Huge Bill From Three.ie

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dodo

Registered User
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My brother was with Three.ie for about 1 year with average monthly bill of 16Euro for calls and texts only, used Wifi if he wanted to go on internet mainly each month and might use small data if no wifi maybe extra 10E at most with any bill , he decided to change provider but was still with Three with no bundle add on for data on his account, they said his daily allowance was 49 mb per day for about 3 weeks and his final bill was 1695.00, after talking to them they stated 2 days he used 1.5 GB which was outside the bundle and that was the price,
he checked his texts from them and he did get one warning stating he was 2 Euro over or
above his allowance, he has no idea how the amount is 1695.00 Euro,
There could be no more than 6 hours data used for these days,
has anyone had the same issue and what advise they can give,

Cheers
 
A small amount of mobile data, without a data bundle, can cost a fortune.

Ring Three and plead inability to pay and seek a large reduction in the amount. This approach can work.
 
Yes call them up and explain what happened and that this was very unusual, they will understand this,
A friend of mine clocked up huge data costs like this and the provider knocked 60% / 70% off the cost,
let them know this was a once off and it will not happen again, good luck,
 
Just ignore them and they will go away.

This by the way is perfectly serious advice. There is no way in the world that 3 will go before a judge and try to justify this silly charge.
 
cremeegg said:
Just ignore them and they will go away.

This by the way is perfectly serious advice. There is no way in the world that 3 will go before a judge and try to justify this silly charge.
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That is really poor advice, the telcos are amongst the most likely to take legal action. Going back a few years now, but in a 6 month period, O2 (now Three) had 472 judgements registered in a 6 months period. This practice hasn't gone away. Eir, Three & Vodafone, and possible others, also submit details of unpaid bills to Experian, and are limiting anyone registered there to pre-pay services in future.

You really want to jeopardise your chances of getting a mortgage in future by not paying a bill?
 
Leo, the newspaper article you referenced is interesting, but it is nearly 9 years old.

I suggested that if the OP ignore 3 they will go away. On reflection I still think that is good advice. The money they say he owes them does not seem like something they would willingly air in court.

If the OP were to receive a court summons, not a threat of a court summons but an actual summons, then I might reconsider the advice to ignore them, but up to that point I think the OP should not pay and should not respond.

Experian as far as I know does not hold details of unpaid telephone bills in this country at any rate. Nor could it.

Experian would only have a record of a judgement that was obtained AND REGISTERED by 3. Something that strikes me as so unlikely in this case as to be almost impossible.

To suggest that an unpaid telephone bill could affect someones chances of getting a mortgage shows a complete lack of understanding of how the world works.
 
Hi dodo, the right thing to do is be upfront about it, this problem is not going to go away, get your brother to call them and explain the situation, Leo is right, take his advise, you will get sorted out,
 
The problem will eventually go away if the company cannot enforce the debt in a court of law. And there's no way any court would stand over a setup where an innocent customer's bill is allowed inflate to 100 times its normal balance without some sort of stop being put in place.
 
Very surprised people are advocating to ignore a bill like this. Totally agree with Leo, ignoring any bill and hoping it will go away is IMO not a good idea. At least ring them up to make contact, offering to pay a certain amount per month. I'd suggest to make an offer to clear it in total for say 30% of the bill.
However, the bill doesn't seem right to me. From [broken link removed], it calls the charge out quite clearly:
*Important* If you exceed your allowance within a billing period, you will be charged the out of bundle rate of 5c per MB. This is pricey - so to be on the safe side, make sure you keep a close eye on your My3 account.
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If he was 1.5GB over, that is 1500MB. At 5c per MB, that would be a bill of 5c * 1500 = 7500c, which is E75, so where is the E1695 coming from?! How much exactly are they charging per MB over this bundle limit? Too late now obviously, but everyone should set a mobile data limit on their phone to prevent this happening, all phones all you to cut off the data at whatever rate you desier.
 
Leo is dead right; This sort of innocuous stuff can come back to haunt someone. The OP should negotiate it.
 
cremeegg said:
Leo, the newspaper article you referenced is interesting, but it is nearly 9 years old.
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It is, but I'm not aware of anything changing that would mean they no longer chase these debts.

cremeegg said:
The money they say he owes them does not seem like something they would willingly air in court.
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These charges have been challenged in the past, never successfully. This is part of the reason the EU is harmonising rules.

cremeegg said:
If the OP were to receive a court summons, not a threat of a court summons but an actual summons, then I might reconsider the advice to ignore them, but up to that point I think the OP should not pay and should not respond.
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Post on the Vodafone forum suggest that once action is taken, they will refuse to make a deal. I can't say the same applies to Three, but why take the chance.

cremeegg said:
Experian as far as I know does not hold details of unpaid telephone bills in this country at any rate. Nor could it.
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They do, Charlie Weston reported on this earlier in the year with reports of people being refused bill-pay services from other service providers.
 
At least ring them up to make contact, offering to pay a certain amount per month. I'd suggest to make an offer to clear it in total for say 30% of the bill.
...
If he was 1.5GB over, that is 1500MB. At 5c per MB, that would be a bill of 5c * 1500 = 7500c, which is E75, so where is the E1695 coming from?! How much exactly are they charging per MB over this bundle limit?
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No way should he suggest or entertain any possibility of paying the equivalent of 30 times his normal bill, especially if there is no obvious or credible reason why the account was allowed to get so out of hand in such a short space of time.

If the service provider is unwilling to wipe the bill, the customer should stand their ground and offer a small amount in settlement. If the phone company resort to the courts to enforce it, the pressure will be on them to convince the court of why they should collect the entire bill or the bulk of it.

If even the most basic defence is entered, the chances of them getting their money are slim.
 
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username123 said:
Very surprised people are advocating to ignore a bill like this. Totally agree with Leo, ignoring any bill and hoping it will go away is IMO not a good idea. At least ring them up to make contact, offering to pay a certain amount per month. I'd suggest to make an offer to clear it in total for say 30% of the bill.
However, the bill doesn't seem right to me. From [broken link removed], it calls the charge out quite clearly:


If he was 1.5GB over, that is 1500MB. At 5c per MB, that would be a bill of 5c * 1500 = 7500c, which is E75, so where is the E1695 coming from?! How much exactly are they charging per MB over this bundle limit? Too late now obviously, but everyone should set a mobile data limit on their phone to prevent this happening, all phones all you to cut off the data at whatever rate you desier.
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That's for broadband customers,not phone customers.
 
T McGibney said:
If the phone company resort to the courts to enforce it, the pressure will be on them to convince the court of why they should collect the entire bill or the bulk of it.

If even the most basic defence is entered, the chances of them getting their money are slim.
Click to expand...

These charges have been challenged in the past, all the way to Europe, the charges are all detailed in the T&Cs the user must agree to (but never read until it's too late).

If providers were unable to enforce these charges, the EU wouldn't have legislating to address these charges so high on the priority list. That said, most reported cases that do end up in court see the provider offer significant discounts as a show of 'good will'!
 
I thought there was now an obligation on the provider to send a notification once the amount reached specific levels. Am I wrong on that, or is it an opt-in for each user?
 
There was a problem with threes billing recently with data.

I would look at the detailed bill.


Its amazing if I run out of credit, they send that immediately. If I'm on a bill pay they don't notice for days and are unable to send you a message.
 
Seagull said:
I thought there was now an obligation on the provider to send a notification once the amount reached specific levels.
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Open to correction but I think that only applies to data roaming.

AlbacoreA said:
There was a problem with threes billing recently with data.

I would look at the detailed bill.
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Good point. There were Three billing issues lately. Do the maths on your bill.
 
dodo said:
... , he decided to change provider but was still with Three with no bundle add on for data on his account,...
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I don't understand this bit. You need to explain the story better.

Sounds like you're brother is on an old o2 plan not a three plan. Most 3 plans have some data included.

16 is close to 20 that the prepaid plan costs with unlimited data.

I would check what plan he is on. Sounds l like they continued him on an old plan with very poor value for money.

Someone in our house had high bill recently after change of contract, and three insisted it was valid until the customer insisted on hearing the recording, only then did three cancel the spurious bill. The boards forum has loads of other examples.
 
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cremeegg said:
Would you like to explain how it could come back to haunt someone, or is that just an off the top of the head comment.
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Don't these debts get resold to collection agencies? They (almost certainly) wouldn't have any legal mechanism to enforce it, but that never seems to stop them making life difficult for their "targets".
 
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