Jason Boutang, an Apple iPhone user from Calgary, Alberta, was shocked to receive a Virgin Mobile cell phone bill of almost $8,000 this month.

Boutang apparently racked up most of the charges during a seven-day trip to France in early June, during which time he used two iPhone apps — a translator and a radio streaming service — which made use of the device’s data connection. Because he failed to purchase an international roaming plan before leaving Canada, Virgin Mobile billed him a whopping $7,763.70.

“I opened my e-bill and fell over,” Boutang said. “I had to get three other people to look at the screen to make sure I read it right. It`s criminal … They [Virgin] said, ‘pay up, every penny … you went outside your neighbourhood, you pay the price.”

Virgin has since reconsidered, agreeing to scale back Boutang’s bill to approximately $2,000.

“We reviewed the bill and since then, we’ve made the decision to re-rate his bill as though he had the roaming bundle,” explained Virgin spokeswoman, Erica Faltous. “These are things that are evaluated on a case-by-case basis; hopefully it will never happen again.”

Nevertheless, the experience has soured Boutang on Virgin as well as on the iPhone itself. He has since purchased a more basic prepaid phone from Rogers Wireless.