A Florida woman got a severe case of bill shock when her cell phone company hit her with a $201,000 monthly charge - but a local TV station helped to ease her six-figure stress.
Celina Aarons' bill reached the ridiculous level because of a whole lot of unintended roaming.
She told WSVN-TV that her younger brother, Shamir, who is legally deaf, has a phone on her plan while he finishes college.
She said he caused the charges by accidentally leaving his phone on during a trip to Canada - way out of her plan's service region.
She normally pays $175 a month.
"I was freaking out," she said. "I was shaking, crying. I couldn't even talk that much on the phone. I was like, my life is over!"
The phone company told the TV station that Shamir racked up the charges with data-roaming, texting and Internet streaming while he was out of the country.
Aarons was peeved the company didn't give her a heads-up when her bill shot over $200,000.
"That's like paying \[for\] a nice house right now," she said, thinking of what she could use that money for.
Luckily for Aarons, WSVN helped negotiate the bill down to a more reasonable $2,500 - with six months to be paid off.
According to eweek.com, Aarons' plight is not rare. In fact, it's so common that the Federal Communications Commission is creating new guidelines so consumers don't get hosed.
The FCC reached a deal this week with phone companies to encourage them to alert customers when a bill is about to run over an above-average cost and enter bill-shock territory.