Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

Original poster

£28000 mobile phone bill

120 replies

saveforthat · 08/03/2015 16:51

Ds 19 had his contract phone cut off. When he went into o2 shop to investigate, turns out he opted out of roaming cap when on holiday in tunisia. Also forgot to change his address so they couldnt contact him. Found out yesterday and and I was in shock. Now feel sick, how is this actually possible, we were only there for a week. Going to try to see citizens advice tomorrow but does anyone have any expeeience of this?

OP posts:
Cornonthecob · 08/03/2015 18:11

Omg I can't believe this!! hope you get this sorted, perhaps getting media coverage to encourage lenience?

Koalafications · 08/03/2015 18:15

Bloody hell! OP, I really hope you get this reduced significantly. Did they offer to reduce the bill at all in store?

Fatstacks · 08/03/2015 18:16

Make sure he does the leg work OP most (if not all) teenagers understand data and file sizes much better than us!
He has been irresponsible and needs to understand the ramifications.

Settle for a reduced bill and installments every time over bankruptcy though.

28k they take the piss he could have flown out tbe Chuckle Bro's amd paid them to entertain him for the week for 28k

TheWildRumpyPumpus · 08/03/2015 18:18

The cases I've seen it reduced are when the phone has been downloading things in the background without the user being aware (eg Facebook updates, email being loaded) NOT when the user has chosen to download movies.

Good luck though, if the company don't think they'll get anything from him anyway then they may well reduce the bill to a price they think you will help him with.

NerrSnerr · 08/03/2015 18:19

If he opted out of the data cap and was downloading movies what did he expect? I also imagine he was getting texts about the data unless he opted out of those too?

NerrSnerr · 08/03/2015 18:20

I also agree that he made this mistake so he needs to sort this out.

Aridane · 08/03/2015 18:20

WTF - this is so wrong. Hope the CAB can help

WaxOnWaxOff · 08/03/2015 18:25

so he downloaded a shitload of movies whilst abroad in Tunisia and it didn't even occur to him that he'd be landed with a huge bill when he got home? Hmm

did he ignore the text alerts or had he opted out of them too?

I'd point him in the direction of citizen advice then leave him to sort this mess out himself.

superram · 08/03/2015 18:26

I don't believe O2 were not texting him- they text me in this country when I have used 80% of my data and in France I got unlimited data for £1.99 per day (would probably not allow me to download 9 films). He needs to sort this out!

Quangle · 08/03/2015 18:34

Wow. That's terrible. And no I don't think people do have an idea that it could cost them more than the average annual wage to download a few movies on holiday. Clued up people who know how these things work? Yes. Ordinary people who aren't paying attention (most people)? No.

If you get nowhere I would go to the papers. He was a bit daft but being a bit daft and downloading movies shouldn't mean you end up a bankrupt. The scale of the offence and the scale of the punishment are way out of line.

emotionsecho · 08/03/2015 18:40

Agree with Fatstacks declaring himself bankrupt is not the best solution, far better to try and agree a settlement figure, possibly payable by instalments.

Mind you if he went bankrupt he probably wouldn't be able to get another phone contract!

I hope for your and his sake he doesn't have credit cards, if he does I hope he knows how they work.

Fatstacks · 08/03/2015 18:42

Quangle When you get near your data limit the provider will text you to say so.
It's how the mobile companies try to defend the costs v charge.
Which? Did a campaign all about it, it isn't a surprise charge or accidental they will have been careful to notify.

emotionsecho · 08/03/2015 18:46

Quangle the onus is on people with mobile 'phones with internet access to know how these things work, there have been more than enough cases highlighted to bring it to the attention of the public. Ignorance is no defence.

Mobile 'phone companies have been told to advise consumers of these issues and to help prevent situations such as this which they have done, in this case he was given the option by the company to cap his charges, he chose not to.

As a pp said in similar cases the amounts were reduced because users were unaware of data downloading in the background, in this case the downloading was very much in the foreground.

Quangle · 08/03/2015 18:47

Well I ran up a £200 bill last year thanks to my DS watching octonauts on my phone at home. I had no notifications. He'd been watching on my ipad and when that ran out of battery just switched to my iphone. I didn't put two and two together that one was wifi and one was 3g. But I also didn't get any notifications.

Quangle · 08/03/2015 18:53

Quangle the onus is on people with mobile 'phones with internet access to know how these things work, there have been more than enough cases highlighted to bring it to the attention of the public

I really don't agree with this actually. I work in a regulated industry which is required by law to "treat customers fairly" and "have relationships of trust" with customers. That means we can't rely on customers having less knowledge than us to make excess money out of them. And that is right and proper because finance (my industry) is complex and non-finance professionals are at a complete disadvantage when engaging with my industry. In other words, caveat emptor does not really apply - we have a duty of care to customers.

I suspect the regulatory regime around mobile telephony will become similar because it is becoming an essential in everyone's life and because it is sufficiently complex and opaque that most people would struggle to navigate it. None of us has any idea how much it does actually cost the company to allow a movie download for example, and most people wouldn't know if they could use another provider to do it.

AnnieLobeseder · 08/03/2015 18:54

Anyone with an ounce of sense sets all their movie download apps to "download over wifi only" and also switches off data roaming before the plane even leaves the UK. Who on earth downloads movies when abroad?!?!

Now, I realise that 19 year olds are not known for having an ounce of sense, but that may not amount to much of a defence.

I hope that CAB are able to help you. I would also second getting on the money saving expert forum or getting in touch with Which?.

Quangle · 08/03/2015 18:57

But Annie, think of all the people who travel abroad who have no idea what this means. I could say those words to my mum and she would think I was talking Dutch. A 19 year old who knew how to download movies might have a notion but I suspect the majority of people on a plane just wouldn't really have thought about it.

UncommonSense · 08/03/2015 18:59

Is his contract in his name, or yours?

emotionsecho · 08/03/2015 19:03

We'll have to agree to disagree QuangleSmile.

I believe there has been more than enough publicity about this for people to be aware and to take action to prevent it. There was enough publicity for the EU to bring in a Law that applies in member states.

Standard advice seems to be to keep 'Roaming' switched off unless you have purchased a specific package prior to going abroad to cover internet usage.

Justwhy · 08/03/2015 19:06

He's 19 not 9. Make sure he is putting in the effort to sort this. If he is grown up enough to opt out of a data cap and old enough to download 9 films, then he's old enough to face the consequences. I don't believe that a 19 year old man couldn't see that he wasn't on wifi.

emotionsecho · 08/03/2015 19:07

Yes Annie I contacted my provider and asked how to avoid charges and the first thing they said was "switch Data Roaming off before you leave and don't switch it on again until you return".

emotionsecho · 08/03/2015 19:15

Justwhy OP said the Wifi in the hotel only worked 50% of the time so there was obviously an awareness that the films weren't being downloaded via Wifi.

specialsubject · 08/03/2015 19:52

I entirely agree that he signed a contract, but unfair contract terms can be challenged. There has also been recent publicity about how easy it is to run up a big bill if you aren't careful. No arguing that he was daft.

but it is still his fault and down to him (as I said) to take action.

PeppermintCrayon · 08/03/2015 20:06

Well, some providers won't text you. But I am with O2 and they are very on the ball about it.

TalkinPeace · 08/03/2015 20:22

I'm with O2
I go abroad and use my phone
your DS has been deleting messages

Swipe left for the next trending thread