Data roaming 'massive bill' HELP!!!!!

[iHolophyte]

Doing the maths

15000.00 aus$ equates to approximately £10,050 today (using Thomas Cook App).

based on T-Mobile UK data rates for outside EU £7.80 per meg of data

10050 / 7.80 gives a data usage figure of 1.3 gig

Suggest again check your usage meter in settings

£10,050 POUNDS for 11 days worth of data!!!! OUCH. This has to be a scam surely? You'd need to remortgage the house to pay that off.

 

[crowd pleaser]

£10,050 POUNDS for 11 days worth of data!!!! OUCH. This has to be a scam surely? You'd need to remortgage the house to pay that off.

Why he needs to seek legal help, wether an Australian court would view allowing such extreme over use of data without any action, the provider might be seen as jointly culpable (lack a duty of care perhaps).

 

[crowd pleaser]

I hope to be using WiFi in Mexico, anyone have any idea of rates?

 

[Jeza]

We had used the phone a few times to access the interest for banking, plane departure times and local surf reports (surfing in Bali). However, today I have synced the iPhone to iTunes and our son had downloaded 10 game apps over this period... The total of these from what I can see is 207mb.

All the use on the phone was within the villas we were staying in and we thought that this was utilizing the villa wi-fi network. We obviously hadn't established this connection correctly...

As stated in the original post, we are new to the iPhone world but I have gained vast knowledge of the operating fundamentals in the past few days.

Our telco utilizes the Optus network and trolling their site I have found that they charge $20.48/mb for data in Bali. Given the value charged, this indicates 734mb over '10 days. The bill doesn't present well as it doesn't show the volume of downloads, just time. And the vast majority of time is in 'blocks' 41min50sec and multiples of this same time 'block'???

I have checked the total downloads on the iPhone which hasn't been reset since we go it in late May 2011 which shows 1.6gb. I don't have the June and July bills to hand to check the volume of downloads over this period. The small portion of May in which we had the phone and August invoice shows just short of 500mb in usage (excluding the assumed 734mb overseas). For the overseas usage to be accurate the combined use in June, July and beginning of this month would have to be about 400mb. I won't be able to ascertain this until I have the outstanding invoices.

I'm hopeful the volume of downloads is inaccurate.

I also haven't been able to accurately ascertain whether the default setting on iPhone 4 is off on data roaming. I've found conflicting info and when I rang apple support the answer was 'it should be as we wouldn't want you to accumulate expensive costs unknowingly'

I also haven't been able to ascertain the whether data roaming can be activated by the carrier? We have no recollection whatsoever about activating this function. We did call the carrier to activate international roaming (so we could use SMS) on the day of departure and were told to turn the phone off and on in about 1/2 hour and it would be done.

We have had no exposure to, or warning of being cautious of this issue whilst overseas. Our inexperience, some may call ignorance, but where's the duty of care???

I'm hopeful that our telco will do all that they can and push the data wholesaler for an amicable outcome. However worried...

I've discovered in the past few days there are numerous worldwide occurrences of this or similar with values ranging from $100's to many $1000's. How many are unknown and unpublished?

With the huge swell to smart phones within Australia and worldwide, I wonder how many more of these issues will occur? I would guess thousands.

Perhaps I could 'swallow' my embarrassment and and tell my story to the current affairs media (TV, newspaper and online) to increase the awareness to inexperienced and new users of iPhones overseas?

The other thing that I can't believe is the value that the service providers charge overseas users? Have they collectively made a pact to share or pass on the astronomical charges between themselves? What is the reasoning behind this?

Jez

 

[crowd pleaser]

Hi Jez,
Some of my reply may be not what you want to hear, but based on being best prepared for battle I'm playing the game from both camps in order for you to prepare. I'm not legally trained but have a stubborn and vert cunning streak when arguing

I have had mobiles since he early satchels made by panasonic, back then the cost of the calls was very high, pay as you go was not available. when data services started to roll out they were all charges on data received or and sent.

It is new to me to be charged usage by time, had i been on you provider i too might have been caught out. So don't feel embarresed. You need to see if this is the norm in your country, and is it mentioned in you t & c's.

My iphone4 (fairly new) has data roaming switched off, and I'm sure that's the factory default. This works for you as if Apple warn by turning it on are aware of high costs so even have a message to warn you, so must the provider be well aware. If they have remotely switched it on without pre-warning you, I'd think a good case can be made against the provider/s.

A bad thought is other types of services set a prescekdent for chariging by time, like taxi's. You get charged for distance but also for time while stuck in traffic, so be careful with choosing your words when making comparisons .

If they don't want to compromise then swallow pride and go seriously public, emphasis your young son unaware of doing anything wrong stayed on line to download games and content. Why was nothing done? if the provider could warn you at $15000.00 AUS, they coukd warn you by text @ $1000.00?

They can't claim they don' t have the systems in place, it's a matter of threshold settings being set and it's th actual owners of the networks who's computers calculate this.

You could really paint them in a bad light IMHO.

 

[CRUZR]

So Jeza, whatever happened???