HELP NEEDED URGENT: Orange Outrage on data roaming

Hammyman

flamin_jerry wrote: »

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. PLEASE CAN ANYONE HELP. i cant afford a 2500 phone bill in one month

You were not in the EU so Orange do not have to send a text (the £50 limit thing only applies within the EU) and Orange would also have no way of knowing what your data usage was outside the EU until they were sent the info from the local mobile provider.

And it is not about how long you were on but how much data you transfer. Charges for Egypt ar £8 per MB so to rack up £300 in a day, you would only need to transfer 37.5MB which is not a lot - 6 MP3s, a few seconds of video, a couple of dozen webpages. It would take no longer than a few minutes to download 37.5MB on 3G.

In short, you are going to have to pay and hope that you can get them to drop the bill a bit which they do seem willing to do and up to 50% seems to be posted on here a lot.

robpw2

i do not understand why people take their phones on holiday and as for connecting to the internet can you not just cope for a few days lol

Hammyman

robpw2 wrote: »

i do not understand why people take their phones on holiday and as for connecting to the internet can you not just cope for a few days lol

To be fair, when I go on holiday I find being able to use the internet to research places to visit invaluable so I can see why people do. But I use a laptop, not my phone....

jamespir

1) orange isnt o2 they have different policys
2) you used your phone abroad so cant really complain about the bill
3)its £8mb to use net in egypt surely a wifi point would have been cheaper
4) if you dont want a huge bill leave your phone at home

cinereus

Charges sound exactly right. If you don't want to pay £2500 don't use £2500 of data.

What on earth are you paying £100/month for in the UK anyway?

[Deleted User]

I sell mobile phones for one of the big networks, and if anyone mentions to me that they're going abroad anytime soon, I tell them to switch off data roaming (and possibly put their sim in a non-internet phone or get a pay as you go phone abroad) at pain of multi-£1000s of bills.

Had one lady laugh in my face and accuse me that I was trying to "scare her" and sell her a second phone (because of course I'd profit from her buying something from AT&T lol).

She came back after two weeks in America to a £3000 bill because she'd been watching Eastenders over the iPlayer.

Guess how much sympathy she got?

And it makes me wonder too, how many other people ignore the advice of their networks then get angry when what they were warned about actually happens, and claim they were never told in the first place... (not necessarily saying this applies to the OP, just people in general.)

davidjwest

I've just been stung for £180 from Orange as I went to Spain recently and used the mobile on the internet.

The annoying thing is I signed up for their deal where you get 30MB of data free every day for £3 a month.

The data monitoring software I used, the one they recommended, says I only once went over the 30MB limit and then by only 0.1 MB but the information they have is different.

I've rung them and they've offered to refund half of the charge, but I am now putting my complaint in writing.

If they can offer 30MB a day for just £3 a month then £3 per Mb is blatant profiteering and I will escalate my complaint to Ofcom as well, for what good that will do.

NFH

davidjwest wrote: »

The data monitoring software I used, the one they recommended, says I only once went over the 30MB limit and then by only 0.1 MB but the information they have is different.

David, you are most probably right. See my own account of inaccurate data billing by Orange. You should ask Orange for a detailed log of all your alleged usage. Orange have the data, but it's a pain for them to retrieve it and provide it to you.

simax

davidjwest wrote: »

I've just been stung for £180 from Orange as I went to Spain recently and used the mobile on the internet.

The annoying thing is I signed up for their deal where you get 30MB of data free every day for £3 a month.

The data monitoring software I used, the one they recommended, says I only once went over the 30MB limit and then by only 0.1 MB but the information they have is different.

I've rung them and they've offered to refund half of the charge, but I am now putting my complaint in writing.

If they can offer 30MB a day for just £3 a month then £3 per Mb is blatant profiteering and I will escalate my complaint to Ofcom as well, for what good that will do.

Just to correct you, it's £3 per day for the days you use it.

daleski75

whenever i go abroad the first thing i do is buy a local sim card and leave my uk sim out until i am firmly back in the uk where i pick up any voicemails etc, it is simply not worth the risk using your phone on and off in any country outside of the eu with your uk sim inside.

i have sympathy for the OP as he has got stung with a very large phone bill but he has learnt a lesson and i do not think he will be repeating that mistake anytime soon.

local wifi hotspots and a local sim card are best, i have even gone as far as to put my phone in flight mode with wifi on to really make sure nothing weird can happen.