Advice re Massive Orange Roaming Bill

thatcambridgebird

Hi all,

Apologies if I am posting wrong, but I'm a noob in search of advice

I can see some of you have had similar-ish problems, and here's mine:

My partner and I went to NYC, over in the States, about three weeks ago. We were there 5 nights. I didn't discuss my travel with Orange, with whom I have a (roughly) £40 p/m Iphone 4 package, as to be honest it didn't occur to me. I have never told them for previous travel arrangements, and went away twice last year with no problems.

Anyway, I made sure data roaming was off unless I needed to use the net, when I'd turn it on, mostly to use Facebook, check email, do web searches and so on. Maybe, added up through the day, it worked out to perhaps an hour or so each day. I also made two calls to my partner when we were in different parts of town, but only got his voicemail both times, so they totalled about 2 minutes per call.

Cut to today - my bill is online to check and is approx £1400!!!! I phoned Orange and asked if there was a mistake. There isn't apparently. I asked how they got to that charge, and the guy told me their charges are £8 per mb.

I told them that paying it would wipe out my funds for the entire month - it's pretty much my whole salary - so I ask what I can do. The customer service rep told me I have to basically end my DD payment, and then when they try to take it it will fail, and therefore be escalated to their Collections team. He also said I should 'trust' him, and they definitely wouldn't restrict my service in the event of me doing this.

I told him I was really uncomfortable with his advice, and asked to speak to Collections, which he said I couldn't do because it needs to go through their automated system as a missed payment. He told me his supervisor passed on the advice but wouldn't let me speak to him/her.

when the call ended, I checked back through my messages and realised I hadn't got the 'holiday rates' sms phone providers always send when you turn your phone on in a foreign country. I definitely remember that sticking out to me as I found it odd when we were queueing for passport control in gthe States, but in the excitement of the hols I thought nothing else of it.

I did a quick google before, and came up with an Ofcom link so phoned them to ask where I stand. Their advice is that legally, Orange should have texted me their rates on arrival at my destination, and therefore my best bet for getting the bill reduced or waived is to use this argument. I have done - I emailed Orange earlier on after speaking to Ofcom - but I suppose i am asking here as to what success people in similar situatiuons have had, and if there's anything else I can try on the Orange customer service line to get a quicker response?

The DD is meant to go out on 3rd October, and I'm in the middle of a house sale so can't be having a restricted phone service. I was really careful to always ensure data roaming was off, and was absolutely horrified at the bill. To be honest I laughed cos I thought it was a misprint!

The input of anyone who's been there/done that would be much appreciated

DUTR

If you have read the previous cases, you would have also read the question, what the hell was on facebook or your email, that could not wait until you got back to the UK?
170mb is a lot.

grumbler

thatcambridgebird wrote: »

I did a quick google before, and came up with an Ofcom link so phoned them to ask where I stand. Their advice is that legally, Orange should have texted me their rates on arrival at my destination,

I'll be happy to be proved wrong, but I think this was an incorrect advice, at least for USA.

I was really careful to always ensure data roaming was off,

What about "an hour or so each day"? Plus background usage during this hour and automatic updates. £1400 is 'just' 175Mb.

NFH

thatcambridgebird wrote: »

it worked out to perhaps an hour or so each day.

Data is not billed in hours but in megabytes, hence the advertised price of £8/MB for roaming in the USA. How much data do you believe you used and how much data did Orange bill you for?

thatcambridgebird

DUTR: That's by the by though isn't it? What I am attempting to dispute with them/get advice from here is anyone's viewpoint on a more useful route through Orange customer services, and whether there's a legal argument (as Ofcom think) as to if they should have sent me a message outlining their charges.

What we aren't disputing is the appropriateness of otherwise of my phone usage overseas and whether it could/couldn't wait.

grumbler

I believe that there is no any legal argument. Regarding a "useful route through Orange customer services" see the thread just a few lines below yours.

Another story of a small success: iPhone roaming charges - please help.

drbesty

There's no legal arguement, Orange are under no obligation to text you the rates, you can request the rates by texting the country you are in to 169, but it's abit late for that now

Jai_M

Watchdog covered this last week....

news/Item/story number 1 (starts 1:49) http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0152bbr/Watchdog_22_09_2011/

thatcambridgebird

NFH wrote: »

Data is not billed in hours but in megabytes, hence the advertised price of £8/MB for roaming in the USA. How much data do you believe you used and how much data did Orange bill you for?

That's the tricky thing. Since initially checking online and then speaking to them this afternoon, my online account access is locked out. I get a strange message when I try to login which says something along the lines of how my account is 'currently being managed online'. So I can't double check their workings. Also, if I'm absolutely honest, I didn't keep a log of usage - I know from reading around here there are apps which help, but it was maybe 5 minutes here to check a map, 10 minutes there to check email (again, because of my house sale I was checking reasonably regularly) and I'm not disputing that it all adds up. What I am disputing is that Orange didn't inform me of their charges at all. Had I known, there's no way I'd have checked this, that and the other to such an extent.

I did tell Ofcom I had travelled to the USA when they said their bit about how legally Orange should have told me, but all I could find when googling was advice about the EU, which is why I'm still concerned...

Their customer service advice about wilfully skipping a payment was next to useless as well...

DUTR

thatcambridgebird wrote: »

DUTR: That's by the by though isn't it? What I am attempting to dispute with them/get advice from here is anyone's viewpoint on a more useful route through Orange customer services, and whether there's a legal argument (as Ofcom think) as to if they should have sent me a message outlining their charges.

What we aren't disputing is the appropriateness of otherwise of my phone usage overseas and whether it could/couldn't wait.

Folk could indeed , write what you want to read, even if they text you the rates , how would that have changed the usage pattern?
As you have read other threads regarding similar issues, you can see why sympathy is diminishing, the cost of the bill is probably near 2 shiny sim free iphone 5 if/when they are launched and all because, somebody wanted to take there iphone on a trip to the states :o

thatcambridgebird

DUTR wrote: »

Folk could indeed , write what you want to read, even if they text you the rates , how would that have changed the usage pattern?
As you have read other threads regarding similar issues, you can see why sympathy is diminishing, the cost of the bill is probably near 2 shiny sim free iphone 5 if/when they are launched and all because, somebody wanted to take there iphone on a trip to the states :o

It would have changed the usage pattern because, had I known the rates from the outset, or recieved a message while abroad along the lines of 'you know you're using this a lot, by the way, here's your current charges' I'd have used it a lot less! Having travelled in the EU a lot last year, checking out phone rates was the last thing on my mind, because I presumed they'd be comparable. That may well make me naive, but I wouldn't be here if I wasn't willing to say yes, I made a mistake, now what's the best way to put it right and perhaps not have to pay out quite so much?

I came here for useful input from a well known consumer forum about a quicker way to get through to Orange given their unhelpful customer services rep of earlier. I haven't stopped the DD. If I had the money sitting around going spare I'd pay, then dispute for a refund, but the point of my first post wasn't to go 'Oh please Money Saving Expert, pity me' but to ask a) about the legal standpoint of what they should/shouldn't have informed me, and b) what the best way to get through to someone helpful at Orange is so that some sort of payment arrangement could be reached quicker, without me having to resort to stopping payments and them potentially restricting my service.

I'm really not sure why you're posting such snippy and unhelpful comments. Maybe it's because i'm new here, it's the same old large-bill-from-abroad story and therefore I'm some sort of easy target? If you're sick of hearing the same old story, then maybe don't read the thread