Meteor GPRS Overcharging - unbelievable €1.30 A MINUTE!

forumdedum

On Friday 20th March i went online with my mobile phone to buy U2 tickets from ticketmaster.ie. I was 90 minutes waiting for the page to load.
Last week I received a text from Meteor saying my GPRS charges had exceed €50. Amazed, i telephoned customer care only to be told they were in fact €112!

The Meteor Rep said the charges were 2cent per KB. However i am unable to find anywhere on either the meteor.ie website or my bill what these Edge/GPRS rates are. There was absolutely no indication that i would be charged €112 for waiting 90 minutes for www.ticketmaster.ie to load a page so i could purchase concert tickets.

I have been a long time loyal customer of Meteor. Do meteor really want to lose a customer who always pays on time for the last 5+ years?

One rep said i must be watching films. I NEVER use wap/gprs and never watch films or download ringtones etc. It was the 1st time and i only used it because i was on a train and had no internet access other than my phone.

2 members of Meteor staff “it should be advertised better”

IS IT €1.30 A MINUTE TO USE GPRS WITH METEOR?

penexpers

forumdedum wrote: »

The Meteor Rep said the charges were 2cent per KB. However i am unable to find anywhere on either the meteor.ie website or my bill what these Edge/GPRS rates are.

http://www.meteor.ie/plans/bill_pay/price_plans/other_costs/

run_Forrest_run

forumdedum wrote: »

IS IT €1.30 A MINUTE TO USE GPRS WITH METEOR?

I'm not too savvy with the cost of internet usage but I think phone companies charge for their GPRS services based on the volume of data transferred. Maybe start by finding out how much data was transferred and query them on their data charges.

...sorry, ignore all the above, I have just read your post properly!

Cabaal

GPRS charges are based on Data Transfered NOT time used, if you are not subscribed to a data bundle then you should not have just assumed that GPRS usage would not cost you much.

Basically bottom line is you assumed it wouldn't cost you much and then you got caught out, Meteor advertise their prices very clearly on their website and customers can easily add a data bundle to their plan without much work at all either on-line or over the phone.

If you had a concern about using GPRS and any costs about it you should have called Meteor, charges like these are standard across the likes of O2 and Vodafone as well.

forumdedum

Fair enough, charges found. Do you not think this is a complete rip off? Waiting for a single page to load? It was the ticketmaster page with the spinning wheel.

Nerin

forumdedum wrote: »

Fair enough, charges found. Do you not think this is a complete rip off?

No.
Afaik,its always been 2c per kb. I remember when i got my first wap phone credit would disappear at the click of your fingers.
Now i'm on the 50mbs a day plan,and i'm happy enough.
I don't use it much since i got my broadband dongle though.

mp3guy

With Pay As You Go, it's 99c for up to 50mb in one day.

foggy_lad

if you are using the older dial up system you should have been charged 9cent per minute or approximatly €8.10 for 90minutes or if using the normal 2cent/kb service you were probably charged due to the information for ticketmaster being resent over and over again for 90minutes which(depending on the size of ticketmaster site) could easily add up to €50+

Cabaal

I'm on a 250MB dataplan for 9.99e a month, not used more then 60MB so far in a month

OP, sure its a ripp-off but its been that way for years and there are better plans/options available now, you can reduce charges alittle on the old GPRS plans by turning off images but any images loaded will jack up the prices like mad

deepriver

forumdedum wrote: »

Fair enough, charges found. Do you not think this is a complete rip off? Waiting for a single page to load? It was the ticketmaster page with the spinning wheel.

GPRS charges are made on data packets, WAP which was replaced by GPRS made charges on call duration, so a bit of confusion there

however, the average mobile internet page is about 26 - 56kb in size and if you only accessed it once over GPRS should be a charge of about 50 - 100 cents, it sounds like you accessed the page about 100 times, if the assumption is you didnt access any other mobile pages

I have queried items on my Meteor bill before to find they were incorrect and adjusted. If this is the case ask to speak to a manager as a CSR will only feed you the company line about standard GPRS rates

112 euro for internet is daylight robbery and exactly why these firms are coming into heavy regulation from the EU

I definetely wouldnt lie back on that charge... move to 3 if you dont get a resolution they offer much keener internet access charges

Dave147

Same thing happened to me, except my charge was 400 euro, I went 30mb over my 250mb data bundle, Meteor wouldnt budge on my LITTLE indiscretion so I left meteor (2 numbers), my brother left, my sister left, my brother's girlfriend left and several friends. All you can do is pass on your experience to people and damage their reputation as much as you possibly can.

I wouldn't have left if they decided to reduce the charge to 100 euro or something, it is absolute extortion and you have these muppets on this thread advocating it "because it has the charges on the site, and you should have checked". Who the **** cares if the charges are there, it's still a complete rip off and it should be regulated. I hope they ****ing burn to the ground tbh.

Nerin

Dave147 wrote: »

Same thing happened to me, except my charge was 400 euro, I went 30mb over my 250mb data bundle, Meteor wouldnt budge on my LITTLE indiscretion so I left meteor (2 numbers), my brother left, my sister left, my brother's girlfriend left and several friends. All you can do is pass on your experience to people and damage their reputation as much as you possibly can.

I wouldn't have left if they decided to reduce the charge to 100 euro or something, it is absolute extortion and you have these muppets on this thread advocating it "because it has the charges on the site, and you should have checked". Who the **** cares if the charges are there, it's still a complete rip off and it should be regulated. I hope they ****ing burn to the ground tbh.

?
Wait,so you knew the charges/price plan you were on,still went over it,and still you want them to "burn to the ground"?

Sam Vimes

deepriver wrote: »

GPRS charges are made on data packets, WAP which was replaced by GPRS made charges on call duration, so a bit of confusion there

however, the average mobile internet page is about 26 - 56kb in size and if you only accessed it once over GPRS should be a charge of about 50 - 100 cents, it sounds like you accessed the page about 100 times, if the assumption is you didnt access any other mobile pages

I have queried items on my Meteor bill before to find they were incorrect and adjusted. If this is the case ask to speak to a manager as a CSR will only feed you the company line about standard GPRS rates

112 euro for internet is daylight robbery and exactly why these firms are coming into heavy regulation from the EU

I definetely wouldnt lie back on that charge... move to 3 if you dont get a resolution they offer much keener internet access charges

Meteor also have much keener internet access options than the OP used

JDxtra

The data charges for those not on a plan are nothing short of being a scam to extort money out of as many mobile users as possible. How is any non tech going to know how many KB a web page would be? They dont! All they know is they may have been stung for a few euro (if lucky) in the past for using the internet, and so now avoid it like the plague.

Dave147

Nerin wrote: »

?
Wait,so you knew the charges/price plan you were on,still went over it,and still you want them to "burn to the ground"?

Read the post properly. I obviously didn't go 30mb over on purpose. I didn't know what kind of charges they had, but I knew they were expensive, I was on bill pay and got the 9.99 bundle so I could use the internet. I went 30mb over in the whole month and got a phone call at the end of the month informing me of this and the price.

I hope Meteor burns to the ground, horrible company to deal with, nobody you ring has a clue about anything and they're useless for getting back to you. I've dealt with them and know this first hand, no point arguing with me, I was a customer of theirs for about 6 years, never missed a bill and it was always around 120 a month, thats 1440 * 6 = circa 9k.

Nerin

JDxtra wrote: »

The data charges for those not on a plan are nothing short of being a scam to extort money out of as many mobile users as possible. How is any non tech going to know how many KB a web page would be? They dont! All they know is they may have been stung for a few euro (if lucky) in the past for using the internet, and so now avoid it like the plague.

How is that any networks problem? its not Devores fault that people come on boards and dont bother reading stickies, it isn't 3s fault customers dont know how to see how many kbs a page has.
Opera is coming pre installed on more mobiles now (which is great) and shows you as it loads how many kbs are being loaded.

Dave147 wrote: »

Read the post properly. I obviously didn't go 30mb over on purpose. I didn't know what kind of charges they had, but I knew they were expensive, I was on bill pay and got the 9.99 bundle so I could use the internet. I went 30mb over in the whole month and got a phone call at the end of the month informing me of this and the price.

I hope Meteor burns to the ground, horrible company to deal with, nobody you ring has a clue about anything and they're useless for getting back to you. I've dealt with them and know this first hand, no point arguing with me, I was a customer of theirs for about 6 years, never missed a bill and it was always around 120 a month, thats 1440 * 6 = circa 9k.

and what? you want violin music? it isnt their fault you went over by 30 mbs, you are the only one responsible for your actions.

thats lovely. how many people do you want to die in that imaginary fire?(that you want to happen just because YOU made a mistake and were charged for)
Ive been a customer of theres for about 5 years (maybe 6). i originally switched from vodafone (who i felt were terrible, at least at the time i was dealing with them) because meteor had free texts to other meteor numbers, and my friends mostly used meteor.

Of course, ive had problems with them (most recently when the net disappeared for a few weeks and theyd no idea why). not as bad imo as previous network i was on, and a damn lot more friendly.

Dave147

Nerin wrote: »

How is that any networks problem? its not Devores fault that people come on boards and dont bother reading stickies, it isn't 3s fault customers dont know how to see how many kbs a page has.
Opera is coming pre installed on more mobiles now (which is great) and shows you as it loads how many kbs are being loaded.



and what? you want violin music? it isnt their fault you went over by 30 mbs, you are the only one responsible for your actions.

thats lovely. how many people do you want to die in that imaginary fire?(that you want to happen just because YOU made a mistake and were charged for)
Ive been a customer of theres for about 5 years (maybe 6). i originally switched from vodafone (who i felt were terrible, at least at the time i was dealing with them) because meteor had free texts to other meteor numbers, and my friends mostly used meteor.

Of course, ive had problems with them (most recently when the net disappeared for a few weeks and theyd no idea why). not as bad imo as previous network i was on, and a damn lot more friendly.

No **** Captain Obvious. That doesn't justify the AMOUNT they charge for going over the limit. Are you working in this industry or something, I don't see why you're so blindly defending Meteor. Most unprofessional mobile company around, the net disappeared for a few weeks and they had no idea why, kudos on that one Meteor!

I'll explain my point one more time and hopefully it will end this argument. I don't feel they are responsible for me going over 30mb, I should have checked the charges (note: I already knew it was pretty expensive). However, that still doesn't change the fact that they ripped me off, plain and simple it's extortion - if you want to disagree with that then.. then... Jesus I don't know. Are we in some sort of semi-agreement here?

Also, me wanting Meteor to burn down, not in the literal sense... What made you think that? Are you 12?

Sam Vimes

Extortion is where you force someone to give you money. Did they force you to use the internet?

Dave147

Or when you unlawfully obtain money, and I'd hope that in the future there are laws against these charges. So I'll call it extortion-in-advance.

Sam Vimes

Dave147 wrote: »

Or when you unlawfully obtain money, and I'd hope that in the future there are laws against these charges. So I'll call it extortion-in-advance.

I'd hope that these prices are gone in the future too, they're kind of ridiculous. But it's not extortion. You used a service and you paid the price. The prices of mobile internet are not regulated so they could charge 1 million a byte if they want because they're not forcing anyone to use it

Nerin

Dave147 wrote: »

No **** Captain Obvious. That doesn't justify the AMOUNT they charge for going over the limit. Are you working in this industry or something, I don't see why you're so blindly defending Meteor. Most unprofessional mobile company around, the net disappeared for a few weeks and they had no idea why, kudos on that one Meteor!

im starting to see why you dont want people arguing with you, you cant respond without getting ridiculously angry.
nope, i dont work for "the industry" but im not stupid, i read my terms and conditions, i know what im being charged, and why. and if i make a mistake, its my problem.
i would have thought 3 was, given the amount of complaints ive seen online and from friends. im not blindly defending them, im giving my opinions on this (this is a public forum btw) and ive found meteor to be grand for me.
yup, i was really annoyed i was without the net for so long. a friend that knew stuff about networks reckoned they were updating masts or something, i didnt understand how meteor customer care didnt know. but its not a life or death situation, the world didnt end.

I'll explain my point one more time and hopefully it will end this argument. I don't feel they are responsible for me going over 30mb, I should have checked the charges (note: I already knew it was pretty expensive). However, that still doesn't change the fact that they ripped me off, plain and simple it's extortion - if you want to disagree with that then.. then... Jesus I don't know. Are we in some sort of semi-agreement here?

nope, its still not a networks fault. i agree that all networks mobile net charges are expensive, and id like to see the prices come down, but just because you werent careful and got charged for it does not mean its any networks fault. its your own fault for not keeping tabs.

Also, me wanting Meteor to burn down, not in the literal sense... What made you think that? Are you 12?

you said:

I hope Meteor burns to the ground,

I hope they ****ing burn to the ground tbh.

your words not mine

Nerin

1. The act or an instance of extorting.
2. Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage.
3. An excessive or exorbitant charge.
4. Something extorted.

(excessive charge, well maybe. i agree that the charges are high (on every network, and look forward to legislation that will change this, but again, you knew the charges)

or

1. Gaining something of value by threatening or inflicting harm on a person or property. Blackmail is a type of extortion.

2. Protection in a criminal sense.

3. A Mobb Deep track (Hell on Earth) featuring Method Man.

Dave147 wrote: »

Or when you unlawfully obtain money, and I'd hope that in the future there are laws against these charges. So I'll call it extortion-in-advance.

how is your mistake and them charging you for it unlawful?

Dave147

I think we're going around in circles here, I'm certainly not angry, I'm actually on my laptop about to watch the Snooker and I'm in a very good mood, I'm sorry if I come across as angry. But there's a difference between being angry and being passionate about something, and I already said the fact I went over by 30mb is my responsibility, however Meteor and other companies should have a responsibility (probably would have to be forced) to not rip customers off. After all, we are customers - you are supposed to keep them happy so they stay your customers, not rip them off over something vague.

Now, while this is an argument of sorts maybe I came off a little harsh, I do that sometimes but I'm really a nice guy who feels he's been ****ed over by another greedy company. So apologies for that.

Other than that I think it's just two differing opinions we have on certain aspects but I hope we can agree that being charged 400 euro regardless on what I knew or didn't know is wrong no matter what.

Regards

Cabaal

Dave147 wrote: »

Read the post properly. I obviously didn't go 30mb over on purpose. I didn't know what kind of charges they had, but I knew they were expensive,.

So your pissed off because you got things wrong and you think Meteor should allow this, Meteor did nothing wrong...they clearly displayed prices and you didn't bother to read them.

30MB is a fair amount of data to go over a bundle like the 250MB plan, especially given you can easily track this usage on-line or by calling them at any time.

Sure Meteor stuck to their guns but I have to say I fully understand why they did, it doesn't make them wrong or evil

Cabaal

Dave147 wrote: »

Or when you unlawfully obtain money, and I'd hope that in the future there are laws against these charges. So I'll call it extortion-in-advance.

how did they now?
You signed up to the Meteor service and agreed to its Terms & Conditions, like anyone out there I hope you actually bothered to read these before hand.

So you give them your payment details and agree to Meteors rules and then complain when you get charged extra in accordance with the rules and now you want Meteor to break the rules?

If Meteor broke their rules and it affected you in a negative way you'd most likely be the first to complain.

We all know that the prices are expensive but they are for Vodafone and O2 as well, that however does not mean that meteor did anything unlawful or criminal in anyway, they didn't and infact they did nothing wrong according to the rules (T&C's) you agreed to with them.

If you didn't like Meteor's T&C's you shouldn't have agreed to them in the first place, this goes for any product and/or service from ANY company

Dave147

Cabaal wrote: »

So your pissed off because you got things wrong and you think Meteor should allow this, Meteor did nothing wrong...they clearly displayed prices and you didn't bother to read them.

30MB is a fair amount of data to go over a bundle like the 250MB plan, especially given you can easily track this usage on-line or by calling them at any time.

Sure Meteor stuck to their guns but I have to say I fully understand why they did, it doesn't make them wrong or evil

I don't think there's any point in me responding to this post other than me saying I'm not going to respond.

Dave147

Cabaal wrote: »

how did they now?
You signed up to the Meteor service and agreed to its Terms & Conditions, like anyone out there I hope you actually bothered to read these before hand.

So you give them your payment details and agree to Meteors rules and then complain when you get charged extra in accordance with the rules and now you want Meteor to break the rules?

If Meteor broke their rules and it affected you in a negative way you'd most likely be the first to complain.

We all know that the prices are expensive but they are for Vodafone and O2 as well, that however does not mean that meteor did anything unlawful or criminal in anyway, they didn't and infact they did nothing wrong according to the rules (T&C's) you agreed to with them.

If you didn't like Meteor's T&C's you shouldn't have agreed to them in the first place, this goes for any product and/or service from ANY company

Random

I hate these threads. Every 20 mins somebody "realises". Fair enough, the prices are a rip off but check before you use a service.

I really do feel there should be some way to limit usage, cap bills etc, but there isn't so we have to live with it.

As for Ticketmaster "waiting to load a page". This isn't what was happening. The Ticketmaster pages keeps refreshing constantly while it searches for tickets / availability for you so you were constantly using the connection for this whole time.

Nerin

Dave147 wrote: »

I think we're going around in circles here, I'm certainly not angry, I'm actually on my laptop about to watch the Snooker and I'm in a very good mood, I'm sorry if I come across as angry. But there's a difference between being angry and being passionate about something,

i agree, and i see were you are coming from, but getting pissy at someone who doesnt agree with you hardly helps your argument. i think its unfortunate you went over,and i feel sorry for anyone that has to pay so much, and ive already said id like the charges to be lowered.

and I already said the fact I went over by 30mb is my responsibility, however Meteor and other companies should have a responsibility (probably would have to be forced) to not rip customers off. After all, we are customers - you are supposed to keep them happy so they stay your customers, not rip them off over something vague.

ok- i'll go into this. i think companies should call you and say hey, are you aware you have gone over by so much? i think thatd be great. but what you arent seeing is that they dont have to, (at the moment), so it isnt ripping you off, companies generally dont do things unless they have to.
i also dont believe they were being vague, its written there for all to see.

Now, while this is an argument of sorts maybe I came off a little harsh, I do that sometimes but I'm really a nice guy who feels he's been ****ed over by another greedy company. So apologies for that.

no worries, internets = serious business

Other than that I think it's just two differing opinions we have on certain aspects but I hope we can agree that being charged 400 euro regardless on what I knew or didn't know is wrong no matter what.

i will agree that 400 euros is alot, and it isnt nice.
i cant agree though that its wrong. they are well within their rights to do so, and thats it.
unless new legislation came in(which would be extremely welcomed), and they were trying to be sneaky, i cant agree that its wrong. it sucks, yes, but it isnt wrong, or illegal.

Cabaal

Dave147, clearly you did respond...twice in fact in a very 5 year old way.... :rolleyes:

Its nice when people lash out because they foolishly assume that they are right or know better and then they get nailed for a 400e bill.
:pac:

foggy_lad

just re-read the op's post and he mentions being on a train when this usage accrued and i am wondering if that may have caused some issue when switching between cells? i know before with three there was issues with texts being sent hundreds of times when the sender was at the edge of the cell area, maybe there was a technical glitch?

your best bet is to write to meteor asking them to investigate the charge as you feel there was some error or discrepancy with it at least this way it should be passed on to someone in tech who will actually look at it instead of simply reading from the meteor handbook.