Mobile phone companies. Are they ripping you off.

[BigBird]

My own experience in the last few months.

ORANGE MOBILE - It's only the fact that I wasn't using any data that made me realise I was being ripped off:
Had an orange mobile for many years. Was paying £35/month but reduced the contract last year to sim only £10.50 package. Checked bank statements five months later and found they have been charging me over £30-£35/month for data, which I don't use. Argued with them on the phone that I don't use data and that the option is even disabled on my phone but they wouldn't have it and saying that my sim card was reporting data useage. Wasn't getting anywhere until I threatened to call the police and accuse them of fraud. Then they addmitted that their servers showed I had not used data. Was refunded but still need to check if I have had the full amount back.
This same thing happened with my daughter a year ago. She didn't get her money back but then she didn't threaten them with the police. I'm convinced many people are getting deliberately ripped off.

VODAPHONE - If I hadn't immediately logged back into my online account they would have got away with this:
Last month I got a pay-as-u-go sim to try out network coverage and network congestion. Created an account online and topped up by £10. This showed up on my main page and I received a text saying 'thank you for topping up by £10'. Logged out of my account, then immediately logged back in because I forgot to check data bundle prices. My main page now shows that I only have £9 credit, even though it is only a minute after topping up and I haven't used the phone. Call them up and they say it was an error with the top up process and re-credited me the missing £1. Bullshit! Another rip off as far as I am concerned. If there was an error with the top up why did it initially show the £10 then take off £1. An error would mean no credit showing at all or £5 instead of £10. there is no £9 top up amount available.

VIRGIN MEDIA: Speechless. Really dont know what to say except maybe - ARRRRGGGGGG
Last week decided to forget Orange and Vodaphone and go for the Virgin Media £15, sim only, totally unlimited calls/text/data package. When the sim arrived the cover letter showed my cost was indeed £15/month as agreed, but the allowance was 250min calls, unlimited text, 1gb data, which is advertised as the £10 package, not the £15 package I was paying for. So they are charging me the £15 for the unlimited but giving me a a £10 package allowance.
A phone call later and they sort it, or so I thought. Today I get an email to tell me my bill is £17. I log in online to see what is going on. For a start they havent changed the package to unlimited as they said they had done when I phoned them. And I find I am being charged for data. (£1 for 5.6mb in one day, and £1 for 33kb the following day). It also shows my data useage is not included in my tarif even though I am paying for unlimited. Even if they are using the incorrect allowance, I still have 1gb to play with. so why charge me for using less than 6mb.

The bill is shown below for you to see, and also the advertised packages from the VM web site. The calls and data allowance contradicts the cost of the package, and the data used is not included in tariff which contradicts both the monthly charge and the allowance.

That bill by the way is from the 11th of June when I first ordered it over the phone, until the 15th June when I phoned up to say they had given me the wrong allocation. The period I am being billed for is for four days only in which I made no calls whatsoever and used less than 6mb of data. For that they are charging me £17. She told me on the phone when I called to complain about the error that my contract would now start on the 15th instead of the 11th which is when they sent the sim out to me. so Im guessing they have somehow cancelled the first contract which was incorrect and then recreated it as a new contract. and they expect me to pay a month for the couple of days the incorrect contract was running. But my online account still shows the incorrect allowance. So if I call them again to try and correct it do I then get another months charge from the 16th to the 19th when I make the call.

Orange had already made me reluctant to use a mobile for data. Virgin make me just want to give up on using mobiles for good. When did you last check your bills properly??? (">

[Over Carl]

The other one that bugs me, anyone been charged for the 13'th/25th month of a contract despite sending the notification in time?

I'ts a fucking joke as if we tried doing the same we would be facing a fraud charge each time and potentially looking at a few years for one count. These cunts do it all day long and nothing happens.

[BigBird]

Called them this morning and they said they would reduce the first bill from £17 to £10 because I was given the £10 package by mistake (although they were charging me £15). I said that that was for two days only and was their screw up anyway. I explained that I didn't even put the sim in the phone until I had queried their mistake and they had informed me that it had been sorted. So they wanted to charge me £10 for a couple of days contract that I didn't use because it was a mistake. The reason they were charging me for data was because when they corrected the mistake, instead of unlimited everything, I didn't have any mins, text, or data allocation on my account. So you pay for totally unlimited and get 0 minutes of calls, 0 texts, and 0 data. What a fuck up.

After threatening legal action they said they would waive the first bill, as if they were doing me a favour. That bill shouldn't exist in the first place. Everything is apparently sorted now but it takes 24 hours to go through so they have credited me 50 mins, 80 texts, and unlimited data on them until its gone through. Not holding my breath.

I really feel sometimes that I'm living in a Woody Allen film. (">

[Zippeyrude]

i had horrendous problems with vodafone years back, wrong tarrif on a billing system

it took hours and hours of calls

ended up writing to the ceo

[Zoots]

The whole mobile tariff/billing process has become so fucking convoluted, I find only the techy/brave amongst us are willing to attempt any changes - the thought of changing number/provider or tariff scares the hell out of most people I know because everyone's had some sort of bad experience, usually involving over-charging. Admittedly, I've stuck with Tesco for so long because they have historically been utter dogshit and the last thing I would trust them with is porting my number - even if they were assisted by another provider.

My mate has some business contract with Orange and he spends more time sorting problems on the phone with them than his clients.

O2 refused to stop sending me texts for ages telling me I was going over my allowance each month despite porting away from them.

I want to go to Three but it's not the calm and hassle-free process when the provider you're with is thick as two short planks. I went away and was roaming so took the cap limit off the account so they wouldn't hassle me but instead they blocked my account from everything including calls so couldn't even ring them! I had to use the wife's phone to call my friend back in the UK and get him to call them and pretend to be me to reinstate the fucking usage. Then, when I got home they emailed me to say they now realise their error in not activating the roaming cap (?) so are reimbursing me the £45 I used!! What the absolute fuck??