TOPIC: And you thought your phone bill was bad. . . .

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a U.S. $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper reported Monday.<br /><br />Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84-ringgit (U.S. $23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.<br /><br />But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.<br /><br />It wasn't clear whether the bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's father's phone line was used illegally after his death.<br /><br />"If the company wants to seek legal action as mentioned in the letter, I'm ready to face it," the paper quoted Yahaya as saying. "In fact, I can't wait to face it," he said.<br /><br />Yahaya, from northern Kedah state, received a notice from the company's debt-collection agency in early April, the paper said. Yahaya said he nearly fainted when he saw the new bill.<br /><br />Government-linked Telekom Malaysia Bhd. is the country's largest telecommunications company.<br /><br />A company official, who declined to be identified as she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Telekom Malaysia was aware of Yahaya's case and would address it. She did not provide further details.<br /><br />

$218 TRILLION dollars in one month is around $500M per MINUTE!  <br /><br />Given that, its pretty clear that the phone line wasn't used illegally.   ;/<br /><br />My bet is on a computer bug. :computer: :confused3:

Seriously, otherwise how could that kind of bill be racked up in two months(feb/march).<br />I probably would have fainted if I had opened a bill like that.

Do you have a link to the original article? I need to show this to my friends!!

Afriad not, my uncle just emailed me the article.

I googled and found it for you. Who's your favorite pixie? <br /><br /> www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Monday/National/20060410080845/Article/index_html <br /><br />** Edit**<br />Please note the article does not have the us converstion of a ringgit.

<br />$218 TRILLION dollars in one month is around $500M per MINUTE!  <br />

<br />Might have been one heck of a 976 number.<br /><br />"Only 1 billion dollars for the first minute and 300 million for each additional minute...."

Something the article brought out that my uncle's e-mail didn't:<br /><br />The amount was larger than the total telephone bills of the whole country.

<br />Something the article brought out that my uncle's e-mail didn't:<br /><br />The amount was larger than the total telephone bills of the whole country.<br />

<br /><br />This is quite and understatement.  $218 Trillion is 20 TIMES more than America's entire GDP!

As my edit note with the link post mentions the article makes no conversion in us dollars or mention to us.<br />My uncle did that.<br />The comment is directed towards the country this incident occured in, Malaysia. <br />The bill was RM806,400,000,000,000.01, and that was more than all the phone bills for Malaysia combined.

<br />As my edit note with the link post mentions the article makes no conversion in us dollars or mention to us.<br />My uncle did that.<br />The comment is directed towards the country this incident occured in, Malaysia. <br />The bill was RM806,400,000,000,000.01, and that was more than all the phone bills for Malaysia combined.<br />

<br /><br />Silly Pixie.  =D  That is a true statement and I realize you are quoting the article.  But for the article to say that is like saying that <br />"Bill Gates has more money than all of the forumites combined!"  And given the recent money spend on Tokens, we know thats true. 

I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that the article did not give the us conversion, lest someone think I was trying to misrepresent the article.<br />My uncle knows someone there, and is bedridden due to health so he has fun figuring out things like what that translated to in us dollars.<br /><br />And I am a silly pixie, what else would you expect from me? Teehee.