"Unlimited Texts"

[ih8thisname]

My daughter is on one of these "Texter Plans" with 3Pay, she moved onto this pay monthly lark just after Christmas as we decided it would be far more suitable than topping-up £10 a week & the contract had the bonus of a shiney new free phone.

After hours of mooching around just about every phone shop in the world, she finally decided upon some fancy Blackberry thing on a 12 month contract with 500 Anytime, Any Network minutes + Unlimited Free Texts to any UK network, any time.

Sounded a great deal, and all was going well up until she recieved her last bill. Apparently, she has "exceeded her monthly text allowance" and this months bill is to the tune of £150+

I am out-fking-raged. Apparently, in this stupid arsefest of a company Unlimited doesn't really mean "unlimited". It means 4000. Now, how anyone can use more than 4000 texts is completely beyond me, but then again £5 in my PAYG Nokia jobby will last me about a month, but that's not the point. How can they quote Unlimited Texts when it's clearly not and then, with no notification when you exceed your allowance, get away with it?

Where do I stand in all this?

Do I simply have to bend over and let them shaft me, or is there something I can say other than read them the dictionary definition of Un-fking-limited to get out of this?


I want to punch Three in the face.

[soprano]

Contract will almost certainly have a 'reasonable usage' policy - you might not like it, but it will.

[anonymous-user]

Check their "fair usage policy"

[LC23]

I would imagine somewhere in the small print they set out that unlimited actually means 4,000 per month and that anything over this is deemed as inappropriate use/taking the p*** etc. etc. I have one of these packages (not 4,000 a month however!) but it does clearly state that the "unlimited" is actually limited. I'm not saying that this is right or fairly described, but the small print usually has it.

[dan1981]

Read the small print did you?

Guarentee it's in there somewhere.

But OVER 4000 txts and over by £150 so assuming not much phoning thats about £130 worth of texts - at 10 pence each thats an extra 1300 txts.

So... 5300 texts in a month is about 176 texts a day.....

Now assuming she sleeps for about 8 hours a day.... is 11 texts an hour??

Does she work / go to school what???

One text every 5 minutes for 16 hours of the day on average???

That can't be right?

[soprano]

LC23 said:

I would imagine somewhere in the small print they set out that unlimited actually means 4,000 per month and that anything over this is deemed as inappropriate use/taking the p*** etc. etc. I have one of these packages (not 4,000 a month however!) but it does clearly state that the "unlimited" is actually limited. I'm not saying that this is right or fairly described, but the small print usually has it.

you are so knowledgeable. and handsome.

[Gingerbread Man]

Ring up and moan. You won't end up paying the whole amount.

[robuk]

4000 texts in a month is roughly 133 a day.

Going by my maths she must have her phone near enough constantly in her hand every waking moment!?

Edit: does that mean 4000 texts PLUS £150 worth on top?!?!

Edited by robuk on Thursday 23 April 19:16

[Nolar Dog]

They definitely have a "subject to fair usage" clause but I can see your point of view that they should inform you that you reached that point.

Also take the phone of your child. She's using it too much it would seem.

[dan1981]

robuk said:

4000 texts in a month is roughly 133 a day.

Going by my maths she must have her phone near enough constantly in her hand every waking moment!?

Edit: does that mean 4000 texts PLUS £150 worth on top?!?!

Edited by robuk on Thursday 23 April 19:16

^^^ See my advanced mathematics above!!!

[KieronGsi]

4000, that's nothing compared to this girl.


http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/01/11/Girl-13-sen...

Edited by KieronGsi on Thursday 23 April 19:21

[ih8thisname]

robuk said:

4000 texts in a month is roughly 133 a day.

Going by my maths she must have her phone near enough constantly in her hand every waking moment!?

Edit: does that mean 4000 texts PLUS £150 worth on top?!?!

Edited by robuk on Thursday 23 April 19:16

YES!

I know, I've been through all this to great extent about the mathematics with both her and the missus. But hey, wifey says it's understandable "boyfriend stuff" yada, yada, ya. Personnaly, I don't have a fking clue how she managed it!


Fair Use policy point taken, it's probably there somewhere. It's still shocking how they can advertise it as it is though....

[arryb]

I have 'unlimited' texts but I'm pretty sure it was obvious from the outset that mine was only 3000 texts I think - how on earth does she manage to use 5000+ texts in a month

[Dick_Phallus]

I often send three text messages at once, which to my mind counts as one, but to O2 counts as 3. So I guess you could send more than you'd think. That said I don't think I've ever exceeded maybe 900 in a month, and I text just like this. SPAG the works.

As for your unlimited issue, there is definitely going to be a cap. Otherwise I could take out this contract and start a mass spam text mailing service sending 5000 messages a day. I agree it is misleading though. What's wrong with advertising 4000 text messages?

Edited by Dick_Phallus on Thursday 23 April 19:29

[The Ben]

Orange has a fair usage of 3000 texts, but generally they send a letter to warn you about your excessive texting and warn you that if you carry on you will be put on a 500 limit! but his is usually after a few months woth of abuse of the fair usage policy... Charging you seems a bit stingy of them!!! But then again 3 arnt a company who have ever made a prift since they started so I guess they are saving some ££££ by chargin you anything over!!!

[JamesM]

4000? Jesus. Tittyfking. Christ.

[fadeaway]

The Ben said:

Orange has a fair usage of 3000 texts, but generally they send a letter to warn you about your excessive texting and warn you that if you carry on you will be put on a 500 limit! but his is usually after a few months woth of abuse of the fair usage policy... Charging you seems a bit stingy of them!!! But then again 3 arnt a company who have ever made a prift since they started so I guess they are saving some ££££ by chargin you anything over!!!

That's what I would expect of a fair usage policy - break it once or twice and you get a warning. Continue to break it and you get charged/more restrictions. Charging straight away means that it's really not unlimited. It's very limited, it's limited to exactly 4000 a month (which is, as others have said, still a stonking amount of texts!). Everyone going to have RSI before they leave school!

[LC23]

soprano said:

LC23 said:

I would imagine somewhere in the small print they set out that unlimited actually means 4,000 per month and that anything over this is deemed as inappropriate use/taking the p*** etc. etc. I have one of these packages (not 4,000 a month however!) but it does clearly state that the "unlimited" is actually limited. I'm not saying that this is right or fairly described, but the small print usually has it.

you are so knowledgeable. and handsome.

And you clearly are a man of taste. Fool!

[DrTre]

ih8thisname said:

I know, I've been through all this to great extent about the mathematics with both her and the missus. But hey, wifey says it's understandable "boyfriend stuff" yada, yada, ya. Personnaly, I don't have a fking clue how she managed it!

Boyfriend stuff? Who is she seeing that communicates that much by text? Stephen Hawking?

[///M3]

DrTre said:

ih8thisname said:

I know, I've been through all this to great extent about the mathematics with both her and the missus. But hey, wifey says it's understandable "boyfriend stuff" yada, yada, ya. Personnaly, I don't have a fking clue how she managed it!

Boyfriend stuff? Who is she seeing that communicates that much by text? Stephen Hawking?