Virgin charging for data on a blackberry on top of bundle!

[hugoagogo]

Oh it's making me so cross; ds has a blackberry on virgin payg. He buys a bundle which includes some calls/texts/minutes £5 a month.

He keeps getting 50p charges for data and we cannot work out why, the call centre says he's accessing the internet the 'wrong way'.

Is there a setting we can change so it always defaults to the right way?

I really am clueless about blackberrys

£5 per month is too cheap for data to be included. So everytime your DC deliberately uses the Internet or an app checks the weather for example Virgin will charge you x pence per minute, usually rounded to the next full minute.

I'm not familiar with BlackBerrys but speaking generally somewhere in settings there should be an option to switch off the mobile data service. This will stop the phone going to the Internet. Nearby would be the option to switch on Wi Fi. If you have wi fi at home then this is the 'right' (free) way to access the Internet.

virgin blackberry bundle

scroll down the page and you will see that data is included in the bundle. And in fact, when he has no credit, he is fine because it just won't connect 'the wrong way' and connects through the blackberry server (or whatever it is) and he isn't charged.

You aren't reading what you think you are reading :)

You are only topping up £5 a month which means you don't qualify for the bundle of x minutes and y texts which is only available if you top up with £10 or £15.

Consequently, every time you call or text credit is deducted from this £5 top up and if you use the Internet then you will get charged at 50p a day which is what seems to be happening.

The £5 that is mentioned in your link is an extra charge specific to BlackBerrys. A top up to the top up is another way of looking at it.

It is not, it is a special bundle for blackberry messenger and includes a data allowance.You said you aren't familiar with blackberrys, I wonder if someone else here is?

ds only has this problem intermittently; most of the time he is not charged extra for using the internet when out and about-he has had his phone for about 4 months.

Well, if u have a payg BlackBerry and a £5 top up each month gets you everything inc BlackBerry services then it has to be the deal of the year.

Before I back out of this thread, why not simply walk into a shop and ask the sales guy? It has to be a better solution than this.

It really is a great deal and one of the reasons he chose a blackberry, because it has many of the advantages of being on a contract without being on a contract.

Before he got this phone he had an old blackberry on tesco mobile which also gave him a bundle of data/texts/minutes for £5 a month, so it's not unique deal.

Doesn't that £5 monthly pass just pay for Blackberry Services, no calls or texts or mobile web?

ANyway, your best bet is to go into a shop with the phone and ask them.

OP, go to the link you posted. Under the big red BlackBerry pass links there is a link "find out how to set up your BlackBerry"

Read the articles under this link, in particular

How can I tell if I?ve been provisioned for BlackBerry services?
You can check that your BlackBerry is provisioned for BlackBerry Services by looking at the top right hand corner of your smartphone display. If the letters GPRS are in capitals this means that you?re all set up and if you have a 3G BlackBerry, you?ll see a group of dots that look a little like the BlackBerry logo."

And

"Using BlackBerry services on Pay as You Go
If you Pay As You Go and would like to to use the full BlackBerry services you?ll need to buy a ?pass?, and you can do this either weekly or monthly.

The pass will allow you to use the BlackBerry services and still remain on your great Pay As You Go tariff. "

Yup he has blackberry services the GPRS is in capitals and he uses blackberry messenger and so on. Like I say it's not his 1st blackberry, he uses all the features. It says in the link that it includes-
*Here?s what you can look forward to:

Unlimited BlackBerry® Messenger
Unlimited BlackBerry® email
Unlimited data* *

I think what I would really like to know is how to change the settings so that the phone uses the blackberry server when out or wireless at home and not the virgin mobile server at all. The significant thing I think is that when he is out of credit he can still use the internet, so it must be possible.

To be honest I would be back on to customer support - try and get put through to someone technical. If he is on the correct "contract" then there must be an issue with some of the phone settings. Support should be able to send him a text which will reserved the settings on the phone that can correct, or talk you through changing them yourself.

It might be worth going to a Virgin shop and getting them to deal with call centre for you.

How much does DS use his phone? Is it possible he is going over his daily limit?

"Unlimited Blackberry emails/Messenger/Apps/Web Access are subject to a fair use allowance of 50MB per day . This allowance also includes use of BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry Apps, and Internet Browsing via the BlackBerry browser. If your usage exceeds this amount then we reserve the right to charge you for the excessive element of your usage at the per MB data rate for your tariff outlined in our Tariff Table. Unlimited use is within the UK and is for your personal, non-commercial use only."

I have spoken to the call centre a couple of times, I will have to try again and push for someone technical.

I don't think he can be exceeding his limit he doesn't use it that much when he's at school he can't use it and at home he either uses the laptop or ipod, so I don't see how he would have time to exceed it.

We don't live near a virgin mobile shop-not sure whether the carphone warehouse would be much help?

Your monthly pass lasts 30 days.

Are you sometimes to adding the next £5 bang on 30 days?

If you add it on day 32 and he goes on the web on day 31 then he will be charged 50p per day for the first 25mb.

It might be worth installing a data monitoring app on it just to check. 50MB isn't a lot if he's downloading music/videos etc.

It may have a data monitoring app available on it. You should be able to turn off data altogether and just use WiFi too.

And that charge will happen even if there is some credit left on the phone.