Orange Bill Shock - Praise

GRM

My elderly father has had an OVP VM contract for years. His usual monthly bill is under 50 pence, £2 is a busy month for him. Last month's bill was £474 due to 158MB of data; he doesn't use data, his handset isn't configured to use it, we're not sure what it could have been - possibly an OTA update.

Two emails to the exec office and yesterday he gets a call from Orange stating that they will retrospectively apply a bundle and his new bill is £8.80.

Thank you Orange.

19lottie82

I wouldn't be happy with this.

Firstly, he would not be charged £474 for 158mb of data, unless he was outside of the EU...was he?

By Orange telling you that they will "apply a bundle" they are still saying that he has used the data. If he hasn't I wouldn't be happy with this.

You say that his usualy bill is 50p - £2 yet you are paying £8.80... a rise of 400 - 1900%, why?

GRM

19lottie82 wrote: »

I wouldn't be happy with this.

Firstly, he would not be charged £474 for 158mb of data, unless he was outside of the EU...was he?

He was in the UK, OVP VM data is charged at £3/MB.

You say that his usualy bill is 50p - £2 yet you are paying £8.80... a rise of 400 - 1900%, why?

Because he/me would prefer to accept a £466 goodwill gesture than jeopardise that offer by playing hard ball over £8. YMMV.

custardy

what handset does he have?

Herongull

He definitely needs to move to a better PAYG service.

If his phone really did download 158mb "by itself", he definitely doesn't want to be with a company that charges £3 per mb.:eek:

Next time it happens they may not agree to retrospectively apply a bundle......

On the other hand, if his phone is "not guilty", then their systems have erroneously charged him for the data, and even if they "let him off" with £8.80, he's paid them £8.80 for their mistake.:eek:

So either way he needs port out to a better/cheaper PAYG provider.

sillygoose

custardy wrote: »

what handset does he have?

1st thing that came to my mind, if possible it may be necessary to not just disable but knobble the data ability (like messing up/deleting the APN) on the phone

GRM

custardy wrote: »

what handset does he have?

Nokia E72. I disabled everything data related I could see, he's used it for 12 months with never a charge for data which is why I thought it might be an OTA update.

GRM

Agree that he needs to move to a more appropriate service - one of those things that was waiting for a round tuit.

19lottie82

hi op, yes, your father DEFINITELY needs to change phone to a non smart phone OR an agreement where the data isn't so expensive, to avoid this in the future.

sillygoose

Orange (even edit)! can make it difficult to disable data properly by locking some handset settings, they want you to buy downloads off them.

Seems the latest software version for Nokia E72 is 091.003

Check Menu > Settings > Phone > Phone updates
Select Options > Settings > Auto-check for updates is off.

19lottie82

GRM wrote: »

He was in the UK, OVP VM data is charged at £3/MB.

Because he/me would prefer to accept a £466 goodwill gesture than jeopardise that offer by playing hard ball over £8. YMMV.

ah ok......as i understood it from your OP, your dads handset COULDN'T use data (so it was definitely a mistake on oranges part), not that you had configered it not to (so he might have used it).