to resist paying this?

[Itstoocoldforme]

Dd got hold of my phone and watched minecraft tutorials for 3 hours in total over 2 days at Christmas. Trouble was it was not on wifi. Cue £265 bill.

An acquaintance overheard my plight when I was whingeing to a friend, and said that the same thing happened when her dh was watching the golf at work. He thought he was on wifi and ran up an £800 bill. the phone co waived it and told him to be more careful in future.

So I try it with my provider, who I've been with for about 15 years. They're not budging and say it's legitimate usage. I know that it's legitimate usage, I'm appealing to their goodwill. They are not having it and have of course cut me off.

AIBU to hope for a bit of leeway here? They sent me a message at the end of the first day saying they have noticed high data usage. I didn't even read it because they send so many junk texts anyway and I have never gone near my limit before. In fact I didn't even know what it was 😳

They didn't stop the usage until I'd run up this huge bill.

AIBU to hold out payment and see if I can get some joy? Or should I just suck it up?

On the one hand you did use it and they did try to warn you.

On the other hand Vodafone are the biggest load of festering boils to ever blight the arse of humanity. Ooh, I hate them! I went to hell and back with them. In the end they paid me to go away in the middle of my contract With GiffGaff now and have never looked back.

So on that basis YANBU to give them hell.

You can't call it a scam. She's being charged for what she used.
It's a bit like putting a load of expensive extra stuff in the trolley at Tesco's and screaming "It must be a scam" because the bill is higher than usual.

OP, as you don't watch thee news you might like to know:

Brexit is happening, Eurovision was rubbish as always, Trump got in, WW3 is about to start, and if you apply quickly MI5 will build a nuclear bunker in your garden...

Tikes wifi assist is scary- I'm telling the family.

It does seem a sneaky way of doing things, but they did send a warning.

You don't have to watch tv/news to know about this-I read about it on here for example.

There's plenty of info out there to read up about phones & stuff like this happening.

Is a scam because it's an enourmous over charge. How can they justify hundreds of pounds for data?

Yes great, let's all rack up huge data bills and ask for leeway.

Is a scam because it's an enourmous over charge. How can they justify hundreds of pounds for data?

They don't have to justify it, OP accepted it by signing a contract. It isn't a scam it's a business model. If the charges are too high then go elsewhere - that's how it works.

But you cannot expect someone else to let you off what you should have taken responsibility for

That's not true at all. Life isn't about just rolling over and accepting. Look at the aforementioned banks- charging huge over draft/ missed payment fees for years. They were found to be illegal. Profiteering is illegal. You just need someone to take it to court.

the big companies really have you lot worn down don't they

So all our kids can rack up massive bills and we just say the company is scamming us?

Despite the company doing their duty and telling the OP she was doing it?

Give over.

Completely different from PPI. And even in that case we all know shedloads of people who claim to have been mis-sold it to get their £££s back.

Pay up, and teach your dd some personal responsability. She's not 5.

(also with 02 as Orange threatened me with court for £15 of data never actually used. Go figure)

why would the children need to know whether you've paid them
Or not? They get disiplined the same way regardless

And I'm not talking about PPI either

Expecting people to pay what they have agreed to pay - and been warned is gong to fall due - is not profiteering.

Vodafone is awful for this. A colleagues daughter (away at Uni but phone bill paid by parents) ran up a bill of £200 to £300 every month whilst denying she was using anything but WIFI (of course she was). Vodafone weren't sympathetic at all and wouldn't cap her use. I am with EE (as are my children) and the allowance is capped and you can't go over. Much better.

Making excessive profit is profiteering. I don't think anyone can argue that this is a fair charge for the service used can they?

I get unlimited data for £20 per month, there is no way this has cost Vodafone any more than a few ££ they could easily make it so that data switched off when the limit is reached so the customer actively has to override it. A poxy text is a cop out. I would fight this and every other unreasonable bill I receive .

Contract makes it fair.

Vodafone is awful for this. A colleagues daughter (away at Uni but phone bill paid by parents) ran up a bill of £200 to £300 every month whilst denying she was using anything but WIFI (of course she was).

And Vodaphone should accept the responsibility because . . . ?

It doesn't Andrew. I had a contract with Barclays which allowed them to charge me £40 for a missed direct debit. It was illegal

Surely you don't think you can stick any old thing in a contract and it makes it legally binding

@Andrewofgg

Vodafone would not put a data cap in place which I just think is irresponsible. The family had three phones on the contract and of course any warning texts about data usage were being sent to the daughter not the bill payer. I accept that the Vodafone were not responsible for the daughter's actions and all the bills were paid without dispute. I just feel that they profiteer from situations like this without offering a reasonable solution.

Data caps should be standard. They always have been on my contracts

the big companies really have you lot worn down don't theygrin

No. I pay £10 a month all i because I found a deal I was happy with.

Agreeing a contract isn't profiteering.

a poxy text is a cop out

Well not really. It isn't Vodafone's fault the OP doesn't bother to read them......

I would pay then leave
Lesson learned

Sundae if I were that girl's parents I'd be blaming her, cancelling her contract and buying her a cheap PAYG phone. Her poor behaviour isn't the company's fault!

OP I would also directly ask for a goodwill offer. However sadly they do not have to do so.

Have a look at GiffGaff we have over the last 2 years slowly all migrated to their service. (family of 6) you are on a monthly contract that you can renew each month (set to automatically occur for us) and if you run out of data it simply stops working.

Very few texts from them apart from if your data runs down and it runs on the O2 network so really have a good coverage (in our area at least)

If you run out before your month is up you can choose to start it earlier if you wish.

Very happy with them. Having used EE and their customer service was as bad as what you are describing. (I was outright told untruths by them 3 times - caused a lot of hassle)

Of course a text is a cop out. In an ideal world everyone would take responsibility for their mistakes and big companies would act fairly and responsibly. Unfortunately we are not in an ideal would and unless we challenge big companies they will carry on with these unfair practices.
All Vodafone need to do is make the text say "you have reached your data limit so we have switched it off, if you would like to over ride this please text us back"