Orange data usage charges

finderskeepers_2

Morning all, i was wondering if someone might be able to help me shed some light on an issue.

I'm not a frequent phone user so my old Orange EQ Virgin tariff was fine. However, i recently received a new android phone and, due to some new gadget fiddling, have been hit with a £270 bill for 80mb usage (a few ringtones and some liberal GPS/net playing).

When my contract was taken out over a decade ago i'm fairly sure i wasn't informed of such charges (particularly as the phone was a monotone brick) and i have at no point received an update to the tariff charges. Orange don't seem to have them online as they no longer offer the plan and, according to some, want those on it off their books.

Do i have any recourse here?

simax

Data charges on EQ Virgin are £3.00 per MB. So it looks about correct.

gjchester

finderskeepers wrote: »

Morning all, i was wondering if someone might be able to help me shed some light on an issue.

I'm not a frequent phone user so my old Orange EQ Virgin tariff was fine. However, i recently received a new android phone and, due to some new gadget fiddling, have been hit with a £270 bill for 80mb usage (a few ringtones and some liberal GPS/net playing).

When my contract was taken out over a decade ago i'm fairly sure i wasn't informed of such charges (particularly as the phone was a monotone brick) and i have at no point received an update to the tariff charges. Orange don't seem to have them online as they no longer offer the plan and, according to some, want those on it off their books.

Do i have any recourse here?

Probably not, but you can try for a goodwill reduction. Call and explain and be calm and polite, it may help it may not.

Orange is the most expensive for out of bundle data use, as you have found out. Smartphones are always on, [EMAIL="I'@d"]I'd[/EMAIL] suggest you take the sim out for now until you can get a data bundle added, it's probably still sending data back and forth and adding to your bill.

finderskeepers_2

Thank you both for the advice/comments.

Does anyone know where i can find details of the £3 per MB charges as the only documentation i have says nothing about this, just that fax and data will be charged at the standard rate per minute.

Jon_01

There is no data allowance on the OVP, there were almost no data services when it was a live plan.

I'm not sure where (or even if) you'll find info on the plan, it's been discontinued for years (it was canned in 2004, I believe). I'm sure there would be info on the internal system they could lookup, but a quick qoogle shows nothing...

drbesty

Orange want rid of OVP altogether, it costs them a fortune

Jon_01

drbesty wrote: »

Orange want rid of OVP altogether, it costs them a fortune

Indeed they do, we were always told on no account send out replacement sims (although they seem to have backed down on that).

finderskeepers_2

Jon_01 wrote: »

There is no data allowance on the OVP, there were almost no data services when it was a live plan.

I'm not sure where (or even if) you'll find info on the plan, it's been discontinued for years (it was canned in 2004, I believe). I'm sure there would be info on the internal system they could lookup, but a quick qoogle shows nothing...

Well i have the documentation and all it says is that data is charged per minute at the standard rate.

Obviously i now feel foolish that i didn't check that there was some kind of cap or said agreement wasn't still valid, but can a company change their charging scheme or introduce new charges without informing me?

Jon_01

I think that might be wap data. There was no 3g service back then. Which begs the question, which kind of data do you use ?

Kansenji

finderskeepers wrote: »

Morning all, i was wondering if someone might be able to help me shed some light on an issue.

I'm not a frequent phone user so my old Orange EQ Virgin tariff was fine. However, i recently received a new android phone and, due to some new gadget fiddling, have been hit with a £270 bill for 80mb usage (a few ringtones and some liberal GPS/net playing).

When my contract was taken out over a decade ago i'm fairly sure i wasn't informed of such charges (particularly as the phone was a monotone brick) and i have at no point received an update to the tariff charges. Orange don't seem to have them online as they no longer offer the plan and, according to some, want those on it off their books.

Do i have any recourse here?

My wife & I are also on OVP Virgin. She recently received a new phone, and thought she was accessing the internet via our home network; then she got a bill including £325.89 data usage for one month! Orange have offered a £100 credit & at her request, have disabled data usage.

We have today been told that the OVP Virgin tariff does NOT include matching Virgin's GPRS Data prices; if it did, the cost for the month's data (up to 750MB) would have been £30 or less. When I asked why they were not matching Virgin's data prices, I was told that they never said they would & argued that "it's in our terms & Conditions" (which we had never before seen, been referred to, nor received a copy of). I've now found the ORANGE OVP TERMS & CONDITIONS: orangeproblems.co.uk/mobiles/ovp.pdf dated January 2005.

I think that they may not have a leg to stand on in court, as they "promised" to match Virgin's prices and failed to bring their contradicting Terms & Conditions to my wife's notice. But it may be a lot easier just to pay the £225.89 and take our business elsewhere. We have been with Orange since about 1997 and on OVP Virgin since at least 2000. We were happy customers, but not any longer. We don't mind paying a fair price, but being charged ELEVEN times more than they "promised" is both unfair & probably illegal.

Kingsd316

Wow, £3 per MB, when i go over my allowance im charged a maximum of 60p a day, its amazing how the price structure can be so different on the same network