Girl gets $15,000,000,000,000,000 phone bill

[Elspeth]

The $15,000,000,000,000,000 phone bill

It's not exactly a news flash that phone companies frequently screw up people's bills. Sky-high charges in the thousands of dollars have become routine.

But imagine how Solenne San Jose felt when she received a bill recently for nearly $15 quadrillion.

Yep. Quadrillion.

As in about $15,000,000,000,000,000.

"There were so many zeros I couldn't even work out how much it was," San Jose told the Herald Sun newspaper.

She lives in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, typically known for great wine, pastoral vistas and now completely loony phone bills.

To give some idea how big $15 quadrillion is, San Jose would have to pay nearly 6,000 times her country's entire annual economic output if she actually wrote a check for the amount (although there's a pretty good chance the check would bounce).

San Jose's anxiety level wasn't helped when service reps for her phone company, Bouygues Telecom, said they were powerless to stop the mind-boggling sum from being withdrawn from her bank account.

I'd have loved to see the bankers' faces when that transaction came down the pike.

Finally, though, the company conceded that, possibly, they'd made a mistake. San Jose's actual bill, they conceded, was closer to $150.

Bouygues Telecom blamed the mix-up on "a printing error."

I see it as the greatest stab at telecom chutzpah ever.

[Apache]

The $15,000,000,000,000,000 phone bill

It's not exactly a news flash that phone companies frequently screw up people's bills. Sky-high charges in the thousands of dollars have become routine.

But imagine how Solenne San Jose felt when she received a bill recently for nearly $15 quadrillion.

Yep. Quadrillion.

As in about $15,000,000,000,000,000.

"There were so many zeros I couldn't even work out how much it was," San Jose told the Herald Sun newspaper.

She lives in the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, typically known for great wine, pastoral vistas and now completely loony phone bills.

To give some idea how big $15 quadrillion is, San Jose would have to pay nearly 6,000 times her country's entire annual economic output if she actually wrote a check for the amount (although there's a pretty good chance the check would bounce).

San Jose's anxiety level wasn't helped when service reps for her phone company, Bouygues Telecom, said they were powerless to stop the mind-boggling sum from being withdrawn from her bank account.

I'd have loved to see the bankers' faces when that transaction came down the pike.

Finally, though, the company conceded that, possibly, they'd made a mistake. San Jose's actual bill, they conceded, was closer to $150.

Bouygues Telecom blamed the mix-up on "a printing error."

I see it as the greatest stab at telecom chutzpah ever.

Give Maobama a year, he'll pay it....

[Novaheart]

$150 is bad enough. What the hell are these people doing? Living on the phone?

[Gina]

Some phone company employee apparently spilled soda on the keyboard and the zero button stuck. Could be!

[JB]

I read a different source on the story and they said:

the phone company told her "she was liable for the sum, insisting it would automatically be withdrawn from her bank account." The company did offer to set up an installment payment plan. San Jose wisely declined.

An installment plan.

Uh, let's see, 30 years at 6 percent, carry the one...OK, how does one gazillion a month sound? That OK?

[Hubie]

service reps for her phone company, Bouygues Telecom, said they were powerless to stop the mind-boggling sum from being withdrawn from her bank account.