Ridiculous EE data costs

Ridiculous EE data costs

Author
Discussion

carreauchompeur

Original Poster:

17,830 posts

203 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
I'm with EE.

Since I'm out of the country for a good few months I decided to cancel my current contract and change to PAYG, since I won't receive any benefit from the free minutes, etc. I'm off next week.

Rang up today and it all changed over fine. Topped up £20 via the website around 1100.

Got to work about 1pm and received a "no credit" text message. Rang up customer services to be told that I had used £20 of data in 2hrs- About three quarters of which, the phone was on Wifi anyway! Their rate is apparently a bonkers 65p/MB.

I obviously did not know this when I signed up and the costs are not outlined very well... But this is ridiculous, even an iPhone would struggle to use so much data in the background. When I visited Spain recently I used about a fiver of data (on contract!)

Are all of the networks quite such robbers on PAYG? EE tell me that there is nothing that they can do, but I am considering a chargeback on the transaction as it simply can't be correct. A "manager" is calling back...

Edited by carreauchompeur on Monday 27th July 15:23

R1 Indy

4,381 posts

182 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
Was there no bolt-ons you could use?

When I was in Europe last year I think I payed Vodafone £5/week and it used my normal uk allowance/charges.

p1stonhead

25,489 posts

166 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
It's funny whenever there is a story like this it's always the network providers fault and not the person who didn't read their contract terms properly.

30mb of data can be used up almost instantly on an iPhone. I get through 3000mb a month.

rossub

4,400 posts

189 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
Pah, my mrs had a £750 bill for data when we got back from NZ - didn't realise she needed to take it off roam.

Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
If you are on EE, how do you not know about EE Extra for PAYG?

http://explore.ee.co.uk/4gee-extra-plans-roaming-b...

Or even better yet ring them up and see if you can unlock the phone (just cost me £8) and then I can simply buy a PAYG sim card next time Im abroad and use their data if I want to.

carreauchompeur

Original Poster:

17,830 posts

203 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
Sorry, to clarify I am currently in the UK and they reckon I have used £20 worth of data in 2 hours. During which time the phone was in WiFi for 90 mins and otherwise unused. This is bonkers.

I was not told of the data costs and they are virtually impossible to find.

tr7v8

7,185 posts

227 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
This is the reason, you keep sending duplicate e mails!

bitchstewie

50,767 posts

209 months

Monday 27th July 2015
quotequote all
If you're on a classic PAYG they charge like that IIRC. Get a bundle/bolt-on.

Better yet go to Three biggrin

Phateuk

751 posts

136 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
carreauchompeur said:
Sorry, to clarify I am currently in the UK and they reckon I have used £20 worth of data in 2 hours. During which time the phone was in WiFi for 90 mins and otherwise unused. This is bonkers.

I was not told of the data costs and they are virtually impossible to find.
I just did a few mins of googling to prove you wrong, yet I admit I was unable to find the cost of non-inclusive data for PAYG on ee.. eek

However, if it is 65p/MB then using 30MB (£20) in 30mins on an iphone is highly likely.

Far Cough

2,191 posts

167 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Three do unlimited data abroad plus a call and txt allowance for £15 payg. Just made the most of it in the us. Worth a look if your away for some time.
Had I not used it O2 charge £4 per mb .....eek

carreauchompeur

Original Poster:

17,830 posts

203 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
This is the annoying thing:

I KNOW about background updating on iPhones, and I managed to spend a fortnight in Spain with some data usage on maps, etc without using much data at all.

I've got two beefs:

The data costs are astronomical. They didn't advise me on this and, as you've found, it's impossible to find. They knew I was using the SIM in an iPhone and did not advise me about data costs. I naively believed they would be fairly reasonable.

However, the second beef is that I simply HAVE NOT used that much data in 2 hours. I made the phone call to EE at home, received the relevant text messages etc and put my phone in my pocket to go to work. I was out of the house for about 30 mins-1hour tops and in that time the only use of my phone was to receive a small e-mail. There's simply no way their data is correct. There are many stories on the web about EE mis-charging data.

It's lucky that I have no auto-top up on this account. It would have drained £100 a day without me ever noticing.

The only answer from customer services yesterday was that I couldn't make a complaint, it was my fault and I should buy a data bundle. Meanwhile, I now can't use my phone as a further topup will probably just drain in the same way. I'm going to see if a chargeback focuses their minds.

carreauchompeur

Original Poster:

17,830 posts

203 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Far Cough said:
Three do unlimited data abroad plus a call and txt allowance for £15 payg. Just made the most of it in the us. Worth a look if your away for some time.
Had I not used it O2 charge £4 per mb .....eek
Thanks, I think the countries I will be in may not be included however (Russia, China, S America etc). I don't intend to use data abroad, just need a method that I can keep my number with minimal outlay and can be contactable. Will probably buy an in-country SIM at some point for actual usage.

Soov535

35,829 posts

270 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
p1stonhead said:
It's funny whenever there is a story like this it's always the network providers fault and not the person who didn't read their contract terms properly.
Elegantly put.

OP - call them and buy a bolt on.


Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Err... why not go into wifi only mode for the moment until resolved?

Im finding it hard to see how an iPhone in the UK on an EE PAYG contract can suck up that much data in a day.

If that was the case then I can see this being national front page of the paper news as thousands of people are using PAYG and going through £100 a day in data roaming charges.

Why not go contract and get 12 months sim only contract for £16 that is unlimited minutes/texts and 5GB of data a month?

MitchT

15,788 posts

208 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
carreauchompeur said:
Sorry, to clarify I am currently in the UK and they reckon I have used £20 worth of data in 2 hours. During which time the phone was in WiFi for 90 mins and otherwise unused. This is bonkers.
That is bonkers. I pay £10 per month to giffgaff and have 60% of my data left at the end of each month. I can't imagine how an iPhone could burn through £20 worth of data in two hours, 90 minutes of which you're on Wi-Fi anyway, when you're not even roaming!

Digitalize

2,850 posts

134 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Switch to Three. It's 1p a MB.

IanA2

2,762 posts

161 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Chomper: Change to GiffGaff.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

204 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
carreauchompeur said:
I'm with EE.

Since I'm out of the country for a good few months I decided to cancel my current contract and change to PAYG, since I won't receive any benefit from the free minutes, etc. I'm off next week.

Rang up today and it all changed over fine. Topped up £20 via the website around 1100.

Got to work about 1pm and received a "no credit" text message. Rang up customer services to be told that I had used £20 of data in 2hrs- About three quarters of which, the phone was on Wifi anyway! Their rate is apparently a bonkers 65p/MB.

I obviously did not know this when I signed up and the costs are not outlined very well... But this is ridiculous, even an iPhone would struggle to use so much data in the background. When I visited Spain recently I used about a fiver of data (on contract!)

Are all of the networks quite such robbers on PAYG? EE tell me that there is nothing that they can do, but I am considering a chargeback on the transaction as it simply can't be correct. A "manager" is calling back...

Edited by carreauchompeur on Monday 27th July 15:23
Can you check on your phone for data usage?

In the meantime, just buy an add-on.

Du1point8

21,604 posts

191 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
hornetrider said:
carreauchompeur said:
I'm with EE.

Since I'm out of the country for a good few months I decided to cancel my current contract and change to PAYG, since I won't receive any benefit from the free minutes, etc. I'm off next week.

Rang up today and it all changed over fine. Topped up £20 via the website around 1100.

Got to work about 1pm and received a "no credit" text message. Rang up customer services to be told that I had used £20 of data in 2hrs- About three quarters of which, the phone was on Wifi anyway! Their rate is apparently a bonkers 65p/MB.

I obviously did not know this when I signed up and the costs are not outlined very well... But this is ridiculous, even an iPhone would struggle to use so much data in the background. When I visited Spain recently I used about a fiver of data (on contract!)

Are all of the networks quite such robbers on PAYG? EE tell me that there is nothing that they can do, but I am considering a chargeback on the transaction as it simply can't be correct. A "manager" is calling back...

Edited by carreauchompeur on Monday 27th July 15:23
Can you check on your phone for data usage?

In the meantime, just buy an add-on.
Settings > Cellular > Cellular data usage

Current period
Current Period Roaming

Current period is since the last time you reset the the data. (reset statistics at bottom).

I have had mine since new for 3 weeks.

Current period = 3.3GB (updates, etc on wifi, very little on 4G)
Current period roaming = 265KB

Data roaming is off and everything comes in via 4G and is happy with me and Im not using much at all.

megaphone

10,694 posts

250 months

Tuesday 28th July 2015
quotequote all
Or just get a pay monthly 30 day contract, I pay £10.80 a month for unlimited calls and texts and 2gigs of data. On EE.