Meteor bill pay lite 30, online offer half price at e15, rip off

stargirl!

So i signed up for the bill pay lite offer on their website, you get first 12 months half price at E15 instead of 30. Free meteor calls and texts and 200 any network calls and texts. This is transferring my prepay meteor number onto bill pay. E1 cost for new sim card. Also i had to pay a e50 deposit as i didn’t have a previous credit score (no bills, etc in my name), the deposit would be refunded automatically after successfully paying 7 bills, or i could apply to have it refunded after two, or if i gave notice to get out of contract i could get it back. Fine so far....

Sim card arrived on Thursday 27th, phoned them to say i needed to swap my old number onto the new sim and was told it can take up to 24 hours to transfer the number. I could just use my pre pay sim until comes up saying “inactive sim” and this means that the number transfer has been completed. This is when i was supposed tostart using the new sim which should by now contain the old number. All fine or so I thought!

Friday 29th about 1pm it came up inactive sim and I put in the new sim card. About an hour later i texted my friend for something who then replied “who is this?”. My number hadn’t transferred over and i was using the original number that came on the sim. I phoned metor 1905 bill pay customer care, who said that whoever looked after me the previous day had made a mistake and transferred my number onto the wrong sim card!!!!

So they said that it can take another 24 hours to change it onto the sim it was meant to go onto, but as it was their fault they would push it through by 5pm. They made it sound like i should be appreciative that they were doing me such a huge favour by doing it by 5pm!

So today sat 29th i checked the my meteor website, which said that i had about 90 minutes and texts left. And also said that my bill would be due on 9th November. 12 days after signing up.

So i tried to call 1905 (bill pay customer care) from my mobile to which an automated voice told me “the number for pay as you go customer care is 1747”, tried to dial this and it said the number was not available, probably because i was calling a PAYG number from a bill pay phone!!

So after calling their premium rate number from the house phone, staying on hold for 15 mins, i got disconnected. So i tried again and was on hold for 10 mins. Then got put through to a guy who told me that the billing date was 9th Nov, so since the time between signup and billing was only part of the term, i was only receiving part of the allowance. Fair enough. So i asked would i pay only part of the bill. I was told the bill would be E15, the full amount! Apparently its not the full amount, its half of the original E30. But the offer was that the bill would be half price all along so i asked about this. He said that the bill is pro rata so the first bill is half of the 30 ie. e15, further bills would be 15 for the whole month. So this means they are charging me 15 for 12 days. He kept telling me to look at the t&c’s, where he read out from them
“As a Bill Pay Customer we will invoice you monthly in advance for fixed charges, and invoice monthly in arrears for connection, call and other non- fixed charges”
He also kept saying this is due to pro rata billing. Press ctrl+f in their t&c’s and this word is not mentioned once. So I will pay 15 for the 12 days until the 9th Nov, it says monthly in advance so i don’t know will i also be charged E15 then for the following month also.

I then read out to him from the half price bill pay lite30 t&c’s
Where Eligible Customers subscribe to the Offer during the Promotional Period, the Eligible Customer will be entitled to receive a monthly discount of 50% off their Meteor Bill Pay Lite 30 bill, down to a rate of €15 per month for a period of 12 months from the date of sign up of the Offer

Surely as its from the date of signup and i am receiving a portion of the allowance as it is a portion of the time i should pay an equal portion of the bill: 30 days at 15 euro, 12 days at 6 euro.

So i asked to speak to a supervisor, he said he’s busy, I insisted, he checked, nope, busy! Well... what’s he doing? Can he talk later? “hes on the main computer” “doing what” “working” really? No way!!! So waiting for a call back sometime next week.

I do realise the length of my rant but am really stressed! Anyone have any advice????

theteal

stargirl! wrote: »

Surely as its from the date of signup and i am receiving a portion of the allowance as it is a portion of the time i should pay an equal portion of the bill: 30 days at 15 euro, 12 days at 6 euro.

there are wires crossed here somewhere but this above is exactly what will happen - contracts usually come with literature explaining the first bill.

going on the dates you've provided, i'll assume your billing cycle will start on the 10th of each month. so your first bill will be from the 27th - 9th at pro rata, which should come around to ~€6-7. now, you do always pay your monthly fee in advance (as with most credit based services) so this first bill will include the €15 charge for the period of 10th - 9th of the next month (these date periods will be detailed on your bill.

if you have not exceeded your allowances I would estimate your first bill to come in around €22. following months will just have the one date period and come in at €15.

Mimikyu

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It's strange that the person instore didn't tell you that your first bill will be slightly higher, because you are starting in the middle of a billing cycle. I transfered over to this option yesterday and got it at 20€ a month, which is what I would have paid with prepay to avail of their free texts and calls to Meteor customers

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but the guy instore told me that I could just give 30 days notice when I want to opt out. Is this true?

Jarren

15 Term and Termination
Term (Bill Pay Customers Only):

The Term of this Agreement shall be for the Minimum Period, running from the date of connection to the Network. This Term and the Minimum Period will be extended for a further period of at least 12 months following any upgrade of your Equipment, which will include the re-execution or new execution of terms, or your acceptance in writing of any new terms and conditions, or extended by a different period as may be agreed in writing by Meteor. On expiry of the Term, either party may terminate this Agreement on the giving of 30 days written notice and, in the absence of such notice this Agreement shall be deemed to continue on from month to month based on the Terms and Conditions herein.

If the contract is terminated during any Minimum Period, you are liable to a termination charge calculated as the sum of the monthly Tariff Charges which would otherwise be payable until the end of the relevant Minimum Period.

The above references to Term and Minimum Period do not apply to Bill Pay Lite, which may be terminated by either party, at any time, on the giving of 30 days written notice. In the event that this amount of notice is not received by Meteor, you acknowledge that you are liable to a termination charge amounting to one month's Tariff Charges on such tariff and all and any usage on such account until termination.

http://www.meteor.ie/support/terms_and_cond/tandc_of_meteor_service/

stargirl!

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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I hadnt thought of this! thanks!

stargirl!

theteal wrote: »

if you have not exceeded your allowances I would estimate your first bill to come in around €22. following months will just have the one date period and come in at €15.

thats what i expected but i got the bill today! they are charging me the full 30 per month for the first month and at half a month it works out at 15, and reduces to 15 pm for the next months!
so a 30 bill!

stargirl!

so according to customer service the discount diesnt apply to pro rata billing, its 30pm for the pro rata and at 2 weeks it e15.
and 15 in advance for next month.
i explained it says in t&c "discount applies from date of sign up" but she says that it doesnt apply to pro rata. surely "date of sign up" should mean exactly that and not after the first bill!
it doesnt mention pro rata in t&c, her argument is that it doesnt say the discount applies to pro rata, mine is that it doesnt say that it doesnt apply!!

groom

So the issue sounds different from what you first expected. You aren't paying a full monthly amount for the half month. But you haven't received the discount i.e. you're paying €30 instead of €15. It probably hasn't been applied to your account.

If you aren't getting any joy getting this sorted thru customer services, fast track routes for getting it applied are complaining on their facebook page or talking to their cancellations dept.