# My Old Man's 800 Pound Phone Bill



## sunnysidedown (Dec 10, 2015)

So my old man helps out a friend picking up calls for him (tradesman), he's been doing this for years (he doesn't get paid for it, it just gives him something to do as he's retired). He always used a Nokia with the phone bill being paid for by the friend. Last month my sister gave my old man an old iPhone which he started using after dropping the Nokia in a river*. 

A few days ago the friend gets in touch to say that he just had 800 pound taken out of his account by EE, and promptly ceases all communication with my old man.

Now I can't really see him using much data, let alone raking up a bill for 800. I know he'll be desperately trying to get the money together to pay the friend but surely theres a dialogue to be made with EE about this? or is it just the way it is?

*It's also worth mentioning that the sim card in the Nokia was an old one2one card (that's how old the account is), my old man had to go to EE to get a replacement after the phone ended up in the water, nothing was mentioned at the time about data plans just an observation about how old the one2one sim card was).


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## ShiftyBagLady (Dec 10, 2015)

There's this thing with the iPhone. An option in the settings menu, where it will connect use cellular data if your wifi signal is not very strong. So it could be that he was accessing data without knowing it but I would expect them to send a text before you use up all your cellular data allowance, they used to do that with me.
Odd though.


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## DrRingDing (Dec 10, 2015)

I'm sure it's possible. Need to get the breakdown of the bill.


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## Spymaster (Dec 10, 2015)

ShiftyBagLady said:


> There's this thing with the iPhone. An option in the settings menu, where it will connect use cellular data if your wifi signal is not very strong. So it could be that he was accessing data without knowing it but I would expect them to send a text before you use up all your cellular data allowance, they used to do that with me.
> Odd though.


I'm with EE and if I use up more data than usual I get a text saying "you've used 80% of your data .... etc".

The old boy needs to get a copy of the bill and then take it up with EE.

Oh, and OP's dad's mate is being a dick by breaking off communication rather than sensibly trying to figure out what's happened.


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## killer b (Dec 10, 2015)

I had a similar problem with EE (then Orange) a few years ago - they eventually halved the bill, and then only because my boss threatened to take his business elsewhere (it was a work phone.  )

I'd imagine the only thing that will make them reduce the bill is adverse publicity in the press tbh. Does your dad do a good sadface?


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

So most likely he got a new SIM card, put it in the iPhone and the iPhone used a shitload of data that he never had a cost effective plan for before because his legacy one2one tariff predates mobile data becoming a common thing. It needs to be taken up with EE - by the bill payer - who at the very least ought to compromise and rebill him at a more reasonable contemporary rate.

Data used to cost £s per MB by the way. One2One ceased to exist in 2002.


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## killer b (Dec 10, 2015)

they won't without a serious fight, that's pretty much exactly what happened to me. Managed to get them to take 350 quid instead of 700 after a massive back and forth.


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## keybored (Dec 10, 2015)

Spymaster said:


> I'm with EE and if I use up more data than usual I get a text saying "you've used 80% of your data .... etc".


Plus if you use 100%, they stop you accessing any more data other than their landing page which lets you buy another bundle to get you through to the next billing date. Which is much better than when they used to say and do nothing and just bill you per MB.

That being said, not sure how the OP happened.


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

killer b said:


> they won't without a serious fight, that's pretty much exactly what happened to me. Managed to get them to take 350 quid instead of 700 after a massive back and forth.


Social media is a good way to achieve stuff although I suspect it doesn't work so well if you're a Twitter no-mark with no followers and one whinging tweet. 

And I'm not 100% sure but I think some continuous contracts can plod on for eternity with the same terms - since the market only tends to get cheaper - until something happens to explicitly change them. So you could be paying hideous data rates from the early 2000s.


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## killer b (Dec 10, 2015)

mauvais said:


> And I'm not 100% sure but I think some continuous contracts can plod on for eternity with the same terms - since the market only tends to get cheaper - until something happens to explicitly change them. So you could be paying hideous data rates from the early 2000s.


yep - we had contracts with a generous allowance of free data, but if we went over it (which never usually happened) it went back to the old rate from 2003 when the contract started of £1 a meg or something. One month I was waiting for my internet to get turned on so I hammered it on the phone, and it went waaaay over the free minutes, and they fucked us...


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

killer b said:


> yep - we had contracts with a generous allowance of free data, but if we went over it (which never usually happened) it went back to the old rate of £1 a meg or something. One month I was waiting for my internet to get turned on so I hammered it on the phone, and it went waaaay over the free minutes, and they fucked us...


Brilliantly, thanks to the competition commission, once you're past the inclusive allowances, most phone tariffs become cheaper _if you leave the UK to go another EU country and do the same thing there. _So next time you're planning on doing this, head to France.


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## two sheds (Dec 10, 2015)

Try a thread on the Consumer Action Group website? And yes to getting a detailed breakdown.


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## sunnysidedown (Dec 10, 2015)

Thanks all for the feedback, my old man seems to think he's only used 260MB (according to the iPhone) which would put the charge at around 3 pound per meg.

The friend has had the same account since around 2000/2001.

Hopefully the friend sorts his shit out and picks up the phone to talk it through with the old man.


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

Also this reminds me that in the days of BT Cellnet and its yoot-oriented, supposedly tech savvy offshoot 'Genie', and then I think for some time under the newly formed O2, they were keen to offer the WAP-constrained new fangled joys of mobile internet but had precisely _no idea_ how to bill anyone for it. So what was in their paperwork definitely supposed to cost an eye watering £2.35 per megabyte was in fact completely free. For at least three years.

I'm still half expecting to see a bill for several million quid turn up one day.


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## killer b (Dec 10, 2015)

wouldn't be surprised if it was £3 a meg from 2000 tbh.


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## Diamond (Dec 10, 2015)

I'd try and restructure the debt, if possible, which it often is.


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## trabuquera (Dec 10, 2015)

If you do get involved in a massive wrangle over exactly how many hundreds of pounds have to be paid, send a short (3 or 4 paragraph) account of the story and a sad face pic of your old man to the consumer help pages of the weekend papers. (and tell EE you're doing that).  and as much social media shaming as you can be bothered with on twitter etc.


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

I checked and supposedly EE's rate for out-of-plan data usage is £7.66 per meg, in 2014, which is frankly bewildering and shouldn't stand up to the slightest breeze. Never seen anything so outlandishly shite in all my time involved in mobile.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...KrbXxyntroY0fb7og&sig2=zNLMniKESsXH3lNEch8InQ


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## ShiftyBagLady (Dec 10, 2015)

Make sure you check the settings to see if it's still turned on


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## mauvais (Dec 10, 2015)

On the flipside, EE openly claim no hidden charges and that you can't go over your limit, which ought to be the what-would-a-reasonable-person-think stick to easily beat them into a £0 bill with.

Article

But the bill payer needs to be doing this, so you're going to have to get them talking again, ideally delegating the whole mess over.


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## sunnysidedown (Dec 10, 2015)

mauvais said:


> On the flipside, EE openly claim no hidden charges and that you can't go over your limit, which ought to be the what-would-a-reasonable-person-think stick to easily beat them into a £0 bill with.
> 
> Article
> 
> But the bill payer needs to be doing this, so you're going to have to get them talking again, ideally delegating the whole mess over.



thanks for the link.

yeah, getting them talking will prove interesting, the friend is not the most reasonable of people, I can see him just demanding the money tbh.


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## Epona (Dec 11, 2015)

mauvais said:


> I checked and supposedly EE's rate for out-of-plan data usage is £7.66 per meg, in 2014, which is frankly bewildering and shouldn't stand up to the slightest breeze. Never seen anything so outlandishly shite in all my time involved in mobile.
> 
> https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...KrbXxyntroY0fb7og&sig2=zNLMniKESsXH3lNEch8InQ



Ouch.  I turned off mobile network data on my phone, I'd rather get no access than rack up huge bills accidentally.

two sheds gives good advice, the CAG website is great and the forum very helpful for this sort of thing.


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## sim667 (Dec 11, 2015)

EE shouldn't be distributing replacement sim cards to anyone except the bill payer....... Surely?


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