Crazy GPR charge with O2 CPW...Help?

jyp

Dear All,

I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience with an unexpected single
GPRS charge on an O2 Carphone Warehouse phone (I am on an O2 1200 contract). I have just received my latest bill which shows a SINGLE gprs usage charge of GBP 214.33 that occurred on the 24th of June. The duration reads 00:86:08 which I understand to mean a bit above 86 minutes usage.

I am certain that I have never downloaded anything that could remotely come close to the megabits that would justify such a charge (I only use my mobile internet to check email and never ever open attachments while on the mobile. Never had any problems or similar GPRS charge over the past year).

My attempts to speak with a knowledgeable person at CPW were not very successful. One person told me that there is no way they can provide me with a detailed breakup of how the charge of 214.33 was reached suggesting that I shouldn't bother (it sounds amazing that these people can ask customers to pay ANY amount with no proof of usage!). After a few more calls, another operator told me that they can have the detailed break up within a week from today and that I should call them back in a week.

At this stage I am planning to wait for a week to find out more about this (somehow I suspect that when I will call them in a week no one will have a clue about my problem butlet's see..) and depending on the outcome of that query to pursue this with the complaints department. Meanwhile to be on the safe side I have requested that my GPRS acess be blocked from now on.

According to my calculations, given that I dont have any GPRS based allowance a SINGLE GPRS charge of 214 would suggest a single download of more than 100 megabytes which does not make any sense!! If anyone had a similar experience (I noticed a similar thread from back in January this year) or if you have any suggestions for a course of action I would be very grateful.

Thanks to all,

Yves.


PS1: Incidentally, my online bill showed an amount of GBP 14.33 for the above mentioned GPRS usage but since my total bill was subtantially higher when I called O2 they said that the 14.33 is in fact 214.33...Given that the corresponding duration was 00:86:08 I guess this is possible but that's another point of contention I have.

mobilejunkie

The charges go by the amount downloaded and uploaded - not by the time you were on there. You should be able to find the amount used in your phone log or counter - though you won;t be able to see when or how the total figure is made up. If you've never used the internet and the measure is low it might help establish that there has been a mistake. Good luck arguing with cpw - they don't give a damn about their customers nowadays, so it's a case of being persistent for as long as it takes.

rash.m2k

I was told usage was capped at £1 per day max.

stephenc87

You definately didn't open a massive email on that day?

I work part-time for o2 but I don't know how CPW's o2 customer service do things...

If it was GPRS, your bill should say how many kb it was? I don't think anyone uses GSM nowadays to go on the internet so the duration wont matter. You can check the counter on your phone, but if you never reset it, it wont really help that much. Unless like the previous post said, the counter is really low. The GPRS charging depends what tariff you are on. Have you had this O2 1200 for a while? With our old tariffs, the GPRS is charged at £3 per megabyte. But you get 512kb or 1megabyte a month with your allowance. You weren't abroad, in Rep of Ireland or somewhere like Jersey or somewhere else thats classed as not the UK?

Sorry I can't be of more help.

jyp

Thanks for the info. I was definitely in the UK throughout the period.

jyp

..yes I have been on O2 1200 for a year now (just downgraded to O2 30-35). I was told that I have been charged £3 per megabyte which means that I must have downloaded about 70 Megabytes on a single day (this is a bit like downloading 100 reasonably sized pdf files on my Nokia N95 within a single day, something I would never even consider doing!)..
Yves

stephenc87

Does the £214 include VAT too? What they tend to do on the bills is add VAT at the end. Is your VAT around £40?
Just if you are able to get a refund for the mistake, make sure its the full amount including the VAT that you get back.

deano27_2

GBP 214.33 that occurred on the 24th of June. The duration reads 00:86:08 which I understand to mean a bit above 86 minutes usage.

Why would it be in duration if it is GPRS as it is data specific and not by duration unless this is for wap service, but even then that works out @ £2.49 ppm, which may be possible??

Bloody facebook I bet....don't even look at it on your phone unless you have an inclusive package.