Crazy bill from Meteor

delvindave

Hi just wondering if anyone else has had this problem or can advise me. iv had meteor broadband for about 3 years or so. I originally just had a stick for my laptop but when i got a new operating system (ubuntu) it would not recognise the stick. The nice man in the shop gave me a free meteor dongle which worked fine (and i could use my smartphone off it).
Problems started in may when i got a bill for 615 EUROS.. (Its normally 20 euro for 20 gig download). Iv never gone over my limit before. I cancelled the account and the direct debit with my bank so the money could not be lifted. Then i get another bill for a further 700 EURO. They say this is for 6 days use in june. So now over 1300 EURO...
Iv been i contact with them several times but they are adament that the data was used and if a neighnour or somebody managed to hook into my internet dongle that this is not there problem.
Iv been in contact with COMREG and Meteor said OK they were willing to knock off 600 as a gesture of good will only if i agree to pay the remaining 700. This still seems very unfair to me.
Any suggestions ???
Thank you:(

Taltos

OP - based on your issue I am moving this thread to Consumer Issues which appears to be the right place to help you deal with these charges.
Can I remind anyone who has followed this in the Consumer charter now applies to this thread and not the charter where this originated.

All the best
Taltos

Cabaal

OP, given you were using a wireless mobile broadband router if you didn't secure your network its very very likely a neighbour could have used your connection. Did you even setup security on it?

geneyuss

well thats very good of them to knock off E600 :rolleyes:
Give them nothing, i had the same trouble a few years back with another ISP, I simply told them they were wrong and that i was not paying the E1200 month bill the sent, the kept sending them,,,i kept ignoring them, after a few months they gave up,

dudara

Were you tethering the phone to the laptop perhaps? Tethering is not part of a data package from many providers.

viclemronny

dudara wrote: »

Were you tethering the phone to the laptop perhaps? Tethering is not part of a data package from many providers.

Meteor allow it. I asked them and use it without issue.

Carriexx

But if you are using your mobile phone as a data hotspot it will drive your usage up way too high - were you doing this every day?

@rti-shm@rti

I don't know about the whole phone pushing up the usage too high but I had a massive bill before - 500 or so. They halved it but I still had to pay. It wasn't my fault either, I had a password on the system etc but they were determined that the data had been used and it was irrelevant that it wasn't by me!

I see other posters saying that they would just ignore them, I'm not sure about that - I wouldn't like to interfere with my credit rating.

If it's your own fault - no password/use of phone then I'd say you haven't any choice but to pay. If it is someone hacking in, maybe try protesting a bit more. They allowed me to pay it over 3/4 months I think in the end because I couldn't afford to pay it in one go.

delvindave

yes well it came with a wifi key number on the back of the dongle. i have my suspicions that a neighbour somehow got this code although hard to make wild accusations

delvindave

dudara wrote: »

Were you tethering the phone to the laptop perhaps? Tethering is not part of a data package from many providers.

No i didnt use them for the phone at all. im with vodafone for that. seems crazy that providers can allow a bill to go so high

delvindave

@rti-shm@rti wrote: »

I don't know about the whole phone pushing up the usage too high but I had a massive bill before - 500 or so. They halved it but I still had to pay. It wasn't my fault either, I had a password on the system etc but they were determined that the data had been used and it was irrelevant that it wasn't by me!

I see other posters saying that they would just ignore them, I'm not sure about that - I wouldn't like to interfere with my credit rating.

If it's your own fault - no password/use of phone then I'd say you haven't any choice but to pay. If it is someone hacking in, maybe try protesting a bit more. They allowed me to pay it over 3/4 months I think in the end because I couldn't afford to pay it in one go.

Thanks for your response, well that seems to be the 2 options for me. pay the 700 (740 i think it is now with charges) or get taken to court and get a bad credit rating. Cant see myself paying though

foggy_lad

delvindave wrote: »

Thanks for your response, well that seems to be the 2 options for me. pay the 700 (740 i think it is now with charges) or get taken to court and get a bad credit rating. Cant see myself paying though

You wont get a bad credit rating, only financial institutions can affect your credit rating, if a judgement is made against you you might appear in stubbs gazzette but Meteor are unlikely to go to all the trouble and expense to recoup such a relatively small amount.

chris85

delvindave wrote: »

No i didnt use them for the phone at all. im with vodafone for that. seems crazy that providers can allow a bill to go so high

I think Meteor have an option where you can turn on a notification if usage exceeds a certain amount. Like a mobile phone the customer must keep aware of usage. I put a data tracker on my phone to let me know if reaching my limit and regularly check texts and minutes to make sure I am alright.

delvindave

chris85 wrote: »

I think Meteor have an option where you can turn on a notification if usage exceeds a certain amount. Like a mobile phone the customer must keep aware of usage. I put a data tracker on my phone to let me know if reaching my limit and regularly check texts and minutes to make sure I am alright.

When working off a windows system yes there would be a pop up window to tell you how much you were using but when i changed my operating system to ubuntu it didnt reckonise the stick. After getting the wifi dongle ubuntu could pick that up but no more pop up windows

gerryk

I would be interested in hearing Meteor's position on the following question:
Once the account went over a certain amount, why did they not place a block, thus prevent the vast overspend that has happened?

To the OP, how do you imagine your neighbour got hold of your wifi key?

@rti-shm@rti

Maybe I chickened out a bit too quickly so judging for the comments in relation to credit rating etc. TBH I was heading off for a couple of months and I didn't feel like having it hanging over me and tryng to deal with them while I was away

+1 to the comment as to why they let it get to a ridiculous bill. When your bills are generally 50 a month or whatever and all of a sudden they start being over 500 they should start reviewing the situation. It's very obvious that something was wrong

OP can you not check your bill to see when all this data was being used? For me it was at all hours of the night and day - I used this in my argument with meteor because I work Monday to Friday and there was no way I was online downloading loads of crap at say 5 in the morning. It was very obviously not me. Maybe you could more successfully use that as evidence?

Perhaps should have been a bit tougher!!

delvindave

gerryk wrote: »

I would be interested in hearing Meteor's position on the following question:
Once the account went over a certain amount, why did they not place a block, thus prevent the vast overspend that has happened?

To the OP, how do you imagine your neighbour got hold of your wifi key?

Lock on my door is not the best. A good push would open it. I noticed 1 or 2 other items missing too. first i thought i missplaced them but now im thinking he can get access.
But sure you cant go making accusations.

Kingslea

I don't know who looks after things as a moderator for Meteor here, but this is my situation.
In 2008 (uncertain at this stage what year) we signed up for a contract with three numbers on our account.
One of our bills was not paid and our phones were cut off.
When we signed up for the contract the first month's payment and the last month were taken up front. There was an issue with my phone and internet, but the girl who asked us to sign up said that she would take care of it. I had signed up for internet usage, but somehow the bill went way over and above what it should have done.
Anyway after we were cut off, two of us opted out and one user was left with Meteor.
We had a lot of problems during that year with Meteor as every month we were being billed for the 2 phones that were not on contract and I kept having to phone to get them to refund the account. I asked if they would refund the up front end payment as the contract was up and I was told that they could not do that unless the one phone on bill pay was transferred to a new contract.
I said that we wanted the refund done first but they kept telling me that it would not be refunded until the other phone was switched over.
Finally the phone left on bill pay was cut off, as Meteor said that there were payments outstanding, which was not correct. I asked about the issuing of a credit note against the account but I was told that this was not possible. They wanted a payment and would then refund it to me. I said that this did not make any sense. I would pay them and they would pay me back?????
Anyway since then we switched to another mobile provider, but we keep getting a bill from Meteor. I don't know at this stage how many people handled the calls and requests from us to get the matter sorted, but to this day it remains unresolved.
How am I going to get this resolved. I am not going to hand over money when it is not owed and I don't see any reason why the account cannot be credited. Furthermore one of the phones was never unlocked from meteor and we still want this to be done. I am at a loss at this stage. We asked for a copy of the first bill as it is the only one that is missing, but we never received it from Meteor. They sent us copies of other bills that we did not request, but not the one that showed the upfront payments.
Can anyone help me to get this resolved please?

Kingslea :mad: :(