I agree with you AJ, people do lie all the time about their bill with wanting charges reversed etc. I worked for Sprint from 2003-2007. I guess I was sympathizing with JoeJoeJoe in his case cause it sucks to have surprise charges on a bill.
I re-read his OP and I think he should have put the phone in Airplane mode and just re-enabled Wifi to keep his phone from connecting to any towers. Once his phone connected with a tower there, then yes, those charges for data/voice are valid and I can see why Sprint did what they did. Again, this is something I'll have to be aware of when I take my trip this summer. Might just snag a Nexus 4 before going and leave my GN2 at home.