Just got a €750 bill from 3 [moved]

sturgo

Hay,

I recently came close to cardiac arrest after opening my last 3 mobile bill.

I was travelling in Australia a couple of months ago while using my mobile. I was told by three "customer care" that I could use my minutes while roaming on their network.

What they didn't tell me was that they had raised my credit limit from €180 to over €700. So I was hapily talking away thinking that the most I could spend was about €200.

Naturally they came looking for their money and I explained the situation that they had raised my credit limit A) without my permission and without telling me. Of course they won't budge on the issue.

I'm wondering if this has hapened to anyone else or where I may stand from a legal point of view? I really don't feel like handing €750 over to 3. Especially considering the mountain of complaints and issues I lodged with them over the past few months.


I'd appriciate any advice on this.

Cheers.

Random

This thread might be better off in consumer issues.

I guess one could say you used the charges so you're liable.

On the other hand did they specifically tell you that you were limited and couldn't spend over that amount?

Nuttzz

I've never heard of roaming being included in anyones minutes, 3 provided the service and you availed of it, I cant see any way out of this for you

flodis79

Nuttzz wrote: »

I've never heard of roaming being included in anyones minutes, 3 provided the service and you availed of it, I cant see any way out of this for you

3 Like Home on Hutchinson 3 in Australia, I guess that was what they meant. I also guess the phone switched over to other networks in AU and that was the reason for this extortionately high bill.

strecker

3 UK just introduced a "ban" on downloads while roaming to avoid similar surprises when surfing the web abroad:

http://forums.ixplora.com/index.php?showtopic=919&pid=4431&st=0&#entry4431

robinph

Anything you do whilst connected to the 3 network whilst in Oz should have been included in your normal minutes and not have been charged for. When roaming though the phone will tend to keep switching networks once it picks up a stronger signal so you probably should have been paying a bit more attention to who you were connected to all the time and manually switching it back if there was a 3 signal available wherever you were.

godtabh

robinph wrote: »

Anything you do whilst connected to the 3 network whilst in Oz should have been included in your normal minutes and not have been charged for. When roaming though the phone will tend to keep switching networks once it picks up a stronger signal so you probably should have been paying a bit more attention to who you were connected to all the time and manually switching it back if there was a 3 signal available wherever you were.

Not if you switch your phone to manual which I do when I'm away with 3

robinph

Whatever it is they have done to the firmware on mine means that it keeps on switching networks even after I've told it to connect to 3 though. Probably should put a non-three hacked version on it but cannot be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

godtabh

robinph wrote: »

Whatever it is they have done to the firmware on mine means that it keeps on switching networks even after I've told it to connect to 3 though. Probably should put a non-three hacked version on it but cannot be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

I havent noticed that and I havent had an issue so I assume there has been no problems. I'v eonly been to London with it so maybe thats it

Solair

Make an official complaint to 3 in writing.
If they don't provide a satisfactory response take it to Comreg.

The Consumers Association of Ireland might be able to give you advice:
http://www.consumerassociation.ie/

Comreg:
www.comreg.ie

National Consumer Agency

http://www.nca.ie/eng/

chrislad

I don't see what the issue is. The OP used minutes, he was charged as such. If he wanted to be cut off after a certain amount, there's a system for that: Pay as you Go.

While I dislike 3, in this case, or so it seems, they can't win. If they had cut you off at 200e, you would have been complaining that you needed the service when you were over there. As things stand, you used what you're getting the bill for. It is possible there may have been technical issues that maybe added on the cost of calls when they should have been taken from minutes, and if that's the case, 3 should look after you. If it's not, its an expensive lesson but not anything you have a cause to object to.

Sephiroth_dude

750 euro bill?ouch

Ah-Watch

not for my life would I hand three over €750 their service is bad enough without handing over that amount of cash! Thats 3's fault, you shouldn't have a credit limit of 700, especially if you were roaming,700 wouldn't be bad at home as a limit but they should've capped your usage, I would blatently refuse to pay it, yes you used the service but that was due to the fact you were mis informed. Also contact ComReg even though I dont know what they'd do

jimmycrackcorm

Seeing as on 3 like home, you get access to my3, there isn't an excuse for not checking what the balance is.

sturgo

Thanks for all the replies...

A few points. I couldn't access "My 3" to check my balance because my mobile baroaband hasn't worked in the past 4 months despite, numerous calls, emails, and a formal letter of complaint to 3 on this issue.

I used the €200 cap as a means of managing my bill. When you get to about €180 3 send you a text advising that you are nearing your credit limit. This is when I would usually stop using the phone. I had been travalling for 3 months.

I almost always made sure I was on the 3 network when I made / recieved calls.

S.

x in the city

firstly to the OP, do not pay this under any circumstance...!

I had crazy bills from them last year (they still post them!) for almost 2000e., I just cancelled their service. they are a disaster of a crowd and get away with murder.

They told you that you could use the 3 network in oz, and you were mislead, what happened was that your fone probably switched over to a weaker 2.5g/2g network while you were outside of 3g coverage, and thus you were using someone elses network.

They have their fones set that you cannot lock the network to 3, it always moves to other networks when you are outside of coverage, obviously if you just go to the uk this wouldnt be a problem but if you go further afield it will be.

so basically write to them and tell them this and just refuse to pay.

they can do sfa anyway. just get yourself a new fone and ignore all their bs letters demanding the fee.

ps: comreg will so fa about this so wasting your time. 3 are just cowboys and we need to take the law into our own hands im affraid...:cool:

Walkman

You can use your handset when abroad on 3. When your handset goes off the 3 network abroad your handset will display the name of the network you are on you you can clearly tell when you have roamed off the network. If this happened it is clearly not 3's fault. They are not responsible for the way you use your phone abroad. If this was o2, vodafone me meteor we would not all be getting so worked up but just cause it's 3..... Its your bill, your fault you ran up the usage. Sorry but its that simple.

drunkmonkey

x in the city wrote: »

They have their fones set that you cannot lock the network to 3

That's just wrong!!! I've always been able to set every 3 phone i've ever had to just 3g only....

Op went nuts with calls while on holidays in australia, any other network would have creased him as well.....he should have used a calling card!!

The credit limit only lasts for the first 3mts and if you don't hit it in the first 3mts you'll never even know you had one.....

I don't think "I didn't realise" will cut it in this case, It's nasty when it happens but there's a moral in there somewhere;)

BostonB

robinph wrote: »

Whatever it is they have done to the firmware on mine means that it keeps on switching networks even after I've told it to connect to 3 though. Probably should put a non-three hacked version on it but cannot be bothered with the hassle at the moment.

Guy at work has that problem with his 6120

Nonoperational

In fairness you should have kept some sort of track of how long you were on your phone. 700 quid is a lot of minutes even from Aus. Unless the 200 credit limit was in writing you have no chance. You made the calls now you pay.

sturgo

gpf101 wrote: »

You made the calls now you pay.

Yes Sir!

The bill has been passed onto a debt collecting company. At least I get a little comfort in knowing 3 won't get the entire amount back.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who roams with 3.

Walkman

I still fail to see what the lesson is. You should learn a lesson: it is your responsibility to check roaming charges, keep track of your costs, not run up a large bill then cry about it to all who will listen. Grow up, no one has a lesson to learn here only you. Is it 3's fault your not able to see when you roam off one of their sister networks, or their fault you didnt think to yourself "im on the phone a lot i better check my bill", oh and yes if you were on the 3 network 'My3' would have been available to you to check your usage and bill amount to again 'Whose fault is it?' yours you big bloody child.

martinr5232

Its good to talk.:D

Nonoperational

Still a nasty surprise! Good luck with it anyway... wont happen again thats for sure.

Ah-Watch

Walkman wrote: »

I still fail to see what the lesson is. You should learn a lesson: it is your responsibility to check roaming charges, keep track of your costs, not run up a large bill then cry about it to all who will listen. Grow up, no one has a lesson to learn here only you. Is it 3's fault your not able to see when you roam off one of their sister networks, or their fault you didnt think to yourself "im on the phone a lot i better check my bill", oh and yes if you were on the 3 network 'My3' would have been available to you to check your usage and bill amount to again 'Whose fault is it?' yours you big bloody child.

I see what your saying but the lesson to be learned is not to trust three! they mis informed him, yes he should've watched his spend but as he said prior to your message he cant access my3! there is a lesson to be learned, some dont see it:)

sturgo

Ah-Watch wrote: »

I see what your saying but the lesson to be learned is not to trust three! they mis informed him, yes he should've watched his spend but as he said prior to your message he cant access my3! there is a lesson to be learned, some dont see it:)

Thanks Ah-Watch. That's exactly my point. I do not trust 3. In my experience they've provided a substandard service and were not upfront regarding their capping policy. Quadroupling my credit limit without informing me while roaming in Australia is not a good combination for anyone. Like I said... I used my credit limit to control my bill. It could easily happen to somebody else. All I am saying is beware.

Walkman, firstly get over yourself. Secondly maybe you should have read the entire thread and made an effort to understand the sircumstances behind the €750 biil. Then again... were all prone to making errors of judgement.

Walkman

I understand what your saying, all im saying is you would have access to my3 if on the 3 network in australia, if not your phone screen would have clearly shown the network you had roamed onto so you could easily have seen you would have been charged roaming rates. Ah-Watch Foggy Lad in disguise

robinph

i just got my latest bill through from Three and somehow I have not got charged for a bunch of raoming calls that I made in the UK. I was deliberately not connected to Three UK during any of the calls as saving battery life on the phone and using the 2G signals of other networks was my main concern during that trip.

Seems that they just counted all of those non-Three calls as part of my bundled minutes though and I didn't get charged anything extra. I won't be complaining to them about it though.

Davy

They allow once you have remaining minutes, then charge outside of minutes. It should have been €0.30 for ireland and €0.39 for calling Eu outside of minutes. You have been covered under the offer of being able to use 50% your minutes for the UK

3. You may use up to 50% of your
inclusive voice minutes to (i) call
the United Kingdom; or (ii) make
calls within the United Kingdom and
receive calls when you are in the
United Kingdom; or (iii) call the
Republic of Ireland when you are
in the United Kingdom.

Ah-Watch

Walkman wrote: »

I understand what your saying, all im saying is you would have access to my3 if on the 3 network in australia, if not your phone screen would have clearly shown the network you had roamed onto so you could easily have seen you would have been charged roaming rates. Ah-Watch Foggy Lad in disguise

What are you on about? Foggy Lad in disguise?! Just because I voice the same opinion? The OP stated that he has been onto 3 already as he couldn't access my 3!(which said he couldnt access it overa period of time!) he has stated this early on in this thread, . yes You're entitled to your opinion just as everyone else but no need for I dont think theres a need for Ah-Watch Foggy Lad in disguise!

drunkmonkey

sturgo wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies...

I couldn't access "My 3" to check my balance because my mobile baroaband hasn't worked in the past 4 months despite, numerous calls, emails, and a formal letter of complaint to 3 on this issue.

I used the €200 cap as a means of managing my bill

Ok Before Ah Watch and Walkman tear each other apart....:rolleyes:

How could 3 not fix planet 3 on your phone, did they just give up?????
A sim card exchange can be done the same day if that dosen't work your phone can go for repair that takes 3 days to return to you....what in gods name were you doing for 4mts that you couldn't get planet 3 working? (Writing letters of complaint:D)Please explain what went on for 4mts? I'd love to hear this....

Who in 3 explained to you about the €200 cap??
I very much doubt that anyone told you there's a permanent credit limit on your account, from experience customers get very irate when they hit this limit as they are unable to make calls or texts unless they have any free units remaining. When you speak to customer care they will tell you it's for 3mts because your a noobie and will usually request an advanced payment to get you phone going again.....how did you come to think this was a permanent limit, again i'd love to hear this?

Don't me get wrong, I think Complaining is the only way we can make things better but i'd like to sort the fact from the fiction and get to the bottom of why planet 3 would't work for 4mts and how you came to know about your credit limit?

Please enlighten me....

x in the city

screw 3, they sent me a 4 figure bill last year , i was using the useless pile of shyte MY3 to monitor my usage, of course it was all wrong spending they were giving me back. end up getting a huge bill.

three can take a hike as far as im concerned, just dont bother paying the bills sfa they can do.

just move to a normal network , problem solved.

drunkmonkey

x in the city wrote: »

just dont bother paying the bills sfa they can do.

Does that not go against your credit rating?

DM thinks about getting a 3G iphone on 02 and taking 3mts in australia:rolleyes:

culabula

sturgo wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies...

A few points. I couldn't access "My 3" to check my balance because my mobile baroaband hasn't worked in the past 4 months despite, numerous calls, emails, and a formal letter of complaint to 3 on this issue.

I used the €200 cap as a means of managing my bill. When you get to about €180 3 send you a text advising that you are nearing your credit limit. This is when I would usually stop using the phone. I had been travalling for 3 months.

I almost always made sure I was on the 3 network when I made / recieved calls.

S.

If you did then you would have been benefiting from '3 Like Home' and that's all about it. You would never have incurred a bill like this otherwise unless you were constantly phoning Australian mobiles (not included) or phoning Hanoi/Saigon/Tokyo etc (not included).

Ah-Watch

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Ok Before Ah Watch and Walkman tear each other apart....:rolleyes:

ye sorry walkman:)

drunkmonkey

Ah-Watch wrote: »

ye sorry walkman:)

ahh that's so sweet, she will be impressed;)

Walkman

Ah-Watch wrote: »

ye sorry walkman:)

Me too (im welling up here) ;-). Ps drunkmonkey im a man not a woman.

jhegarty

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Does that not go against your credit rating?

Nope , you don't have a credit rating in ireland ... .just the banks keeping track of if you paid back loans on schedule...

drunkmonkey

jhegarty wrote: »

Nope , you don't have a credit rating in ireland ... .just the banks keeping track of if you paid back loans on schedule...

Is that fact? So you can only get a bad credit rating in Ireland by no paying back the banks, no other company matters?

jhegarty

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Is that fact? So you can only get a bad credit rating in Ireland by no paying back the banks, no other company matters?

Thats pretty much it

http://www.icb.ie/credit_rating.php

foggy_lad

Ah-Here i am not Ah-Wtch!

other people have had serious issues ongoing with three for several months without remedy by three so it is no surprise the op was without service of some kind for 4 months!

craichoe

A. Mobiles are Expensive

B. If abroad buy a sim from a local provider, I always do this as your Home provider will screw you on local calls. The sim usually only costs between 5 and 10 euro with some free credit anyway.

C. To use a foreign Network provider for a full month in Australia was just stupid. Of course its always going to be more expensive.

MOH

craichoe wrote: »

B. If abroad buy a sim from a local provider, I always do this as your Home provider will screw you on local calls. The sim usually only costs between 5 and 10 euro with some free credit anyway.

Assuming your phone isn't sim-locked.

Oryx

Couple of points. I use my 3 phone roaming in the uk, and they count the calls from my prepaid minutes. Even when Ive gone over the 50% allowance for UK calls here, they tend not to notice. Yet. But once you do go over, yes it gets madly expensive in comparison to the prepaid price.

On my fifth month with them, they suddenly cut off my phone as I had gone over my credit limit. Problem is not that I dont pay, its DD, but the amount owing on the previous bills and current spend crept over the limit. I got one text saying I was close to the limit, but I got that every month and thought it was a mistaken thing sent to everyone, and as its DD I didnt worry. Then, bam, next day no phone. Cue a very irate call to them to up my limit, which I didnt even know was in place! This was not in a three month lead in or anything, according to Customer Care, it seems standard practice. So why they let the OP rack up such a bill surprises me.

I havent had many problems with them and my bills are half what they were with o2 for similar usage.

craichoe

MOH wrote: »

Assuming your phone isn't sim-locked.

In that case you can either:

A. Ring your provider and get it unlockedif possible
B. Borrow a phone off a mate, theres more mobile phones in Ireland now than there is people
C. Buy the cheapest nokia pos you can find. My local supermarket was selling a Nokia with 20 euros of credit for 35 euro, still a hell of a lot cheaper than 750 euro, especially for a month.

eth0_

OP - have you asked Three to prove what networks you were roaming onto while you were in Australia (I presume they are asserting you were roaming, and not on 3 like home)? Surely it should say this beside each call on your bill (e.g. Telstra network)?

To people who don't understand - If you're a 3 customer (contract or PAYG), you can avail of '3 like home' which basically means if you are using the 3 network in another country (UK, Italy, China/HK, Australia etc) then you are not charged any extra to make/receive calls or texts, you pay the same as if you were using your phone back in Ireland. Same goes for data. Obviously calling numbers outside Ireland is going to be more expensive but you're not paying any roaming charges _as long as you stay on the 3 network_.

I've used my 3 phone in the UK numerous times and left MSN and Skype signed in all the time, and i've never had any nasty surprises.

jor el

eth0_ wrote: »

Obviously calling numbers outside Ireland is going to be more expensive but you're not paying any roaming charges _as long as you stay on the 3 network_.

On that point, was the OP calling Australian numbers? I assume that these would not be included in the 3 Like Home deal and you would pay a hefty price for them.

You may have some comeback since they upped your credit limit without telling you, or without you asking, though if the charges are valid, then you will have to pay it.