A warning on massive mobile internet charges

RATM

Just giving a heads up. Last month I joined up with Jamster, mainly because they had some games I wanted that my network Meteor didnt have.
Anyway I downloaded a game and when the bar was nearly full it said 'Download Failed'. So I tried it again and again and again until on the fifth attempt it finally worked. 6 weeks later I get a bill in the door- data charges of €115 (ex.vat).
After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between Jamster and Meteor ( both were blaming each other ) I finally had the full amount credited to my account today. My argument was that I was willing to pay for the data I received but not for the other four failed attempts. The argument eventually held up and they saw sense.
The whole sorry episode wasted my time and certainly I won't be using a mobile to access the internet in the future.

As an aside the lady on the phone said it costs 2c a KB if you do not have an internet add on and that my case id far from the worst they've seen. Said that they've had people ring up with bills for over €1,000 for a months usuage becasue of the data charges.
I don't know how they are getting away with such high charges, Comreg must be in their back pockets.

graduate

This is hardly news, the data charges are listed on the various providers website.

RATM

Its also hardly news that some people don't go to the website looking for the data charges.
I'm just putting it out there for people who don't know about it, just like I didnt, in the hope that they can avoid the hassle I had to go through to sort it out.

So if you've nothing useful to add....

waraf

Yeah do your downloading at home on your wifi network if possible

towel401

in todays overregulated and EU-based society i don't understand why there isn't a limit on what these shysters can charge for a bit of data

Sam Vimes

RATM wrote: »

certainly I won't be using a mobile to access the internet in the future.

That's not necessary. One phone call can get you an add on for 250mb for e9.99. There are ways to avoid these charges, you just have to look for them

Meteor really should be more willing to budge on the charges though. These threads are very common so obviously it's an issue. O2 have the same pricing structure but they have team dedicated to sorting out these problems and they'll even phone you up of their own accord and offer to reduce the bill

chrislad

RATM wrote: »

Just giving a heads up. Last month I joined up with Jamster, mainly because they had some games I wanted that my network Meteor didnt have.
Anyway I downloaded a game and when the bar was nearly full it said 'Download Failed'. So I tried it again and again and again until on the fifth attempt it finally worked. 6 weeks later I get a bill in the door- data charges of €115 (ex.vat).
After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between Jamster and Meteor ( both were blaming each other ) I finally had the full amount credited to my account today. My argument was that I was willing to pay for the data I received but not for the other four failed attempts. The argument eventually held up and they saw sense.
The whole sorry episode wasted my time and certainly I won't be using a mobile to access the internet in the future.

As an aside the lady on the phone said it costs 2c a KB if you do not have an internet add on and that my case id far from the worst they've seen. Said that they've had people ring up with bills for over €1,000 for a months usuage becasue of the data charges.
I don't know how they are getting away with such high charges, Comreg must be in their back pockets.

They can get away with charging what they want because it's a free market.

Sam Vimes

also, make sure to send the word stop to the jamster 5 digit number or you'll be starting a thread in a few weeks about how they're taking your money

Davy

Future sticky: How to find out data pricing before you run up a huge bill :rolleyes:

Dave147

Alot of people in this thread and previous threads are completely missing the point. And the fact that the charges are up on the site are aside from that point, these charges shouldn't be there anyway.

I don't use internet on my phone anymore so I don't have anything to gain if they change or not, but I still find it sickening how they're getting away with charging this kind of money. Yet there's people here defending the charges by saying the prices are on the site. If everybody was like this we'd be completely ripped off in everything we buy. We have to stand up to these companies, soon they'll be taking over the world with these charges :P

towel401

chrislad wrote: »

They can get away with charging what they want because it's a free market.

this is not a free market, there are maximum taxi fares, maximum voice roaming charges and all sorts of other crap. the gubberment brings in all sorts of regulations to enforce prices around the place so why don't they force down the price of mobile data?

i'm surprised these muppets havn't been done for price fixing since a few short years ago all the companies used to do it and it's hard to imagine they all came up with the same extortionate prices independently.

Davy

Dave147 wrote: »

Alot of people in this thread and previous threads are completely missing the point. And the fact that the charges are up on the site are aside from that point, these charges shouldn't be there anyway.

Are you saying they should provide a service for free?

Dave147 wrote: »

I don't use internet on my phone anymore so I don't have anything to gain if they change or not, but I still find it sickening how they're getting away with charging this kind of money. Yet there's people here defending the charges by saying the prices are on the site. If everybody was like this we'd be completely ripped off in everything we buy. We have to stand up to these companies, soon they'll be taking over the world with these charges :P

They provide a service for which they charge. Its up to the person using the service to check the pricing.

towel401

Dave147 wrote: »

I don't use internet on my phone anymore so I don't have anything to gain if they change or not, but I still find it sickening how they're getting away with charging this kind of money. Yet there's people here defending the charges by saying the prices are on the site. If everybody was like this we'd be completely ripped off in everything we buy. We have to stand up to these companies, soon they'll be taking over the world with these charges :P

Most people here work for these companies, thats why.

yeah you get the odd deluded libertarian pseudo-intellectual scumbag who doesn't work for a mobile phone company standing up for them. but those are rare. unfortunately they make more than enough noise to cover up for their relative scarcity.

Random

Lads, we have a thread on this every day. It's not a new thing. Services cost money. Check the price of the service before you use it.

We've also added it into our FAQ if you've like to check out your options across the different networks.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=59526469&postcount=19

I'm closing this thread now as this discussion has been done to death and there are any number of threads here which the discussion can continue in.

If anyone has any questions or problems on this then please drop me a PM.

Thanks