Returning Bill Pay Phone

hughesga

Hey guys,

My father recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus with eMobile on one of their bill pay plans (I think its the talk 300, it includes 2GB of data per month). The reason why he bought the mobile was because he is a taxi driver and he wanted to use the new Hailo taxi app. When I heard that he was paying 40 Euro per month, I thought that was a bit steep considering I'm only paying 20 Euro per month for unlimited data with Three mobile. From the moment he told me about it, I had a bad feeling about it because I knew that a limited data plan was going to be trouble for him. He was told in the shop and supposidly through Halo that 2GB was enough of a download limit for the Hailo app but somehow he he nearly already exceeded the download limit and he only has the phone around 20 days. The fact of the matter is that technology and my father don't gel very well. He can't fully grasp the idea of how downloading works and when you will be downloading and not downloading. In my eyes it would have made more sense to put him on an unlimited data plan so he wont have to worry about going over the limit by accident and he can enjoy using his phone without having to constantly worry about downloading too much. I tried looking at his bill but its impossible to tell where the downloaded data came from. The ideal scenario in my eyes would be if he could somehow get out of this contract now, return the phone and everything and switch to a prepay deal similar to the one I'm on with unlimited data. Honestly, this phone has already caused so much stress in the house that I know that if he holds onto it that its only going to cause stress in the future. Would it be too late to return it now?

rebeve

hughesga wrote: »

Hey guys,

My father recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus with eMobile on one of their bill pay plans (I think its the talk 300, it includes 2GB of data per month). The reason why he bought the mobile was because he is a taxi driver and he wanted to use the new Hailo taxi app. When I heard that he was paying 40 Euro per month, I thought that was a bit steep considering I'm only paying 20 Euro per month for unlimited data with Three mobile. From the moment he told me about it, I had a bad feeling about it because I knew that a limited data plan was going to be trouble for him. He was told in the shop and supposidly through Halo that 2GB was enough of a download limit for the Hailo app but somehow he he nearly already exceeded the download limit and he only has the phone around 20 days. The fact of the matter is that technology and my father don't gel very well. He can't fully grasp the idea of how downloading works and when you will be downloading and not downloading. In my eyes it would have made more sense to put him on an unlimited data plan so he wont have to worry about going over the limit by accident and he can enjoy using his phone without having to constantly worry about downloading too much. I tried looking at his bill but its impossible to tell where the downloaded data came from. The ideal scenario in my eyes would be if he could somehow get out of this contract now, return the phone and everything and switch to a prepay deal similar to the one I'm on with unlimited data. Honestly, this phone has already caused so much stress in the house that I know that if he holds onto it that its only going to cause stress in the future. Would it be too late to return it now?

He`s stuck with the contract ,no way out.Unless he would agree to go up to
a more exspensive tariff .

hughesga

I was afraid I'd hear that! Think they're looking for around 70 euro a month for unlimited data - scandalass!

kirving

2GB of data is huge. I kind of doubt that an app such as Hailo would use anything like that amount of data alone.

You have to remember that that €40p/m isn't just going towards usage allowances, it's going towards paying for a phone too so you can't really compare it to a prepay deal where you buy the phone yourself and only pay for the service.

BostonB

2GB is a lot of data.

fits

Yep agree with the others 2GB is loads. I used to get on fine on a 1GB data plan, normally used half the allowance and I'd stream youtube videos etc a good bit.

hughesga

Hmm I'm not very aware of how he managed to clock up so much data, I was wondering whether using GPS for the taxi all the time would have clocked up the data.

I'm not sure if the phone is like an iphone in that if you close the program it might still be running and downloading data in the backround. I'll have to look at that.

Thanks for the replys so far anyway.

BostonB

Must be video. Rte news or player or similar

finnegan101

using wifi when possible should help reduce his usage too.... and with emobile, you get eircom hotspots too...

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

hughesga

Thanks very much for the suggestions. He mentioned something about an RTE app so that might have contributed to it. I'll ask him if that was the one he was using.

BostonB

My guess is RTE player, or the Video news. That would devour his data. Streaming video.

hughesga

hmm how exactly does RTE player work? Does it just keep downloading tons of videos to your phone?

Danger781

I reckon all hope is not lost. The person in the shop informed him that 2GB should be plenty, however he is already starting to realise that it is not enough at all for what he requested and was promised. He was not informed correctly of how much data he is really signing himself up for. He really has to fight his corner if there is any chance.

From experience I have seen people get out of contracts from similar circumstances. It wasn't easy.

hughesga wrote: »

hmm how exactly does RTE player work? Does it just keep downloading tons of videos to your phone?

No, it will temporarily store a thumbnail for each video you can see on the screen. Once you want to watch the video it will temporarily start downloading it to your phone.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

stevenmu

It's an android phone so you should be able to install an spp to track how much data each app is using. There's some listed here: http://tech2.in.com/features/apps/top-5-android-apps-to-monitor-mobile-internet-data-usage/322702. If you install something like that, then let him use the phone for a few days you can see what apps are using all his data.

testicle

Is he using the phone as a sat nav?