orange customer for 24 hours

[nobby1066]

hi all..

yes i have been a orange customer for 24 hours and have sooo many problems..

i have a works mobile contract that i will be handing back soo as my rle now dosent require a contract phone.

 

so i bought a orange PAYG yesterday 25th july at approx 3pm.

 

i purchased the phone and 6 months worth of credit in one go ( £10 per month for 6 months) to be automatically installed each month.

 

that first amount of credit was applied at 7am the next day according to my text alert. by 8am that day all credit was gone!

im think mmm i havent actually used my phone yet and all my credit has been used.. ( i actually thought something i cannot type here but we will go with that.)

i called customer services ( somewhere in afghanistan) to try and get to the root of the solution, and how can i have a "bill" on a payg phone that wipes out all credit in 45 mins.

he was less than useful

after logging into my orange account at work i see charges called GPRS APprepaidsession..

the orange rep cannot tell me what they are, why im being charged, or what i can do to try and prevent it.

all that can say is yes your money is now all gone, please call again

 

 

can someone here please explain what the hell is going on, and what i can do to get this cash back for something i havent used..

 

kind regards

 

andy

[jacktheband]

Sounds like your phone has made a GPRS data connection. What type of phone is it?

[nobby1066]

hi there, thanks for the reply.

 

its a samsung apollo I5801, if i had the wifi connected could someone have connected to me and used my phone as a modem?

 

its the only thing i can possibly think of.

[buzby]

Doesn't sound like that - more the fact the phone (or applications on it) are 'calling home' with the result your data connection is constantly alive, using up your credit. To precent this happening you would need to switch off data, or the more brutal method, of removing the GPRS profile so that it cannot connect to Orange's data servers.

[Human Writes]

its a samsung apollo I5801, if i had the wifi connected could someone have connected to me and used my phone as a modem?

 

No. Its more likely that you thought you were using Wi-Fi when you weren't and you used the data in question via Orange's network.

[Humber5]

I have had the same problem with an iPhone since January. Tried their helpline in February(sounded like someone from the Indian sub-continent)- no use at all. Offered refund but never received one. The local shop tried several times to help but failed. Contacted the helpline again on 14th August; asked specifically for the iPhone team. Was told that the problem would be passed to the technical section and that they would call me back within 48 hours. Nothing so far so I am not holding my breath. I have just checked back and guess the charges are now approaching £100. I suspect the answer may be fairly simple but the orange helpline doesn't have a very good reputation so I guess the only answer is to move to another provider.

hi all..

yes i have been a orange customer for 24 hours and have sooo many problems..

i have a works mobile contract that i will be handing back soo as my rle now dosent require a contract phone.

 

so i bought a orange PAYG yesterday 25th july at approx 3pm.

 

i purchased the phone and 6 months worth of credit in one go ( £10 per month for 6 months) to be automatically installed each month.

 

that first amount of credit was applied at 7am the next day according to my text alert. by 8am that day all credit was gone!

im think mmm i havent actually used my phone yet and all my credit has been used.. ( i actually thought something i cannot type here but we will go with that.)

i called customer services ( somewhere in afghanistan) to try and get to the root of the solution, and how can i have a "bill" on a payg phone that wipes out all credit in 45 mins.

he was less than useful

after logging into my orange account at work i see charges called GPRS APprepaidsession..

the orange rep cannot tell me what they are, why im being charged, or what i can do to try and prevent it.

all that can say is yes your money is now all gone, please call again

 

 

can someone here please explain what the hell is going on, and what i can do to get this cash back for something i havent used..

 

kind regards

 

andy

[buzby]

The iPhone and its Apps are prolific users of online data - so without being on a dedicated iPhone bold-on, it is impossible to prevent data use (unless you switch the handset to Aircraft mode). 'Nornal' data use is constant, you don;t have to do anything, so the useage was probably correct.

[Humber5]

Hi Busby, That argument would hold good but but nobby1006 has a Samsung. This appears to be an Orange related problem. I have not come across it on any other network

 

The iPhone and its Apps are prolific users of online data - so without being on a dedicated iPhone bold-on, it is impossible to prevent data use (unless you switch the handset to Aircraft mode). 'Nornal' data use is constant, you don;t have to do anything, so the useage was probably correct.

[buzby]

I've had a Samsung Omnia that used data like crazy, and whilst not as prolific as the iPhone, it still was a major financial drain on PAYG, so much so I swapped SIMs to let the phone have it's . Don;t see how a 'problem' like this can be related to a network alone - only a tariff.

[Humber5]

Fair comment, but I have only come across it on Orange. If it is as simple as that why is it that nobody at Orange can explain it? Or is it that they choose to ignore it because they are making money from it? I have been trying to get an answer from them for 6 months or more without success. It is just so frustrating when you seen charges at 3am when you are sefely tucked up in bed (unles sof course you were still partying). It would be nice to have a definitive answer; evenif you feel a bit of a prat at the end of it because you have the wrong settings. I should mention that friends had the same phone on the same network and the same tarrif. We checked all the settings and they were the same. They didn't have this problem. Strange. Appreciate your comments all the same.

[buzby]

But it has nothing to do with what YOU were doing at 3am - tucked up or not! Surely you're not going to say that if your handset did a data transfer without your permission, that'd be nothing to do with you?

 

Even Facebook will poll for the latest updates through the night. And if it multitasks, WOW! You can have Skype, Bebo and the rest all doing status updates relentlessly on your data credit until it is exhausted! The only way you could raise a legitimate complaint was if the phone was actually turned off (not on standby) and required a PIN to switch on. Then it becomes a billing issue. At the moment a cry of 'the fone did it' is a VERY common complaint!

[Humber5]

Have finally got an answer from the Apple shop. Turn off cellular date wherever it is on your 'phone. Turn it back on whenever you want to receive updates etc. It has worked for me

 

Best of luck.