phone bill jumped from £40 to £4400 in oe month after buying HTC desire!

moonrakerz

[QUOTE=garreh;34070627
Even though something is legal -- it doesn't make it morally right.[/QUOTE]

Very true - but that does not absolve the buyer from understanding what he is buying !

bubblesmoney

moonrakerz wrote: »

Don't say that - it takes away the reasoning that makes people say things like: "thuggery", "unlawful", "outrageous" and "shocking" :D

It is either a billing foul-up, or it isn't. If it's the former it should be reasonably easy to sort out; if it is the latter, then someone didn't read and understand what he signed up to. In which case, perhaps, "outrageous" and "shocking", could be applied elsewhere.

if the networks sell the desire to some old people / some teenager just out of school or old enough or someone with learning difficulties etc to buy a mobile, who dont understand the financial side of things properly and just know basic browsing etc and then they too incur such massive bills, i guess it may still be legal and the mobile companies will be rubbing their hands with glee if such things are allowed to happen without checks. companies have a responsibility to trade responsibly.

would you say the same things to hard up people who have no option and take loans from loansharks etc and tell them they knew what they were gettimg into.

many young people without jobs etc might be using their mobile to surf the net for jobs if they are living as house shares / in hostel accomodation etc where they cant take their own broadband connection. yes i guess they could take dongles but the fact of life now a days is people use their mobiles. there should be rules for public utility services where out of the ordinary charges should be mandatorily informed to customers after double their usual limit or anyother reasonable amount and anything above that if not alerted by the provider should not be billed to customer. this sort of thing can ruin lives for a long time for such people. utility companies like water and electricity and gas usually inform customers of out of ordinary consumption patterns and make allowances for leaks etc. just recently i was getting a bill of 1000£ for water as they said there was a leak in my house but later turned out to be a leak on a public footpath outside my property and i incurred unnecessary charges trying to find a leak where none existed. they wrote off the 1000£ bill and i am pursuing them for my expenses for calling plumbers and specialist firms for finding leaks where none existed on my property, the waterboard is considering my claim against them for my expenses incurred for wrong billing and subsequent expenses for me.

if other utility compnies have good practise rules for such out of the ordinary bills, i wonder why is it ok in your eyes for such 'extortionate bills to be made out of the blue to mobile phone customers.

are you by chance someone who scams people into buying things not suited for them or a mobile phone/phone insurance / gadget insurance seller! if not, then apologies but just thought you might be since you think it is ok for such charges to be made. guess it takes all sorts to make this world.

bubblesmoney

moonrakerz wrote: »

Very true - but that does not absolve the buyer from understanding what he is buying !

going by your logic, half the cons who are shown on watchdog ripping old people off their money by mis-selling are playing by the law because the old people willingly gave their money for services agreed.

responsibility rests on both sides and not just with the customer. companies need to trade responsibly.

dave2

Have you checked the actual bill to see what it says? What's the actual breakdown between calls & data & everything else?

it has to be 1 of 4 things (most likely first):
- a billing error (44.00 misplace the decimal = 4400)
- OP is fibbing/not realising and not merely checking FB and email but whoring youtube (possibly via FB)
- something is horribly wrong with the phone
- OP made whole thing up (not accusing, just saying possible, personally I'd have been on the phone to Orange and found out exactly what was going on if they tried to take £100 out my account, never mind £4,400)

£4400 bill
(£40) usual bill

---

£4360 extra

---

for this to be excess data it would need to be
500mb free in the plan (assumption)
4449mb usage (4449*£0.98/mb = £4360)

---

4949mb or 165mb per day

---

Could burn through that using youtube and that's about it.


Seriously, £4,400 should at a minimum trigger an examination by Orange on the basis of the amount of credit, never mind the unusual cost for the customer. But, it seems this is month 1 of the contract. Misplace the decimal when setting up the billing and the system very likely thinks the resulting £4,400 is normal since far as it knows that is what was agreed. Even still they should have a basic exception report system flagging that up.

bubblesmoney

dave2 wrote: »

Have you checked the actual bill to see what it says? What's the actual breakdown between calls & data & everything else?

it has to be 1 of 4 things (most likely first):
- a billing error (44.00 misplace the decimal = 4400)
- OP is fibbing/not realising and not merely checking FB and email but whoring youtube (possibly via FB)
- something is horribly wrong with the phone
- OP made whole thing up (not accusing, just saying possible)

£4400 bill
(£40) usual bill

---

£4360 extra

---

for this to be excess data it would need to be
500mb free in the plan (assumption)
4449mb usage (4449*£0.98/mb = £4360)

---

4949mb or 165mb per day

---

Could burn through that using youtube and that's about it.

i dont know if in the browser the OP has ticked the option to select mobile website versions when available rather than regular website. this would make a big difference too. might be best to check the pushemail settings if it is downloading the same stuff every 10mins etc same for face book and FLICKER. there is no need to synch flicker automatically. if he has selected the maximum RSS feeds and set regular updates then that eats data. the sky sports news app i am told on many websites is notorious for gorging on data. google earth, maps etc, youtube on HQ setting (possible after recent software update). best to check youtube setting as well where downloads are made possible on the desire in different quality settings. beebplayer would use a lot of data as well. many apps if free may have advertisement tickers and might be constantly running. best to use a netwcounter app etc to keep an eye on data and switch off data connection when not needed.

do you have spotify by chance and listen to music??? spotify listening for just 30mins approx equals 25mb. just doing that will gorge 750mb data monthly just on spotify if you do it on 3g just for 30mins each day. this is as per three blog. listening to spotify on 3g for a hour or two each day on 3g can ruin your bank balance!

bubblesmoney

Jon_01 wrote: »

Are you sure you've got unlimited data ?

I didn't think any business acc's had it (or very few). Can you see the bundle on your acc info ?

If there's no data product on your acc I've seen the system charge it at £10 a meg? That might be the reason its so high?

Have you called business CS (456 from the phone I think, don't call domestic CS on 150 they can't do business acc's) to get the to look into it?

so if this is the scenario then the OP just needs to use 440mb to get a bill of $4400. :eek: that would be easily possible with just 10mins each day on spotify using 3g connection if they dont have a data plan or exceed the 500mb data plan. imagine forgetting to switch on wifi after getting home, after an evening out. that could really give a bad hangover when the bill arrives for forgetting to switch on wifi for that one day.

Jon_01

bubblesmoney wrote: »

so if this is the scenario then the OP just needs to use 440mb to get a bill of $4400. :eek: that would be easily possible with just 10mins each day on spotify using 3g connection if they dont have a data plan or exceed the 500mb data plan. imagine forgetting to switch on wifi after getting home, after an evening out. that could really give a bad hangover when the bill arrives for forgetting to switch on wifi for that one day.

Yes, what I'm thinking if the op bought the plan from a dealer and the dealer forgot to include the data element when they passed the acc to Orange for set up.

As I said, very few business plans have unlimited data. There not like domestic acc as the mins/texts/data can be shared between a number of handsets.

Until the op reports back with more info we're all a bit in the dark !

bubblesmoney

Jon_01 wrote: »

Yes, what I'm thinking is the op bought the plan from a dealer and the dealer forgot to include the data element when they passed the acc to Orange for set up.

As I said, very few business plans have unlimited data. There not like domestic acc as the mins/texts/data can be shared between a number of handsets.

Until the op reports back with more info we're all a bit in the dark !

even if this scenario is correct. this still shouldnt be legal charging 10£ per mb is still outrageous. are you saying this sort of billing actually exists for business plan?

moonrakerz

bubblesmoney wrote: »

going by your logic, half the cons who are shown on watchdog ripping old people off their money by mis-selling are playing by the law because the old people willingly gave their money for services agreed.

Not at all - there is a world of difference between a mobile phone company selling a product of which ALL the costs will be shown in the (admittedly) "small print" and a con merchant persuading your granny to part with £5,000 to replace 2 tiles on her roof !

bubblesmoney wrote: »

responsibility rests on both sides and not just with the customer.

It does indeed ! The costs WILL be shown, if people cannot be bothered to read them..................

bubblesmoney

moonrakerz wrote: »

Not at all - there is a world of difference between a mobile phone company selling a product of which ALL the costs will be shown in the (admittedly) "small print" and a con merchant persuading your granny to part with £5,000 to replace 2 tiles on her roof !



It does indeed ! The costs WILL be shown, if people cannot be bothered to read them..................

if costs were really shown all the time then this forum wouldnt have so many complaint posts!

i myself on both my present contracts (htc desire) got my handsets only on delivery and only after a week after me calling them and asking for paperwork did i get the actual paperwork detailing the contract details and costs etc. you can see quite a few posts on these forums and other mobile forums / blogs where customers have just got their handsets delivered and contract details have been 'accidentally' not inserted by mobile phone companies. some say as a matter of routine that they usually post contract details after about a week.

see the vodafone thread running into thousands of views on this forum, havent they changed the pricing retrospectively for existing customers? so what one signs up to and what later happens can be different in the real world.

do you even know that the htc desire screen can be activated in your pocket accidentally if you use a bluetooth head set :eek:. check it out yourself everyone of you. keep the phone screen facing you in your reasonably snug jeans front pocket, pair the htc desire with a bluetooth headset before putting the desire in your pocket. make a call to your mobile from another handset and answer using the bluetooth headset without removing the phone from your pocket. after disconnecting the call, immediately remove the desire from your pocket and you will find the screen awake and UNLOCKED:eek::eek::eek:. now if you were to have the data connection off widget on the screen or beebplayer widget on the screen or google earth or maps on the screen and they got accidentally pressed in your pocket and started using the data connection on 3g and you realise after a few hours, then when the bill comes you will be needing to !!!!!! gold bars to pay for your mobile phone bill. so data charges can affect everybody accidentally.

oh by the way that is just one of the bugs (there are quite a few others) in the device. all devices have bugs that you need to be aware about, otherwise you can get stung royally. how do you know the OP wasnt using bluetooth headset like i said and device got accidentally downloading data due to auto unlock screen when paired with bluetooth device due to a design fault in the device !!!!! the network sold the device, so shouldnt they be liable for the quirky device automatically waking and unlocking the screen after bluetooth operation of a call which may lead to accidental press on screen widgets leading to huge data bill.:money::rotfl: