$23,000 roaming bill.

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andrewNZ

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#181052 30-Sep-2015 17:23

This is just amazing.

1.5GB of mostly background data in Sri Lanka and a $23,000 bill as a result.
I guess people will never learn.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11521505

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#1397455 30-Sep-2015 17:33

I love reading cases like this.

Funny how the paper says "The Mighty River Power employee, whose name is suppressed"

but you can find the case in the DOL determinations database

http://dol.govt.nz/workplace/determinations/SearchResults.aspx?Type=RecentCases

tripp

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#1397457 30-Sep-2015 17:35

mattwnz: What amazed me is he got fired for it, at least that is what the headline implies?

Looks like a bit more to the "issue" but have not had a time to read it, the pdf is big (23 pages) which is a lot for "just a phone bill".

NZFINEST

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#1397471 30-Sep-2015 17:58

I wonder if Spark waved any of the bill. I deal with these issues constantly customers saying they can't of spent that much while roaming. They say prove it, then when you spend a hour getting everything needed to prove it they then say, oh I didn't know I would be charged that much I'm not paying that. even tho they get SMS advising cost.
UAE gets a lot people now when getting interconecting flights and JR favourite maritime roaming "I only looked at e-mails did a little face book and watched a few utube clips" how can that total 6k

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vexxxboy

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#1397472 30-Sep-2015 17:59

what is even more amazing is that Mighty Power got stuck with the bill and had to pay the person $6,000 for being mean to him.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

nakedmolerat

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#1397473 30-Sep-2015 18:02

I would have thought the company should not let him go on holiday with a work phone!

johnr

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#1397477 30-Sep-2015 18:07

nakedmolerat: I would have thought the company should not let him go on holiday with a work phone!

I can :)

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tripp

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#1397479 30-Sep-2015 18:10

So after reading the doc it looks like MRP wanted to find a way to get him out, there are comments in the doc about him getting 10k to move but then going back requesting another 5k, issues on "some" of his work before going away.
The phone and missing work was the straw that broke the camel's back. MRP did go out of their way to help with issue however offering the guy a motel to stay when he was feeling sleepy and had to drive for 2 hour back home after his first day back at work.

wellygary

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#1397485 30-Sep-2015 18:21

Sparks's website says it charges $5/MB for data in Sri. Lanka, so he went through around 5GB in about 3 weeks, so not what you would call excessive, but it just shows how much of a rip off international data roaming is.....

jeffnz

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#1397487 30-Sep-2015 18:24

mrtoken: So after reading the doc it looks like MRP wanted to find a way to get him out, there are comments in the doc about him getting 10k to move but then going back requesting another 5k, issues on "some" of his work before going away.
The phone and missing work was the straw that broke the camel's back. MRP did go out of their way to help with issue however offering the guy a motel to stay when he was feeling sleepy and had to drive for 2 hour back home after his first day back at work.

regardless of what we may read between the lines it wasn't brought up at the meeting and he was dismissed based on what was tabled and the Authority went through the process and whether it was fair and reasonable. Some may think it is unfair but after reading the pdf file I think the authority handled it well.

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Hammerer

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#1397491 30-Sep-2015 18:27

vexxxboy: what is even more amazing is that Mighty Power got stuck with the bill and had to pay the person $6,000 for being mean to him.

It wasn't that amazing. The determination seemed very reasonable to me.

I do think it was a bit soft on the employee. He had no work need to use his work phone on holiday and he understood about high roaming data charges. But it is not clear that he understood background data use and the associated risks. Nobody seems to have checked if he actually received an initial warning txt from Spark.

Re the bill. The authority concluded that the bill was not incurred knowingly or deliberately. Other forms of negligence would be paid for by MRP as is usually the case with other losses due to poor performance. MRP was not powerless to prevent it happening. MRP could have had better processes and could have implemented "an automatic roaming data cap" to prevent excessive charges.

MRP would have had to pay the employee $10,000 except that the employee had contributed to the situation hence the discount of 40%.

MRP would be thankful that they only just avoided having him reinstated. It was only the fact that he knowingly (at least a month in advance) took unapproved leave which was sufficient to establish that he would probably have lost his job anyway. The other four issues (two declared, two undeclared to the employee) would not have been enough.

chiefie

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#1397514 30-Sep-2015 18:58

mrtoken:
mattwnz: What amazed me is he got fired for it, at least that is what the headline implies?

Looks like a bit more to the "issue" but have not had a time to read it, the pdf is big (23 pages) which is a lot for "just a phone bill".

It's an interesting read.

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mattwnz

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#1397519 30-Sep-2015 19:06

Why didn't the business put some for form of cap on it's use. Companies are leaving themselves pretty open to huge fees if their staff use phones overseas. Many people would have used this accidentally without knowing the costs IMO. Txts nor email, aren't 100% reliable as a warning either.

Satch

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#1397537 30-Sep-2015 19:38

In this day and age, with stories like this in the news ever other month (although never quite this excessive), how can anyone claim not to be wary of roaming data charges?? This is beyond me...

loceff13

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#1397543 30-Sep-2015 19:51

Must be insane margins in peering(or whatever term you would use) for the telecom companies

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#1397565 30-Sep-2015 20:07

Satch: In this day and age, with stories like this in the news ever other month (although never quite this excessive), how can anyone claim not to be wary of roaming data charges?? This is beyond me...

In this day and age you shouldn't have to pay $5 per MB just because you are in another country.

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