It can be super frustrating when you know that you know best in a certain situation and yet, no one wants to listen to you.

When it’s not your dime on the line, though, I guess you can just sit back and let them learn the lesson the hard way.

This story takes place back in the day of roaming cell phone charges. OP’s dad lived in an area where Verizon was the only carrier that didn’t require roaming to get him covered.

At the time of this story, my father had his cell phone plan with the V network (not sure if company names are allowed, but whatever, you probably know who I’m talking about).

He chose that provider because he lived in a rural area and at the time that was the only mobile provider that worked for him.

He researched this, as best as his low-tech redneck mind could handle. This was the ONLY viable option.

My father has been in sales for most of his working life, specifically insurance sales. He is darn good at it, makes sure the client is taken care of the right way, the way he would want to be taken care of.

He also is the kind of guy that doesn’t care where you are on a company’s organization chart, he’ll tell you exactly how it is with wanton disregard.

If he’s wrong, he’ll admit it. But if he’s right about something, he’ll make extra sure you know about it.

When his boss told him they were getting him a company phone and who would be the service provider, OP’s dad told them he needed Verizon and why.

The bean counters at Insurance Co he worked for decided they would provide him with a business cell phone, but with a different provider than the V company.

He called his boss and said “this probably isn’t a good idea, it’ll be in roaming where I live and it’ll cost a ton in roaming charges…” (side note…remember roaming back in the day?)

The boss wouldn’t listen, so OP’s dad shrugged and took the phone…

Boss says “nope, company knows best, use this new phone.”

Pops says “sure thing, boss man.”

…and ran up a $1400 bill in a single month.

MC Hammer time….so he gets new phone. Uses it exactly 1 month’s billing cycle. Uses it for all calls: business calls, personal calls, random calls to make a reservation at a restaurant, EVERYTHING, used the company phone.

Instead of the company paying around $50 or whatever it was for his phone plan, because of roaming in his area as he said it would, the cost of his phone bill was $1,400.

They swapped it out for a Verizon phone, but his dad couldn’t resist a small I told you so.

Boss calls him on his personal phone and says “Put the company phone down, shut it off, don’t touch it again unless it’s to put it in a box. We’re overnighting you a new phone on the V network and you will send the other phone back to us.”

My Dad, in his ever so smarty-pants way, said “Next time, maybe pay attention to the guy who knows how it is.”

His moral every time he tells this story is that education does not always mean the same thing as intelligence.

Would you have let them make this blunder? I wonder what Reddit thinks!

This story proves you have to know when you have the upper hand.

Apparently there are some places in the US where roaming still exists.

This is hilarious.

We all got in trouble with our parents for this back in the day.

This is just bad luck.

This is a story that likely will never happen again.

I think that’s probably a good thing.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.