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2014-11-27 08:51:32
A $1,171 Wi-Fi bill
Nov 26th 2014, 17:42 by N.B. | Washington, DC
EARLIER this month, Jeremy Gutsche spent $28.99 for a 30 megabyte internet
access plan for a Singapore Airlines flight. During the flight, he wrote later
on his website, he viewed just 155 pages, and uploaded one 4 MB PowerPoint. Yet
when he got off the plane, he discovered he had gone over his limit way over.
The total charges, according to a receipt he posted, were $1,171.
The charges-per-megabyte, Mr Gutsche acknowledges, were disclosed at the
outset. That might cause the more hard-nosed among us to argue that he deserved
the huge bill. A spokeswoman for OnAir, the Wi-Fi provider, said that pricing
is determined by the airline and that the purchase process is "entirely
transparent":
Passengers can choose to end their sessions when they reach a certain price
limit, a graphic shows data consumption at all times and users can disconnect
whenever they want.
To consume several hundred megabytes during one flight takes much more than
basic email viewing, for example downloading heavy attachments, cloud access
and using Skype
Businesses owe their customers transparent pricing at every step of a
transaction not just at the beginning. If someone is racking up truly
outrageous overage charges a good rule of thumb is anything beyond the price of
the initial contract the operator should be sure to alert him. Mr Gutsche's
overage, it should be noted, was nearly 40 times larger than his initial
charge. At some point, customers should be asked for consent before they spend
more money. That's one reason lawyers generally operate on retainer: their
hourly charges are high, and they don't want customers to be surprised when a
case gets expensive. (Plus, this way, the business gets the money up front.)
Keeping punters informed about what they owe isn't just the right thing to do,
it's also good business. A firm with a reputation for gouging its customers
isn't going to be particularly well-liked or respected, and eventually people
will try to avoid it. (Perhaps fear of expensive overages is one reason why so
few people sign up for onboard internet.)
So what, exactly, do OnAir's warnings to customers that are going over their
limit look like? Would a reasonable person be able to tell he was racking up
big charges? Below are some screenshots. I will leave it to you to decide.