Friend got Large phone bill....

Styles · 21 Sep 2006 at 16:11

Hi,
A mate of mine has just recieved her phone bill for this month and it's £100. Her contract is £30 a month and she has been religiously using the timer and counter on her w810i but now Orange are saying that she's gone over her contract by 467 texts and a large number of minutes when I know she hasn't?

She has spoken to Orange but they say there is nothing they can do. Now I'm not just going to let Orange obliterate all her leftover Uni money for the next few weeks on a phone bill that isn't hers? The same happened last month she had a £70 bill and hadn't gone over her minutes or texts? What can she do?

Yukon · 21 Sep 2006 at 16:20

She can register on orange.co.uk to see a fully itemised bill. That way she can see what she is being charged for.

Not sure if you can see the bills that were issued before you sign up tho.

You can also ask Orange to send her itemised bills for the last two months but that costs.

Styles · 21 Sep 2006 at 16:46

That's excellent thanks mate I will get her to do that. I just went online and got an itemised bill for my account and it let me download it for free?

Dolph · 21 Sep 2006 at 17:11

You can download it for free, it's if you request a paper copy to be posted to you there's a charge.

Now, onto the billing issue itself. The bills are rarely (very rarely) wrong, the likelyhood of the calls having been made from the phone is pretty high. (not that that says your friend has defintely made the calls, just that they were made from her phone...) If, when going through the itemisation, there are calls she is sure she didn't make, then she needs to highlight them on a copy and post the copy to Orange with a covering letter.

It's also worth checking whether she's been making non-inclusive calls or texts (ie international calls or texts, national/lo-call/freephone number calls, MMS etc) as these could be having an effect.

Kappa · 21 Sep 2006 at 17:19

The networks can check what IMEI has been used when making these texts or calls, they can even see what you wrote in the text :0 so if you ask them they can look into it further.

stoofa · 21 Sep 2006 at 17:35

...and remember if she signed up for anything via text message she will have been charged everytime they sent her a text.

Gavin · 21 Sep 2006 at 17:36

Kappa said:
The networks can check what IMEI has been used when making these texts or calls, they can even see what you wrote in the text :0 so if you ask them they can look into it further.

They cant actually read the texts as that would be breaking data protection act unless they had a court order....Thats not to say that "staff" dont

A2Z · 21 Sep 2006 at 18:18

didnt she actually get a bill to know it was £100? surely in the bill it listed every call/txt that was made at what date and to what number?

thats how my 3 bill is....

malolo · 21 Sep 2006 at 18:22

A2Z said:
didnt she actually get a bill to know it was £100? surely in the bill it listed every call/txt that was made at what date and to what number?

You have to pay for itemised billing with Orange now although you can look at the itemised bills for free online if you're signed up to that service.

Dolph · 21 Sep 2006 at 18:27

Gavin said:
They cant actually read the texts as that would be breaking data protection act unless they had a court order....Thats not to say that "staff" dont

The vast majority of staff couldn't full stop....

Gavin · 22 Sep 2006 at 06:51

Dolph said:
The vast majority of staff couldn't full stop....

I know u have to be very very high up and have super duper computer clearance, and that would be logged as well much like the PNC machine

z0mbi3 · 22 Sep 2006 at 07:13

Gavin said:
They cant actually read the texts as that would be breaking data protection act unless they had a court order....Thats not to say that "staff" dont

I believe it's only breaking the data protection act if they discuss the contents of a text with anyone and / or use it to their own personal advantage.

Verbium · 22 Sep 2006 at 07:33

The minutes counter isnt a great way of using it since 1 sec is used as 1 min on a contract. So if she made 5 2 second calls, it would actually be 5 inclusive minutes. But check your T&C about that. With txts the counter doesnt say if you've used multiple msgs when sending a txt. So one txt could have gone into 5 msgs if it was a long convo about something.

z0mbi3 · 22 Sep 2006 at 08:20

Mr Sniper said:
The minutes counter isnt a great way of using it since 1 sec is used as 1 min on a contract. So if she made 5 2 second calls, it would actually be 5 inclusive minutes. But check your T&C about that. With txts the counter doesnt say if you've used multiple msgs when sending a txt. So one txt could have gone into 5 msgs if it was a long convo about something.

I find this hard to believe. An itemised bill shows exactly how many seconds you've used with a total at the end (at least it should if its from a half descent provider). They may round it up to the nearest whole for your roll over, but I can't see them rounding up seconds to minutes on individual calls.

Verbium · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:35

Actually it does make sense, its the same for pretty much every contract. The problem is, they have to tell you have many minutes you've used properly. If you were on pay as you go would you expect a 10 sec call to be a fraction of 35p (if calling another network)? They charge you by minute, not by seconds.

A couple of months ago a few people came back to my old shop in newbury asking why they've gone over on their new T-mobile contract and even the guys at T-mobile couldn't explain it. I think now i understand why now. Make a call on your phone and see what it takes off

z0mbi3 · 22 Sep 2006 at 09:53

Mr Sniper said:
Actually it does make sense

It doesn't to me. I'm looking at my bill now and there is no rounding up on individual calls.

malolo · 22 Sep 2006 at 11:07

Mr Sniper said:
The minutes counter isnt a great way of using it since 1 sec is used as 1 min on a contract. So if she made 5 2 second calls, it would actually be 5 inclusive minutes. But check your T&C about that. With txts the counter doesnt say if you've used multiple msgs when sending a txt. So one txt could have gone into 5 msgs if it was a long convo about something.

If I log in to the My Account feature on Orange it tells me down to the last second how many inclusive minutes I have left so one second equalling one minute obviously isn't the case on Orange.

Yukon · 22 Sep 2006 at 11:13

Orange have always had per second billing. Not sure about the other networks in the UK but I know when I have been roaming I have had per minute billing where they round up.

Dolph · 22 Sep 2006 at 11:13

Mr Sniper said:
Actually it does make sense, its the same for pretty much every contract. The problem is, they have to tell you have many minutes you've used properly. If you were on pay as you go would you expect a 10 sec call to be a fraction of 35p (if calling another network)? They charge you by minute, not by seconds.

A couple of months ago a few people came back to my old shop in newbury asking why they've gone over on their new T-mobile contract and even the guys at T-mobile couldn't explain it. I think now i understand why now. Make a call on your phone and see what it takes off

Orange (the network in this situation) charge per second, not per minute, certainly on pay monthly accounts.

Most payg networks do have a minimum call charge though, which might be why you're getting confused.

Kappa · 22 Sep 2006 at 11:41

Gavin said:
They cant actually read the texts as that would be breaking data protection act unless they had a court order....Thats not to say that "staff" dont

Lol yeah i know that, but in some cases this can be done, for fraud etc etc.