Stranger pays teacher's mobile bills worth over $11,000 for 5 years following mix-up in payment system
Steve Wright, a Canadian community music teacher, got a cold sweat after he realized that he is suddenly liable to pay five-years worth of bills to Telus, a mobile operator company in one go after a massive confusion came to light.
According to a recent e-mail received by a Canadian media outlet from Telus, a British Columbia resident managed to wrongfully settle Wright's bills worth $11,384.60 over a course of five years, without anyone noticing a thing. The confusion was caused due to the automatic payment system.
The mix-up was exposed post-investigation after a former Telus customer from British Columbia complained to the firm in August 2019 of unjustified sums of money being deducted from their account. It was found that all this time, their account had been settling bills for services availed by Wright.
Even though this lands Wright in bit of a soup, according to the settlement, he would be required to pay $5,466.30 of $11,344,60 over a course of 30 months, but still exempts him from availing services worth $5,918.30 for free, which were waived off.
“We believe we have been very generous in waiving all charges owed by Mr Wright between August 2014 and May 2017 and extending the reimbursement timeline as per Mr Wright’s request, where he is paying for 24 months of service over 30 months,” Telus told the Canadian website.
According to reports, Wright was a nervous kid throughout the course of the investigation and wrote numerous e-mails to Telus. However, Telus has categorically refuted this claim.
Wright works as a teacher in a community 65 km northwest of Vancouver.