Orange Mobile, Obscene Bill

MattLFC

Actually, I think you will find that the majority of the cost is passed on by Orange and not the roaming network. The main argument that the UK mobile phone companies used in the recent EU cases over roaming call and data charges is that they account for a substantial part of each networks revenues. Some research I read last year, suggested that upto 90% of international roaming charges were straight profit for the UK networks.

They claimed that the forced reduction of EU roaming charges will cost them massive amounts of revenue and profit and that the costs would have to be passed on in other ways, so the such a ruling would be bad for the consumer - which is probably why the networks are not doing such good retention deals anymore, in general.

Id say Orange could probably lower the cost by 1/4 and still make a profit on it, so id advise the OP to contact them and see if they can work something out with them, make an offer of say £350 and see if they accept. Regardless, let this be a lesson to everyone, not just the OP.

daggy

I have a lot of respect for these forums and for most of the users on here, as in general they are very helpful. However, although many of you are technonuts and like to know your technology/netwroks inside out, not everybody is like that.... it's not entriely the OP's fault and they may not have considered getting a foreign sim card (perhaps their iphone isn't unlocked?). Just ebcause they went to Canada, doesn't mean they have £1500 to throw about.... especially if they took 4 kids with them.

I'm pretty tech savvy and I didn't instantly think that a smartphone would cost so much due to the fact that it d/l's data in the background, is it not reasonable to expect that orange could have mentioned that it would be a good idea to turn this feature of whilst abroad? Perhaps a seperate automated message for smartphones would have been useful.

That is the only real route the OP could take to get a reduction, as essentially orange are well within their rights to charge.

I usually work in the US in the summer on summer camps, a few years back when I went for the first time, I rang orange and asked if my inclusive texts would count over there, but would they just charge me say 5 texts at a time... I was told yes. I went to America and used my phone.. ended up with a £600+ phone bill. When I got back and asked orange why this happened, they said that texts didn't worklike that, after many calls I managed to prove that the guy I spoke to (foreign call centre) was ill informed as he gave me £5 of free calling credit because I was going to the US, however, this credit was only applicable in Europe.
I got my bill reduced and charged as though it was used in England.

I'm still an orange customer and have had several issues in my time with them, but I always manage to get a reduction/refund, so all in all I'm happy.

reehsetin

aaliyah wrote: »

When I go abroad I go to the wireless manager of my HD2 phone & click 2G only. That way The phones does not automaticly update the apps on it.

Was told this buy the orange shop. I can still have txts & calls but no internet.

you can still use internet on 2.5g it's just slower! 3g is not internet just a faster frequency to access the internet "The phones does not automaticly update the apps on it."< it may do that although i'm not convinced but you would still be able to browse and it could still download email.
Even though my handset is 3g I keep it on 2.5g to preserve the battery and I can browse the internet no problems.

though you haven't been charged yet I'd be very careful

reehsetin

Fizzy_Fish wrote: »

briefly (max 10 mins) on 3 occasions , plus about 3 mins on Google maps.

when you use any web based map its downloading all of those maps while your navigating (aka it's really data intensive) it's probably a big reason as to why you got the bill you did

[Deleted User]

watcherman wrote: »

A Blackberry is the only way to go abroad, the way it manages and compresses data abroad is superb. A week in the USA recently cost my wife and I about a tenner each.

I'm spending a week in the USA next month - I've bought an AT&T prepay SIM with $25 credit on it, $15 of which provides a months' data access. Simples.