Mobile Roaming £818 bill from Orange!

grumbler

antmcclure wrote: »

Orange say I used 90mb of data. Not sure what that means in laymans terms?

Wiser people ask this question before leaving, not after coming back:

How much is 1MB when abroad in Mexico?

Emy1501

antmcclure wrote: »

Thanks for advice so far.
Awaiting a return call from a "supervisor" at Orange. 1st indications are not good. Surely Orange should notify customers when bills are starting to look excessive? I've heard of other networks sending a text warning customers when excessive charges are building up.

Some do and others don't. I know 02 text me once I have hit 80% of monthly allowance and once you max out they charge £1 a day and dramatically reduce download speed. That's for the UK though don't know about abroad.

Think you got to consider what questions you asked before you left and the advice given. Ie did whether you asked about a package and also advised how often you would be using data a day.

Herongull

Never take a phone (with a contact sim) outside the EU unless you are incredibly rich and don't mind a bill of hundreds or thousands of pounds!

Outside the EU data, calls and texts are extortionate even for light to moderate use. Therefore you can't afford to use it hardly at all.

Suppose your phone is lost or stolen and you don't notice for a few hours? A bill for several thousand pounds!

Some people have even allowed children to use contract phones abroad:eek:

iritchie

Not that it offers much help to the OP, but imo this is pretty insane costs for 90MB worth of data tbh...
Did the hotel you were in not offer Wi-Fi?
It's not difficult to rack up 90MB of usage in 2 weeks, and £818 for the privilege is mental.

grumbler

Not that it makes any difference, but it was one week, not two.

wantmemoney

Herongull wrote:

Never take a phone (with a contact sim) outside the EU unless you are incredibly rich and don't mind a bill of hundreds or thousands of pounds!

unfortunately that is the only safe solution for many.

The whole area of 'bill shock' due to international roaming is an absolute depressing disgrace.

We have Governments in the pockets of the greedy unscrupulous multinational Mobile Networks.

We have the United Nations that is nothing more than a 'paper tiger' talking shop.

grumbler

United Nations? Are you serious?

The United Nations... is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace.

What do roaming prices have to do with this? We already have thousands of Brussels bureaucrats. God save us from yet another Brussels on a bigger scale.

oopsadaisydoddle

Although I sympathise with OP, i often think some people are quick to blame the advisors they speak to before travelling. NO ONE can know how much you're likely to use whilst abroad. They can advise based on what you tell them but they are never going to know exactly how much info etc is going to be contained in your emails and such.
They can't even go on previous usage because lots of people use wifi. For eg - if I was to ask for a bundle based on my usage they would probably offer a small one because my monthly mobile data usage is low. My WIFI usage though is shocking!!

It sounds like the bill itself is correct based on what you've put on here so they haven't 'overcharged' you.

I do believe that if you get lucky, you might get some of the charges waived.

Good luck with it though!

nsabournemouth

With the greatest of respect it doesn't matter what y
phone you have. Saying 'I took my iPhone on holiday' won't get you a specific answer.

I took my 'HTC One X' to Canada and used 0MB of data, 0 calls and 0 texts. When I did connect to the internet to search I made sure I had a wifi connection.

Why do people complain when they get billed for a service they have chosen to use, Orange didn't make you use or even take your phone. Pay it and learn.

Wurtzite

Herongull wrote: »

Never take a phone (with a contact sim) outside the EU unless you are incredibly rich and don't mind a bill of hundreds or thousands of pounds!

Got to agree, because the EU is regulated, there is a limit on how much international operators can charge each other and ultimately the customer.

Outside the EU it might as well be the Wild West, operators charge each other a fortune, an then they pass that cost plus a hefty margin onto the consumer. If you are a business you get to buy competitive roaming voice and data packages (still expensive) but joe public gets truly ripped off regardless of which network they are with.