Exorbitant 3G data Charges

moonwolf43

Hi, I found out two days ago that my November landline/ mobile bill had not been paid due to insufficient funds, the amount for the month was £867. 97 , I was in shock. I received the letter on Sunday so I could not Phone the Provider as they only open Mon- Fri, so I sent an email asking why I had received these charges. Monday Morning I received a Call from my Provider, who then told me that the charges were from 3G usage and came from my sons Phone, I asked how could he have spent that much money in one month and was told that the charges were high and also this was a common complaint. Before I continue I must tell you 1/ I have always paid my Bills on time and have never missed a payment.
2/ My bills are always between £95 and £120 at the very most.
3/ We have never used 3G . and it is turned off on my sons and daughters phones.
4/ My son is Autistic and did not realise he was using 3G he thought that he was on the home Wi-Fi, the 3G turned on automatically even though we had it switched off.
I was told to talk to someone on the accounts team who would sort a reasonable payment plan for me, when I spoke to the person, I was told that numerous Texts and emails had been sent to me, I had no Texts sent to my Mobile, No texts to my daughters Mobile and No Emails to me either, My son who is Autistic received Various Pop ups that he did not understand and did not tell me about until I asked him if he received anything on his Phone, he had no idea what these pop ups were and they disappeared from the screen after a few minutes. I then tried to explain that the only contact I , as the Bill Payer, had received was the letter from that Sunday, he continued to argue the fact , basically saying that I was lying.
I tried to explain my financial situation and that I could not afford to pay an extra £50 - £60 a month on top off my regular bill , I informed him that I had to go Bankrupt in 2012 due to my Ex husband taking all the money from our Family Business and leaving me to cope with it all, that I am completely Blind , Disabled and with a terminal Illness, I can no longer work due to this, so money is tight. I have two daughters at University that I also have to Support as well as my Son who is Autistic. As soon as he heard that I had gone Bankrupt he became even ruder until I just said that I wanted to put in a complaint and would contact the Ombudsman Communications section. I then put the phone down, 5 mins later I received a call from their complaints department, the man I had spoken to had put a complaint against me, I explained that I was just about to contact the Ombudsman to complain about his treatment toward me and to sort out the charges, the lady was very nice and the miraculous word Ombudsman suddenly reduced my bill to £509.97, due to my Bills starting on the 12th of every month , there were a couple of days on the December bill with data charges, I am waiting for them to put the two months together and come up with a reasonable amount to pay. I am still going to go through the Ombudsman as My son did this by accident and had no idea he was being charged, no one contacted me and I am the Bill payer. I could have nipped this in the bud if I had Known. I do receive a bill every month Via Email, I rarely look at the bill as I check my Bank Account every month and check all outgoing payments to make sure that there are no discrepancy's, so I had not been aware of the bill as yet. I would have thought that I would be contacted about something like this , I had explained many times that I struggle to use a mobile and that I only use it for emergencies and that all contact was to be through my Landline or Email[screen reader.] I also explained that the other 2 mobiles were for my children, one of whom was autistic.
My son has a 4S iPhone, I have checked everything is turned off and followed instructions from useful websites to try and prevent this from happening again, I did find lots of info on people with similar problems who although 3G was turned off on their phone they were charged for usage due to it automatically switching on without their knowledge.
I really do not know how the 3g was turned on and can not believe the amounts companies are charging people for usage, it is a scandalous amount and I really hope that something can be done to prevent any more people being caught out by this , the charges I received are the highest I have heard of and I think it is disgusting to expect us to pay for them, I am grateful to the company for at least trying to drop the cost but £509.97 is still an enormous amount to pay.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, hopefully I will reach a decent sum to pay and with luck get a refund from the provider after the Ombudsman has looked at my case.
Happy New Year
Moonwolf43

grumbler

moonwolf43 wrote: »

4/ My son is Autistic and did not realise he was using 3G he thought that he was on the home Wi-Fi, the 3G turned on automatically even though we had it switched off.

I stopped reading at this point.
Firstly, it can't "turn on automatically".
Secondly, one must be very naive to believe that a boy can't switch 3g on accidentally or intentionally.
Only adults are allowed to have mobile contracts for a reason, and reasonable parents, when giving smartphones to their children, make sure that it's either PAYG or a capped contract. Do you give him your bank card(s) too?

BTW, even after all your research you seem to not understand that switching 3g off doesn't switch mobile data off. Mobile data connection works on 2g too, although the speed will be much lower.