Brandon Kobza, a teen with fetal alcohol syndrome and other disabilities, racked up an $8,000 balance by texting a woman through YouText, a premium text message dating service, CBC reports.
But Ben Woodman, a church worker who's responsible for the 19-year-old's cell phone contract through Canadian cellular provider Koodo Mobile, argued that the phone company didn't do enough to prevent excessive charges.
While Koodo initially proposed to refund the worker 80 percent of the charges, the offer didn't appease Woodman, who pointed out that the company was supposed to cap premium charges at $500, according to the report.
For more on the story, read the full CBC report.
But Kobza and Woodman aren't alone in fighting excessive mobile fees.
In October, a South Florida woman was shocked when she received a T-Mobile bill for $201,000.
Celina Aarons' two deaf-mute brothers regularly use their phones to text and watch videos, but when the siblings traveled to Canada for two weeks without changing to an international data plan, the family was slammed with the jaw-dropping bill.
Eventually, the company agreed to slash the bill to $2,500 and gave Aarons six months to pay down the balance.
Similarly, a Canadian man was told he owed around $11,000 in roaming fees after allowing his grandchildren to stream several movies from Netflix while on vacation in Arizona.
John Gibson's mobile broadband card wasn't outfitted for international travel, but Canada-based SaskTel agreed to lower the fee to $1,000.