Think your phone bill is expensive?

aidan_walsh

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12247590/?GT1=7938

A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a U.S. $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84-ringgit (U.S. $23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death.
"If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it," the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. "In fact, I can't wait to face it," he said.

Yahaya, from northern Kedah state, received a notice from the company's debt-collection agency in early April, the paper said. Yahaya said he nearly fainted when he saw the new bill.

Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest telecommunications company.

A company official, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Telekom Malaysia was aware of Yahaya's case and would address it. She did not provide further details.

Now add line rental...

danniemcq

eircon watchin to see if this works no doubt :rolleyes:

Niall123

danniemcq wrote:

eircon watchin to see if this works no doubt :rolleyes:

Yeah then Smart, perlico and the like ready to call every hour of the day guaranteeing to save you 384182944.91% on weekend and evening calls compared to eircom's standard rate.

blu_sonic

that will triple the countries reserve

smodgley

nearly as high as mine:D

AdMMM

I've got to give him credit for only nearly fainting. I would have died!

Pigman II

It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake

Eh?

Surely even if you rang the most expensive place possible for 4 months straight you couldn't run up anything even near a fraction of that amount?

segadreamcast

aidan_walsh wrote:

806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit.

Ideal currency name for a phone bill though, all the same.

drdre

wow:eek: ,that a very large bill.i think eircom are tring out the same method to see if it works:D

Juan Pablo

Pigman II wrote:

Eh?

Surely even if you rang the most expensive place possible for 4 months straight you couldn't run up anything even near a fraction of that amount?

Most expensive call off the Eircom network is a call to a Skyphone Mobile Telephony System, which is €8.76 pm (inc Vat). So it would take 144,631,087 years of constant ringing to one of these numbers to rack up that bill, in other words >4 months (although 4 months of doing this would set you back nearly €2 million!!)

Pigman II

Exactly. That's why I'm thinking this is just a joke story (or at least a story of half-truths.)

The ' It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake ' and the fact that the currency just happens to be the 'ringgit' makes me think someone was having a slow day in the office.

Pigman II

also doesn't 'Yahaya Wahab' sound a little like "Yeh, yeh, wassup!"

Maybe I'm just getting paranoid now

pyramuid man

Man I would be having my 218trillionth heart attack by now.

smashey

Pigman II wrote:

Exactly. That's why I'm thinking this is just a joke story (or at least a story of half-truths.)

The ' It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake ' and the fact that the currency just happens to be the 'ringgit' makes me think someone was having a slow day in the office.

The Malaysian currency is the Ringgit. I think it is a direct translation of the word 'dollar'. I don't think it cost them as much to build the Petronas Towers.

Sparky

Calls cost $1400 a minute in Malaysia.

dermo88

Ringgit is the Malay word for "Jagged", referring to the Jagged edges of Spanish Silver Dollars (Pieces of Eight) which were used as currency in the 1600's through to mid 1800's.

The story is real, you can find the original on http://www.thestar.com.my or http://www.nst.com.my

bounty

wtf dermo88, speak english

Ruu_Old

:eek: Thats one high phone bill. Maybe they will take installments, $50 a week

smemon

got his moneys worth out of the line rental anyway

Tar.Aldarion

I thought my 700e one was ridiculous, so, did he pay it of yet?

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

monkeyfudge

Wow.. Juan Pablo and dermo88... you put far too much thought into this thread than it deserved... if only you could both use your powers for the betterment of mankind instead.

Victor

I think there was a case a few years ago, also in Malaysia of someone who got a speeding ticker for 100,000+ km/h Hmmm...

FranknFurter

Niall123 wrote:

Yeah then Smart, perlico and the like, ready to call every hour of the day guaranteeing to save you 384182944.91% on weekend and evening calls compared to eircom's standard rate.

Roflmao!