Another Meteor Data Overcharging

godtabh

Was on the phone to them to release my phone from roaming.

The lad on the phone was going through the motions and says oh do you use the internet much. I said yeah I've the hero it uses a bit of data alright. He says about €700 so far this month.

Bollox to that. I signed up to the 250mb add on when I signed up. Told first month was free and I'd be charged after that. I've had 2 bills since and they have all been what I expected (approx €30) so never suspected anything.

Was told that it would be capped at €50. I said **** that I'm not paying anything over €5. I haven't exceeded the 250mb and wont be paying any more for it. The operator told me to give them a call when I get my bill

What a joke. Seems common. How have people found them?

JackKelly

yea I got done for 903E last month. Rang up meteor and the lady said it would be fine, I would be charged the normal 5E.

drunkmonkey

godtabh wrote: »

Was told that it would be capped at €50. I said **** that I'm not paying anything over €5. I haven't exceeded the 250mb and wont be paying any more for it. The operator told me to give them a call when I get my bill

What a joke. Seems common. How have people found them?

billing mistakes will happen, be cool, sit tight until you get you bill, give them a call when it arrives and see what they'll do for you..be friendly;)

godtabh

Surelly a bill that large would have got flagged before it got that big?

My two bills before hand were less then €35.

If that was my creidt card and it had the same usage spike i'd know about it early enough

radiospan

Are those huge bills showing up on mymeteor.ie? Or just in the bill thats posted out?

godtabh

plazzTT wrote: »

Are those huge bills showing up on mymeteor.ie? Or just in the bill thats posted out?

I only checked mymeteor yesterday and its there

I think the thing that is pissing me off the most was that I was told not to use any data until my add on kicked in (9th of April) so whats the point having a Hero?

Meteor: Glynn

Hi everyone

I work for Meteor and I am pleased to say that we are fully signed up to the EU rules re capping data charging. Unfortunately if you look at your usage on MyMeteor it may look like you will get a higher than expected bill, but our systems only allow the discount to be applied at the end when we are preparing your actual bill. So the good news is you should never get charged more than €50 plus VAT in the month, but this will only be evident when you get your bill. If you are at all worried pls call us on 1905.

Glynn from Meteor

godtabh

The issue still isnt resolved despite many calls to meteor,

The bill was capped at €60 but that is not the point. I had signed up to a 250mb at €5 per month.

I am not going to be charged over and above that despite several calls and what not.

This must be breach of contract? I'm half thinking of only paying the amount I owe (i.e my tariff + calls + texts+250mb addon).

I am not a happy camper. This inst what I signed up for.

I've had 3 bills since I signed up. Feb, March and April and only in April is the massive internet bills coming in.

Meteor are a joke. Think I'll be giving them my 30 days notice and they can go **** themselfs

alexlyons

Hey godtabh, I have the same sort of scenario. I logged on to meteor.ie and noticed my data allowance was all used up. I looked at the bill and it racked up to €550. I spoke to meteor a few times and they said there was nothing I could do, the system says I used it so I must have, which was rubbish. One of the guys said if my phone had a data counter and I could prove I didn't use the data I most likely wouldn't be charged.

I wrote a 2 page letter to the customer care manager (the girl on the phone wouldn't give me her name, so I found it on there website and asked was it correct and she stumbled for a while and said she couldn't confirm that it was correct so I asked her to deny and say it was incorrect which she couldn't do either... stupid!) any way, The letter was pretty vicious, while still be polite and about a week and a half later I got a call from a great guy in CC, who's first question was how did I get her name..? he then went on to say that it was being looked in to and he'd phone me back the following week. I had a chat to him about the scenario and he understood exactly what I was saying. Most of the others I spoke to didn't as it starts getting a bit confusing, and the letter really helped. Any way, he rang me back and said it had been looked into and that as far as they were concerned it was correct and I would have to pay the €50 on top of my main bill. He kind of sounded as if that was it and he was winding down the conversation. I asked him how I could escalate this and he said he would and it would take a few days. My main argument was that I had never exceeded the limit by even a kilobyte before and there was no way I could have used this usage.

He got back to me yesterday saying my entire bill had been waived.

write a letter!

godtabh

I have just sent them a letter via the contact us section of there website.

There is no question I used that data but as I signed up to the add on I should only have been charged €5.

If this doesnt get sorted I'm off


Fools

alexlyons

were you within the 250mb? that happened to me in february, well within the limit and still charged 70 quid. Eventually got it sorted over the phone.

Worst comes to worst, you ignore the bill, they cut you off, and you end up with a new phone number...

godtabh

alexlyons wrote: »

were you within the 250mb? that happened to me in february, well within the limit and still charged 70 quid. Eventually got it sorted over the phone.

Worst comes to worst, you ignore the bill, they cut you off, and you end up with a new phone number...

well within it.

I'd rather keep my number. I've had it 11 years!

alexlyons

At a stage it was looking like they weren't going to waive the huge bill they just did and I was contemplating doing what I just said, but having my number 10 years was a really big factor...

The thing is though, If you don't get it sorted, by either paying, which I suggest you really don't do, or getting them to realise they're wrong, they won't release the number for porting to a different network

godtabh

Direct debt is due out on friday and I dont have enough time to cancel it so looks like they'll win

alexlyons

don't give up. head to the bank and tell them you want an immediate cancelation of the direct debit.

Having said that, the first time it happened to me I was charged and I managed to get a full refund on it all, it did however come in three separate amounts, as they hadn't a clue what they were doing and didn't realise how much if a fcuk up the system had made.

Seriously, don't give up on it, it's your money, and you have already payed for the service. You'll get it back if you push hard enough, and your polite

godtabh

Earliest I'll get to a bank is tomorrow so the full amount will come out.

I had intend to pay for ever thing except the over charge but that doesn't look like it will happen

alexlyons

sounds like you've given up! You're well within your rights, and it's perfectly possible to get any money they charge refunded to you.

Also, if friday is the date on the bill that they say it will be debited from, that's actually the date it leaves there system, so your looking at tuesday at the earliest with the bank holiday, as it won't be processed until friday night in the bank, and as saturday isn't a working day, it would take until tuesday at the earliest. Cancel the DD, which is instant, and you'll have an option to pay in store.

godtabh

Will be heading to the bank tomorrow. I wont be letting this go

alexlyons

good to hear. quote my name and what I've said if you want, they looked into a similar case with a mate of mine which strengthened my case.

jpogorman

My wife has been having similar issues every month since she signed up for a HTC Hero late last year. After the first two months she just used Wifi and only turns on Meteor data very occasionally. She monitors all data usage via an app. Even with all this, she got a huge data bill again this month. She has never paid for the excessive data charges but has to argue the case with Meteor customer care most months.

It is bordering on the ridiculous at this stage and is an issue with Meteor billing or bill data collection rather than an individuals fault.

Meteor staff seam to parrot the same line all the time that the bill is limited to 50euros a month. Instead of acting like they are doing us a favour, they should spend a bit more time fixing these billing and customer care issues.

Meteor: Glynn

Hi godtabh,

Sorry to hear that you seem to be having trouble here.

Can you pm me your details and I will try look into this a bit more and see if we can help in some way. If you pm me I'll get on to the guys in Customer Care and see if we can try help here in some way.

Thanks
Glynn

godtabh

Spoke to meteor customer care. Issue has been sorted.

Glynn thanks for the help.

Meteor: Glynn

godtabh wrote: »

Spoke to meteor customer care. Issue has been sorted.

Glynn thanks for the help.

Hi godtabh,

Glad to hear all is sorted and sorry for any hassle caused here.

Unfortunately I can't look into all cases like this (I'm only one man ) but if you give the guys at customer care a shout I'm sure they'll try help however they can.


Thanks,
Glynn

generalmiaow

Fair play to you OP for standing your ground.

nohopengn

godtabh wrote: »

How have people found them?

My experience was ok up until a few months ago - they overcharged me by over €1000. They claimed it was for Internet browsing. I only ever use the Internet browsing when at home (free WiFi environment) and that should have been free - after all I wasn't using their network at all. After a month they admitted the mistake and reimbursed me €900 (not the full 1000).

Last week I got a notification that my bill was €85. I was on a train and needed to make a couple of calls, so I paid by Visa. I have since checked my account and my total usage for both April and May is less than €45.

I have contacted meteor by email, sent them copies of the bill and copies of my bill history (obviously the two do not add up). It'll be interesting to see what they come back with.

At this stage I'm seriously thinking about moving to prepay as this direct debit stuff, seems only to be good for the operators.

TheDoc

I got a data charge there last month for €50, nothing much, but considering i canceled my data plan 4 months rpevious it was random.

Was dealt with professionally and I had money appended to my next two bills as credit. Wasnt an ounce of stress, they werent even interested in looking for proof. Told the girl that I had extensive knowledge and ability with my phone and there was no way it was an accident, I'm very cautious closing down applications and wifi on my phone cause I know how easy it is to leave something on.

She did however recommend closing the internet connecting on my phone, which I was happy to do since i dont have a data plan anymore, and its easy to re open with a simple phone call.

Was happy enough like, although id be freaked if I was getting charged as much as you lot.

When I had the 250mb data plan, cannot say I ever had a problem with it.

With all due respect though , theres alot of people that simply home button/global exit from an internet application on their phone which in alot of cases doesnt terminate the connection.

ixtlan

nohopengn wrote: »

My experience was ok up until a few months ago - they overcharged me by over €1000. They claimed it was for Internet browsing. I only ever use the Internet browsing when at home (free WiFi environment) and that should have been free - after all I wasn't using their network at all. After a month they admitted the mistake and reimbursed me €900 (not the full 1000).

Without breaching any confidentiality, can you explain what their mistake was?

godtabh wrote: »

Spoke to meteor customer care. Issue has been sorted.
Glynn thanks for the help.

And likewise, can you give more details?

As someone thinking of switching to Meteor, it would be nice to know more. What seems frustrating is that in some cases people pay, and in other cases Meteor waives the charges. Quite possibly the circumstances are different, but in the absense of information we just don't know. There's a suspicion that it depends on how who you get to deal with and how much of a fuss you make. And the thing that is really unclear is whether Meteor has ever acknowledged errors or is just willing in some cases to make (from their point of view) goodwill gestures.

Ix.

nohopengn

ixtlan wrote: »

Without breaching any confidentiality, can you explain what their mistake was?



And likewise, can you give more details?

Ix.

I don't know exaclty what their mistake was and why they overcharged.

With regard to WiFi usage. I have an E51 and by default I leave the WiFi switched off as it uses up quite a bit of battery time. I have never used the WiFi capabilities outside my home (I tell a lie I used it once in Bewleys for about 5 mins).

Meant to say in the last post, I also spent 8 mins on the phone waiting to talk to an operator - in the end I hung up as I had to take another call.

Poor service experience so far, once I get the funds back I think I'll opt for the prepay option. At least that way I know what I'm paying for.