HELP NEEDED URGENT: Orange Outrage on data roaming

flamin_jerry

I have just recently been to Egypt. upon my return i have a 2500GBP phone bill waiting for me. i used 3g occaisonally over there surely no more than 6 hours at tops for two weeks yet phone bill is sky high. I have phoned orange and they have said i used 300 GBP in one day even surely i am not that stupid to be on 3g abroad that long. Orange have said that data roaming can switch its self back on occasionally without aurthorisation as our generation whants info at our finger tips so we need consatnt updates in the background. My typical bill is around the 100GBP a month so surely orange would send me a text as being in egypt which they knew as i had told them i would not anser or reply by phone call. i mean a simple text to say your phone bill is at 500GBP instead of typical 100 or even at 1000. orange have given me no choice really but to pay the bill even after 12 devoted years and upto 8 various contracts/PAYG seperate phones on the account. My GF is on O2 she was out in EGypt with me and her phone bill is 100 GBP in stead of 60, granted she didnt use phone as much but still about half of the time i used mine so surely my bill should be 200GBP Sorry bit long winded but needed to explain every thing. PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP. i cant afford a 2500 phone bill in one month

gjchester

Data on orange cost £8 a MB, so taking off your monthy bill thats about 300MB of data.


Egypt is considered outside the EU for data so is not under the price cap rules. What did you use the phone for? Streaming music or video will eat up data, the CS person is right, if you have say Facebook in an app in the background and it's updating on a regular basis this too will eat data.

What phone have you got, and so you use antyihg that regualrly updates at home that you left running on holiday?


You can try and ask for an detailed breakdown, but that depends what the Egyption network has sent.

macman

The charges are levied by the local provider, so by the time they are passed back to Orange, it's too late, this can take hours or days.
How many MB's of data have you been billed for and what is the Orange roaming charge per MB in Egypt?
Did you switch data roaming off when not using the 3G-if not then it'll be constantly updating.
Not much you can do except plead ignorance and try and get a discount off the total.
Surely you realised that data roaming outside the EU is hugely expensive?

Esqui

The cost is measured in amount downloaded, not the time spent. So you could easily download several hundred megabytes in those six hours.

There's been a lot of these sorts of things recently, maybe we need a sticky?

Gordon_Hose

Unfortunately most of the users that frequent here won't give you any sympathy and tell you that you should have read the manual.

macman

The OP didn't ask for sympathy, they asked for help/advice, which was what they got.
Unfortunately, as is frequently documented on here with huge data roaming bills, all you can do is try and plead for a discount on a goodwill basis.
Describing it as an 'Orange Outrage' is not the correct approach -at least, not to Orange.

Gordon_Hose

Mobile operators are rub their hands together with glee every time someone does this. They love it, and they don't care that their customers can't pay.

Guys_Dad

macman wrote: »

The OP didn't ask for sympathy, they asked for help/advice, which was what they got.
Unfortunately, as is frequently documented on here with huge data roaming bills, all you can do is try and plead for a discount on a goodwill basis.
Describing it as an 'Orange Outrage' is not the correct approach -at least, not to Orange.

I agree, but what OP should do in addition is ask for a full breakdown of data use, including times etc. My guess is that it will be accurate, but if there is any real evidence of incorrect connection (such as when you were in the air or at any time when the phone would be switched off), then you have a lever to try to get reduction.

Kingsd316

flamin_jerry wrote: »

Orange have said that data roaming can switch its self back on occasionally

This is complete BS, once data roaming is switched off then it stays off. Your best bet is to plead with orange and hope they reduce, which officially they dont have to

ilovemydebts

Why is it that there is a new post like this nearly every day, if they spent more time researching data cost like they did when they researched their new phone then they'd realise data + hol = loadsa money!
Write the cost off to your stupidity in not looking up and stop blaming the phone company. You used it, pay for it instead of whinging.
I'v just got the S2, first thing oi did was install a data counter so i know how muchi use and that is for home usage as i dont want to go over my limit.
Knowledge is power and unfortunately some people are destined to stay at the bottom of the food chain.

Guys_Dad

ilovemydebts wrote: »

Why is it that there is a new post like this nearly every day, if they spent more time researching data cost like they did when they researched their new phone then they'd realise data + hol = loadsa money!.

What you will find - as you probably have already - is that the contributors to these threads fall into 2 camps.

Ones like you, me and a few others who believe that if you buy a smartphone that has a monthly usage bill attached, then you should read up on what affects that bill and how the wretched thing works - RTFM.

Then there are others who think it is all big corporate business'fault, that no one should take personal responsibility for anything, no need for them to have even the most rudimentary knowledge of anything (except text speak, I suppose) and who won't have it that the OPs of the threads are in any way to blame.

Now, when someone starts a post saying they know they have f****d up but what advice can MSE members give, then that's fair enough. We should give advice on how to mitigate the costs, double check the billing etc and doesn't warrant them being castigated any further.

It's the ones who come on to winge about the unfairness of it all and plead "I didn't know" and it's the nasty network's fault etc that deserve a touch of reality being brought to their attention.

But I guess that those who are steeped in the "blame someone else" culture are not going to see it from your/my point of view. It is interesting to spend a couple of minutes looking at other posts on other threads by some of them just to see the difference in attitude that various members have to life.