Advice on meteor overcharging!!

barrybo

Ok so basically Iv been with meteor on bill pay for the last three months now.
Bought a HTC Desire purely for internet really so I asked in store all about pricing etc.
The sales person recommended I get the unlimited data add-on so I did.
After two months I checked my bill and realised that my data usage was coming nowhere
near the 1gb already included in my plan so I cancelled my add-on.

That's where the fun started!!
I am happily on the net on my phone when I get a text saying
"you are approaching your daily 50mb data limit after this you will be charged 2c per kb" now I thought wtf is this about!
No1 said anything to me about this but nevertheless I stopped using the internet when I got the text.
Then I check my bill online today and I see a bill of €1200 :eek: this on a €30 a month bill!!

Then they take 1000 off this because of a "meteor bill cap"
but I was under the impression the 1gb monthly limit internet with the plan was exactly that!
A 1gb MONTHLY limit!!
Nothing mentioned to me about a 50mb daily limit!

Just hoping someone on here could give me some advice as what to do!
The bank is declining payment to them for the €200 and they're threatening to cut my off!
I don't feel I should pay it personally as it wouldnt have happened if they told me when I cancelled the add-on that this pricing system was in place!

Any help would be appreciated I have asked loads of friend for advice
what I'm being told is
customer service will give me no satisfaction for months
or go to comreg
or go to small claims court
or just cancel all payment to meteor and let them cut me off!

Again cheers in advance to anyone with advice!!

foggy_lad

Is there am actual allowance of 1GB of data with the price plan you signed up to? It sounds like the salesperson signed you up on a normal price plan with a monthly data add-on to increase commission and when you cancelled that add-on you went onto the default 50mb per day pricing which you were probably exceeding?

barrybo

foggy_lad wrote: »

Is there am actual allowance of 1GB of data with the price plan you signed up to? It sounds like the salesperson signed you up on a normal price plan with a monthly data add-on to increase commission and when you cancelled that add-on you went onto the default 50mb per day pricing which you were probably exceeding?

Ya the price plan is 200 texts 200 calls and 1gb data That's what I was thinking but they never told me about this daily allowance just charged me for it when i did exceed it! That's what's driving me mad! The fact that if they had told me this when i cancelled the add-on I wouldn't have cancelled it and therefore would'nt have gotten a bill for €1200! Surely it was their duty to tell me this! Any idea?

http://www.meteor.ie/plans/bill_pay/smart/#plans-tab

My plan is the €30 bill pay smart on the link

foggy_lad

Ok if your plan includes an allowance of 1gb of data then you should not be charged for data until you exceed this even after you cancelled the add-on for unlimited data. When that was cancelled it should have reverted to the 1gb allowance which you have paid for in Your price plan unless when giving you the unlimited add-on the salesperson put you on a different plan?

Ring meteor and tell them you should have 1gb allowance for data which is part of your plan and also write to them and put "formal complaint" as the heading and copy the letter to comreg and they will deal with it properly.

Zab

Have you talked to Meteor about this?

There is no 50MB daily limit limit on their data plans. It looks like when they cancelled your "Unlimited Add-on" they didn't put back on the standard 1GB so you ended up paying 99c per day up to 50MB and 2c per kb after that as is (scandalously) standard on Meteor and other operators.

This seems pretty simple to me, so unless they're saying you went over the 1GB first then it should be easily sorted by a phone call to meteor.

drunkmonkey

barrybo wrote: »

The sales person recommended I get the unlimited data add-on so I did.
After two months I checked my bill and realised that my data usage was coming nowhere
near the 1gb already included in my plan so I cancelled my add-on.

The 1GB is not a target, you shouldn't have canceled it, it was madness with a smart phone.
Talk to Meteor and see will they do something for you as you didn't understand what you were doing and ask them to put back on the 1GB add on.

Zab

drunkmonkey wrote: »

The 1GB is not a target, you shouldn't have canceled it

He didn't. You should reread the OP.

drunkmonkey

Zab wrote: »

He didn't

He did.

foggy_lad

drunkmonkey wrote: »

He did.

the sales person sold the op an "unlimited" add-on on top of their price plan allowance of 1gb and the op cancelled this unlimited add-on but meteor also cancelled the price plans default 1gb allowance

The sales person recommended I get the unlimited data add-on so I did.
After two months I checked my bill and realised that my data usage was coming nowhere
near the 1gb already included in my plan so I cancelled my add-on.

drunkmonkey

Right I get it, OP was either Paying 49.99/44.99pm and canceled the add on to bring his bill down to 35/30pm, which would still have left him with the 1GB add on with the smart plan he was on.

Or could it be possible what OP signed up to was, Connect 20 with the Unlimited add on which brought his bill to 34.99pm or 40 depending on the contract length. Canceling the add on when on the connect plan would have left him without any data.

Meteor should sort this out before it goes any further.

Jev/N

Zab wrote: »

There is no 50MB daily limit limit on their data plans

There is now apparently, even for bill. Which is good as there used to be no such thing without an add on and bills would be through the roof.

Still should have had the 1GB after canceling the unlimited.

OP, ring customer care and ask to escalate. If not, go in-store and be calm etc. If no joy there, look for SCC recourse

barrybo

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Right I get it, OP was either Paying 49.99/44.99pm and canceled the add on to bring his bill down to 35/30pm, which would still have left him with the 1GB add on with the smart plan he was on.

Or could it be possible what OP signed up to was, Connect 20 with the Unlimited add on which brought his bill to 34.99pm or 40 depending on the contract length. Canceling the add on when on the connect plan would have left him without any data.

Meteor should sort this out before it goes any further.

Was paying €45 pm and cancelled the add on to bring it down to €30 which as you say should have still left me with the 1gb per month. I rang meteor today but after an hour on hold I gave up and just wrote a letter of complaint to them by e-mail and also by post. Also forwarded this letter to comreg to ask them if meteor can do this while also pointing out that if it is a simple mistake then so be it. Awaiting a phonecall from a meteor supervisor atm so hopefully they do sort it. Thanks for all the replies lads wasn't expecting much as I usually don't post on here more of a daily reader.

foggy_lad

barrybo wrote: »

Was paying €45 pm and cancelled the add on to bring it down to €30 which as you say should have still left me with the 1gb per month. I rang meteor today but after an hour on hold I gave up and just wrote a letter of complaint to them by e-mail and also by post. Also forwarded this letter to comreg to ask them if meteor can do this while also pointing out that if it is a simple mistake then so be it. Awaiting a phonecall from a meteor supervisor atm so hopefully they do sort it. Thanks for all the replies lads wasn't expecting much as I usually don't post on here more of a daily reader.

when you get a call from them ask that they also respond to your written complaint in writing, did you use the heading "formal complaint"? otherwise they just file it as feedback!

barrybo

foggy_lad wrote: »

when you get a call from them ask that they also respond to your written complaint in writing, did you use the heading "formal complaint"? otherwise they just file it as feedback!

I did indeed. cheers for the advice hopefully it gets me somewhere. Will keep ye posted. Any further advice is always welcome too lads!