Orange-horror itemised phone bill from Canada

spannerzone

When I was last in the US (last October) I didn't get any 'welcome to USA' text from Tmobile (EE) so could have presumably racked up a large bill for calls or data, unless they only send the text once you start to use data?

Previous trips have always been met with a text as soon as I turned on the phone in the US, advising of call charges, data roaming rates etc.

NFH

Hooloovoo wrote: »

The only one that needs to take responsibility is the one using the device.

The law doesn't agree with you. See Article 15(6) of Regulation (EU) No 531/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2012 on roaming on public mobile communications networks within the Union. Consumers should be able to use the service without having to worry about bill shock. Consumers expect the charges to be reasonable and for any unreasonable charges to be prevented unless the network obtains the informed consent of the consumer. £8,000 per gigabyte is unreasonable.

Hooloovoo

lulubelle41 wrote: »

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2013/09/three-mobile-scraps-roaming-bills-in-seven-countries

Don't know if you've heard of this website..... - it's OK and legit, so I'm reliably informed, so check it out about Three and their roaming charges.

Oh, you're so funny aren't you?

I suggest you read the information from Three themselves.

Even the link you have given me clearly spells out the limitations that I stated.

If your plan includes All-You-Can-Eat data, unlimited texts or more than 3,000 minutes, you will only be able to use up to 25GB of data, send 5,000 texts (back to the UK) and make 3,000 minutes of calls (back to the UK) in one month when using the Feel At Home service.

If you text or call countries other than those numbers registered in the UK you will be charged standard roaming rates.

Hooloovoo

NFH wrote: »

Consumers expect the charges to be reasonable and for any unreasonable charges to be prevented unless the network obtains the informed consent of the consumer. £8,000 per gigabyte is unreasonable.

But they DID obtain the informed consent of the consumer.

The "hello and welcome to" texts that are sent by Orange and T-Mobile (EE) clearly spell out the roaming charges.

They even blocked the account and got the account owner to approve reactivation.

What else do you want them do to?

Clearly the charges are ludicrous but it's not like they are hidden.

Hooloovoo

spannerzone wrote: »

When I was last in the US (last October) I didn't get any 'welcome to USA' text from Tmobile (EE) so could have presumably racked up a large bill for calls or data, unless they only send the text once you start to use data?

T-Mobile don't allow you to use data at all unless you buy one of the roaming data bundles. And then access stops as soon as the bundles are expired.

That's how it should be.

No one is denying that Orange are rip-off merchants. But their charges are all clearly detailed for anyone that cares to check. If a user goes abroad and uses data without care or consideration for the cost, it's no surprise when they come home to a big bill.

NFH

Hooloovoo wrote: »

But they DID obtain the informed consent of the consumer.

It was consent but not informed consent. The user didn't understand the magnitude of the charges, partly because Orange (and other networks) misleadingly quote data roaming charges by the megabyte instead of by the gigabyte. Some networks in other countries are even more misleading, quoting data roaming charges per 10KB or 100KB in an even more extreme effort to disguise the high charges. £8,000 per gigabyte is a total rip-off and no consumer would make an informed decision to pay this much.

Hooloovoo

NFH wrote: »

It was consent but not informed consent. The user didn't understand the magnitude of the charges, partly because Orange (and other networks) misleadingly quote data roaming charges by the megabyte instead of by the gigabyte. Some networks in other countries are even more misleading, quoting data roaming charges per 10KB or 100KB in an even more extreme effort to disguise the high charges. £8,000 per gigabyte is a total rip-off and no consumer would make an informed decision to pay this much.

I acknowledge your point, but I still disagree.

If a consumer doesn't know what a GB, MB, or kB are and how they relate to each other then it's their responsibility to find out.

What do you suggest Orange do? Give a consumer a quiz on data usage to ensure they understand and are informed before activating data roaming? Clearly that's unreasonable.

They publish clear charges. That's as much as they can be expected to do.

NFH

Hooloovoo wrote: »

What do you suggest Orange do?

They should quote their non-EEA data roaming price most prominently as "£8,000 per gigabyte" and not disguise the magnitude of the charges by quoting them per megabyte or kilobyte.

Hooloovoo

NFH wrote: »

They should quote their non-EEA data roaming price most prominently as "£8,000 per gigabyte" and not disguise the magnitude of the charges by quoting them per megabyte or kilobyte.

Most people don't use anywhere near 1GB of data. They just want to send and receive a few emails etc. Quoting the rates per MB is the right thing to do.

They could always do both and quote rates per MB and GB. But then many people would probably find that even more confusing.

And if someone doesn't know that a GB will cost them (roughly) 1000x the rate quoted in MB, then they are unlikely to have any clue what the differences are anyway.

NFH

Hooloovoo wrote: »

Most people don't use anywhere near 1GB of data. They just want to send and receive a few emails etc. Quoting the rates per MB is the right thing to do.

Not true. Orange quotes many of its UK data prices by the gigabyte, because it is representative of typical quantities that people use.