Talkmobile Fair Use Policy

magictea

I have just discovered that I've accidentally run up a £100+ phone bill with Talkmobile, less than two weeks into a new contract with them.

Stupidly, I didn't think about how much internet Spotify took up.

My limit is supposed to be £50 a month but somehow it didn't stop me using my phone, and now Talkmobile say there's nothing I can do and have to pay the bill.

The contract was sold to me over the phone so they're investigating that right now, but I was hoping someone had an idea as to what I can do to get them to waive this bill because I really can't afford it.

Do I have a leg to stand on?

DarkConvict

Credit limits do not work on mobiles and the operators will admit it in the T&Cs you cannot rely on it for a budgeting tool.

I take it you had a internet bundle already added and you exceeded it?

You should be able to get them knock down the first bill as goodwill gesture, something called bill shock when people use the internet without a clue how pricey it can really be.

I do not believe you have a leg to stand on if you exceeded your limits.

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http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/mobile_internet.html

Thats shocking, TalkTalk unlimited internet is capped at a 25MB! T-Mobile has a limit of 3000MB!
I don't see how they can get away with advertising it as unlimited at 25MB!. I would report that off to the ASA.

Looks like there internet is 30p a day, +£1 per MB over 25MB.

So if you used 100MB, that would be £75.30 for 1 day.
Or more realistically 40MB a day (download MPs at 3-8MB each). £15.30 a day.
So after 2 weeks, 15.30 * 14 = £214.20

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After more reading the above is for the 30p a day tariff.

Did you have the 30p a day "unlimited" internet, or the "unlimited" internet allowance.

Unlimited Mobile Internet (included in tariff allowance)
Some Pay Monthly contract and SIMple tariffs include “Unlimited” mobile internet access as part of the tariff allowance.
“Unlimited” mobile internet is subject to a fair usage policy of 500MB per monthly billing cycle, and then subject to a charge of £1 per MB thereafter.
You will be notified by text message when you are approaching the fair use policy threshold and advised that charging will apply if this threshold is exceeded.

Unlimited Mobile Internet (30p daily access)
Where “Unlimited” mobile internet is NOT included as part of Pay monthly contract, SIMple and Pay As You Go tariffs, customers can use “Unlimited” mobile internet for a maximum daily charge of 30p.
“Unlimited” mobile internet is subject to a fair usage policy of 25MB per day, and then subject to a charge of £1 per MB thereafter.
You will be notified by text message when you are approaching the fair use policy threshold and advised that charging will apply if this threshold is exceeded.

If it was the allowance, you get 500MB a month and charged £1 for each MB you have exceeded.

So If you used 40MB a day, 40*14 = 560MB, and a bill of £60 for 14 days.

magictea

Thanks,

I exceeded my 500MB limit by 126MB, which costs £1 per MB according to the Ts&Cs.

However, it also says that I would receive a text message notifying me I was approaching the fair use policy threshold, which I didn't receive.

I will mention this to them when they call me back after investigating the phone call, and also try to get them to waive the bill as a goodwill gesture as you've suggested.

DarkConvict

I had a run in with vodafone.

My old contract was sold as unlimited, no mention of any limits or charges. This was back when vodafones limit was 120MB (not mentioned on contract). I used about 260MB and had a whooping bill as it was £2 per MB.
As my contract was sold via dial-a-phone and was unlimited, trading standards sided with me and they had to pay out something like ~£250 in charges.

thoughts

I have had an almost identical problem!! Again with talkmobile. However, I have not downloaded any videos or songs! I have only used the web and applications like facebook and hotmail! I do not think it is possible that I have used the 1.8gb they are saying I have used. I get 500mb a month with my contract. Can I ask if you had any joy getting them to waive the bill? I just seem to be coming up against brick walls. Does anyone have any advice?