meteor wap internet charges ludocris!!!!

johnnyboy4711

was on meteor wap yesterday fro no more than 5 minutes on three websites in order to save money by getting the RSS feeds on each site as soon as i got on them.
over 9€ for the privilage!!!
absolutley crazy
called then but the could give a toss!
totally bemused!
john

FruitLover

Why was an American rapper using Metor??

MunsterCycling

lol, well of course they don't give a toss, they have your omney and not a hope of giving it back...

Solair

If you're on meteor bill pay, you can get a data bundle.
€9.99 gets you 250MB
€30.00 gets you unlimited data.

They're a bit pricy to be honest, but the 9.99 covers most normal usage for me.

There's much better stuff on its way very soon, they're doing an unlmited data package as part of their 3G prepay trial

http://trial.meteor.ie/your_questions_answered/#what_do

Unfortunately, if you're on Prepay at the moment though, you'll get their insane data rates... I'd give them a telling off via their comment form on their website... they might cough up and put you on the trial or something.

cruizer22b

Old thread but the same has happend to myself. Long term Meteor customer and I got a Nokia E71 recently so tried out the WAP internet on the 23rd of Dec for an hour or so and then rang the same day to add the 250mb bundle deal which cost €10 per month which seems ok.

I used it again on the 24th for an hour or less and my bundle deal wasent activated so my bill has €200 of WAP charges, if it had of been on the 25th when my bundle deal was activated it would have cost me nothing and would have only used about 25mb or something like that. Id say I was less then 90mins on the net on the 23rd and 24th and only browsing websites not downloading anything. Seems very high.

Rip off.

Sam Vimes

the prices are advertised and you should check them before you use it and not after. The analogy i always use is you wouldn't walk into a car dealership, take a car, drive it around for a few weeks, then ask the price and give out that it's too high

And i don't know why people always talk about the time they were on. The time is irrelevant because it's charged per kb.

Also, some of the information solair gave is out of date. On pre pay now it's 99c per day for 50mb. The 2c per kb price now only applies to bill pay customers without a data plan

Solair

The problem is that they're not very well advertised and it's putting people off using the internet on their mobiles almost completely.

If you consider that most mobile users don't know how much a MB or a KB is, how that equates to browsing on a WAP browser.

So, in reality all you know is that if you click a few buttons on your phone you could end up needing remortgaging your house to pay the bill.

It's a totally stupid system and the charges are insane.

It's more like if you walked into Tesco without a clubcard that they might suddenly decide to charge you €1000 for a small basket of groceries instead of the €10 they would charge you otherwise.

And, instead of you having an option of not paying for it, laughing at the checkout person and leaving the basket and walking out, the balance of your bill would be automatically deducted from your bank account and failure to pay this insane fee would result in them threatening you with debt collectors.

It's no way to to business and it's killing interest in mobile internet as people are generally afraid to use it as they've no idea what they're being charged.

My mom got charged over €20 on her meteor bill for accidently browsing wap sites as she had a short cut key pre-programmed on her phone.

The result was she disabled her internet setting completely to avoid further charges. Very progressive marketing on behalf of meteor! You've now got a lady with a fancy 3G phone who has disabled her internet access completely and turned 3G off!

forumdedum

I used WAP on my meteor phone for practically the 1st time to buy U2 tickets from ticketmaster. I was kept in the queue and was online for 90 minutes. I got a text from Meteor saying i had gone over 50 euro and when i rang to complain they said i was being charged 112 euro!

I had absolutely no idea that the charge would be so much.

She Devil

I am absolutely raging at meteor at the moment!!!

My fiance went into the internet on his phone he has the new nokia phone, so basically you have to click out of a few things to log off the net, he didnt realise this and just closed out of it like any normal phone!!! Next thing we got a bill to say he owed €442 I was outraged!!!!!!!

Me being clueless started adding up how much a minute it was and she ignorantly laughed at me and said its 2cent per KB or something and then told me they didnt infact charge me enough so have added more on!!!!!

I asked them to cancel my bill pay and they said i'd have to pay 600eur for the privialege! Cheek of them!

forumdedum

that is terrible. Call them. Explain and they give some type of reduction. I simply don't use the web on the phone anymore. Prices are ludicrous

ardmacha

There is a dramatic difference for casual users between being on a bill and on prepay. 20Mb on prepay is 99c, no problem at all, the loyal customer on bill pays 2c/Kb or €400!!! Yes the rates are published, but as Solair said in what other consumer service can two people using a service from the same company have a thousand fold difference in price, with the highest price paid by the user with a contractual agreement with the provider!!! We all now we may pay more than someone else but this scale of difference is outside the normal consumer experience.

goz83

I worked for Meteor as a field sales rep in 2006/07. I am not a Meteor customer and no longer affiliated in any way. In fact, I think they're a shower of F*****s. My job was to call to Eircom customers (Meteor is owned by Eircom) and give free phones to the over 18's in the house. Of course, a contract was to be signed and it was a very good deal over all as some of the phones would have sold for over €300 on a standard €20 per month contract. We gave them away for free on contract.

My experience of customers is they just don't listen. I explicitly told people to avoid using the internet on their phone because the prices were crazy. I also recommended very highly that people spending €20 per week on credit, go on a €50 per month package to avoid additional charges. Many opted for €20 a month anyway because 50 was too expensive! Keep in mind that 20 a WEEK was their usual spend or more. Two of my friends both ran up internet bills of €300 a month even though I told them to AVOID internet. I gave the example that downloading the average picture would cost would cost about €3 or €4 euro as well as the price of the premium picture itself. I was always completely straight with people at the risk of losing a sale but it actually gained me many customers because I was seen to be straight talking. Still, it didn't help the bank accounts of many. This over charging of wap has all but killed off the interest. I have de activated my internet on my vodafone handset and with customer services. This was the first thing I did because its easy to accidentally activate it with the short cut key.

LoGiE

I recently had this problem except I'm with vodafone. I added a data package of 500mb a month and thought that was it... Of course it wasn't. I let my phone connect to the web but of course it connected through there 3g Broadband package instead of there vodafone live portal...

They charge me an extra €100. I basically told them that if I wasn't supposed to use that connection it shouldn't be on the phone and was refunded in full.

It's daylight robbery by the mobile companies and they know it. Ring them again and basically tell them to cut you a deal or your switching to the lowest tariff to see out the rest of your contract and moving to another company. They'd much rather take €60 a month for a couple of years then a once of raping and no further revenue.

My 2c

murchadh

I think this can be classed as a major rip-off, and I only feel the need to comment as some seem to think 'buyer beware' covers these companies from repercussions (Meteor is not alone in this scam). Check the price before you buy is a weak argument when, as others have pointed out, many people don't know the difference between a mb and a kb, and the bumf makes it appear, to the uninitiated at the very least, that excess usage is charged at the same rate.

99c gets you 50mb
2c extra per kb

OK! That is very exact and precise, but misleading all the same I feel. Because this is what it means-

The first 50mb costs 99c but the next 50mb (god help you if you fall foul of this) costs €1024. Over a thousand times more. Wow! Can this even be legal. Might be worth checking with the Telecoms Regulator. I don't use Internet on my mobile, simply because I knew it to be expensive, but this is unbelievable.

Anyone who still thinks it's fair practice should ask family members to work out the cost of a second 50mb in a day, just to see how many wouldn't have a clue. I think they'll guess it's another 99c. Try it and see...

Reminds me of Argos selling a cut down netbook without making it clear to the unsuspecting, potential customer that it is not the computer they have read reviews of in magazines and on the web. I've been in IT for 15 years, and nearly fell foul of this one myself. It's the Samsung NC10 I'm referring to, by the way. Its biggest selling point, and one of the reasons it still rates well in reviews was its six cell battery, which delivered 7 hours of use; Argos are selling one with a 3 cell battery, but you won't find mention of that on their website or catalogue (and try asking in-store). The information is shrouded in the spec-sheet by listing the battery life as 4 hours. Shoddy behaviour to say the least, and something they didn't try on UK customers (you can easily verify this on their websites).

I know I went a little off-topic there, but 'caveat emptor' has limits in a regulated market place. And if it doesn't, I think it should. Sorry for the rant. (And it's my first post...oh lord)

My two cents anyway (or 1kb if you like).

PS I don't know what spell check boards.ie uses but it doesn't like 'behaviour' or 'catalogue'.

PPS I think it was something I saw on boards.ie that made me twig the Argos situation, so thanks for that. Like the site.

murchadh

I don't understand what you were charged for forumdedum, as they usually charge for traffic, so being online waiting for even a month shouldn't have cost any extra, as no data would have been shuttling back and forth. That sort of carry-on seems even more suspect.

Bob the Seducer

I'm on O2 myself, lost about 30 euros credit one day for going over the 50 meg limit. Using the factory installed browser on my Sony Ericsson you can never tell how much data you're actually using so I went and put Opera on it instead, now I'm told at the bottom of the screen the size of the page I'm loading in kb and I can set the quality of the pictures loaded to low in the browser options.

To be honest internet on mobile phones is little more than a scam in this country, I've yet to meet someone who thinks just over €20 a meg if you go past 50 megs is anything like a reasonable price. The biggest problem is you can't set a data limit on any phone I've ever used and you certainly can't get the company to cut you off for the rest of the day when you reach 50 megs. Would it really be too much to ask for a warning when you are about to reach your limit though? (Or would phone companies not make enough out of unsuspecting customers if they did that...)

DamoRed

Just to help me and others get a handle on costs, roughly what size in Kb is a full page on Boards, i.e. 20 messages, text only, no pics?

I've had wap facility on my phone for the last few years, but have never used it, apart from the odd couple of times it turned itself on while unlocked in my pocket. Nor have I ever had any inclination to try use it, as the notion of trying to read pages on a tiny screen is just more trouble than it's worth. Plus, even if I did want to, being afraid of the cost of it would have put me off.

However, I'm now in a different situation, and will need occasional access while out and about, and will be getting a touchscreen phone to make it more readable.

Slutmonkey57b

sign up for a bundle the month BEFORE you start using it.
Actually, don't use it at all.
You have been warned.

bh988

Internet charges for bill payers are an absolute disgrace!!

also how come customers are not informed by staff about the charges when purchasing mobile?? it shud be stated clearly in their shop somewhere. as far as i know it is only on their website! they are very sneaky that way as not everyone uses the internet or can use it.

liamo

bh988 wrote: »

Internet charges for bill payers are an absolute disgrace!!

also how come customers are not informed by staff about the charges when purchasing mobile?? it shud be stated clearly in their shop somewhere. as far as i know it is only on their website! they are very sneaky that way as not everyone uses the internet or can use it.

In fairness to Meteor, I was in the process of moving from Vodafone to Meteor a couple of weeks ago and right before I signed I changed my mind because the charges were very clearly explained to me.

The sales person was very upfront about the cost of Internet connectivity outside of a data add-on and that was fine. He even went so far as to say that if I was to download 250MB (which is what I would get for my €5 per month add-on) it would cost me about €5,000. I didn't do the math to check his figures but the point was very well made.

He then went on to tell me that I couldn't automatically make international calls or use the phone abroad. I had a big problem with the deposit they wanted to enable those. I understand their viewpoint but I thought it was too much and handed back the phone.

In short, even though I elected not to go with Meteor I couldn't fault them for lack of information.

bh988

Well of all the mobiles i have had , never once was i informed of charges at all.

I was never once offered or even aware of data add ons etc.

Their internet charges are absolutely crazy for bill payers.
I mean customer service is very poor. when purchasing a bill phone, is it too much to ask for staff just to quickly inform customers of charges.

I think its a bit sneaky.

charges are not even stated in contract.

deadbloke

Thank smeg for wi-fi modules! Data charges are ridiculous, I'm on meteor as well but I avoid using the mobile network.

garryfox

hi folks, does anyone know how to check meteor data bundle by text? i have a 250mb bundle and i am very aware of the price of going over it... having done so in the past

heffo9

@Garryfox>Try dial *#105# i'm on the Meteor daily 50mb/99c, checks your daily download limit and i also think its a RIPOFF.

Just another pointer, i recently (4days ago) enabled the Nokia OVI maps on my 5800, it uses satelites+gps assist(network masts) and goes online to search a location, can cost you 99c for just a few Kbs of info on your desired destination. So beware, the OVI maps are not totally free you pay network usage charges. Will look into it a bit more when i get time, but for now i download from my home WiFi.

hgibbs8129

I've checked my emails, view a few pages on my iPhone. Meteor say I've used 40mbs. I design sites. A wap site takes 100kbs on average including pictures. It's the pictures that put up the usage!!

They can't properly calculate the usage cos there a stupid rip off company.
Example. Checking your emails. If just text no picture. 30kb max!! That's about ..1kb = A4 page of text.

Three.ie best of both with a data add on. Seems to be the best.
€15+€10 free texts 40 mins and +1gb.