AT&T won't budge after Pfc. in Afghanistan mistakenly racks up $16,000 bill

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This is one of those stories that usually gets huge publicity, and then results in the corporation involved backing down in a good PR move. Pfc. Jose Rivera, stationed in Afghanistan, owes $16,000 after misunderstanding AT&T's international calling plan.

Rivera was told that for a mere $4.95 a month, he could make international calls from Afghanistan to his wife.  What he didn't understand was that it didn't mean unlimited international calls with no extra charge, but instead that AT&T would charge him $5 a minute per call and 50 cents for every text.

Obviously, Rivera was pretty naive to believe that the charge of $4.95 would be it for such a plan, but English is not his first language. Because of this, and because it's the right thing for a commanding officer to do, Capt. Evan Brainerd has taken up his cause.

Even Brainerd admits that Rivera was naive, but as he says, "While he should have realized that $4.95 a month was probably too good to be true, he is a young soldier with minimal experience with phone plans or overseas travel." Add in the ESL issue and you have a real problem.

Rivera did cancel the AT&T plan as soon as the bill reached $9,000. However, since then, the bill has risen to some $16,000 including interest.

Rivera's immediate supervisor, Sgt. Malcolm McCallum, has also attempted to work with AT&T, but to no avail, despite hours on the phone, mostly on hold.

Brainerd sent a letter to AT&T, in which he said:

"I have been disgusted by the way our soldiers have been treated, and largely ignored by AT&T's customer service throughout our efforts to resolve this problem. I am certainly not claiming that our soldier, PFC Rivera, is blameless and should not pay to a certain extent for his phone usage. However, $16,000 (every penny that this soldier and his family can hope to save during the course of this 1 year deployment) is a gross injustice."

Brainerd contacted C|Net in hopes of getting some resolution. There's no update so far.  Hopefully, with further press coverage, perhaps this can be resolved in a way that a brave fighting man in Afghanistan deserves.