T Mobile Problem

dacouch

Hi,

My friend rang me last month to tell me he now had internet access, I was surprised he managed to get an internet connection put on instantly and at the weekend.

It turned out that he had rang T Mobile and they had given him "Unlimited Internet Access for his phone" for a cost of circa £8 a month. He was adamant the customer services rep had told him this included his lap top.

He had been linking his mobile to his lap top and surfing the net, I told him I did not think this was correct as I had read horror stories on MSE about the hiigh cost of this. I told him to ring back and get them to confirm he could use his phone as a modem. When he rang back they initialled confirmed yes until he asked them to confirm their name and then they advised him it was solely to surf actually on his phone.

He has now received a monthly bill of £270 which is circa £210 more than normal, he has spoken to T Mobile and they have reduced the internet usage part of the bill by 50%.

Do you feel this is fair or should T Mobile reduce it by a higher amount and if so how is the best way to go about this.

Thanks

DarkConvict

Using the phone as a modem is not a problem and you are not charged for it, the problem is exceeding your download/data limit.
If you want mobile internet for a laptop a USB dongle is the way to go as they have higher limits like 3GB+ a month.

An unlimited package on a mobile phone is usually 500mb, for anything over this he will be charged, whether or not he used it on the phone directly, or viewed on a laptop the data usage is still the same and you pay per part MB. I can't find the exact limit for T-Mobile or price per MB, but if it was £2 a MB and a 500MB limit. Then a 600MB download would cost 600MB - 500MB allowence = 100MB, 100MB x £2 = £200.
Looking at T-Mobile again i believe there limit is 1GB a month which is for the internet booster package (£7.50 a month/30 day option).

I had an issue with Vodafone over unlimited internet where i was about 120mb over and charged about £250. They did a £50 goodwill gesture but wouldn't budge, however trading standards sided with me that i had unlimited internet and no mention of fair use or additional charges in the contract so it was sorted by who sold the contract (dailaphone for misselling)


Looking at these topics
http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?iqaction=5&answerid=16777216&highlightinfo=6292396,9,17&type=open&page=answeropen&url=http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index%3Fpage%3Dcontent%26id%3DFA1181%26actp%3Dsearch%26viewlocale%3Den_GB&searchid=1260104901750#__highlight

Question

Why do we have a Fair Use Policy?


Answer

We want our customers to enjoy surfing the internet, and our Fair Use Policy is there to make sure our customers have the best experience possible. There might be some customers who use so much data that it affects the quality of everyone else's surfing. We also want to make sure everyone gets the same value from their chosen price plan.

So to make sure everything is running smoothly, we keep an eye on how much customers use Mobile Broadband each month. A Fair Use Policy given in Gigabytes (GB) of data applies on all Mobile Broadband and internet services.

T-Mobile is still the only operator not to charge expensive run-on rates for breaching your Fair Use Policy, so you'll always know how much you're paying and never get an unexpected bill..

http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?iqaction=5&answerid=16777217&highlightinfo=6292398,10,19&type=open&page=answeropen&url=http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index%3Fpage%3Dcontent%26id%3DFA1182%26actp%3Dsearch%26viewlocale%3Den_GB&searchid=1260104901750#__highlight

Question

What happens if I breach my Fair Use Policy?


Answer

You will continue to be able to use your Mobile Broadband for unlimited browsing. That means you'll still be able to browse websites, login to Facebook, check your Hotmail or catch the news on the BBC.

For the time being, however, between 4pm and midnight you won't be able to do other heavy usage activities such as watching videos or downloading files.

Before 4pm and after 12 midnight your Mobile Broadband service will continue to run as normal.

Your Fair Use Policy duration depends on how you purchase your Mobile Broadband. When your Fair Use Policy begins again, either at the start of the next calendar month or your next purchase, it will be reset to 0 and your service will return to normal. For example, if you have a monthly FUP, at the start of the following calendar month your Fair Use Policy starts over again.

T-Mobile don't charge for going over your limit , so i would question t-mobile again and ask for a breakdown of the charges. Did he use too many texts/minutes or is this really data charges?

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/uk/fairuse/

Internet £7.50 monthly option
If you don't have internet included in your pay monthly plan and you have a internet compatible phone, you can add a internet option for an extra £7.50 a month. You can add it by calling us on 879 free from your T-Mobile phone or by visiting My T-Mobile. Your option will stay on your account until you ask us to take it off, which we try to do before it goes onto your next bill. If you take the option off, if you then use internet you'll automatically be charged up to £1 a day.
You'll need internet coverage, check it at t-mobile.co.uk/streetcheck. Remember that you can only use internet in the UK and you can't use your phone as a modem or use internet for peer to peer file sharing, instant messaging (except if you have a Sidekick) or making internet phone calls.
This option comes with a fair use policy of 1GB a month. We'll monitor how much you send and receive each calendar month so that we can protect our network for all our internet customers. If you use more than your fair use policy amount, we won't charge you any more, but we may restrict how you can use your plan, depending on how often you go over your amount and by how much.

t_mob_insider2

You can also pay an extra £5 on top of the standard internet price plan of £7.50 and get the booster which allows up to 3Gb allowance per month - meaning using you phone as a modem for pc or laptops.

On all of t-mobiles new tarriffs there is a £1 per day internet usuage cap - so browsing the internet all day would only cost £1 and everyday for a whole month without the £7.50 add on would cost up to £31.