Help with bill of £2,300

user051105

Now this is unbelieveable, but I am not surprised by Vodafone's attitude they not my favourite supplier.

I would be interested to know what handset he has if its a 3g handset running the fastest download speeds it would be easy to download 766mb in 3 weeks but if he only has a 2g handset then the internet function would be very slow and would need to be downloading 24/7 to download anywhere near that amount of data.

Get him to request a full itemised bill for the period, they may charge you £1.50 for this and it will show every time he connected and how long he was on for and if for example he's asleep when it reckons theres downloads, tell vodafone or get help from OFCOM.

I wish you and your son the best of luck.

Old_Gold

imagine123 wrote: »

I have spoken to trading standards who state that if son has used the service he is liable for the debt, no help there.... This forum is my last hope... is there anyone out there who has had a similar problem, any suggestions on how I can tackle this successfully... any such help would be much appreciated.:rolleyes:

If Trading Standards take such a passive attitude to this situation then it is not surprising that the Communication companies can use the tactics they do to extort money. The companies should have a responsibility of fairness and inform their customers of the contract. Cigarettes have a warning clearly on the packet not hidden in some t&c. It is not reasonable to expect normal people to take in the t&c in the form they usually are. Trading Standards should be there to protect us from sharp practices. I would go back to TS and I agree with another poster go to some consumer programme or the like. The Daily Express might be a good bet. Complain to your MP.
What a story. £2000 in three months. That should grab headlines and if nothing else I would not like to be Vodafone if someone decides to make it headline news.

Jazzyjeff_2

I think an important point to note also is that whereas calling costs the operator money, data is extremely cheap and £3 per mb is extortionate when three charge £5 for unlimited. I'm sure if the OP could get some publicity they may suddenly make a goodwill gesture, as after all its £2,300 of free money for the cost of a few quid max.

imagine123

Old_Gold wrote: »

What a story. £2000 in three months. That should grab headlines and if nothing else I would not like to be Vodafone if someone decides to make it headline news.

No you have misread my original post.... it was in 3 WEEKS not 3 months:eek:

michaels

I think you should find out what data bundles voda do offer and suggest that your son switches to one of these and that they back date it to include the first months usage - afterall with the data bundles they are willing to selll that much data for a much lower price so it would seem unfair that they want to charge so much more just because the bundle was not purchased

anishluv

If you don't mind can I have your son's handset make and model no.? There would be an option in the settings that shows data sent/received. Trust me its fairly believable such an amount of data downloaded without a pinch of idea even.

stacey21_2

I'm not sure getting an itemised bill will help much either. On our billing system (o2), some of our data is downloaded at a certain time every day. So, he could have been browsing at 12pm, then logged off and again at 3pm, then logged off and back on at 5pm for example and d/l x amount of data. The phone then connects at say, 00:01 and downloads all the data for that day. I've had many people calling saying 'But I was sleeping' - that doesn't matter, its the days usage being tallied up into one lump download.

stacey21_2

harveybobbles wrote: »

I know with 02 if you cancel your direct debit and phone up to make a payment, you can make a "minimum payment" - bit like on a credit card. so you can budget for a few months...

Please can people note ONLY to do this if you have agreed to place your account into 'query'. If you have a bill for say, £100, and you cancel the direct debit and make a payment of £50, the other £50 will show as being defaulted for one month (or the amount of months it takes to clear it). If the account is in query it is 'held' and not recorded.

espresso

anishluv wrote: »

If you don't mind can I have your son's handset make and model no.? There would be an option in the settings that shows data sent/received. Trust me its fairly believable such an amount of data downloaded without a pinch of idea even.

Not necessarily, as handsets supplied by the likes of Vodafone, Orange often have the data counters option removed from the menu as part of the customisation.

Kilty_2

stacey21 wrote: »

I'm not sure getting an itemised bill will help much either. On our billing system (o2), some of our data is downloaded at a certain time every day. So, he could have been browsing at 12pm, then logged off and again at 3pm, then logged off and back on at 5pm for example and d/l x amount of data. The phone then connects at say, 00:01 and downloads all the data for that day. I've had many people calling saying 'But I was sleeping' - that doesn't matter, its the days usage being tallied up into one lump download.

Why do they do this when they can bill instantly on PAYG for data? (and I assume produce an itemised report of usage if requested)