A British mobile broadband user received a monstrous bill of £31,000 ($61,476) after he downloaded music and a single TV episode during his trip to Portugal.
Iayn Dobsyn, 34, knew that he would be getting a huge mobile bill but in the range of hundreds of pounds. When he received the full bill from '
Yes Telecom'', a
Vodafone company, he was flabbergasted.
Dobsyn downloaded the files through a mobile broadband card for his laptop during his recent holiday trip to Portugal. He downloaded some music and one full episode of the "Prison Break" TV series.
After he came back from Portugal, he received the monthly bill from 'Yes Telecom' with the outstanding amount of £31,000 ($61,476).
Dobsyn told the
Lancashire Telegraph.
The figures looked like they had come down from the moon. I just laughed. There had to be some mistake. I knew I had used a lot of data while abroad, but not to the tune of £31,000. The figures just didn't make sense.
Dobsyn decided to seek legal advice to resolve this situation, but luckily for him Vodafone agreed to reduce the bill to £229 ($453). His average monthly bill is £150 ($298).
He said he was unaware of the high downloading costs outside the network.
Dobsyn's lawyer Danielle Mestraud successfully negotiated with "Yes Telecom" and agreed to allow the broadband customer to switch to a lower tariff.
Vodafone spokeswoman said in a statement:
Yes Telecom has always been committed to removing the uncertainty of charges when abroad by helping customers to choose the right price plan.
Vodafone did a great job by not insisting Dobsyn to pay the full amount; if it were Verizon or AT&T he would have ended up paying the full amount.
Email
Print
Share
Customer gets a £31,000 broadband bill for downloading a single TV episode
