Man faces £27,000 Vodafone mobile phone bill for one month
Mobile phones are becoming more like mini offices, and entertainment hubs every day, with multiple applications, Internet access, and the option to watch download television music to your pocket handheld. But all of this comes at a price, and if you go over the maximum set on your tariff, you could be facing a hefty bill of £27,000 ($58,000).
That’s the amount of money that the unfortunate Ian Simpson, a factory worker from the north of England now owes Vodafone after just one month of exceeding his maximum download limit.
Okay, that’s not the full story, this guy went WAY over his maximum, after wiring his mobile up to a laptop to download TV shows and music albums to it, thinking it would all be covered under his £41.50 a month contract.
According to The Daily Mirror, Simpson’s contract didn’t include unlimited web usage, as he must have thought, and instead was subject to a limit of just 120 megabytes of downloads. Everything after that was charged per minute, sometime for as much as £18 a minute.
The first Simpson knew of this was when he received his first bill for a four week bill, and he was rather shocked to read the figure of £27,322. He now fears he will have to declare himself bankrupt, because he just can’t afford to pay the bill.
He told The Mirror newspaper:
“I just laughed out loud. How on earth could I afford to pay that? My mate told me how to wire my mobile to my laptop as a modem. It meant I could download faster than on the handset and get a proper internet connection in my flat.”
“I probably downloaded 20 or 30 TV shows and four albums. I assumed it’d be OK, but they cut me off. I rang up and they said I owed them nearly £30,000.
“If I’d known it would cost so much I wouldn’t have done it. Unless they take a sensible approach I don’t think I’ll have any choice but to go bankrupt.”
“I cannot believe they would let me run up such an enormous bill – £27,000 would almost buy me a flat where I live. I can’t even afford a mortgage so I rent a room.”
Ian signed up for a Vodafone Anytime 800 plan, and thought the £7.50 he chose to pay on top for the Internet would mean he could use it as much as he wanted.
Although I have sympathy for the guy, because a bill of that enormity is shocking, Vodafone has done nothing wrong, with the 120Mb limit clearly stated on their contract small print. The £7.50 charge only enable users to check email, browse the web occasionally, and download the odd song or two. It was certainly never intended to be used as an alternative to broadband for large scale downloads, and the guy is an idiot to have thought so for that price.
Vodafone has stated that it will try to come to a sympathetic arrangement for the bill to paid back, and just hope he doesn’t make the same mistake again.
In my opinion, if he does, then he deserves to be hidden away from society for being a complete idiot.
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January 1st, 2008
This is so typical of many people, they sign up to a contract and “think” they are covered, or “think” this or “Think” that. Instead of reading the contract and confirming intead os assuming.
Granted many contracts have a lot of “fine print”, that you need a microscope and a “law degree” to read it.
Not knowing what the contract states, many arguments and assumptions could be put forward. It takes me back to the stupidity of an American who purchased a “Winabago motor home” drove it on the freeway, engaged “cruise control”, left the drivers seat and made a cup of coffee. The motor home left the highway and crashed. The owner sued Winabago. The judge ruled in favour of the idot on the grounds that the Winabago instruction book did not say he could not do it.
Perhaps this guy could do the same.
Why didn’t Vodafone cut him off at the 120 Mb down load “limit” ?
Like I said without a copy of the contract any comment could be made.
Is Vodaphone legally just – perhaps
Is Vodaphone morally correct in demanding 27,000 ………..?
Let’s hope common sence and morailty prevails
And next time READ your contract before you sign.
If you are being pressured to sign. Ask for a copy to take home to read over. If the company/ sale person wont give you a copy the GET UP AND WALK OUT cause they’ve got something to hide.
January 1st, 2008
When I read this I thought it was so ridiculous that it must be an urban myth, but Googling for “Ian Simpson” + “Vodafone” certainly brings up enough responses to indicate that it is (unfortunately) true.
Re Peter’s response — The Winnebago story, however, is an urban myth. See
http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp and http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/lawsuits.html.
Try http://www.stellaawards.com/ for some true court cases which are “better” than the motor home myth.