Monumental mobile internet charges when abroad

Hammyman

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

It has nothing to do with being bone idle or lazy, it has everything to do with actually comprehending what it means. Like I said, some people aren't savvy when it comes to things like this.

Would you spend a load of money on parts to build a computer and then just randomly shove things in holes or would you read the manual and learn how it all goes together so you don't blow the nuts off it and waste your money?
If you can't be bothered or are incapable of understanding it either don't buy one, turn it off or leave it at home. Simple. But don't go blaming others for what is your own fault.

Operators should be more responsible and stop big bills being run up, it goes without saying that if someone's bill is £20 per month for 18 months, then all of a sudden it comes in at £2000, there's something wrong.

Yes. The person who racked up the bill is at fault.

Here's an analogy to help those who don't seem to understand why this happens and why the telcos cannot do anything about it outside of the EU.


You have a company with a fleet of cars. You give me a car and you are paying the fuel for it and you pay the fuel bill. I fill up using a pre-pay card you gave me that you can check online and load money on to. You have full control over how much I spend on that card and know as soon as I've spent on it because you can check. Agreed? Good. Now this is the equivalent of mobile phone roaming in the EU.

Now lets say instead that you have a fuel account with a garage where people can come in, fill their car, the amount is applied to the account and you are sent a bill once a month. There is no limit on it because you have a fleet and everyone has different usage requirements. I can go into the garage and fill up as many times as I want and as much as I want and the first time you will know about it is when the garage sends you your bill at the end of the month. You have to pay that bill as the fuel has been used and you can't do anything about it as I'm doing it because you don't know until the bill arrives days or weeks after I've used the fuel. That is the equivalent of mobile phone roaming outside of the EU.

Get it now?

Gordon_Hose

No, I don't get it. We'll have to agree to disagree. You don't think the provider should be more responsible, I do.

Hammyman

So in short, you are one of those people who would blame someone who makes a blowtorch for plumbing for not designing it so someone couldn't set their house alight and burn it to the ground when they set the wallpaper alight behind the pipe joint they were soldering. You instead would want them to design it to the lowest common denominator and expect them to come up with some sort of shroud that would guarantee that you could only heat up what was in the immediate vicinity of the blowtorch nozzle.

And people wonder why stuff costs as much as it does and why insurance is so high.

Gordon_Hose

No, I'm not. If I burn my house to the ground using a blow torch you'll find me standing at the edge of the charred remains saying "the wife is gonna kill me for this".

However, I am aware that humans aren't perfect. And sometimes misunderstand/can't grasp information, get a bit forgetful from time-to-time or make mistakes.

Preying_Mantis

So how does a phone that is switched off for a flight data roam? I confess to be somewhat ignorant of this and can not find anything in the manual or on the phone companies website that explains this. Would someone with a greater understanding let me know as I am at a bit of a loss :-)

Gordon_Hose

Nice edit Hammyman.

victor2

Preying_Mantis wrote: »

So how does a phone that is switched off for a flight data roam? I confess to be somewhat ignorant of this and can not find anything in the manual or on the phone companies website that explains this. Would someone with a greater understanding let me know as I am at a bit of a loss :-)

It doesn't. If the phone is switched off it cannot receive data in any way.
My OH has an HTC desire and likes to use its camera plus contact details when going abroad. I just tell her to put it in airplane mode for the whole duration of the trip. Means she won't get any messages, calls or have internet access, but she takes it out of airplane mode when back in the UK and catches up with what she's missed.

Preying_Mantis

Yes that's what I thought, but after receiving a jaw dropping bill & asking for the breakdown it shows data usage on a flight when it was switched off. I guess it is one for the solicitor to battle out with Orange. I always thought that it was dangerous for phones to be active during a flight and they interfere with the on board systems, I hope not and perhaps they are referring to the microwaves or coffee machines or we inadvertantly managed to put a whole plane at risk while the phone went and did it's own thing.

stulaunch

Gordon Hose, I'm with you on this, it would be good to know who else on here is sick of jumped up nerds coming on abusing posters for not having their level of intelligence on certain matters.
We all know what kind of character these people are don't we, bigheaded know it all's. Can't stand them if I'm honest.
If you can give some helpful advice great. But if your comments are for your own personal ego, then please stay away.

Surely these forums are here to help people who don't understand certain things, why ask a question otherwise.

As for OP's plight. I would rather criticise the Telecom companies who charge, what I think are extortionate costs for data roaming, rather than the OP.
When the banks charged fees that were not in proportion to their own costs ( bank charges etc ) big campaigns were launched MSE for people to claim back. Its a shame more people are not saying the same for these shisters.
I dont know many people who haven't had a problem with Telecom companies ripping them off in the past.

There seems far to many of these posts on here about massive roaming bills when returning to the UK from abroad,

PLEASE SWITCH OFF MOBILE INTERNET WHEN ABROAD

I think the only way to reduce this bill is to plead with them, but I think you'll need more than "good luck" though.

Rant over

Preying_Mantis

If it helps Orange offered to reduce the bill by half when we called them, so my advice is alway to try.

Regrettably we are having to employ a solicitor and take them to court only because the phone was replaced the day after we arrived back from Honeymoon and was deemed faulty due to it's overheating and red screen, we feel that the bill is unfair data usage and when Orange produced the raw data it showed the phone data roaming on the flight and they claim the usage was equivilent to 30,240 WAP pages (600 emails/756 video clips).... To be honest there are far better things to be doing on a Honeymoon to an all inclusive hotel in Mexico paid for by very kind friends and family... watching video clips on a non functioning phone was not one of them!