Huge data bill on Orange GPRS

[Guest nb]

I have a new Orange SPV C500, and, in my second month of use have been billed 90 pounds, which included 75Mb of GPRS.

Now there is absolutely no way I have intentionally downloaded this much data. I use the backup program, but not for my documents folder (only calendar and contacts), I have browsed a few tens of web pages, and about the same number of wap pages, and, in total, these probably add up to about 4 meg.

I also check my email once an hour, automatically, and download 1k per email. I receive about 5 per day on average.

So, has anyone had a similar problem? Orange were no help at all. They suggested that I must be doing something foolish, but could not tell me what.

Any ideas?

[Guest Confucious]

Oh dear :lol:

Have you checked to see how much data you are actually backing up when you use the backup service? isn't it easier just to sync with outlook?

Download the All-locations GPRS counter then do a backup using PC passthrough (so you wont be using GPRS) to see if that's the culprit. Either way the GPRS counter should let you know what you are using.

I think it's disgusting that Orange can't let you know how much data you are using until they bill you and then they expect you to pay a bill like that!

I hope I don'rt use that much! :shock

good luck:

[Guest nb]

Oh dear :lol:

Have you checked to see how much data you are actually backing up when you use the backup service? isn't it easier just to sync with outlook?

Download the All-locations GPRS counter then do a backup using PC passthrough (so you wont be using GPRS) to see if that's the culprit. Either way the GPRS counter should let you know what you are using.  

I think it's disgusting that Orange can't let you know how much data you are using until they bill you and then they expect you to pay a bill like that!

I hope I don'rt use that much! :shock

good luck:

Thanks. I don't actually have a PC (I am mac based), so the backup seemed like the best way to go (the third party software I bought does not even vaguely work). I don't think the backup is the problem, though, as they say I have logged access pretty much constantly, day and night, since I connected, and I only back up once a day. The current suggestion is that it is my email program causing the problem. I check every hour, but really, that should take very very little data. I only download the first 1k of each message, and only get about 4 emails per day. Orange do seem to thimk that this is the problem.

Of course, they have also told me at various timmes that I must pay for all the time that explorer is in the background(!), all the time I have a wap page sitting on the screen(!!), and that I should use task manager to kill all programs every tie I stop usung them (!!!).

I am not happy with their level of expertise.

[Guest Confucious]

They really are pretty useless when it comes to data usage aren't they? Not sure that I'd believe them about your usage being consistant - how do they know? Like I say, download All-locations GPRS counter and check yourself.

good luck!

[Guest ncolli1981]

I had exactly the same problem, less money involved.

Orange tried to charge me £30 for 3mb of GPRS usage.

THEY ARE USELESS, the only way to get anywhere is threaten to leave or speak to a manager. THe bods on the phone are crap and have NO IDEA.

[Guest barrybryce]

I've had problems with their data billing. It wasn't GPRS, but again they were saying that there'd been periods when I'd been using the phone continually day and night. The charge involved was £70.30.

As you won't be out of contract and can't threaten to leave... you'll have to go for option two which is be b----- persistant.

I don't want to dishearten you, but I found out about these problems happening in July from my bill dated 5th August, and it was only a few days ago they said they'd sorted it out (haven't had the bill yet to check though).

During the time I was getting nowhere I'd phoned them over 30 times, spending up to half an hour on the phone (even once I got speaking to a human) twice.

The department that they told me deals with this type of problem apparently has a big backlog of similar enquiries They won't put you through to them, and even say that they can't speak to them themselves. My final offering was telling them that I was going to put in a small claim and risk letting a judge decide if I'd really spent 17 hours making consecutive data calls that were exactly an hour in length. (And I would have. My bills show I just haven't ever previously used my phone in the middle of the night, their claim rather stretched credulity...)

Oh, and, ehm, good luck!