Massive Phone Bill despite buying an EU Bundle -SETTLED UPDATE

m0nkeymrs01

TakeThis wrote: »

Yours is/was their biggest bundle. 30MB per day and £3.07 per MB if you go over 30MB in any one day.

So it looks as if you went a total of 100MB or so over your limit.

Correct on the figures but its not their biggest bundle, they could have sold me a bundle for varying amounts of MB that had no daily cap. For example X amount for £100 to use over the whole holiday.

m0nkeymrs01

TakeThis wrote: »

Yours is/was their biggest bundle. 30MB per day and £3.07 per MB if you go over 30MB in any one day.

So it looks as if you went a total of 100MB or so over your limit.

What is 100MB anyway? In simpleton terms? Five plain text emails? Ten minutes on FB?

Yolina

I'm afraid it's *your* phone and therefore your responsibility to have a reasonable idea of how much data you normally use and how you can curtail this when roaming.

If the iPhone doesn't come with an integrated data counter, get an app that does this - preferably one that can show usage per app, might not be 100% accurate on the breakdown but at least it will give you a good indication of how much the apps, sync etc use. Once you know what your base use is, you can make decisions as what to use/not use when roaming. I don't have an iPhone so don't know what specific settings you have access to, but try turning off auto-sync for all the stuff you don't need to use while you're away. Things like having apps set to automatically download a new version from the store when available can use a lot of data, Facebook is a well-known data muncher too and you'd be surprised at what the apps can use - it all adds up... A data counter would also mean you can keep an eye on you usage when roaming and most can be set up to display an alert when you reach whatever level you set. 30MB a day is a fair amount of data and a very good deal for £3.

For comparison, I have an Android phone and normally use most of my 1GB monthly data allowance (that's 1024MB) + whatever I use when connected to my home wi-fi. I just got back from over 2 weeks in France and have managed to only use 1MB a day on average (3 don't have any data roaming packages for the time being so I was rather careful ) My data roaming was obviously enabled but I manually turned data turned off and only turned it on 3 times a day for emails, Twitter, and an occasional check of some RSS feeds. Everything else that I would normally have on auto-update was set to not connect (simple to do with a rooted phone and DroidWall - would have been more time consuming otherwise by having to go to each individual app settings)

Edit: you can't give data an equivalent in time I'm afraid, it's how much is being used rather than how long for and the "how much" is very variable!

OneWickedSon

An unfortunate story, but coming from the industry, not an unfamiliar one.

You are using a smartphone which even when not intentionally used, can rack up data transfer. 3rd party apps, email sync, GPS can all affect how much data you are using. You should download and try an app that monitors this (there are lots) and see how much data you use when the phone is idle.

Do a google search for "app store data usage app" - you'll get the idea.

Until recently, it was the case that there was no roaming cap - we regularly saw people with 2-4k (yes, £k's) mobile bills because they blindling kept using their iPhone/Android/Smartphone overseas without considering their needs carefully before travelling. The alleged thought process from the carrier was that to cut someone off overseas would be a disservice. (Yeah, right).

Negotiate with the carrier; we've seen other networks reduce the charges with persistance. But get to know your handset better, too.

carolynsims

Hi,

Actually, it is worth a try with Orange customer services - if you have a genuine case they will listen. I base this on my own recent experience - I haven't quite yet reached a resolution I am happy with which is why I was just searching looking for other people's advice but I can tell you what I found:

My phone bill had gone to a massive £1600+!! As with yourself, I had bought a bundle and was on an incredibly tight budget (less than that for the whole holiday)... My argument was: a, I had been told that the package I bought would be 'more than adequate for my usual usage', and b: I had not been told to turn off data roaming on what was a relatively new telephone (less than 6 months). They actually went back to check the phone records and found that this was correct...

Basically, they are not all bad and will try to help if you have a genuine case. Essentially, they agree that they SHOULD tell you to turn off data roaming when selling the package. With me, it involved a LOT of time on the phone and basically refusing to be satisfied with the initial answer. After some persistence they offered to reduce by half, then to reduce further. I'm still not happy as it RUINED my holiday and it has caused a lot of stress, so will keep pushing and escalate my complaint.

Good luck yourself.

TakeThis

m0nkeymrs01 wrote: »

Correct on the figures but its not their biggest bundle, they could have sold me a bundle for varying amounts of MB that had no daily cap. For example X amount for £100 to use over the whole holiday.

It is their biggest bundle. 900MB per month.

Though you could have purchased this package: £150 per month 500MB per month lasts 30 days


Here is some info on your question about data: Explaining data limits

m0nkeymrs01

carolynsims wrote: »

Hi,

Actually, it is worth a try with Orange customer services - if you have a genuine case they will listen. I base this on my own recent experience - I haven't quite yet reached a resolution I am happy with which is why I was just searching looking for other people's advice but I can tell you what I found:

My phone bill had gone to a massive £1600+!! As with yourself, I had bought a bundle and was on an incredibly tight budget (less than that for the whole holiday)... My argument was: a, I had been told that the package I bought would be 'more than adequate for my usual usage', and b: I had not been told to turn off data roaming on what was a relatively new telephone (less than 6 months). They actually went back to check the phone records and found that this was correct...

Basically, they are not all bad and will try to help if you have a genuine case. Essentially, they agree that they SHOULD tell you to turn off data roaming when selling the package. With me, it involved a LOT of time on the phone and basically refusing to be satisfied with the initial answer. After some persistence they offered to reduce by half, then to reduce further. I'm still not happy as it RUINED my holiday and it has caused a lot of stress, so will keep pushing and escalate my complaint.

Good luck yourself.

Thank you for your positive story. Tonights Watch Dog on BBC features Orange Roaming charges very heavily, so will be watching that shortly to see what they have to say.

mrcamp

You can have a chat with a customer service rep and plead your innocence. Hopefully they can cut a deal with you, and may be knock off a little. However, they are not obligated to, since you actually used it. It's worth a try though. Bottom line, take this as lesson learned.

m0nkeymrs01 wrote: »

Thank you for your positive story. Tonights Watch Dog on BBC features Orange Roaming charges very heavily, so will be watching that shortly to see what they have to say.

m0nkeymrs01

mrcamp wrote: »

You can have a chat with a customer service rep and plead your innocence. Hopefully they can cut a deal with you, and may be knock off a little. However, they are not obligated to, since you actually used it. It's worth a try though. Bottom line, take this as lesson learned.

Sorry, I dont understand what lesson I should have learnt? Orange advise customers to call up to discuss their travel plans before travelling... this I did. I told Orange what I was planning to do and they sold me a package which I bought. I used my phone inline with what I had told them I would be using and still come home to this bill?

I dont understand why people are on here saying I shouldn't have used my phone? Why not, I wanted to use my phone and I did the preparation Orange told me to do, given that I had followed their advice, kept my location settings off at all times and roaming off unless I was using it how am I meant to know about this jolly bill?

I was camping in Spain, wifi was not an option.

NoWayJose

I too have recently come back from holiday (a cruise holiday, which uses a maritime network) and had an extortionate bill. I also setup the £3 per day bundle.

I told Orange that they had miss sold me the product as the bundle did not pick up the data charges for the network. I demanded that they listen to all previous calls and that a manager looked into it.

They recalculated my bill and refunded me a large chunk of the bill.

Call them. Fight your corner if you feel you were miss sold a product.