Thursday 19 September 2013

Mother, 40, hit with £20,000 mobile phone bill after using the internet in Turkey to put her holiday pictures on Facebook

A British holidaymaker racked up a staggering £20,000 mobile phone bill after she used her internet to upload holiday snaps to Facebook.
Shocked Helen Christie, 40, was landed with the massive bill, which is more than twice what she paid for her entire holiday, when she decided to share photos of her trip to Turkey on the social network.
But by using her Orange mobile internet to upload the pictures, she ran up data roaming charges which worked out at huge £2,700 per day.
Helen Christie, who was landed with a £20,000 mobile phone bill after uploading pictures to Facebook from Turkey


Shocked: Helen Christie, above, was enjoying a week away with pals when she ran up the bill

Helen, of Woolwich, South East London, had planned for her trip by buying £6 per day 'travel saver' mobile internet bundle from her network provider.
But Orange said that by buying into the deal, she had opted out of the cap on her normal tariff, which limits internet charges to £42 per day.

Upon her return, the mother-of-two was faced with monthly repayments of £3,000.
Speaking to The Mirror, she said: "I just thought it might be nice to put a few pictures on Facebook. I didn't have a clue what on earth had gone on.
"I thought it was a wind-up. The whole holiday only cost me £700. It's disgusting. It's scare tactics - people don't realise what these companies are doing."
After a national newspaper contacted Orange, they agreed to cut the bill from £19,656 to £875 because of 'exceptional circumstances'
Picture of Facebook sign outside the companies California HQ
Charges: European Commission chiefs are planning to scrap data roaming charges so that holidaymakers can use sites like Facebook without risk of huge bills


A spokesperson for Orange said: "The customer used much more data than her chosen bundle. Due to the exceptional circumstances we have offered a significant reduction."
Fearing pressure from Bailiffs, Helen who earns £10,000 per year as an accounts manager, said she plans to fight the revised bill in court.
The row comes as mobile phone providers are putting pressure on the Eurpoean Commission to scrap their plans to drop data roaming charges across Europe by 2016.
Networks insist that a ban on data roaming charges will cost the industry £6billion per year.

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