Matsuda Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 A stunned mum has been hit with a massive £20,000 mobile phone bill after using the internet in Turkey to put her holiday snaps on Facebook.A stunned mum has been hit with a massive £20,000 mobile phone bill after using the internet in Turkey to put her holiday snaps on Facebook. Helen Christie, 40, had a week away with pals, but she ran up huge roaming charges – working out at more than £2,700 a day. She said: “I just thought it might be nice to put a few pictures on Facebook. I didn’t have a clue what on earth had gone on. “I thought it was a wind-up. The whole holiday only cost me £700. It’s disgusting. It’s scare tactics – people don’t realise what these companies are doing.” Her network, Orange, insisted the bill was correct and parent firm Everything Everywhere initially demanded Helen sign up to a £3,000-a-month plan to pay the cash. After being contacted by the Mirror last night the firm agreed to slash the £19,656 phone bill by 95% citing “exceptional circumstances”. But mum-of-two Helen, who earns £10,000 a year as an accounts manager, now plans to challenge the new £875 bill in court. She said: “I’m working just to survive. I’m worried about bailiffs. This would ruin me. "How many people have been hit by these huge bills? They’ll have to see me in court.” The row comes as mobile providers battle European Commission plans to scrap roaming charges by 2016 across the EU – which Turkey is not a member of. Firms claim it will cost the industry almost £6billion. Helen, of Woolwich, South East London, bought “travel saver” internet bundles for £6-a-day before leaving for Gumbet, South West Turkey, in a bid to limit charges. But Orange said by buying them she opted out of a cap that would have kept her bill at £42. The firm said: “The customer used much more data than her chosen bundle. "Due to the exceptional circumstances we have offered a significant reduction.”Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 ... earns £10,000 a year as an accounts manager ...What sorta' accounts manager earns that little in the UK? :o My Aunt earns around £13,000 a year here in India as a senior accountant in a mining company! And I thought we were the shabbily paid overworked workers in the third world LOL! :PAnd while on the topic of roaming charges, I haven't been out of India since 1992 when I tagged along with my Mom as a little kid, but even national level roaming charges are so ridiculous here, that I prefer to switch off my phone when traveling outside my home network (Kolkata) and buy a temporary local SIM ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veboy Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 She said: "How many people have been hit by these huge bills? They’ll have to see me in court.”Yeah. A lot of people have paid huge bills silently, just because they thought they have no realistic chance against carriers and that nobody nor any law would support them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dMog Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 A stunned mum has been hit with a massive £20,000 mobile phone bill after using the internet in Turkey to put her holiday snaps on Facebook.A stunned mum has been hit with a massive £20,000 mobile phone bill after using the internet in Turkey to put her holiday snaps on Facebook. Helen Christie, 40, had a week away with pals, but she ran up huge roaming charges – working out at more than £2,700 a day. She said: “I just thought it might be nice to put a few pictures on Facebook. I didn’t have a clue what on earth had gone on. “I thought it was a wind-up. The whole holiday only cost me £700. It’s disgusting. It’s scare tactics – people don’t realise what these companies are doing.” Her network, Orange, insisted the bill was correct and parent firm Everything Everywhere initially demanded Helen sign up to a £3,000-a-month plan to pay the cash. After being contacted by the Mirror last night the firm agreed to slash the £19,656 phone bill by 95% citing “exceptional circumstances”. But mum-of-two Helen, who earns £10,000 a year as an accounts manager, now plans to challenge the new £875 bill in court. She said: “I’m working just to survive. I’m worried about bailiffs. This would ruin me. "How many people have been hit by these huge bills? They’ll have to see me in court.” The row comes as mobile providers battle European Commission plans to scrap roaming charges by 2016 across the EU – which Turkey is not a member of. Firms claim it will cost the industry almost £6billion. Helen, of Woolwich, South East London, bought “travel saver” internet bundles for £6-a-day before leaving for Gumbet, South West Turkey, in a bid to limit charges. But Orange said by buying them she opted out of a cap that would have kept her bill at £42. The firm said: “The customer used much more data than her chosen bundle. "Due to the exceptional circumstances we have offered a significant reduction.”Sourcewell...she is blonde...does anyone not read cell phone contracts or at the very least hear about this stuff on any news programs...this is far from an uncommon occurrence and with the huge $$$ involved you would think people would check this stuff out just in case...and to top it all off she opted out of the most important section of the contract...and the cell companies significant reduction will still make her pay quite a large amount of $ ...hard life lesson for someone that is old enough to have known better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airstream_Bill Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 Who in the world would waste time uploading photos to Facebook while on Vacation?? Takes all kinds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy2004 Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 The only real reason ORANGE slashed the her bill is had nothing to do with "Due to the exceptional circumstances", it had to do with the MIRROR contacting them.after all just image how many customer orange would have lost, especially those about to go on holiday, and thinking of doing the same as her, uploading their pictures to facebook. Orange doesnt want BAD PRESS simple as that.I'm more interest in finding about what the travel saver is supposed to contain, and why there they isnt a £100 LIMIT MAX on all phones for 1month. £50 would be betterMaybe now she's back in the UK, she'll switch her phone supplier to a better company, I sure wouldn't stay with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calguyhunk Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 (edited) I'm more interest in finding about what the travel saver is supposed to contain, and why there they isnt a £100 LIMIT MAX on all phones for 1month. £50 would be betterHelen, of Woolwich, South East London, bought “travel saver” internet bundles for £6-a-day before leaving for Gumbet, South West Turkey ...Shouldn't a "£6 a day internet pack" be capped at just that? - £6 a day? :think:I was looking at the roaming data rates of US carriers the other day and apparently, the charges - if you don't subscribe to a roaming pack - is like $10 per MB outside of North America!!! No $hit :o Edited September 26, 2013 by calguyhunk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy2004 Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 well i looked up the travel bundle and turkey isnt even in the list of countries.http://studio.orange.co.uk/eu-bundle/combined-EU-weekly-bundle-terms-20120803.pdf I couldnt find any £6 a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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