Whacked by Orange

Caned

My 12 year old son is on a ten pounds per month contract for unlimited tx and 300 mins talk with Orange. He acquired a gf 3 months ago. Upon checking my latest bank statement I noticed that last month's bill with Orange had gone from its usual £80 (We have 3 phones on contract) to £180 and upon checking recent activity discovered the bill now stands at a grand total of £1200. This is due entirely to him going over his contracted limit.

I have contacted Orange who say there is nothing they can do about this.

I wrongly assumed this was capped tariff but regardless of whether I should have checked is this company able to allow such usage without notifying the bill payer. They seem to have no safeguards whatsoever so beware.

Does anyone have any idea if this bill can be challenged and do mobile phone companies have any responsibility in this regard?

Buzby

No. However, as the bill payer it remains your responsibility to pay the bill or your credit file will be fried. Why would you think there would be any capping? A firm will not purposely stop a respected well paying customer from making use of the phones he has, so that is a non-starter.

Also, if your son had the phone stolen and the next you knew there was £2k calls to Sierra Leone, you STILL are responsible. Your son should have been on PAYG, as this will have limited the risk to both of you, and IU suggest you do this now. (Also, it restricts any web content to prevent any inappropriate sites being accessed).

Quite how a 12yo thought the phone was totally free eludes me - he must have known of the limits (you did tell him?) and this might have made him more aware of the true cost of his calls - rather than thinking it was to be used for as long and as often as he wanted. Were these normal out of bundle calls, or premium?

I can sympathise, but sadly any error was on the part of the user, not of the network.

NiftyDigits

Hmmm.... you gave a contract phone to your son and you are asking us if the mobile company has any responsibility....
Did they know that a twelve year old was using it?
So easy to assume that this is a fake post. But if it isn't....

Perhaps if it is data usage(quite likely), they can retro-actively apply a data package in order to bring the price down for you.
But don't even think about shouting at them, because of course it is the fault of the person who took the contract out for the child.

buscape

Caned wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea if this bill can be challenged and do mobile phone companies have any responsibility in this regard?

How many minutes did he use in total?

Networks don't have any responsibility for this type of thing, as far as they're concerned contract phones are for over 18s and what is used must be paid for.

Guys_Dad

Caned wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea if this bill can be challenged and do mobile phone companies have any responsibility in this regard?

Not challenged - if correct. Best check that first.

But you can see if Orange are prepared to make any goodwill gestures or suggestions. Some people have been lucky in that respect, but it depends upon your attitude and who you get on the other side of 150.

The comments of the previous contributors are, of course, correct, but I suspect that you would rather get some reduction on your bill any way you can.

Good luck.

Krojan

I used to see this years ago when I sold mobiles, personally I made sure the parents/guardians knew that this kinda thing can, and does happen.
We used to warn them with the scenario that they wouldn't let their kid go wild in toys r us with their credit card and pin so why let them go wild with a contract phone.

Children arn't allowed access to credit for a damn good reason, they simply lack the understanding and maturity to contemplate what they're doing, let alone have the ability to repay it.

After years of hearing about it, its always the same old sob stories from parent's saying it wasn't their fault, the kid didnt know what they were doing, why didn't the network do something etc. etc..

Sorry but it's your fault. You gave your child access to something that they cannot normally obtain at their age and now you have to face the consequences, suck it up, pay what you owe, discipline your child and learn from your mistakes.

pleasedelete

Is it data or calls?

My husband had a combined data and phone package with data on iPad. For 12 months bill was £60 then suddenly £480! Seems it was a Eurosport app that racked up bill over 3 days connecting to 3 g rather than wifi.

Orange were fabulous. There should have been a data cap of I think £3 (might have been £2 a day). They went back over whole year and retrospectively applied this. Called me twice to keep me updated. Cancelled my direct debit and marked account so it wouldnt be chased. At the next bill (I had only paid £80 not £480) I only owed a few pounds and this month it is back to normal. I was totally impressed with them.

I would call them and discuss it.