Vodafone 'Unlimited' Stings BB Customer for €37k in one Month

Sponge Bob

Now he expects Vodafone to "Take a Sensible Approach"

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/27/massive_vodafone_uk_mobile_data_bill/

Remember that this happened in a country with a proper telecoms regulator and not in this god forsaken unregulated sh1tehole of a country.

Ian Simpson, a factory worker from Darlington, Yorkshire downloaded TV programmes onto his laptop using his mobile phone as a modem - and racked up charges of £27,322 in just one month. He says he may go bankrupt unless Vodafone "takes a sensible approach" to his bill.

Simpson thought he had an all-you can eat deal for unlimited web use and "probably" downloaded 20-30 TV shows and four albums. But his £41.50 per month contract maxed out at 120 megabytes of downloads per month, enough for most users, Vodafone says. "Few customers exceed the fair usage. But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately," a spokesman told The Mirror.

Now I am sure that Ofcom will be of some assistance to a customer who took out an "Unlimited" package and will stop Voda taking the piss .

So Simpson was on the wrong package and cannot be accused of acting intelligently in this matter. But his phone bill illustrates the outrageous expense of mobile data - downloads were priced at up to £18 per minute.


Warning bells should have sounded sooner at Vodafone, which cut Simpson off four weeks into his download spree. In its defence, Voda told The Mirror that "the intensity of Ian's downloading was such that by the time our systems flagged anything up he had already racked up a massive bill".


The company will "try to come to some sympathetic arrangement" with Simpson. And it advises its customers to "never use a mobile as a modem".
This month, a Canadian man ran up an $85,000 bill, for also using his mobe as a PC modem. Bell Canada showed mercy and reduced charges to $3,243, which it based on "the best data plan available for using cellphones as a modem".

Better cancel that DD fairly sharpish if your name is Ian . The banks are open tomorrow.

MrJoeSoap

Mate of mine got a €4k bill in October for pretty much the same.

Guy:Incognito

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Now I am sure that Ofcom will be of some assistance to a customer who took out an "Unlimited" package and will stop Voda taking the piss .

.

Well any case that finds in favour of the customer will just lead to everyone being given a fixed cap on broadband. As far as I can gather from reading on here , most companies operate a fair usage policy as opposed to specific caps, and I think meteor mention it in relation to the free meteor to metoer calls/texts.

If every company uses fair usage, I'd assume it's well above board. Only a gob****e would use a mobile as their main source of net access , especially if you are downloadign a crap load of stuff.

daniel3982

haha I know this guy, it was from downloading heroes that he got screwed.... see here:

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=269188&highlight=heroes+vodafone+mobile+download

Cabaal

So not only did he download copyright material he also didn't read the T&C's of his contract, I only have some pity for the chap.....I think Vodafone would be very nice about it if they dropped the bill to 1-2k, I don't believe they should wipe the whole bill.

However I do believe Vodafone should notify customers when they go over there cap, and after that when they hit certain set amounts....it would avoid situations like this and it would also help them cover themselfs against people being thick like this

watty

It's time Mobile Phone companies are regulated properly. It's daft that they can charge 10,000s times more for the same cost to them depending on the contract / sim.

If you use the SIM you got with USB/PCMCIA/Express card modem in your phone, the phone can be used as a modem at same price as the standalone modem.

The problem is the attitude of the phone companies. People who don't read contracts very carefully are going to be caught.

Also your "data modem" may go very expensive if it picks up cross boarder masts in UK/Ireland or UK/France etc.

Red Alert

Why are they permitted call it 'unlimited' if there's a cap? Seems a bit odd doesn't it! If I buy a Monthly bus ticket I'm quite entitled to get up in the morning and ride around on buses all day on it - just because they plan for probably a max of four journeys a day doesn't stop you using it continuously.

foggy_lad

regardless of this guy obviously being a bit thick using phone as modem, should vodafone not be obliged to inform all customers either by phone or text(their main business) if they have exceeded their fair usage/monthly limit/cap?

with pre-pay if a provider allows a customer to use any service exceeding a specified limit without informing the customer, then they can not charge for the excess usage as the customer cant be charged for a service they believe to be covered by data add-ons/free minutes/texts etc

smellslikeshoes

This fair usage rubbish should be done away with, Its either unlimited or its not.
Especially since what companies consider fair usage could vary hugely.

mrDuke

Unlimited broadand access means unlimited, what sort of world are we living in regardless wether it was a mobile phone or not.

flamegrill

One wonders are the packets sent via your mobile phone gold plated? Considering you can get a 10GB 3G package that uses a USB dongle or a pcmcia card for less than 50 euro a month.

Why THE HELL are the packages for mobiles so ludicrously priced? It's like 5 euro a mega byte over the monthly allowance. MADNESS.

If the guy was using 3G then vodafone should apply the 3G card/pcmcia pricing to his bill and slap him on the wrist. It didn't cost them 30k sterling to deliver the packets, no where near a thousand of a percent of that even.

Vodafone, sort yer ****e out pls.