Huge bill after watching netflix

Willyoulearn

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong forum ( home phones instead of mobiles) so have re-posted here.

My son has received a huge phone bill from Vodafone because he watched a film on netflix on his phone!

I know - this seems obvious to us normal folk, I have no idea why he didn't realize. He says he wasn't aware that his free internet had been used part way through the film. It must be really nice living in his world!

Is there anything he can do as there is no way he can pay this amount of money.

gjchester

Willyoulearn wrote: »

Is there anything he can do as there is no way he can pay this amount of money.

Phone Vodafone and ask nicely for a payment plan.

Ask nicely as they don't have to do it and its a goodwill gesture if they allow it.

And bad as this sounds don't rush to bail him out, I don't know how large it is, but there may be value in this teaching him about money and debts before it's a really big bill over a car/credit card etc.

Techhead_2

He could sell the phone to pay towards the bill. Speak to Vodafone and ask them nicely if they can retrospectively apply their most generous bundle (if it exists).

hieveryone

Depending on how many 'offences' he has had of this nature, they may let him off with it.

I know that when I worked for a major mobile network, we had a 'first mistake' rule that let us wipe off a customer's first experience of something like this. All data plans, information and how to check remaining allowances were then re-iterated so that they couldn't claim ignorance after that.

GwylimT

He needs to contact his provider, they may allow him to pay in installments, otherwise sell something to pay it, e.g. his phone.

PasturesNew

How much is a huge bill?

hieveryone

I wouldn't be so hasty as to paying straight away.... Did the mobile provider make any attempts to notify your son that he was running out of data? Did they give him the opportunity to purchase extra data at bolt on prices?

RichardD1970

Can't help with the debt, but that's why my kids have Tesco Mobile contracts, the are capped and you cannot exceed your allowance.

grumbler

hieveryone wrote: »

.... Did the mobile provider make any attempts to notify your son that he was running out of data? Did they give him the opportunity to purchase extra data at bolt on prices?

In the middle of the film? You are dreaming.

Willyoulearn wrote: »

...he watched a film on netflix on his phone!

RichardD1970 wrote: »

... my kids have Tesco Mobile contracts, the are capped and you cannot exceed your allowance.

I guess your kids are still u18 unlike this 'kid' that has his own contract.

gjchester

hieveryone wrote: »

Did the mobile provider make any attempts to notify your son that he was running out of data? Did they give him the opportunity to purchase extra data at bolt on prices?

I don't believe they "have" to do any of this, its all goodwill (and good customer service) if they do.

As its been used watching a film its possible any alert triggers were not tripped until after the event, lets say they run once an hour, it could be the OP's son was unlucky and had run up 59 minutes of data use before the trigger re-ran.

NFH

Ask Vodafone to apply retrospectively the most appropriate data bundle for the amount of data used. It would be unreasonable of them to refuse to apply a bundle that the customer could have asked for before the usage took place.