Man uses mobile as modem, rings up £27k phone bill

Galen

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

By Drew Cullen [More by this author]
27th December 2007 22:13 GMT
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We are indebted to The Mirror for the latest example of mobile data charging madness, this time in England.
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.
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". ®

mrDuke

Holy MoFO

Creamy Goodness

got to love this bit.

"But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately," a spokesman told The Mirror."

accensi0n

Cremo wrote: »

got to love this bit.

"But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately," a spokesman told The Mirror."

Yeah, considering this bit, "downloaded 20-30 TV shows and four albums".

seamus

:rolleyes: Stupid people. No-one to blame but himself really.

This is one of those things where the system designer thinks "Shure nobody would do that" and then two months later someone goes and does just that. They should (and probably have now) put in an opt-out system that cuts you off after £1000.

I would imagine the delay of 30 days before noticing it coincides with billing cycles. Some monkey ran a billing cycle and this guy popped out top of the large bills list. Then people spent a day running around trying to verify if this was real or a glitch before cutting him off.

pickarooney

He just needs RIAA to come along and stick the boot in for the downloaded albums!