To those who think VZW wont charge you if they catch you tethering . . . . .

Hi. I got my first Berry over Christmas time. I first wanted a Storm but then decided it was garbage and got a Curve. Then for Christmas I was given a new laptop by my parents. It has a wifi card and all the toys and I thought it would be perfect for schoolwork. Well at school there is good connection through the college but outside of school wifi is mostly crap. So I called Verizon and they told me they could sell me a card for my laptop for like $60 per month or I could just use my Berry for $30 per month. Well I cant afford either since I am working my way through college and my parents pay for my cell phone but they cant afford much either. I know it was a sacrifice for them to get me the laptop. I tried to find another way to use my laptop from home. We can only get dialup where I am staying. A freind told me about a new application that I could get for a one time charge that would allow me to hook my laptop to my Berry. I scraped together the money and bought tetherberry. It worked okay but was very slow. It was better than nothing.

This morning I got out of class and went to check my messages on my phone. There were none. So I went to call my girlfriend and I got a recording telling me I was being connected to Verizon for a billing problem. WTF??? My parents are never late on anything!!! I got through to this lady at Verizon and by the time she answered I was pissed and really worried at the same time. She told me my service was suspended until payment was made on the account. Okay maybe dad forgot to pay something. When she told me the bill was $3890 I almost swallowed the phone thinking someone had hacked my service. She then told me that it was all data charges and that because I was tethering my phone without a plan there normal $250 limit on data charges did not apply. WTF??? I surfed and did email and worked myspace and listened to music online. My freind who told me about tetherberry said it was bullshit and said there were people here who knew how to do it right. So I ask you this. HOW DO I FIX THIS? MY DAD WILL KILL ME!!! She said a letter was already sent to the bill address so if I cant fix it I am in deep ****.

How do you guys do it and how do I get out of these charges and get my phone back???

Well it gets worse. Since we are on a family plan my parents phones and my little sisters phones were all shutoff too. And since I only have acces with my laptop when I am near school I just got back here but am on a different network again.

My dad wont speak to me and my mother is mad. The way the letter is worded makes it sound like i was hacking the network which isnt right. I thought it was a cheaper way to do the same thing and didnt know that it was wrong. i never signed any agreements since my parents always do that.

The nice thing is that Verizon has agreed to turn their phones on but mine remains off pending a security and billing review. I think my dad wants to kill me because he thinks I was trying to screw over the company and he has never been late on any of his bills.

Really I wasnt trying to get away with anything. I really thiought it was just a less expensive way like the way people get gps applications instead of buying Verizons navigator thing.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get me through this? I know it wasn't right and after reading some of the posts above I really feel like a thief. I wasnt raised this way. My parents always taught that honor was a mans most important thing and now they dont trust me. At least my dad doesnt. In growing up and all he has always been proud of me and I lived up to all expectations. Now this and to be honest if I had it all to do all over again I would never do something this stupid. I didn't know it was wrong. I just freaked out because I knew my dad would freak out and kick my *** to the west coast when he found out.

He is coming here this weekend. He might still do that to me. OMG I am worried.

Agreed. I still stand at Never Tether. lol. I almost did back when I first got my Storm...Thank GOODNESS I didn't. Phew!