Massive orange phone bill

lamalamb_2

I have just came back from holiday to a phone bill of £1400.

I have been told it is because data roaming was not switched off, which i know nothing about. They said i should have called them before i went abroad to get information on data roaming. I didnt receive any text or info when i arrived to tell me to keep data roaming off. I cannot afford this at all.

Is there anything i can do, all they say they can take off is £150.00

soccermom

Didn't go to Turkey did you :eek: we fell foul of this.

Went to spain had a high bill with data roaming on but I could understand the bill because we hammered it due to the volcano mess last year and being stuck it was £300

Went to Turkey last summer and my son left his phone on a shelf or listened to his music and a bill for £900 they knocked £200 off, but theres nothing you can do i'm afraid its just a lesson to be learned

lamalamb_2

yes. Turkey it was. argggh so bloody annoying i didnt use my phone but because that wasnt switched off it charged me so much. So angry with myself

robt_2

It is not their responsibility to tell you how to use your phone I'm afraid. You need to be nice to them and appeal to their good side to get a reduction - because you DO owe the money.

soccermom

Turkey is not part of the european passport for mobile phones which is way the prices are so high.

Thats why I mentioned spain we battered that phone 24/7 and had a much smaller bill as its part of the european passport our data roaming always stayed on there.

It stinks but theres nothing that can be done except plead for a gesture of goodwill reduction

chanz4

this is the downside to smart phones and iphones

Jude111

Am in similar position. My daughter has visited USA and I got a phone call to say her bill is now 1200 in a week! Having called orange before she went I paid an extra £5 to reduce the cost of calls only to find data roaming has racked it all up. At no point during the phone conversation to the orange salesperson did they suggest a data roaming bundle or tell me to switch off roaming. I know you could argue that is my responsibility to know this but orange know how many people fall foul of this one- a duty of care if they have one, would suggest they would at least send a warning text or something. Has anyone had any success with bill reductions in these cases?

withabix

It isn't the networks' responsibility to tell you how much you will be charged for roaming unless YOU ask them and tell them where you are going.

Anyone who has a phone contract is an adult and is responsible for their own actions.

Get a phone which defaults to 'Data Off' when roaming - like nearly all of the Android ones.

There are NO data bundles available for roaming in countries outside the EU for most networks (plus Australia and New Zealand on Vodafone).

Again, it is YOUR responsibility to check - NOT the network operator's responsibility to molly coddle you.

gjchester

withabix wrote: »

Get a phone which defaults to 'Data Off' when roaming - like nearly all of the Android ones.

So do iPhones and theres a warning below the slider to turn it on hat enabling it can be expensive, but if people don't ask the cost then they are not going to heed the text.

gjchester

Jude111 wrote: »

I know you could argue that is my responsibility to know this but orange know how many people fall foul of this one- a duty of care if they have one, would suggest they would at least send a warning text or something. Has anyone had any success with bill reductions in these cases?

You may get some luck contacting the Executive office, but I'm not sure where the Duty of Care comes in. It's not more relevent that you should ensure you know the costs and at least try to keep an eye on the data useage.

£1200 on data is 150MB of data, thats more than a few emails, thats a lot of use. The costs are not hidden its easily found on the Orange web site, and at £8 a MB yes it is expensive, Orange are the most expensive company for overseas data.

I'm not unsymathetic to the problem, but in almost all the cases here people don't ask costs before they go, and treat the phone as they do at home (facebook, email, even streaming music) and then complain they get a huge bill when they should have considered do they really need to send a facebook message saying how many mohito's they have had on the beach?

isthatreduced

gjchester wrote: »

do they really need to send a facebook message saying how many mohito's they have had on the beach?

Yes :rotfl: