someone call DYFS

as some of you know, i have a 13 year old son and for those of you that don't i would like to start by telling you that i have a 13 year old son. for those of you that have children, i'm sure you know how much fun kids can be and how much more fun it would be if we could put our hands around their necks, lift them 6 inches off the ground and shake them vigorously until they turned all shades of blue.

over the last few months i have come across a few things that have really tested my patience. about two months ago, i received a cell phone bill of 450 some odd dollars. this is approximately $300 more than my usual bill. knowing i don't usually have overages, i knew the demon must have done something. i investigated and sure enough, there were 3rd party charges for all types of things such as subscriptions for daily ring tones, songs, and even the ability to view television. I was being billed, through cingular (my wonderful effing cell phone company) by a third party company which had at one point sent a text to my son and he responded to.

when i found out what this was all about, i realized that anyone, especially a teenager would be easily lured into clicking yes to their misleading text messages. however most of us would figure something was wrong when we were able to watch general hospital on our phone and get the latest r kelly ring tones. an hour and a half later i disputed all the charges and was on my way to getting a credit, yes credit, on my account. I went ballistic when they wouldn't take the charges off my bill, they had to wait to get the ok from the third party (which they have nothing to do with) before crediting my account. this meant, i had to pay $450 then hope the dispute worked out. unreal, cingular allows any effing body to make charges to your account, but won't protect you, their customer when the charges are shit.

after more time on the phone and a few eff bombs, i was only credited $104.25. ain't that some shit.

now today, i get a bill for $297. i call cingular and i go nuts. i tell them that there is no way the se charges can be happening, because i canceled the internet link to his phone and that someone screwed something up because my bill can't be that high. after listening to me flip my lid for several minutes, the lady calmly said, "mr. dankin, it seems that your son has exceeded his text messages for the month." i thought that i was bad, but the boy rang up 1874 text messages in one month. that's 62.466 a day.

needless to say, b doesn't have the ability to send text messages anymore. no, not because i had cingular cancel them, but because i snapped his damn fingers at the third knuckle.

if anyone wants to know the names of these companies that are doing this or if you need any more info on this please let me know. one of the biggest way for them to get your number, is when you vote on such things such as american idol, so watch yourself jo jo this could wind up costing you too.

stay tuned for my next log which will be on me and my son's trip to the drug store...it should be a good one.