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The World’s Most Expensive Top Gear Download
Will Pierce returned home from a five day skiing holiday recently to find a mobile broadband bill reaching nearly £22,000 waiting for him. The 42-year-old man was on holiday with his son in Meribel, France when he decided to use his ‘Vodaphone Data Card’ on his laptop. The service allows access to mobile broadband in foreign countries. Amongst other items, Mr Pierce used the service to download several episodes of BBC car show ‘Top Gear’ to keep his eight year old son entertained during the evening. It wasn’t until nearly a week later that Mr Pierce received a bill for the incredible amount, stating he nearly “fell over” when he realised how much Vodaphone had charged for the service.
“I’m amazed Vodaphone could allow an individual to run up such a huge bill without any warning or credit limit”, Mr Pierce said. TV shows are not small files, and at the standard rate Mr Pierce was being charged, an episode of Top Gear worked out at nearly £300 per minute, over double the amount of Television License for an entire year. One show which lasted around 18 minutes cost Mr Pierce £5,132. It would have been cheaper from Mr Pierce to fly home, purchase the show on DVD along with a brand new HD television and fly back, first class.
Keeping informed
The case has brought mobile broadband charges back into the spotlight, and specifically the method (or lack thereof) companies’ use to inform their customers of the rates. According to Ofcom, there is currently no legal obligation on the phone company to inform users about the size of any bills they are incurring, even when they reach five figures. In most other industries such as banking, customers are generally informed when their accounts are billed for large numbers unexpectedly to prevent overcharging and fraud.
While talks between Ofcom and phone regulators are continuing to try to reach a reasonable compromise in the area, any mobile broadband user can currently be charged any amount by the phone companies. Mr Pierce was lucky to have his billed waived by Vodaphone as a result of being in the media spotlight, but others haven’t been so lucky, facing charges of over a thousand pound for only a few hours of browsing time.
Hanging On To Your Money When Using Mobile Broadband
While there’s no legal reason you couldn’t become the next case of ‘bill shock’, there’s plenty you can do to make sure the same doesn’t happen to you. If you’re travelling, it’s wise to use broadband only when strictly necessary, as mobile broadband overseas is still incredibly expensive. Local Internet cafes are a much better choice for internet on the go. If you do have to log-on, make sure you check your rates before you leave the country. The service should be used for light browsing and checking emails only, even on the cheaper tariffs any sort of data downloading will run you up a massive bill within minutes.
When you sign up to a new provider, ask them if they can offer you any protection against these charges. Although they may not have a system in place which will inform you automatically, you might be able to set a spending limit on the service. The phone companies are under no obligation to provide this, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to help.
A Vodaphone spokesman commenting about Mr Pierce’s huge bill noted that “[these bills] are exceptionally rare”. Vodaphone have launched an investigation into the matter.
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