I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Hi, I went to the USA for 2 weeks in march and when I arrived, Vodafone text me and told me the prices of using my phone over there. Texts were 35p and internet usage was free for the first 3mb and then £15 for the next 22mb and then £15 per 25mb thereafter.

I was under the impression that this meant if I downloaded less than 25mb during my two weeks stay, I'd only be charged £15 on top of my bill. However, when I got my bill it's £200!

I just spoke to the Vodafone guy and he said that it was per day, which to me wasnt made clear at all. I think it's highly unfair that I'm being charged so much for such a small amount of data.

Is there anything I can do about this?

edit: I reset my data usage counter on the 12th of March, when I returned on the 29th it read 25mb downloaded 7mb uploaded so I was expecting at most a charge of £30

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

OUCH ! You need to read the text in full for anything "hidden" and a complete breakdown of the bill for you to even stand a chance.... check for roaming charges.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

From what I know from the three days I spent with vodafone they are crooks. I cancelled a contract with them after three days when I got N97 and hated it so returned the phone and went back to 02 (you have 14 days to cancel). They sent me a bill for over £600. Called them they said they had revoked the charge and then some time later I got another bill. Called them again and was again told the charge had been cancelled. Then couple of weeks I got a letter from bailifs.

They are crooks. Threaten to report them to Ofcom or whoever the body is that regulates mobile phone operators.

On a side note why does blackberry always get preferential treatment. If you have a blackberry and are going abroad you can call them and they will give you unlimited internet for a charge (£25 on 02). Why don't mobile phone operators do the same for other phones. Likewise there is no fair usage policy for blackberry. Unlimited is unlimited.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Never a truer word said !! i also suggest you read the Attention all N900 Vodafone users in the UK! thread as that will; tell you just how sneaky they are.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

I just never use GPRS (or any kind of mobile data) when I'm roaming, I totally disable it, it's the only way to be safe. Telcos will try everything to bleed you dry when you're roaming. I once made a call while roaming in Puerto Rico that cost me $6US per second :eek:

When a local telco first started offering GPRS (I was using a Treo 180 at the time) it was free and unlimited (ah the good ol' days :rolleyes:), then they started metering it without any notification and I got a $200US bill :eek: and it could have been a lot worse, I used hardly any data that month compared to my usual usage.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Don't pay. Put also don't ignore them. Call, talk to a manager, say you don't want to pay this, it's too much and overkill. They'll generally reduce what you have been initially charged :)

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Well, my preference is when I visit a foreign country, I will buy a local "prepaid" sim, and use that to make a call and gprs.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

I did disable roaming, I never have it set to always on anyway, so I knew exactly how much i was using every time i turned it on. tirtawn i was going to do that but then i found some of the prepay sims in the america were complete rip offs. but probably wouldnt of cost me tihs much :/

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

i got the same text from voda about data charges wen i was in france for 3 days but theres np way i was gonna use my phone for anything. i swirtched off all connections as i know its not worth the headache. and vodafone uk are crooks! period.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

I was charged £1200+ by vodafone like a year and a half ago when I was in hongkong. I really didnt know that there's a big charge on the internet if used overseas. learned my painful lesson.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

There is solution to prevent the bill shock due to an unpredictable access to the internet in roaming: Roaming Guard (www.roamingguard.com).

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Aw, that sucks! :( I've heard that many people have been forgiven their large roaming bills. Not sure where. Probably in countries with strong customer protections.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Watchdog is always a good thing to mention to them.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Do you really think it's helpful pointing to a S60 application? While it might be nice to know, that there is something out there that might help, it's quite useless for maemo-users.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

There's the O2 Wireless (not affiliated with O2 UK), pre-paid. 14 US Cents per minute, but no GPRS (which is a bummer).

The sim itself's $10USD.

I do agree that there is no nice solution for visitors though. The US is probably one of the only (if not the only) country where ~50% of people use phones that do not use sim cards.

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Hmm, I think you are referring to CDMA providers. (Verizon, Sprint, Metro PCs, etc).

Not me though, I am not on the 50% list, since I hate if I can not change sim card when we travel. One of the reason is to avoid the roaming cost.

Learn the painful lesson when I was in asia and use the roaming US$ 5 / minute. (#@$#@$@#$#@$)

Re: I have been charged £146 for downloading 25mb of data. Help!
 

Boned me too. 300E for navigating with OVI maps. 6E per megabyte.

Message said data link was 6 cents, but the message was split and the second message said "per 10k".

Overall, downloading a part of Greece map was 50M, to a grand 300E. After I got back, they called me (like they didn't know I was back) and "warned" me I was raking in a bill, maybe I want to stop. This was a full week after getting back.

Crooks, indeed. This was Vodafone-to-Vodafone roaming. They go up to 8 or 9 E/Mb. SSDs don't cost that much.

I did have a little fun, however, when I want to talk to the representative at Vodafone (for a different matter) and when I told him "By the way, did you know what Vodafone charges for data roaming?" he couldn't look me in the eye for the entire discussion. Yeah they know they're basically jacking me.

Learned my lesson. Wifi only. Until rates get pinned by the EU for data as well.