Mobile bill for £636.70 for 1 month.

nbelluk

I noticed yesterday when checking my bank account that i had £636.70 taken by direct debit out by my mobile phone company. They did advise 26 January that i had been flagged up as a High User, but did not advise the amount or why i had been flagged (as they said they must wait 72 hrs for the info). My normal tariff is £30 with a £7.50 Bolt on with Vodafone.

I would like to know if this company has acted legally / improperly by taking the direct debit before advising the amount or sending an invoice to me. The amount has added up as i discovered today by speaking to the company as i had set my phone to check for emails every 5 seconds, and the phone company advise i should have set my phone to manual send / receive for emails to prevent such costs.

Feeling stitched up !!!

Jon_01

They haven't acted illegally. They've taken payment for the services you've used, nothing wrong in that (sorry).

You could try appealing to them, they might drop, say half of it as a good will gesture. But other than that you don't have much room for manoeuvre.

Setting the phone to check for mail every 5 seconds is going to eat data like crazy. Even if there's nothing to send/receive it still has to send all the login info each time.

nbelluk

Thank for your response Jon 01. I just thought there maybe something that could be done as they had sprung an invoice of £636.70 on me, which should normally be no more than £40. I will continue feeling well and truly stitched up !!

OneADay

Try an email to the exec of the mobile company (well after talking to customer services) - plead insanity on first offence and they may reduce the charge (not all of it might get 25% discount) - worth a go.

soul619

what phone is this? can you not use push email?

nbelluk

Thank you. I have been in contact with the company and they are looking at the situation to see what can be done. They will let me know tomorrow.

nbelluk

The phone is a Samsung Omnia Lite working off Google Mail.

mrochester

What's the £7.50 Bolton?

DarkConvict

Your going to have to go down the route of asking for a good will gesture payment. You set the phone to use so much data that it went significantly over your allowance. A good reason to check your allowances every few days, the phone call they gave you should have been big bells ringing, there was someone on here that used something like 8GB and racked up ~£6000 charges.

ASTONDB9

I'm wondering what the £7.50 is for

gtaz

If you weren't sent a bill, isn't that wrong? If you pay by Direct Debit, the 'Guarantee' should mean they have to inform you of the charges 'x' amount of time before they take the money?

Quote from there:
If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit (insert your organisation name)will notify you (insert number of) working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request (insert your organisation name) to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request.