Monster bill from Meteor

mrsberries

Hi guys

We've been using a meteor dongle since Jan last year that costs €20 a month for 10gb usage. Ive rarely gone over the amount and was shocked to open my bill today for the amount of 372e!!!! Ive just got on to them and they just said yes this is what you owe us. We havent changed our browsing habits and this is quite a leap considering we usually kept within the allowance. Apparently we ran up a bill of 78e at one sitting!

Anyone any experience of this? Im currently unwaged and this has just wiped out any money I had and made me overdrawn so Im very distressed at the moment

jonnny68

I just use Meteors PAYG Mobile Broadband 7.5GB for €20 when you run out you just top up again im amazed you only get an extra 2.5GB extra when it's pay monthly, if i was you i would demand Meteor send you out every bit of usage for that particular month and carefully scrutinise it, these type of companies are often wrong with their billing so definitely do not pay until you see exactly what the usage is,another thing do other people use this or only you?

Sometimes when it's a shared PC or Laptop you don't know what other people do be doing online or what they are downloading,downloading loads of torrents,etc and you'll find you go over your limit in no time.

Good luck anyway (another reason ill stick to PAYG Broadband too:eek:)

mrsberries

Thanks for that. Myself and husband share the dongle and he wouldnt have a clue about torrents and the likes, and Im just checking emails and facebook really . If its completely our bill thats fair enough, I have never disputed a large phone bill before. But to go from a 20e monthly bill to this is shocking :eek:

Unfortunately theyve already billed me, completely wiped out my account which is unfortunate as im on unpaid maternity leave at the moment.

Melendez

This post has been deleted.

Chuck Stone

Get two dongles. When one runs out use the other and each use will be €20 as long as they are not less than 15 days each.

Mimikyu

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Esel

Most ISPs do sneaky stuff like this. You'll find somewhere in the T&Cs that they charge some totally mad amount per MB over the cap (or even per KB). Whether it is fair, or even legal, is another matter.

Hope you get some good advice here. If not, get on to the Regulator. This has happened a lot of people, so there must be a lot of info out there.

ZENER

Meteor charge 2 cents per MB over your allowance as per their website. That would mean you used 372/0.02 MB which comes to just over 18GB !! That's a serious amount of downloading !!

Either that or you used the dongle abroad which would incur 10.24 euro per MB or 1 cent per KB where no roaming agreement exists with any provider in that country.

As suggested above get an itemised bill and check through the usage carefully. If you live on or near the border with or travelled to Northern Ireland your unit might have hooked up with one of the UK operators without you realizing it ?

Or maybe someone is watching a lot of videos online or knows more about torrents than they let on

Ken

massy086

ZENER wrote: »

Meteor charge 2 cents per MB over your allowance as per their website. That would mean you used 372/0.02 MB which comes to just over 18GB !! That's a serious amount of downloading !!

Either that or you used the dongle abroad which would incur 10.24 euro per MB or 1 cent per KB where no roaming agreement exists with any provider in that country.

As suggested above get an itemised bill and check through the usage carefully. If you live on or near the border with or travelled to Northern Ireland your unit might have hooked up with one of the UK operators without you realizing it ?

Or maybe someone is watching a lot of videos online or knows more about torrents than they let on

Ken

18 gb would easily be a upload of a film on a public tracker if left seeding ask for a bill showing your usage.if you are at falt ring them and make an offer say 150 they normally take it

foggy_lad

I have a 20GB allowance and this month so far have used less than 6GB and my bill cycle is the 9th September so is nearly up. Unless you were downloading youtube or torrents a lot of the time I would say there was some issue with Meteors service that has recorded extra usage on your account, this can sometimes happen when there is a problem with cell sites but it would not be in meteors interest to find the customers affected and reimburse them!

jimmynokia

get your bill and look one thing i do is keep a max of two tabs open never leave tabs open and idle
i have 25gb for 20 euro per month also check the statistics on the broadband logo you can also text for balance from the pc ALWAYS CHECK THIS
What i find funny is it says info might not be accurate its does be when they fcuking bill you so go over the bill

Max Power 2010

What I read here is just someone moaning because they got a high bill.

You probably did download that amount, its easy to keep track of minutes and texts but the internet is totally different, consumers don't take enough attention when clicking things like "Download Now" etc.

You tube, streaming radio/video, online games, Playstations etc will eat GB's,.its your responsibility to keep track of your own usage.

You used it, they billed you, nothing is wrong according to terms of your service, Tough.

johnners2981

Max Power 2010 wrote: »

What I read here is just someone moaning because they got a high bill.

You probably did download that amount, its easy to keep track of minutes and texts but the internet is totally different, consumers don't take enough attention when clicking things like "Download Now" etc.

You tube, streaming radio/video, online games, Playstations etc will eat GB's,.its your responsibility to keep track of your own usage.

You used it, they billed you, nothing is wrong according to terms of your service, Tough.

What I read here is some ignorant poster who didn't read all the posts. She said she only uses it for emails and facebook.

And gaming wouldn't affect going over allowance, you obviously don't know what you're on about. You can watch youtube videos (not excessively and not high definition) every day and not go over a 10gb limit.

And to get a bill of €370 she would of needed to use 28.5gb.

And you would only really use that if you are downloading torrents or streaming endlessly and she clearly stated that she doesn't use torrents.

Definitely check this out and don't let them charge you that amount

MrFrisp

I don't know much if anything about these dongles,,,etc...We have never used them,and probably never will..

Are they secure? Can they be "hacked"...You know,like routers? If you don't have a password,,can someone be in your area,and use your signal if it isn't secured?

Was there attachments on any of the emails? Are you charged to download attachments?

Just curious.....

For someone that uses it for the same thing every month,,that bill is off the scale...

foggy_lad

SexyGuy wrote: »

I don't know much if anything about these dongles,,,etc...We have never used them,and probably never will..

Are they secure? Can they be "hacked"...You know,like routers? If you don't have a password,,can someone be in your area,and use your signal if it isn't secured?

Was there attachments on any of the emails? Are you charged to download attachments?

Just curious.....

For someone that uses it for the same thing every month,,that bill is off the scale...

The network operators equipment on phone masts can go "haywire" sometimes and often people report text messages being sent dozens or even hundreds of times in seconds as if stuck on some loop, I presume the same can happen with Data?

anbrutog

Feel your pain OP. Went abroad there a few months ago and after using Facebook a few times and Google maps one night to find a particular bar , I came home to a nice €520 bill. Whether or not it says it in the small print or t&c's , it simply isnt fair.
I managed to come to an agreement with their 'collections' department ( god, I hate that term ) whereby i pay them €100 per month on top of my normal bill. This however hasnt stopped the scumbags ringing me every second or third day looking for their overdue amount, due to their automated collections system which 'doesnt care' that I've came to an agreement with them. Even spoke to the guards about this harassment who pretty much laughed in my face. What a great country we live in.

MrFrisp

foggy_lad wrote: »

The network operators equipment on phone masts can go "haywire" sometimes and often people report text messages being sent dozens or even hundreds of times in seconds as if stuck on some loop, I presume the same can happen with Data?

I see what you mean....I have often got a txt from a friend of Mine,and sometimes the txt would come through up to 30 or 40 times.....He'd often try to turn off his phone,,but the same txt just kept coming through....

Could be easy money if they charge for that.

MrFrisp

anbrutog wrote: »

Feel your pain OP. Went abroad there a few months ago and after using Facebook a few times and Google maps one night to find a particular bar , I came home to a nice €520 bill. Whether or not it says it in the small print or t&c's , it simply isnt fair.
I managed to come to an agreement with their 'collections' department ( god, I hate that term ) whereby i pay them €100 per month on top of my normal bill. This however hasnt stopped the scumbags ringing me every second or third day looking for their overdue amount, due to their automated collections system which 'doesnt care' that I've came to an agreement with them. Even spoke to the guards about this harassment who pretty much laughed in my face. What a great country we live in.

Jaesus,,What fookers huh....Change your number,,or buy a samsung phone which gives you an option to reject/block certain numbers.

kelle

My heart goes out to you, OP!

This happened to me last year. I was advised by Meteor to pay for add-ons, but I decided to disable the internet (as advised on that thread - also, nobody was able to explain why the charge was so high!) as you just can't be sure of what you're surfing. Rely on Wi-fi instead!

mrsberries

Thanks everyone (well almost everyone ) for your replies.

As stated before we dont use it for movies or stuff like that. We have a new baby in the house so time for movies doesnt happen. Himself plays games a bit but no more than any other month and our bill was always €20. Also never brought it abroad. Meteor have got back to me to say "yep thats what you owe us". Unfortunately they've already taken the direct debit but Im not going to let it go as I dont think its fair.

I know it sounds like im trying to get out of paying a large bill but the fact is I dont really understand the breakdown of usage and as our surfing habits havent changed in 18 months I just cant comprehend such a leap. If it were a phonebill and could understand the charges Id have no problem paying at all.

Cheers guys

cast_iron

Did you request a breakdown of the usage?

I unwitting ran up a bill of almost €400 with meteor on my mobile last year. It was 2c per kb which works out at €10 per Mb.
It was around the time alot of people were being caught out and the EU were getting on the phone companies cases. We settled on €50 + vat as I told them thee was no way they were getting those extortionate charges. For whatever reason, their billing system refunded me all the charges - and the €50 + vat. I said nothing

Paulw

foggy_lad wrote: »

The network operators equipment on phone masts can go "haywire" sometimes and often people report text messages being sent dozens or even hundreds of times in seconds as if stuck on some loop, I presume the same can happen with Data?

No, the same wouldn't happen with data. Also, when it happens with text messages, you're only charged for a single message. The message centre knows it's only a single message being sent (message ID tracking). Even with realtime billing (pre-paid) you're only charged once. In a somewhat similar way, your data session has a session ID, so even if "stuck in some loop" it wouldn't run up the way you say.

Also, the fault you're outlining is not a mast issue, it's an SMSC issue.

foggy_lad

SexyGuy wrote: »

I see what you mean....I have often got a txt from a friend of Mine,and sometimes the txt would come through up to 30 or 40 times.....He'd often try to turn off his phone,,but the same txt just kept coming through....

Could be easy money if they charge for that.

they usually do charge for situations like this untill customers ring and tell them about the dozens/hundreds of texts.

foggy_lad

Paulw wrote: »

No, the same wouldn't happen with data. Also, when it happens with text messages, you're only charged for a single message. The message centre knows it's only a single message being sent (message ID tracking). Even with realtime billing (pre-paid) you're only charged once. In a somewhat similar way, your data session has a session ID, so even if "stuck in some loop" it wouldn't run up the way you say.

Also, the fault you're outlining is not a mast issue, it's an SMSC issue.

It has happened a friend and a niece several times on the three network and they had to ring and get refunded as they were charged for every message, three tell her it is a mast problem when she rings but what would they know in India about Irish mobile masts:)

Paulw

foggy_lad wrote: »

It has happened a friend and a niece several times on the three network and they had to ring and get refunded as they were charged for every message, three tell her it is a mast problem when she rings but what would they know in India about Irish mobile masts:)

It's not a mast issue. And, I've never heard of networks charging for these multiple texts, although I've no experience of dealing with Three.

Resi12

OP you seem oddly defeatist in your posts! Ask them to send out a detailed bill and go through your history (if possible).

If they are still being impossible write to the regulator, that or kiss almost 400 quid bye!

Love.Game90

Resi12 wrote: »

OP you seem oddly defeatist in your posts! Ask them to send out a detailed bill and go through your history (if possible).

If they are still being impossible write to the regulator, that or kiss almost 400 quid bye!

Above poster to said everything I was about to say. Defo ask to see your date history.

SteM

This won't help you now but for the future install a download monitor like this

http://download.cnet.com/Broadband-Download-Monitor/3000-2648_4-10886434.html

There are other free ones out there too. You can set them to monitor your data usage and notify you when you hit a certain level.

mrsberries

Love.Game90 wrote: »

Above poster to said everything I was about to say. Defo ask to see your date history.

I have a breakdown of usage - the amount used and dates but to be honest it doesnt make any sense to me. My history is only going to tell me what sites I visited isnt it? I cant see my usage there can I?


Regarding being defeatist, no I intend to fight this bill.Ill be on to them again today if I hear nothing

Again thanks for all your input

kelle

Please let us know how you get on, OP!

mrsberries

Will do Kelle. However received another tough luck response from them today so not holding out too much hope. But sure we'll see :pac: