huge mobile phone bill - query

[shirt]

i seem to recall a thread not so long back where people landed with huge phone bills [£1k or more] due to extensive data use abroad managed to get the bill voided by talking to customer services.

i'd appreciate knowing how exactly this conversation proceeded.

[him_over_there]

There was a woman in the US recently got a bill in for ~ $5000

Silly woman didn't realise that there was a data useage cap and each MB after the cap was charged at around $1MB. Oops!

So... How much did you get stung for ?

[Office_Monkey]

Not always, sometimes they agree a repayment plan. What network are you on?

[tinman0]

Guy on Monday was in the news with £22k - only downloading tv shows whilst abroad. Muppet.

shirt said:

i'd appreciate knowing how exactly this conversation proceeded.

"You can have my first born?"

Edited by tinman0 on Wednesday 18th March 11:42

[shirt]

t-mob. i took web & walk off my plan as i wasn't using it and thinking its £5/mth the data charges can't be much. used it on and off for past 3-4weeks and my bill is £530. to say this is a shock is somewhat of an understatement.

[BJG1]

Think my dad got out of it because his phone wouldn't allow him to call or send text messages, so he had to use the internet - can't see any other way of getting out of it though.

[OJ]

A chap that works for my godfather ended up returning to a company bill for 7 or 8 grand after leaving his new web streamed home CCTV on for 2 weeks while abroad.

The threat of switching their entire business to another provider and reporting to OFCOM had it sorted I believe.

If you don't have that sort of leverage, I'd offer your first born as previously advised

[V8mate]

shirt said:

t-mob. i took web & walk off my plan as i wasn't using it and thinking its £5/mth the data charges can't be much. used it on and off for past 3-4weeks and my bill is £530. to say this is a shock is somewhat of an understatement.

Was that usage abroad?

Because within the UK I thought it was capped at £1 per day without any package at all?

[pikey]

shirt said:

t-mob. i took web & walk off my plan as i wasn't using it and thinking its £5/mth the data charges can't be much. used it on and off for past 3-4weeks and my bill is £530. to say this is a shock is somewhat of an understatement.

Sounds like their 1p / 1kb default plan and you'd have downloaded approx 50mb.

Extortionate!

You could try asking nicely if they would allow you to retrospectively put the web & walk back on?

[shirt]

its UK yes. i will look at the website to see if its capped. i bloody hope so.

i just remember a recent thread where a few people commented they'd rung up customer services and had the bill commuted.

[shirt]

pikey said:

You could try asking nicely if they would allow you to retrospectively put the web & walk back on?

this is what i'm hoping for.

[FarleyRusk]

The sooner the EU steps in to end this price gouging the better. Mobile telephone roaming was capped this way and now its time to do the same for data roaming - let's face it the market isn't going to regulate itself here!

[fuctifino]

I've a Brit mate here in France still being chased by Fraudafone for 4.5k for internet roaming use whilst in France,

doubt if they'd have much success in the French courts though.

[V8mate]

shirt said:

its UK yes. i will look at the website to see if its capped. i bloody hope so.

i just remember a recent thread where a few people commented they'd rung up customer services and had the bill commuted.

I'm on T-Mobile. Have recently moved to a Web'n'Walk inclusive package, but previously I'd often use the facility and never be charged more than £1 per day.

[VXED]

fuctifino said:

I've a Brit mate here in France still being chased by Fraudafone for 4.5k for internet roaming use whilst in France,

doubt if they'd have much success in the French courts though.

Solution: Move to France then? Non?

[Soft Top]

I've not had anything quite as bad as this but whilst abroad once I noticed that my usage had gone off the scale i.e. over 50MB. I had no idea why so disconnected.

I checked to see what might be downloading data on my machine and couldn't find anything obvious so reconnected again. A while later and sure enough over 50MB again.

I had another hunt around and found friggin' windows was set to retrieve automatic updates and was making good use of my 3G connection getting some bloody massive updates.

£300 of useful lesson learnt and auto updates are definitely off on my laptop.

[Matt172]

T-mobiles site says

Internet access
Internet on your phone £1 / day maximum

Browsing costs 0.73p per KB, a maximum charge of £1 per day no matter how much you browse the internet on your mobile phone, including WAP or web'n'walk.

[FarleyRusk]

This thread reminds me that I was on holiday in Sri Lanka in 1997 when my dear brother called me to wish me a happy birthday. We chatted for 20 mins or so and in doing so gave me a 400 quid phone bill as a present! That learned me proper about the roaming charge scam

[ChristianZS]

I ran up £350 in a weekend on the company a year or so back in data roaming.. They waived charging me for it

[Iain328]

Data roaming is hideously expensive although you can buy data roaming bundles/packages if you really need to do it.

I have a little app on my Windows mobile phone that explicitly turns the mobile data off (called "No Data" I think) & stops it connecting - always use it when travelling. Still allows Wifi, but turns off the GSM/3G data.