weekends will account for a 300 page bill.
Just another example of someone that wants their 30 seconds of fame on the internet. Who cares that she has a big bill? Not me. After seeing my 30 page bill, I'm signing up for paperless billing. If this woman doesn't want to, that's her prerogative.
Wait... "abuses the unlimited nights and weekends"...? WTF???
I thought the whole point of GETTING unlimited nights and weekends is to shift as much use from peak minutes to off peak to minimize one's monthly charges. How does that possibly translate into abuse, especially when traditionally this is a standard plan feature offered by nearly every carrier out there?
Abuse is what they call when you actually take them up on the offer and use an unlimited plan for longer than half the time you could have gotten peak minutes for the cost of the plan.
"...WTF??? you actually want to make free calls? you were just supposed to pay us and forget you even had it."
Who knew the biggest iPhone hater were trees?
no wonder the plans cost soooo much!
wow, not bad i have gone over 300 pages before. im not even a girl, but the treo is so nice to text with. iphones are well i love them but i find them a pain to text with, or any typing for that matter
area code 412? Cue Homer's exasperated AAAAWWWW! I just came back from a boring week in Pittsburgh yesterday.
Check that 30 page bill carefully...tucked deep inside there is a 2.99 charge for Roadside Assistance AT&T decided we all needed.
If she has Mana as her ringtone, then yeah, thats her.
What's the song in the background?
The iPhone commercial music? lol
"Perfect Timing" by Orba Squara
Does anyone know what the music is on that clip?
Wikipedia it...
I think that if it is real, maybe she should have known, so many calls on detailed billing would do that to you. Not that I like AT&T, but that's probably what they do for every customer.
Such a Waste of paper and energy is really obscene ... not to mention totally useless ! The most fascinating being that no one stepped up or pointed that system out before ... America really lives on another planet ...
Um, you know how much junkmail is delivered in American right. If this offends you, contact your congressperson to stop those goons from snailmail spamming.
i think i'm going to give her a call. if go though the video frame by frame you can pull out her cell phone number in pieces. i just need to find 2 more digits!
If you've already narrowed it down to just a hundred remaining possibilities, what the heck, call all of them. It can't take much longer than you've already invested. Be sure to let us know how your call goes. "Hey baby, you're hot. I read your phone number off that video of your AT&T bill. You, uh, wanna go out sometime?" Good luck.
yea that would be fun- but it only took 2 minutes to find the first 7 digits- i bet i could get the rest if i tried. shes from pittsburgh.
Every detail is listed in that bill. Every bit of data transfered is listed. Its not that the bill is expensive, its just listed out for every data event that took place. Glad I have paperless billing. AT&T I imagine will address this billing. It is def costing them $ to print, ship, manage, etc a bill like that.
I shred my bills when I am done with them.. I am guessing a bonfire is more economical then buying an industrial sized shredder to deal with that pile of paper...
i wish i had some apple stocks a couple months ago. Dam i new iPhone was gunna be a hit.
That chick is HOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTT.
That iPhone bill is LAAAAMMMMMMEEE.
Three words: Return to sender.
What is up with the crazy looking fake eyebrows... I hate that... I have an aunt who shaves her eyebrows and draws them back in with a pencil... it looks amazingly silly. But that highly shaped look on this woman isn't much better...
Ahhh, I feel better.
Sorry, you are too picky. I'd settle for someone young and hot with a huge fortune, that I'd get half of when we divorce.
Paris, look me up, we could hang for a while till you get tired of me kicking you out of my bed :-)
Okay guys
Her blog has her name in it Justine Ezarik, so yes http://www.tastyblogsnack.com/about/ getting her number shouldn't be to hard for you guys, this is another reason I don't have a cell (on top of i want features damn it!).
*adds her to his facebook*
Ridonkulously hot, and socially responsible. Nice!
Lol.....That must really stink.
For all the hysterical hypersensitive environmentalist radicals, trees can be planted to make up for the ones you cut down for paper (amazing but true). As far as the video its a bit suspect, there was no mention of what the bill amount was or what type of activity was conducted while using the phone to warrant such an obscene bill, it also doesn't mention if its a credible bill or an errant mistake on the part of AT&T.
This chick is hot. How about unboxing in a bikini :}
thats not 300 pages more like 150 double-sided prints
looks like i-justine iloves herself. what an isheep.
Justine is FAFH.
300 pages. 300. Pages.
This is NOT fake. I had Cingular for a couple of years and usually got a 5-6 page bill, depending on how many calls I made in a given period. After switching to an iPhone, my current bill was 174 pages. Yes. 1-7-4. Every data transaction is logged, on unlimited service...
@buzweaver:
You 'Earth Last' morons always come up with this kind of stuff. Hey, you know oil is constantly forming in the earths crust also, so I guess we'll never run out, huh brainiac?
Either way, a detailed bill that lists every call and EVERY data transaction seems a bit stupid, don't you think?
Yeah, um, try not getting yanked by your digital leash too much, Justine. Good luck with that.
It's to bad that " The New AT&T " did not inherit some corperate culture from Apple. Besides doing dumb things the new AT&T is not forthright in their plans. I not only received a 36 page bill, but also a $195.00 bill for accessing the internet while in Europe,
SteveK:
Its not rocket science, you can easily look this up. The trees that are used for paper are very specific, to cut down on manufacturing costs to create the paper. Therefor, the paper industry grows these hormone induced trees (grow faster) with the specific ideal in cutting them down. Your not saving one tree by using their paperless bill method. Recycling paper actually releases more toxins by creating the chemicals needed to bleach the paper clean. The solvents used in this process are extremely dangerous to our ecosystem and deadly to humans. So a detailed bill that lists every call and EVERY data transaction does seem a bit stupid, however its much stupider to not opt for the paperless bill if your going to complain about it.
Whoever went through frame by frame to find her phone number... you are a sick freak. That is just so sad.
iJustine just updated her blog... AT&T has changed its paper billing policy.
http://www.tastyblogsnack.com/2007/08/22/att-simplified-paper-billing/
try being a call supervisor for a cell phone company who does summary billing. I once spent the better part of an hour trying to explain to a customer that she ALWAYS had recieved detailed billing and that it was NOT illegal for us to charge her for going over her minutes when we only showed her the minutes that went over and not for the all the calls she placed. I don't blame AT&T for posting everything, saves headaches for the Customer service reps.
And kudos to her for posting a video, if she wants to go for it, she has just as much right to post her video on the net as you do to waste your time (and I have to waste my time) commenting about it