£977.52 bill. Data charge help!!!

GEKODIRECTdidme

Hi. This is my first post so take it easy.

I have received my first bill of a renewals contract with Orange, through GEKODIRECT. The bill is for £977.52, of which £762.11+VAT is data charges and no, I was not stupid enough to do this abroad. All is UK usage. My handsets sharing the contract are an HTC Desire HD and a Samsung Galaxy S.

It is a business tariff with web-based handsets and the sales girl did not even offer me a data package throughout the whole conversation. I assumed, (wrongly and looking back, naively) that it had data. I have called GEKO and said there has been an obvious mistake. They pointed me to Orange who sent me back to GEKO. After much wrangling, I have a meeting with a GEKO director on Thursday at their offices. A Customer Services Manager along with 2 other Orange C.S. reps say it is blindly obvious that the sales girl should have without doubt offered and virtually forced me to have a data package.

I was unaware that the handsets would sync with everything from stocks and shares to the weather aswell as update software updates automatically via a 3G signal. So for 24hrs a day for the whole month my phone was gradually downloading data. I only used the youtube app a handfull of times and downloaded emails aswell as this.

My bill has for the last 8 years with Orange always been between £40-£70 a month. So I have 2 questions:

1. Why did Orange not get in touch when abnormal usage charges started to accrue? Surely a red flag system should be in place when there is abnormal activity on a bill?!

2. Who can I turn to in order to get help with paying the bill? Is it GEKODIRECT who knowingly sold my business 2 web-based handsets with no data package or Orange as a goodwill/long standing customer gesture, or no one?

Any info or donations , would be greatly accepted!

P.S. I have today been on to OFCOM who put me onto CONSUMERDIRECT who said because it is a business contract, they can't help either! Is there anyone else??? :mad::mad::mad:

ispartacus75

Unfortunately all I can say is expect to get soundly flamed from some of the so called good people on here.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2601705

This was my own thread about a £121 bill from T-Mobile and bar one person I got nothing but abuse.

MissKeith

Flaming =/= people disagreeing with you.

OP, the most you can can hope for is a goodwill gesture. If you get an offer of nearly 50% of the charges, I would advise top take it and not make a post on the MSE forums complaining that the gesture of goodwill isn't good enough. For thirteen pages.,

Anyway, when you were originally negotiating the contracts, what gave you the impression data would be included? Was it ever mentioned throughout the sale? I strongly dislike selling smart phones without a data plan but some customers do ask for it so I occasionally will. Orange are under no obligation to notify their customers about large bills and a system to put this in place would be very expensive to run.

I would be more concerned about the retailer. The sales person may need extra training in how smart phones work as, in my opinion, it is irresponsible to sell smart phones without at least a discussion about data.

GEKODIRECTdidme

Thanks MissKeith.

Was under impression data would be included as I used the same company 2 years ago to set up my business contract and although not mentioned during the sales call, a 30Mb data package was included. It is not much at all compared to today, but phones have progressed so much over the last two years that 30Mb was enough back then.

I would snatch their hand off if 50% was forthcoming. I will not be a fool twice. irresponsible is exactly the word I will use in the meeting I have with the retailer on Thursday. I am 30, run my own business and consider myself tech-savvy. however, I am not in the mobile phone business and my 'Personal Account Manager' is, therefore, she as the expert should be advising me as a paying customer of the extremely high charges I am likely to incur using a device of this kind. GGGRRRRRRRR!!!!

ruggedtoast

Orange, like every other carrier, are quite capable of monitoring billing if they wanted. They manage to do it pretty effectively the moment anyone goes a few pence over a PAYG limit.

They just don't want to because they make a lot of money out of people getting caught out.

[Deleted User]

I'm not so sure about this one.

Take a look at http://www2.orange.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=OUKPersonal&c=OUKService&t=Service&cid=1096023564458&tab=2&mid=1137070320205

Clearly states that they charge 61.3p a day for UK web access, for anyone upgrading after 30 April 2010 - so for 31 days that would be £19.01 inc VAT, not £762.11 + VAT, by a long stretch.

Also check http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/484373/2 - I quote:

"
There are two daily caps for mobile internet browsing. The plan you are on will determine which one applies to you.

You'll either be charged:

• A flat rate of just 61p a day for mobile internet browsing, this is subject to a daily fair use limit of 25MB. If you have a mobile internet browsing bundle this will also be the daily rate you pay if you go over your allowance.
  or
• £3.06 per Megabyte, up to a maximum of £1.54 a day, this too is subject to a daily fair use limit of 25MB."

If the OP ran a bill of £762.11+VAT, that's £914.53. Divide that by £3.06 a MB, thats 299MB of usage. Average that over 31 days, it's roughly 10MB a day - which is well under the daily fair use limit of 25MB.

Silk

GEKODIRECTdidme wrote: »

2. Who can I turn to in order to get help with paying the bill? Is it GEKODIRECT who knowingly sold my business 2 web-based handsets with no data package or Orange as a goodwill/long standing customer gesture, or no one?

I would have said that it was Geko who are at fault without any doubt whatsoever and I would have issued action to obtain the funds from them due to being missold.

The net is littered with complaints and bad reveiws on this company a simple google search would suffice but as an example some of the experiances here ..
http://www.bview.co.uk/listing/1999875/t/reviews/Geko-Direct-Ltd-in-ST5

The problem however that you might now have is that it would seem there was a winding up petition issued last month against them ...
number 8939 towards the bottom of the page
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/list_companies_winding.htm

Humphrey10

How strange. Do people really just sign up to contracts without checking what they are signing? When signing a mobile phone contract, I wouldn't even assume it included call minutes, I would check the amount of minutes, same for texts and data. Doesn't everyone do this?

MissKeith

Humphrey10 wrote: »

How strange. Do people really just sign up to contracts without checking what they are signing? When signing a mobile phone contract, I wouldn't even assume it included call minutes, I would check the amount of minutes, same for texts and data. Doesn't everyone do this?

In my experience, business tariffs aren't as clear to understand as personal ones.

Guys_Dad

Seems to me OP has accepted that ultimately it was his fault for not applying the normal prudence in his contract.

OK - so what can we do to help, rather than fan the flames and gloat/reprimand? First of all, and I am speaking from some experience, when a company calls in a 3rd party professional such as he thought GEKO were, the company has an expectation of informed advice to be forthcoming. (Not everyone is expert in everything).

Clearly, in this case, GEKO didn't do their job properly, ask the right questions about what use was to be made of the service etc. In that case, i would expect them - if they don't get wound up- as suggested above - to have made every effort to come to some arrangement to reduce the cost by either taking a hit on their commission or persuading the network they made an error. You need to also check here - http://www.sofakingcool.org/?cat=274 - which suggests all is well with the company. Personally, I would approach them to see if they can get it sorted out , particularly in light of the "letter" from Orange that they are promoting.

It's a business contract, I presume, so that amount of spend is nothing in the business world, so wouldn't even appear on Orange's radar.

The data cap referred to by billbennett sounds a good route to try - but check that it doesn't just apply to non-business tariffs.

Whatever the case, you need to make sure you are now set up correctly for your needs.

GEKODIRECTdidme

Firstly, I would like to thank you all sincerely for not laughing/roasting me over this one. I very much appreciate all of your comments. I have an email address of one of the Orange Customer Services Managers who has been very helpful so far. I am forwarding some of your comments to him regarding the fair usage and costing that BillBennett refered to. Also, I agree that GEKO have an obligation to give informed advice and will pursue this line of argument with them.

I have called GEKO again today to arrange a time for the meeting they have agreed to this Thursday, but everyone that can handle my complaint "is not in a position to take calls today." Sounds convenient. Fortunately, I only live 5 mins away from their Telford office so will go in person anyway and cause a polite 'scene' until someone sees me. What an awful way to have to do this. Their Customer Service Team should be bending over backwards to help, not avoid me. Again, any further advice/lines of argument would be appreciated. I want to go into this meeting as well armed and prepared as I can because I will only get one shot at it. Thanks again.