$600 2Degrees bill for 2gb of data i didnt use!

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › $600 2Degrees bill for 2gb of data i didnt use!

isaiahp

28 posts

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#142742 23-Mar-2014 11:48

I got charged $600 yesterday for using 2gb of data within the space of a couple of hours.

I have auto updates turned off for apps.
I have software update only when wifi is on.

I rang 2degrees 3 times and they weren't helpful, blaming me for everything.

I know how much data I use on my phone. They keep telling me that it caused by an app running in the background. Which is not possible no app uses 2gb's of data in a couple of hours.

I managed to get them to waive part of the payment but i still have to pay $80 after being on the phone all morning. I feel i shouldn't pay anything at all.

Anyone had similar problems? or know what could have caused this issue?

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#1011297 23-Mar-2014 11:59

I'm sorry to say, but the system doesn't generally just make stuff up. Are you sharing data with someone else? What apps do you have on your phone? In particular, any audio/video streaming or VoIP clients?

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

itxtme

2102 posts

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#1011305 23-Mar-2014 12:10

Salty do you not think this underlines a fundamental problem with the charging for casual data? Not saying this a 2degrees only issue, but $500 for 1GB of traffic that wasnt pre-agreed to on the casual overuse rates... How do you sleep at night?

isaiahp

28 posts

Geek

#1011309 23-Mar-2014 12:22

Not sharing data with anyone, i have viber, thats about it. But this problem hasn't occurred before the whole time ive been on 2 degrees. Surely they could track my data usage patterns and see that something wasnt right.

SaltyNZ

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#1011310 23-Mar-2014 12:25

itxtme: Salty do you not think this underlines a fundamental problem with the charging for casual data? Not saying this a 2degrees only issue, but $500 for 1GB of traffic that wasnt pre-agreed to on the casual overuse rates... How do you sleep at night?

The subtleties of pricing are not something I'm going to get into. I'm an engineer: I don't make those decisions. The prices are very clear in the terms and conditions, and customer care have been pretty fair - OP has said all but $80 of his bill has been waived. The same thing happens if you accidentally leave the hose on for three days, or the heater. It sucks, but it's life.

That said, if OP does send me through his details and a list of apps, I may be able to point him in the right direction and save him from another unexpected big bill. But I may not - we don't log the details of what applications subscribers are using unless they are under active investigation (that is, with their permission). Otherwise we just log the volume, because that's all we need for charging purposes.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

AidanS

458 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1011311 23-Mar-2014 12:26

If you have an android phone (not sure if this is possible on iOS too?) you can go into the mobile data part of the settings and it will tell you exactly how much data each app has used, allowing you to find the culprit.

-A.

SaltyNZ

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#1011312 23-Mar-2014 12:26

isaiahp: Not sharing data with anyone, i have viber, thats about it. But this problem hasn't occurred before the whole time ive been on 2 degrees. Surely they could track my data usage patterns and see that something wasnt right.

Well, we do have spend control. That's what it's for.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

scuwp

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#1011317 23-Mar-2014 12:49

What device & OS?

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

nakedmolerat

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#1011322 23-Mar-2014 13:01

I agree with SaltyNZ - 100%

You should setup the 'Spend Control' which has been available on 2Degrees for sometime now. I found this useful in the past when roaming (I am not with 2Degrees at the moment).

If you think you are lucky, contact the media - they love this story and you *may* get a few hundreds off.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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#1011325 23-Mar-2014 13:10

isaiahp: I got charged $600 yesterday for using 2gb of data within the space of a couple of hours.

I have auto updates turned off for apps.
I have software update only when wifi is on.

I rang 2degrees 3 times and they weren't helpful, blaming me for everything.

I know how much data I use on my phone. They keep telling me that it caused by an app running in the background. Which is not possible no app uses 2gb's of data in a couple of hours.

I managed to get them to waive part of the payment but i still have to pay $80 after being on the phone all morning. I feel i shouldn't pay anything at all.

Anyone had similar problems? or know what could have caused this issue?

It is entirely possible for an app to use 2GB in a couple of hourse. for example, and email stuck in your outbox which is constantly trying to resend, icloud syncing, dropbox etc etc, or even just a rogue app poorly designed (more common on android)

I think you are very lucky to have most of the bill waived. 2Degrees have spend control limits on postpaid, and the pricing is pretty clear. There is also prepaid if you want to have full control over your spend.

Good luck trying to get the water company to waive your bill if you leave your garden hose on all night.

Batman

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#1011330 23-Mar-2014 13:21

+1 for spend control

Tockly

346 posts

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#1011337 23-Mar-2014 13:33

I have recently had the exact same thing.

All my data, about 4GB, disappeared in about 2 hours.

When I rang 2Degrees to say the CSO was less than helpful was an understatement. All he offered to do was to help me buy another data pack. It wasn't till i asked him to put me onto someone who could cancel my account the something actually got sorted. This person thankfully pointed me in the right direction to get it sorted.

In my case it was a app that went wild, but as I had shared devices I had no way of telling which one it was. So I ended up with a $200 bill.

Also had the situation that I appeared to use all my National Data, even when it appeared to me that I was connected to the 2Degrees network NOT roaming onto Vodafone. Once again when I rang to ask what was going on the CSO was less than helpful. He suggested that even though my phone was indicating that I was on 2Degrees I was in fact roaming for Data only?? When I asked how I could tell that this was happening he couldn't tell me. All he could suggest was driving down the road where there was a 2Degrees tower. Gee thanks for that, that was real helpful!! And given that that tower was the closet to me I was pretty sure I was connected to it anyway!!

Oh well won't happen again as I have moved back to Vodafone.

isaiahp

28 posts

Geek

#1011341 23-Mar-2014 13:45

I have spend control now set to $1.

Even my phone says under 'data usage' that i have only used around 300mb of data in the last month and I have a data warning (set by my phone) at 1gb which never alerted me???
Nothing adds up. If i was to use 2gb of data wouldnt it say under my data usage thats how much i've used? I know its not 100% accurate but that's a big difference to have 2 whole gigabytes of data run out of my phone without any trace.

I checked each app and youtube used the most with 144mb then instagram with 80mb, then a bunch of other apps used small amounts.

I'm using a samsung s3. I have no icloud or any cloud storage backup.

Just to clarify this has never happened before.

Yabanize

2350 posts

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#1011351 23-Mar-2014 14:07

Isaiahp,

Was this an android phone?

If so look in your settings and then data usage. It will tell you which apps used data and how much

mattwnz

20147 posts

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#1011352 23-Mar-2014 14:07

isaiahp: I have spend control now set to $1.

Even my phone says under 'data usage' that i have only used around 300mb of data in the last month and I have a data warning (set by my phone) at 1gb which never alerted me???
Nothing adds up. If i was to use 2gb of data wouldnt it say under my data usage thats how much i've used? I know its not 100% accurate but that's a big difference to have 2 whole gigabytes of data run out of my phone without any trace.

I checked each app and youtube used the most with 144mb then instagram with 80mb, then a bunch of other apps used small amounts.

I'm using a samsung s3. I have no icloud or any cloud storage backup.

Just to clarify this has never happened before.

With android, don't you have to manually turn off 3g access for each app. So if you install a new app, you have to then go onto the setting to disable 3g on that app, otherwise it will use data. Also it is not easy to know which apps are disabled and which aren't. This is one of the problems with android I have found. Background apps are always trying to download something.

loceff13

1065 posts

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#1011365 23-Mar-2014 14:18

NonprayingMantis:

It is entirely possible for an app to use 2GB in a couple of hourse. for example, and email stuck in your outbox which is constantly trying to resend, icloud syncing, dropbox etc etc, or even just a rogue app poorly designed (more common on android)

I think you are very lucky to have most of the bill waived. 2Degrees have spend control limits on postpaid, and the pricing is pretty clear. There is also prepaid if you want to have full control over your spend.

Good luck trying to get the water company to waive your bill if you leave your garden hose on all night.

iirc android 4.x lets you see a breakdown of data use(down to the specific apps over the selected timeframe and distinguishes between wifi/3g) which would make it easy to find out what caused it-if it is an android phone.

I think it's criminal to actually attempt to charge $600 for 2GB mobile data in the first place, in a country where you get 500MB included in a plan for $19 including calls/texts and their solution is to drop the price down to $80? Still on the very high side when a 3GB pack is $50 from their own site. Someone on their end should give you a more reasonable offer imo.

I wouldn't be paying $80, put a post on Fair Go's facebook wall and see if they will get in touch on your behalf if you have to.

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