Unfair Mobile Bill from Orange

elstimpo

I recently took a trip to Hong Kong and from that trip, Orange have charged my around £700 for mobile usage while i was there.

This is strange for several reasons:

1) I bought a package that would easily cover any mobile data charges while i was out there.

2) I am very careful with turning off data roaming when abroad and make sure i only check e-mails etc when attached to a wi fi network. My hotel had free wi fi for the duration of my stay, i was at the Hong Kong Conference centre all day every day for my trip and used their wi fi during this time. Orange have also claimed i used mobile network while in an airport lounge when i know i was using the free wi fi.

This exact situation has happened to me before with Orange. I was in Canada and returned to a bill of £1200 despite my data roaming being turned off for the entire holiday. It took 4 weeks of arguing and Orange then admitted that they had charged me for data used while i was connected to a wi fi network and apologised for claiming my data roaming wasn't turned off, when they realised it had been. They wiped the £1200 off.

This seems to me to be exactly the same situation, however Orange where very adamant that they won't be looking into it further and the bill stands when i just spoke to them. Obviously with my contract up in a few months and having been a good customer who pays by DD for many many years, i'll be ditching Orange as soon as i can;

but what else can i do now to challenge this. Who should i turn to for help and advice?

I'm considering writing Orange a letter so that i can have it in writing they claim the fee's are just and fair and i will be charged?

Should i let them take the payment and claim it back or make sure they can't take it in the first place?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Chris

NFH

elstimpo wrote: »

Should i let them take the payment and claim it back or make sure they can't take it in the first place?

Tell Orange that you are "paying under protest" and ask them to note this on your account. This is a legal phrase to prevent Orange from claiming that your payment constitutes your agreement to the charges. Orange's data billing is certainly inaccurate. See my own account of inaccurate data billing by Orange. What type of phone were you using?

grumbler

An iPhone by any chance?

Erroneous iPhone charges

elstimpo

NFH wrote: »

Tell Orange that you are "paying under protest" and ask them to note this on your account. This is a legal phrase to prevent Orange from claiming that your payment constitutes your agreement to the charges. Orange's data billing is certainly inaccurate. See my own account of inaccurate data billing by Orange. What type of phone were you using?

I was using an iphone 4

orange are claiming that i had a GPRS signal (or whatever it is) which is which is why they are upholding the fee's. I know this to be a load of rubbish.

NFH

elstimpo wrote: »

orange are claiming that i had a GPRS signal (or whatever it is)

GPRS is often used to refer to 2G data, very slow compared to 3G data. Did you turn off "mobile data" and/or "data roaming", or did you turn off 3G? Sorry to ask, but some people turn off 3G believing that it will turn off all data.

If you were logged on to a wireless network, then your iPhone shouldn't have used any data at all while the screen was on, even if you had data roaming enabled.

simax

NFH wrote: »

GPRS is often used to refer to 2G data, very slow compared to 3G data.

GPRS is actually the method of data transmission, and can go over 2G, 3G and 4G.

It is more accurate to use "2G data", "3G data" etc.

NFH

Offline-User wrote: »

Using data abroad without a data package is really expensive probably will cost more then your holiday... ouch!

What a strange first post from a new user. The OP has already stated clearly that he had bought a data package. Why did you set up a new user account in order to reply to a thread without reading it first?

robt_2

Because they want backlinks to their website. It is a form of spam.

Offline-User

NFH wrote: »

What a strange first post from a new user. The OP has already stated clearly that he had bought a data package. Why did you set up a new user account in order to reply to a thread without reading it first?

...What a funny post from someone who obvisouly did not read my post and went straight in for the kill... Cant really expect anything else from internet users to be honest...

If you had read my post you would have realised that the advice in question is not directed at the initial poster but for future users with similar problems who stumble across this now tainted with hate thread... (I Apologise Future Users For the misconduct of these trollers)

Seriously I cant click 1 link with out finding some sort of attack on someone or accusations... I expected more from this forum... dissapointed...

grumbler

Offline-User wrote: »

...What a funny post from someone who obvisouly did not read my post and went straight in for the kill...

It wasn't funny and it is obvious that this 'someone' did read your post.

If you had read my post you would have realised that the advice in question is not directed at the initial poster but for future users with similar problems who stumble across

Any post (if it's not a question) without a quotation replies either to the previous post or to the original posts. Otherwise it's impossible to 'realise' why it was posted and what was the point. This is how all forums work, not only this one.

NFH

Offline-User wrote: »

Seriously I cant click 1 link with out finding some sort of attack on someone or accusations... I expected more from this forum... dissapointed...

What did you expect? To be able to hijack a thread with unhelpful comments that bear no relationship to the thread, so that search engines pick up on the link to your commercial web site in your profile? No, that's not what MSE is for. Your first post has consequently already been deleted by a forum admin.