bill dispute with orange

fairman

thanks for suggestions etc people.

the iPhone was brand new to us so didn't know you could watch the data usage so easily. we do now.

and we used wifi for most of the trip, my parents/hotels/etc.

will write to them. see what happens. thanks again. except for you grumbler, i don't even know why you bother commenting, get a life.

gjchester

How much data did you use? If yhou bought the bundle then that should have covered some of it.

Is it likely the iPhones were checking for email/ facebook updates and so on in the background?

The amount Orange (or any network charges) for data roaming is irrelevent, yes it's high, but thats what they charge. People have a choice, turn off the phone or leave it at home, and if they choose to take it they can easily find cost (in this case http://www.orange.co.uk/roaming/new-zealand/ ) but all too often despite many, many cases of bill shock people do not check, or heed warning texts.

I'm not saying this is the case here, it sounds like the OP needs to find out the amount of data used and if the travel bundle was correctly applied, but it copmes back to the fact as we get more complicated devices that live on the web more people need to understand their useage patterns.

NFH

Techhead wrote: »

Not sure on your figures there, for example a recent BBC investigation revealed that US networks charge about $1 a megabyte to the networks of people data roaming. Although that still some way from £8 a megabyte.

If Vodafone can charge £5 for 25MB on any network outside the EEA (including on aircraft), this suggests that the wholesale cost per megabyte is no more than 20p/MB.

grumbler

fairman wrote: »

i don't even know why you bother commenting

I don't know why you bother asking. You seem to know the answer you want in advance and don't want to hear anything different.

Sarahosh

I got a bundle from orange while abroad for 30mb for 30 days (£20) and was also advised to download their travel angel app on wifi to monitor my usage. According the app, I used 2.7mb outside my bundle and approximately 28.5mb from the bundle right before I left Turkey. I came back only to get a data charge of £484. I called orange and was told that I actually used 90mb and 60mb was charged at £8 per hour. i asked for a copy of the data charges i used exactly and was told they couldn't give a copy.

grumbler

I don't understand what 28.5Mb/2.7Mb and 90Mb/60Mb mean.
Also, £8 is price per Mb, not per hour.

That said, if Orange's figures contradict the figures from your app (recommended by them), demand investigation and detailed bill. They do have this information and are notorious for billing incorrectly for mobile data.

In the worst case scenario ask for a more expensive (£75) bundle to be applied retrospectively.

simax

The days of applying retrospective bundles is now over I'm afraid. As customers now get "stepped data alerts" every 2-5MB when abroad the customer is now informed regularly as to how much data they are using, and as such will be more aware of cost, so as such retrospective bundles will no longer happen.

Beetlemama

fairman wrote: »

Hey everyone.....4500 direct debit taken out.

Oh dear god! I could throw up just reading that. Like so, so many of the other ordinary folk in the world, we too had the fun experience of changing from using a Blackberry to a smart phone with Orange, our beloved Blackberries on Vodafone and Virgin were never anywhere even remotely close to their data limits, but the new Samsung Galaxy ate it's entire data plan of 750mb in three days!

Orange actually froze the rest of the months charges and said they'd investigate because we're ordinary old middle ages folks who phoned them in horror expecting them to chuckle and say "oh yes, there's an error on your account" but it actually turned out he had used it all - or in fact the phone had used it all with it's preloaded apps that come alive and fiddle about while you sleep.

There should be a great big "THIS IS NOT A BLACKBERRY" warning on new smart phones, there are so many of us that didn't realise there would be any difference, to us it was just another phone.

I don't have any advice, we were unsuspecting and ill advised and we found out the hard way and dealt with it (husbands phone only uses wifi now, we had to have Virgin come and change our modem to a wireless box so he dared switch the phone back on!), but I am posting this to offer you nothing but sympathy, I read your post out to my husband and we both feel awful for you. As Dan rightly said, I'd have needed resuscitating if that had been our bill.