Mysteriously huge vodafone bill

jayzusb.christ

Hi, can anybody help me? I'm panicking here. I got vodafone wireless a couple of weeks ago; it's €15 a month for the first few months then goes up to €25, with i think 2c for every extra megabyte downloaded. I just received my bill, and it's something like €1200. One particular night, it has come to over €900 in about 7 hours. all i downloaded that night was i-tunes, as far as i remember, i never downloaded movies or anything similar; in fact i think i only got the wireless add-on earlier that day and spent the night looking mainly at youtube and the South Park site.

I am going to the vodafone shop tomorrow to see what the story is, but in the meantime does anyone know how this could have happened? is it possible for outside parties to 'force' downloads onto your computer, or could i have downloaded something by accident? I am very worried, i just can't pay that kind of money by direct debit.

seamus

jayzusb.christ wrote: »

does anyone know how this could have happened?

all i downloaded that night was i-tunes....spent the night looking mainly at youtube and the South Park site.

Your most likely culprit. Youtube and South Park videos aren't light on bandwidth. Neither is music. You should be able to get your usage itemised (afaik), so that should show exactly where you went over.

GerardKeating

jayzusb.christ wrote: »

Hi, can anybody help me? I'm panicking here. I got vodafone wireless a couple of weeks ago; it's €15 a month for the first few months then goes up to €25, with i think 2c for every extra megabyte downloaded. I just received my bill, and it's something like €1200. One particular night, it has come to over €900 in about 7 hours. all i downloaded that night was i-tunes, as far as i remember, i never downloaded movies or anything similar; in fact i think i only got the wireless add-on earlier that day and spent the night looking mainly at youtube and the South Park site.

I am going to the vodafone shop tomorrow to see what the story is, but in the meantime does anyone know how this could have happened? is it possible for outside parties to 'force' downloads onto your computer, or could i have downloaded something by accident? I am very worried, i just can't pay that kind of money by direct debit.

Are you online with a PDA/Phone or a computer, if Computer, is it Windoze and do/did you have Windows Update on ???

leeroybrown

Lots of people who get mobile broadband solutions get landed with a nasty bill before they realise how expensive it can be. I think the standard package is 5GB plus €0.02/MB thereafter. Online video clips will chew up bandwidth very quickly.

What's strange here is how you could run up €900 in seven hours. €900 at €0.02/MB is almost 44GB. I wouldn't be able to pull down 44GB on my 20Mbit broadband in seven hours let alone manage to do it on a 3G modem.

Saruman

To get €900 in one night, he would have had to download 44.5gb? My maths may be wrong on this though.
Oh i see leeroy already worked that out

brickmaster

leeroybrown wrote: »

What's strange here is how you could run up €900 in seven hours. €900 at €0.02/MB is almost 44GB. I wouldn't be able to pull down 44GB on my 20Mbit broadband in seven hours let alone manage to do it on a 3G modem.

Agreed! Its not possible to download that much in seven hours on a 3G Modem. There has been a problem with your bill.

leeroybrown

It just doesn't make sense. A €1200 bill would equate to approx 60GB. I have a Vodafone 3G modem that I use for occasional work purposes and I wouldn't want to have to use it for 6GB a month let alone 60GB.

I've come across cases before where the data usage 'recorded' by the telco can be ten times higher than the total downloaded data.

The OP should hold their ground with Vodafone and refuse to pay the bill. These devices have a theoretical maximum download speed of 3.6Mbit (1.6GB/hour absolute max) so don't be fobbed off by any of their crap.

dub45

With a bill like that there is really no much point in posting here. Get on to Vodafone immediately (the shops are only agents for them) Ask them how you could have accumulated so much so fast. An isp really should have some warning mechanism when charges are mounting so quickly but the most important thing is to act immediately. No matter what anyone may speculate here it is not going to help you one iota. Contact Vodafone immediately.

seamus

leeroybrown wrote: »

It just doesn't make sense. A €1200 bill would equate to approx 60GB.

You're right, I didn't even see the statement about €900 for one day. That would equate to a line close to 20Mbit downloading solidly for those 7 hours.

Sounds like it's possible that because it was the first day, the account wasn't set up right, and he was charged at a different rate (standard charge?).

The standard rate is 2c/KB, which is 45MB, which sounds more likely...

jor el

jayzusb.christ wrote: »

in fact i think i only got the wireless add-on earlier that day

When you say add-on, do you mean you bought a mobile Internet add-on for you phone, or did you actually get mobile broadband?

I don't see how you could possibly mount up that much charge, particularly on your first day, with the mobile broadband. The Mobile Internet however, has a limit of 50MB per day, and then charges 2c per kB after that. 45MB of download, over your 50MB allowance, would amount to about 900 euro on that package. A total of 100MB in 7 hours, this could be done quite easily on youtube and iTunes, even with relatively little use.

You need to ring Vodafone customer care, going to the shop will be a waste of time. Find out exactly what you bought, and what exactly the charges are for. Anything else is pure speculation, but as said by others, do it now.

dunworth1

seamus wrote: »

The standard rate is 2c/KB, which is 45MB, which sounds more likely...

Holy crap that much for 45MB.

if i had that i would be bankrupt

jayzusb.christ

quote: 'Sounds like it's possible that because it was the first day, the account wasn't set up right, and he was charged at a different rate (standard charge?).'

I've since checked it out with Vodafone, and you're dead right - it was vodafone's mistake. The actual bill was €17. Still a little bit over my limit at the moment but €1211 less than i was informed. Apparently its happened to new customers in the past. The relief is tremendous.

Thanks a million for your help, everyone, much appreciated. (except maybe the first response which made me despair of my home and savings, given the amount of South Park and Youtube i've watched since the billing date! no probs though, no harm done)

Saruman

Glad to hear it.

jayzusb.christ

Cheers, not as glad as i am though! It is actually 2c per Megabyte, not per K. Thank the lord for that!
Apologies to seamus, by the way, i see you were the one who actually worked out what had happened later after your first response. So, thanks to yourself too!

seamus

jayzusb.christ wrote: »

(except maybe the first response which made me despair of my home and savings, given the amount of South Park and Youtube i've watched since the billing date! no probs though, no harm done)

Sorry, my bad

jayzusb.christ

No worries, mate, as i said you were also the man who diagnosed the problem