Florida man’s $143,000 phone bill in Switzerland sparks outrage and lawsuit

A man from Florida went on vacation to Switzerland. It wasn’t a cheap trip in itself, but it got a lot worse when he got the phone bill: it was at least 143,000 euros, equal to 134,000 euros.

Swiss-born Rene Remund of Florida enjoyed his trip last September. He called the impressive mountains in the alpine country “magical”. The fun quickly ended at home when he took a closer look at his T-Mobile phone bill. At first he thought it was $143, which he thought was reasonable. It was 143,442.74 US dollars. And that’s for 9.5 gigabytes.

The man did not leave at that time and first called T-Mobile, who said the bill was so high because his phone was not set up for international roaming. The man did not agree to this, and then hired a lawyer. But it was only after he told his story in the local media that T-Mobile released and the company covered the costs.

Right, because the man had called the telecommunications provider in advance to say he would be traveling outside the US. Then he was told that his subscription covered everything. That turned out not to be true.

Using a phone in Switzerland can also be expensive for Europeans themselves. The rate is the same throughout the European Union as in your home country, but Switzerland is not a member of the EU and charges much higher amounts.