27,000 GBP phone bill for Vodafone customer
10:33AM, Wednesday 2nd January 2008
A Vodafone customer has been charged 27,000 pounds (approx 54,000 USD) after using his mobile phone as a modem to download audio and video files to his laptop.
Ian Simpson, a 29 year old factory worker from Darlington, took out a 41.50 GBP monthly contract that he believed offered unlimited internet access. However, the contract Simpson chose actually had a 120MB monthly limit.
Simpson told the Northern Echo that he downloaded "20 or 30" television episodes as well as four albums, which racked up charges of up to 18 GBP per minute once he had exceeded the limits set out in the contract.
Vodafone says that it is sympathetic to Simpson's situation, and is currently considering reducing the charges.
"Customers are advised of the charges for data after the fair usage limit has been used as part of the terms and conditions. Very few of our customer exceed the fair usage," says a Vodafone spokesperson.
A similar case occurred last month in Canada, where 22 year old Piotr Staniaszek received a 40,000 pound phone bill for using his mobile phone as a modem to download movies to his laptop.
Matthew Sparkes
Just one example why I have never liked contracts with phone operators who I have always found to have very one sided contracts; as a standard practice I always deleted "onerous" clauses with them and while they always said they couldn't accept the deletions ultimately they always did.
Charges per minute may be more expensive, but there can be big saving advantages with "pay as you go".
