Exceeded Data Plan on Meteor

stiofan85

I used my phone as a modem on Saturday as I had no internet access. I kept an eye on the usage to prevent me going over my 250mb limit on Meteor, but I think the counter on the phone was wrong as Meteor are saying I used 115mb over. Problem is my bill has a charge for €2300 for data! :eek:

I actually tried to upgrade my data bundle on the same day but the site said I couldn't.

I'm happy enough to pay a fine or whatever for exceeding the data plan, but given 250mb costs me a fiver a month and I exceeded that by just less than 50%, I think 460x the original cost is a bit steep! There's no capping of the spend/warning to say you've overspent, they'll just bill you no matter what!

Has anyone any experience of this? I've heard different stories of people being pursued for the full amount/being fined €50/€90 - depending on who I talk to.

Gonna cancel my Direct Debit for now anyway!

astrofool

There are seperate data charges for phone data vs. using as a modem data (tethering), it's completely and utterly stupid, but it's the way it is, and they charge you through the nose for it.

stiofan85

^^ Thanks for that. I didn't realise there was a different charge for tethering vs phone usage. That was certainly not explained to me when I opted into the plan. She knew I had a phone capable of this too as we were discussing how useful the phone is (Nexus One) when I got the plan in-store.

They can jump for it if they think I'm gonna fork out 2.3k for 115mb!

As for different charges for phone data vs modem data: that's absolutely retarded. Data is data, plain and simple. It comes over 3g and that's the end of it!

DrumSteve

have you tried to call them?

wingnut

How do they know you are tethering? I often do it using my bluetooth phone as a PAN. I am on PAYG and it just counts as part of my 50MB/Day (meteor).

wayne0308

I got stung for this with O2 and the charges hit nearly 80euro by the time I noticed. That was only about 20mins of internet usage, a few megabytes really. I honestly thought it would be the same charge, but after about 20mins I checked my balance and it had shot up big time. I'm just lucky I caught it in time.

I can't believe how much they have charged you! I rang them up about my bill and argued but they wanted it paid. I did as I was only after starting a contract. I searched through their charges sheet some of the small print but I couldn't find anything on charges specifically tailored for tethering...

blahblah06

Relax stio the max you can be charged under eu law is 50 euro meteor r supposed to contact u whenu go over the limit but they don't have that system in place

will get the link for u later but be sure u will only be charged 50 I started a thread about it in the meteor forum

Cabaal

blahblah06 wrote: »

Relax stio the max you can be charged under eu law is 50 euro meteor r supposed to contact u whenu go over the limit but they don't have that system in place

will get the link for u later but be sure u will only be charged 50 I started a thread about it in the meteor forum

yes and no,
The default max is 50e "IF" the provider did not set a rate otherwise its their max rate. Just need to find out what Meteor's max rate is I guess

scudzilla

Before you start saying that you're not gonna pay them etc etc, give them a call, see what they can do for ya. DO NOT JUST IGNORE IT!!!

blahblah06

50 euro is the max I know for a fact cause same thing happened me

for the opp http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/regulation/index_en.htm#new_rules

meteor are breaking rules under the eu law by not contacting the customer when they go over there limit.

I argued this point and got credited 15 euro to my account because of it

stiofan85

Good Morning Folks,

Spoke to the good people over in meteor after work yesterday and they said I'll only be billed €50 + vat, so €60.50 all in. I didn't go down the whole "I'm not paying you, you shower of w@nkers...." route - was nice and polite, as were the lads on the phone.

They said my bill will come in the post as normal and the €60.50 charge will be on it. If it's not, he said to contact them immediately.

Upgraded to the 10gb plan while I was at it so I can use the internet again.

(what I should've done was go back online and download a load of movies - bring the bill up to 10's of thousands - that would be a funny story!)

Cheers for all of the advice folks.

dudara

blahblah06 wrote: »

50 euro is the max I know for a fact cause same thing happened me

for the opp http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/regulation/index_en.htm#new_rules

meteor are breaking rules under the eu law by not contacting the customer when they go over there limit.

I argued this point and got credited 15 euro to my account because of it

Thanks for the link - there's some useful info there. But does that €50 cut-off limit apply only to roaming customers, or does it apply to people who exceed download limits while at home?

blahblah06

Hi dudara well what happened with me was I downloaded a few apps while in the car and the bill was 280 then reduced to 50 then 35 I hope that helps?

Gillo

Looks to me like it's for roaming charges there's no mention of domestic charges.

To the OP you did the right thing, being polite if you'd got on giving abuse chances are you wouldn't have got anywhere; take note the mojority of other people!!

nohopengn

I just got off the phone to Meteor support - as I'm not able to make any outgoing calls.

Meteor advised that the problem would be resolved in 1 hour and that an apology text would be sent to all customers.

Seems to me that Meteor are having a whole range of problems not just billing but also operational..........

miju

nohopengn wrote: »

Seems to me that Meteor are having a whole range of problems not just billing but also operational..........

Tell me about it, their signal in Dublin 15 is woeful with calls breaking up etc and their 3g speeds are terrible too and will be moving my bill from them once contract expires.Should never have gotten rid of my iPhone LOL

TeaServer

blahblah06 wrote: »

Relax stio the max you can be charged under eu law is 50 euro meteor r supposed to contact u whenu go over the limit but they don't have that system in place

will get the link for u later but be sure u will only be charged 50 I started a thread about it in the meteor forum

The 50 euro limit is just for roaming and it is a default limit. By purchasing a bundle or other add-on you may have 'opted' for a higher limit. You should check Meteors T&Cs for full details on this. The item you link to also appears to suggest that this limit would be in place from March, where in fact the new regulation only becomes compulsory from 1 July.

/T

Hammer Archer

This happened a friend of mine a few days ago as well. Got hit with a €12000 bill. They settled for €50.

blahblah06

As from 1 July, customers roaming in another EU Member State will not only benefit from lower prices for making and receiving calls but also for texting when abroad and using data services.

It doesn't say data when abroad. It's normal data at home


well this happened me on my April bill and I told them about the eu reg and they accepted my point and settled for 35. I take screen shots of my data balance only everyday and I used this against them also as it said I had balance left but the next day it charged me for usage on the day I had plenty of balance left. Worked in my favour

Venom

blahblah06 wrote: »

As from 1 July, customers roaming in another EU Member State will not only benefit from lower prices for making and receiving calls but also for texting when abroad and using data services.

It doesn't say data when abroad. It's normal data at home


well this happened me on my April bill and I told them about the eu reg and they accepted my point and settled for 35. I take screen shots of my data balance only everyday and I used this against them also as it said I had balance left but the next day it charged me for usage on the day I had plenty of balance left. Worked in my favour

Its data when abroad due to the crazy bills people have been hit with.

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/03/01/european-union-caps-mobile-data-roaming-charges.html

TeaServer

blahblah06 wrote: »

As from 1 July, customers roaming in another EU Member State will not only benefit from lower prices for making and receiving calls but also for texting when abroad and using data services.

It doesn't say data when abroad. It's normal data at home


well this happened me on my April bill and I told them about the eu reg and they accepted my point and settled for 35. I take screen shots of my data balance only everyday and I used this against them also as it said I had balance left but the next day it charged me for usage on the day I had plenty of balance left. Worked in my favour

The EU directive is only for roaming. An operator may choose to extend this to domestic data charges, but there is no obligation to do so under this directive. Also, it is not mandatory for this limit to be in place until 1 July so be sure to keep an eye on any roaming data usage until after that date.