On a business trip to Mexico in January my phone was almost immediately, and rightly, blocked as I had reached a predetermined data cap.
A call by my wife unblocked the phone and allowed me to continue working with data access and I received regular texts from Vodafone advising on data costs and promising to update me on how much I was spending each day. The last text I received said I had reached £90. But a month later I received a message warning of an impending bill of £2,987.76. How can a company justify extending such impossibly high credit without warning the owner, and why was I warned when I hit £90 but not £2,000? I travel all over the world with my phone and have never had anything like this before. I can only presume that my iPhone 6 went through an operating system update and/or some of the apps continued to download data without my knowledge. AC, Lower Stonnall, Staffs
Readers reeling from astronomical data charges are filling my inbox, and you don’t have to travel far to incur such bills. One racked up a £313 bill, despite a stop limit of £50, because she turned her home internet router off each night to force her children offline and her phone switched to other networks. Another received £1,000 bills two months running when his iPhone automatically switched to the 3G network whenever Wi-Fi signals dropped and auto-updated without his knowledge. The smarter the phone the pricier the data use, for these devices are programmed to offer a seamless service, whether or not you are in a Wi-Fi area, and the only way to avoid this is to disconnect the phone from 3G while using Wi-Fi and turn off data roaming if travelling abroad. Vodafone accepts it should have continued to send alerts and will only charge for the data usage it alerted you to, which amounts to £90.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
