massive bill from 3! data card :D

legs11

got this data card a week ago ish and at the weekend checked my balance, it wwas like 20050 megabytes remaining, 2 gigs i thought alright.
during the week i downloaded alot of shows like csi and whatnot, anyway
sunday i checked my account over the allocated limit and it was wait for it.
890euro.
wooooah there boy!
so i rung 3 and they said they had no idea.
i had 2 gigs remaining and also a 890e fee outside my allowance.

later that night i checked and it was 0 bytes remaining and 780 euro outside my allowance........

wtf.

so today they said forget the 700euros you wont be paying that, there was a mistake or something with your billing, i dont think they updated my usage fast enough.
as for now my card is incommunicado......blocked! so have to get onto them in the morning again..


crazy s***.!

Random

I thought 3 didn't have a way to check your usage online?

culabula

legs11 wrote:

got this data card a week ago ish and at the weekend checked my balance, it wwas like 20050 megabytes remaining, 2 gigs i thought alright.
during the week i downloaded alot of shows like csi and whatnot, anyway
sunday i checked my account over the allocated limit and it was wait for it.
890euro.
wooooah there boy!
so i rung 3 and they said they had no idea.
i had 2 gigs remaining and also a 890e fee outside my allowance.

later that night i checked and it was 0 bytes remaining and 780 euro outside my allowance........

wtf.

so today they said forget the 700euros you wont be paying that, there was a mistake or something with your billing, i dont think they updated my usage fast enough.
as for now my card is incommunicado......blocked! so have to get onto them in the morning again..

Sorry to hear that, I've been there with Vodafone. But -can you tell me how your checked your balance??

legs11

well, of course they can track your usage. you get 3 gigs a month, they just didnt update my account fast enough it seems, bit of a farce. might just send it back.

what i dont like about 3 is THE WAY THEY KEEP SENDING BLOODY BILLS.....

i got this card a week, (got a 2 week trial period remember), so today got 2 letters from 3. one was the bill for the data card and other crap im not interested in.

legs11

well, im not paying that fee, thats for sure. the lady said i wont be charged that amount. anyway i did nothing wrong, sunday i checked my account info said 2 gigs etc.
same was you check your account with voice sim. dial 333 etc.

bit of a sham the way you cant track data usage.

culabula

legs11 wrote:

well, im not paying that fee, thats for sure. the lady said i wont be charged that amount. anyway i did nothing wrong, sunday i checked my account info said 2 gigs etc.
same was you check your account with voice sim. dial 333 etc.

bit of a sham the way you cant track data usage.

Ah, i see, via 333. Neat. However, all it would tell me is how much I've spent (1€) and not the amount of data remaining.

Cool, though.

jimmycrackcorm

Most operators don't have live billing. They queue up the usage as transactions and process them in turn on their billing systems. The reason is that some of the pricing logic is complex depending on package etc and takes time to be done.

Urban Weigl

What 3 should do, if they are in any way responsible, is block your access after 3GB. Instead, you get to see a web site explaining that you have reached 3GB, and you must click a button to purchase additional data transfer. Kind of like some public hotspots make you do.

culabula

Update: dialling 333 does work. I did it again this morning and got a full readout of data remaining plus current spend. This is very handy if you're prepared to sim-swap from datacard to handset to retrieve this information.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

What 3 should do, if they are in any way responsible, is block your access after 3GB. Instead, you get to see a web site explaining that you have reached 3GB, and you must click a button to purchase additional data transfer. Kind of like some public hotspots make you do.

Well, it seems that they have blocked legs11' access after 3 gigs.

niallb

during the week i downloaded a lot of shows like csi and whatnot, anyway
sunday i checked my account over the allocated limit and it was wait for it.
890euro.

They may let you off this once, but if you do it again, you'll be paying.
You can't treat one of these accounts like all you can eat broadband.
It's a very useful service, but it's not the same.
If you need that much more than 3Gb, then a 3Gb package isn't for you.
Download your CSI at a mates house, or in a café.

Hope it sorts out well for you.
NiallB

Urban Weigl

I second niallb, but still think 3 should give better cost control to their customers. 3000MB is easy to accidentally go over. It wouldn't take a lot to implement some kind of "splash page" automatically once you've reached the limit, with a button to buy more.

They could even do "purchase an additional 3000MB for €39.99", or something like that.

So basically: once you've reached your limit, your access get cut off and when you try going to a web site address in your browser, you get a page from 3 informing you about it, and giving you the option of either doubling up on your tariff for an additional €39.99, or paying €0.49 per MB before continuing.

I'd bet many people would end up spending €70 (or more) a month because they're addicted to the net, and they'll still be happy. All good for 3. It's no use hitting people with €800 charges without them realising it, all you'll do is lose that customer.

Random

Urban Weigl wrote:

I second niallb, but still think 3 should give better cost control to their customers. 3000MB is easy to accidentally go over. It wouldn't take a lot to implement some kind of "splash page" automatically once you've reached the limit, with a button to buy more.

They could even do "purchase an additional 3000MB for €39.99", or something like that.

So basically: once you've reached your limit, your access get cut off and when you try going to a web site address in your browser, you get a page from 3 informing you about it, and giving you the option of either doubling up on your tariff for an additional €39.99, or paying €0.49 per MB before continuing.

I'd bet many people would end up spending €70 (or more) a month because they're addicted to the net, and they'll still be happy. All good for 3. It's no use hitting people with €800 charges without them realising it, all you'll do is lose that customer.

Splash screen wouldn't work so well if the person was using IM or other non http based stuff.

Urban Weigl

ciaranfo wrote:

Splash screen wouldn't work so well if the person was using IM or other non http based stuff.

Ah but if someone is downloading a file via FTP, I'm sure they'd prefer for the download to be interrupted rather than going over the limit. And in the very unlikely invent that IM causes you to go over the 3000MB limit, you'll wonder what's up when it stops responding, and try going to a web page to see what the matter is. I honestly don't see that as a problem.

Besides, there could even be options to automatically either double up on the tariff or simply keep going at 49 cents a megabyte once 3000MB has been reached. That way, the onus is on the customer, and if you happen to be running a specialised application over the connection, that way it wouldn't be interrupted. There are many technical solutions. Handing customers a bill for €800 out of the blue with no notification of any kind is not one of them.

Tom Dunne

But it's back to customer care and the lack thereof in this country. What incentive have 3 for putting up such a splash screen? Which is better for them - a customer spending more money or a customer spending less money?

I think mobile operators would rather put up with a handful of irate customers being billed €500-€900 and the associated negative publicity rather than try and pro actively prevent this from happening.

/cynic

culabula

tom dunne wrote:

But it's back to customer care and the lack thereof in this country. What incentive have 3 for putting up such a splash screen? Which is better for them - a customer spending more money or a customer spending less money?

I think mobile operators would rather put up with a handful of irate customers being billed €500-€900 and the associated negative publicity rather than try and pro actively prevent this from happening.

/cynic

Not sure about the cynical nature of 3 in the light of recent announcements.
Since '3 like home' was introduced (itself a laudable event) it is their stated policy to terminate a call, for example, if and when you accidentally stray onto a non-3 network.

This actually applies to the data SIM too as I can testify, as I am regularly 'thrown off' T-Mobile when I access it unwittingly in the area around Portadown. An inelegant solution for calls and data and not one that would suit all, but it does alert one to possible charges and is therefore possibly appreciated by the more impecunious of us.

But in addition, I don't suppose that they, having stated that they are offering 3GB for 40€ a month and thereafter 49c per MB, expect new users to suddenly start downloading large files in their second week. Apart from running up huge bills, it is clear that such a user is leaving themselves without any bundled bytes for the rest of their bill period.

I agree with Urban though -the chance to purchase a further 3GB @ 40€ is an excellent suggestion and I wish they would implement this. Caution however is the byword -that's why I got a bill for just 46€ in my first month. Now I can proceed with impunity, safe in the knowledge that it is free to use abroad on other 3 networks and, thanks to legs11, controllable both in use and cost via 333.

legs11

im going on the blower to them now, they were to ring me between 10am and 1pm......
yea right, and the pope smokes dope.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

What 3 should do, if they are in any way responsible, is block your access after 3GB. Instead, you get to see a web site explaining that you have reached 3GB, and you must click a button to purchase additional data transfer. Kind of like some public hotspots make you do.

It seems that they are responsible in that way: what you have suggested they do is exactly what they did to a friend of mine two weeks ago: blocked his access and invited him to get in touch. Owing to his subsequent absence their reasons for the stoppage have just been confirmed this evening -safety, as he had gone over the 3GB limit (he lent the laptop to a "friend" -d'oh!).

Let's hope that they implement your other suggestion! :-)

Urban Weigl

culabula, that's good to hear. I'm glad that from everything I have read, it seems like 3 are doing the right thing. By my other suggestion, do you mean the ability to purchase an extra block of 3000MB for an additional €30-40?

D.S.

tom dunne wrote:

But it's back to customer care and the lack thereof in this country. What incentive have 3 for putting up such a splash screen? Which is better for them - a customer spending more money or a customer spending less money?

I think mobile operators would rather put up with a handful of irate customers being billed €500-€900 and the associated negative publicity rather than try and pro actively prevent this from happening.

/cynic

In fairness to 3, they have an explicity policy regarding new users to their network. For the first 3 months after joining 3, new users have an upper spend limit of €150. I work in London and got caught with this several times..

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

culabula, that's good to hear. I'm glad that from everything I have read, it seems like 3 are doing the right thing. By my other suggestion, do you mean the ability to purchase an extra block of 3000MB for an additional €30-40?

I do!