By: MarkJ - 28 December, 2007 (9:25 AM)
Ian Simpson, a 29 year old factory worker from Darlington (Yorkshire), could be facing bankruptcy after Vodafone hit him with a data usage bill for £27,322! Ian had been using his mobile phone as a modem to connect his laptop with the Internet and, over a single monthly period, had managed to download several TV programmes.
Unfortunately Ian's £41.50 per month package (Vodafone Anytime 800 + £7.50 inclusive Internet deal) did not include "
unlimited" web usage:
But his first bill had hundreds of extra charges for online use - some at £18 a minute. He said: "My mate told me how to wire my mobile to my laptop as a modem. It meant I could download faster than on the handset and get a proper internet connection in my flat.
I probably downloaded 20 or 30 TV shows and four albums. I assumed it'd be OK, but they cut me off. I rang up and they said I owed them nearly £30,000. If I'd known it would cost so much I wouldn't have done it."
Vodafone said rules state the web package has a limit of 120 megabytes of downloads - designed for casual use to check emails, browse and download the odd song. A spokesman said: "Few customers exceed the fair usage. But it seems clear Ian has run up these charges legitimately."
It's sad to think that, for the money, Ian could have rented himself a leased line for one year or several bonded 2Mbps SDSL connections! However in this case Vodafone do clearly state a 120MB limit, though their apparent inability to warn the customer earlier on about such an obvious over-use is of serious concern (it'd still take a lot of time to download all that).
Vodafone is now advising customers to "
never use a mobile as a modem", which is a bit silly considering the growing trend towards '
Mobile Broadband' services and the operators own £29.37 per month 3GB usage capped business package.
The Mirror reports that Vodafone will also try to reach a better "
sympathetic arrangement" with Ian, although it doesn't say how sympathetic.
History - [News Archives]