Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

Re: Cell phone bill

Not really. You had to know there was going to be a charge. The cell phone company probably received a bill from the overseas provider and then passed it on to you.

Re: Cell phone bill

The first question is, did you and the cell phone company have an agreement as to what the charges would be if he called from some international network? If you did, it may have been in the form of some fine print and you must have consented to those terms for them to be valid.

If there was no specific agreement, you're then liable to pay a reasonable fee. What's reasonable? That's likely a function of what it cost the cellular provider. If those calls cost the cellular provider $900, $2,700 is probably NOT reasonable. If it cost them $2,600, it probably IS reasonable. As for anything in between . . . who knows? Also, the California Public Utilities Commission may have some regulations which implement certain charges for this type of thing. You might want to look them up on the web or give them a call. (I'm not certain that cell phones ARE governed by the PUC, but they might be.)

Just call the cellular company and ask them how they came up with that amount. Tell them you never agreed to such outrageous charges. What you have (so far, unless/until you see other evidence) is a good-faith dispute and you should advise the cellular company not to report this portion of the bill as delinquent to any credit reporting bureau.