Mobile operators: Measures are already in place to prevent bill shock

It’s a normal morning so far: you woke up to the sounds of your alarm, took a quick shower, and are now seated at the table with a pile of mail in front of you and the newspaper tucked under your arm. As you wait for the water to boil for your coffee or for your toast to be ready, you grab one of the bills from the pile and open it. Suddenly, your mouth drops wide open and your eyes look like they’re about to pop out of their sockets: your mobile phone bill for the previous month was over the roof!

This, my friends, is what is called “bill shock.” Over the past few years, it has become a more and more common occurrence as unsuspecting mobile phone users either accidentally forget to turn off services (which skyrocket especially if you’re travelling) or inadvertently go over the limits of their subscription plans.

Many users have come forward and have shared their experiences with other users on online forums and in blog posts. Others have voiced out their complaints on social networks, with some choosing to send their complaints to newspapers and other publications.

As a result, the Communications Ombudsman earlier called on operators to prevent their customers from experiencing bill shock by putting into place measures that can avoid it. Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith explained that it was becoming more and more common for people to encounter bill shock, since most are already making use of their devices to stream content like videos, thinking that they are only talking advantage of their “unlimited” plans when in fact, they’re already being charged for it.

In response to this, mobile operators asserted that they are already implementing measures to prevent bill shock, with two industry insiders claiming that the regulator was “barking up the wrong tree.”

A spokesperson for O2 responded to the calls, saying: “We tackled this over a year ago by introducing data bundles, so customers never spend more than they agree to. We also text our customers to tell them how much data they’ve got left each month, and give them the option to buy more if they need, so they are always in control.”

In a statement, Three UK’s CEO David Dyson said: “Three’s all-you-can-eat data plans offer customers genuinely unlimited Internet use on their smartphones and no out of bundle data bill shock. Both contract and pay as you go customers tell us they prefer the peace of mind of all-you-can-eat data to fair-use policies or worse still: out-of-bundle data bill shock.”

Vodafone responded by saying that they provide adequate warnings to the users, saying: “We clearly publish the amount of data that’s included with each price plan that we offer. If customers are getting near to the top of their allowance we text them to let them know.”

Lastly, Orange explained that their data price cap was made for the purpose of preventing bill shock, stating: “All of our latest price plans feature a £1 per day cap on mobile Internet data usage, and for dongle and mobile broadband SIM users, all our mobile broadband plans come with a £40 bill promise so we never charge more than £40 for data in a month.”

Source – PC Pro