[GraemeA]

Anyone know of any get out of jail cards when you get hit for massive (and I mean massive) data charges for business phone contracts. We've just had ridiculous bill for the last 6 weeks due to Crackbook push notifications.

The data use seems to be all in the UK so we (well not me because I haven't got a fookin' iPhone) don't seem to get the warning messages about excessive use - I think they only get sent when you are abroad.

So does any one have any experience of this and know of how to tell the thieving bastards to go fuck themselves without having to just buy ourselves out of our contract, which has 15 months to go.

Ta

[tomtom]

Depends who you're with. On O2 I should get a text (have once) when I'm up to my limit. Spend 5 mins on the t&c's?

[GraemeA]

It's Orange. We have spent time on the T&C's and on the phone to them. No joy as yet but we will be doing more research.

Is your contract business or personal?

[Oldmanmatt]

If it's O2, just threaten to leave.
Seriously, they're not daft and will haggle.
They have written off bills for me and friends in the past and then re-worked the tariffs so it doesn't happen again.

With other providers, I and many I know, have been stiffed.
To the point where I will only deal with O2 now.

I called them back in Dec., just to see how much it would cost to replace my ageing iPhone 3 (not 3s). Ten minute chat and I had a new 4s gratis and reduced my monthly by a fiver.
I was cuffed!

PS. I don't work for them! First time in years I've been really impressed by a company in the UK... Had a bill too and it was what I was expecting.

[Oldmanmatt]

Ah..
Synchronised posting...
Orange I've never dealt with.

[tomtom]

It's Orange. We have spent time on the T&C's and on the phone to them. No joy as yet but we will be doing more research.

Is your contract business or personal?

Personal. If yours is business - and especially if you've been with them for a few years then time to threaten to leave... with 90%+ market penetration, its all about customer retention. (check me with my market talk!)

Like Matt said, Argue and say that you should have had some warning. Worth trying the 'my 2 year old downloaded 100 you tube films one night etc..?' ?? Really, they should not be letting their customers get to the point where they have a huge bill. 2nd to last resort tell them you're going to complain to OFCOM, last resort ask them for your PAC code (the code to move your number and business elsewhere..).

[slackline]

Brother racked up a couple of grand on data usage in Ireland after the free trial extended (he was supposed to have told them he no longer wanted it, but he's a dick, forgot to notify them and then carried on using it  ).  He managed to argue it down to a reasonable amount, don't remember exact details but a small percentage of the original (although it was a personal rather than business account).

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Definitely worth arguing it, although (not much help) I was treated so badly by Orange after being a loyal customer for over 10 years that I will never consider returning to them. Currently on '3' which I believe offer the only genuine unlimited data tariffs. If they don't sort it move everyone to '3'.

[LucyB]

Worth trying the 'my 2 year old downloaded 100 you tube films one night etc..?' ??

I hope you're not considering besmirching the good name of our two? Although it could well actually have been Ed's fault - he's pretty quick at grabbing phones......

[tomtom]

Worth trying the 'my 2 year old downloaded 100 you tube films one night etc..?' ??

I hope you're not considering besmirching the good name of our two? Although it could well actually have been Ed's fault - he's pretty quick at grabbing phones......

Just basing it on my Nephew/Neice who are always grabbing their fathers Ifern and looking at Youtube stuff.. (they are banned but are clever/persuasive etc..).

Though best be careful with this excuse, as they probably have a record (somewhere) of what pages were accessed.. and if it were 155GB of sweaty-scandanavian-housewives.com DFBWGFC then that may blow holes in the two year old playing with the phone excuse...

[GraemeA]

It appears that Orange having graciously decided that they might charge us a mere £17 for the excess usage compared with the approx £1700 they were going to charge us 3 days ago.

So I am off to buy some posh vino, Percy can get some new wheels for his road bike and Sam can buy even more protein powder (he gets through quite a bit)