# Huge Bill From Three.ie



## dodo (1 Jun 2017)

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


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## Lightning (1 Jun 2017)

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.


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## Moon light (1 Jun 2017)

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,


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## cremeegg (1 Jun 2017)

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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## Leo (2 Jun 2017)

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.



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?


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## cremeegg (2 Jun 2017)

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.


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## Moon light (2 Jun 2017)

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,


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## T McGibney (3 Jun 2017)

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.


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## Boyd (3 Jun 2017)

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.



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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## Gordon Gekko (3 Jun 2017)

Leo is dead right; This sort of innocuous stuff can come back to haunt someone. The OP should negotiate it.


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## cremeegg (3 Jun 2017)

Gordon Gekko said:


> Leo is dead right; This sort of innocuous stuff can come back to haunt someone. The OP should negotiate it.



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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## Leo (5 Jun 2017)

cremeegg said:


> Leo, the newspaper article you referenced is interesting, but it is nearly 9 years old.



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.



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.



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.



They do, Charlie Weston reported on this earlier in the year with reports of people being refused bill-pay services from other service providers.


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## T McGibney (5 Jun 2017)

> 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?


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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## vandriver (5 Jun 2017)

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.


That's for broadband customers,not phone customers.


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## Leo (6 Jun 2017)

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.



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'!


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## Seagull (6 Jun 2017)

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?


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## AlbacoreA (8 Jun 2017)

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.


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## Lightning (8 Jun 2017)

Seagull said:


> I thought there was now an obligation on the provider to send a notification once the amount reached specific levels.



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.



Good point. There were Three billing issues lately. Do the maths on your bill.


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## AlbacoreA (8 Jun 2017)

dodo said:


> ... , he decided to change provider but was still with Three with no bundle add on for data on his account,...



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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## trasneoir (8 Jun 2017)

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.


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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## lukegriffen (9 Jun 2017)

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.
> 
> 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.



Well i believe the operators are starting to share this detail, so anyone who doesnt pay a bill, might find they cannot get a bill pay contract with another operator
[broken link removed]


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## Gordon Gekko (10 Jun 2017)

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.



Inability to access credit from other utility providers.


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## cremeegg (10 Jun 2017)

This thread raises an important question, to what extent can various utility companies and other service providers share information about a clients account.

My understanding of data protection law is that they cannot. Does anyone on here have any definite information as to what protection there is for consumers in this area.


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## Leo (12 Jun 2017)

cremeegg said:


> This thread raises an important question, to what extent can various utility companies and other service providers share information about a clients account.
> 
> My understanding of data protection law is that they cannot. Does anyone on here have any definite information as to what protection there is for consumers in this area.



Data Protection legislation states that they can use data they collect only for purposes stated as part of any agreement made when you provide that data. Three's terms include the use of any personal data provided for the purposes of these credit checks, and making the execution of the check and any subsequent decision on whether to offer credit available to other providers/ lenders.

So in this case, anyone entering a contract with Three is giving their permission for credit checks to be carried out and recorded, and that data to be made available to any other body who want to run a credit check in the future. All above board and legal. The Data Protection Commissioner's site has guidance for consumers and data controllers.


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## dodo (13 Jun 2017)

Hi guys, see attached details they sent really love your opinion


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## PaddyBloggit (13 Jun 2017)

reply as Gaeilge .... you might get a discount!


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## dodo (13 Jun 2017)

PaddyBloggit said:


> reply as Gaeilge .... you might get a discount!


Not helpful at all and not even a tad funny


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## PaddyBloggit (13 Jun 2017)

dodo said:


> Not helpful at all and not even a tad funny



Apologies if I've offended you ... it wasn't my intention.

My response wasn't really meant to be funny.

It was just a response to how badly worded the email response you got was.

The point I was trying to make was that if you're dealing with someone who writes like that you'd be as well off throwing a smattering of Irish at them.

Trying to discuss your situation with somebody who can't converse with you is only a waste  of time. You'll have to find another way of dealing with 3.

Also, for what it's worth, I wouldn't ignore the bill as others have advised ... it needs to be dealt with.


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## cremeegg (14 Jun 2017)

Leo said:


> Data Protection legislation states that they can use data they collect only for purposes stated as part of any agreement made when you provide that data. Three's terms include the use of any personal data provided for the purposes of these credit checks, and making the execution of the check and any subsequent decision on whether to offer credit available to other providers/ lenders.
> 
> So in this case, anyone entering a contract with Three is giving their permission for credit checks to be carried out and recorded, and that data to be made available to any other body who want to run a credit check in the future. All above board and legal. The Data Protection Commissioner's site has guidance for consumers and data controllers.



Thank you Leo for this. I was certainly unaware that data could be shared in this manner by mobile companies.

However I still think that it is a stretch from this to saying a mobile phone bill issue could affect a mortgage application. 

Secondly do you know if 3 or any other mobile provider can enter details of a *disputed* bill into such a database.


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## Leo (14 Jun 2017)

cremeegg said:


> Thank you Leo for this. I was certainly unaware that data could be shared in this manner by mobile companies.
> 
> However I still think that it is a stretch from this to saying a mobile phone bill issue could affect a mortgage application.



No problem, it's an area I think a lot of consumers aren't well informed on. Combine that with the fact that the telcos are clearly taking advantage of their customers in imposing massive data and roaming costs and then pushing the limits of what's allowable in terms of enforcement and some people are finding themselves in trouble. 



cremeegg said:


> Secondly do you know if 3 or any other mobile provider can enter details of a *disputed* bill into such a database.



So long as the telco consider it a valid bill, once it's overdue, they can register it. What I don't know is at what point they might do so, they're the kinds of details the hold close to their chest.


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## dodo (14 Jun 2017)

dodo said:


> Hi guys, see attached details they sent really love your opinion  View attachment 1978


Just wondering what is best approach now, there was no more than 8 hours of time actually used and no warning that Bill was moving so high, is it worth getting onto something like FLAC or Citizens advice center? Or is there a consumer complaint avenue?


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## Leo (15 Jun 2017)

dodo said:


> Just wondering what is best approach now, there was no more than 8 hours of time actually used and no warning that Bill was moving so high, is it worth getting onto something like FLAC or Citizens advice center? Or is there a consumer complaint avenue?



In the first post you stated there was a text stating that he had gone €2 over his allowance. It sounds like he only noticed this after the fact. 

The 8 hours piece has no relevance, 4G phones can hit a peak download speed of 1Gbps.


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## tallpaul (15 Jun 2017)

Nearly 2GB's worth of mobile data in 8 hours is a huge amount. Was this a radio stream left on for the duration? You would want to get your facts straight. Date and times of termination of contract, details of any notifications/communications, if any. When did you realise etc. You will need to build a clear, cogent case and see if they will budge. But 2 gigs in 8 hours is a LOT given that many people have only 5GB or 10 GB to last them a month...


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## Seagull (15 Jun 2017)

An iphone with that delightful new wifi assist feature turned on by default? I burnt through 80% of my monthly data allowance in 2 days when that first rolled out.


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## dodo (21 Jun 2017)

Leo said:


> In the first post you stated there was a text stating that he had gone €2 over his allowance. It sounds like he only noticed this after the fact.
> 
> The 8 hours piece has no relevance, 4G phones can hit a peak download speed of 1Gbps.


The only warning that was given was by text stating he had gone 2E over , he was not in a bundle anymore and letter sent out states he was charged 1,431E for 1918 mb, surely that cant be right, agreed it maybe alot for the period he used it but should be more like what u pay for a month if using 2GB of data about 30E.


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## Leo (21 Jun 2017)

dodo said:


> The only warning that was given was by text stating he had gone 2E over , he was not in a bundle anymore and letter sent out states he was charged 1,431E for 1918 mb, surely that cant be right, agreed it maybe alot for the period he used it but should be more like what u pay for a month if using 2GB of data about 30E.



They have no obligation to keep issuing further warnings. Once they issue a single warning, the responsibility moves to the consumer.

In relation to the cost, it has been widely reported for years about how excessive some of these data charges have been. They are unfortunately completely legal.


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## dodo (21 Jun 2017)

Three have offered a 30% discount today so we check with my brother to see what he thinks,


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## dodo (6 Jul 2017)

Update from huge phone bill, contacted Comreg who in turn contacted Three fone , Three rang today saying they made mistake and are sorry the bill should have been E13.49 .Just thought it might be helpful for someone in the future


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## Lightning (6 Jul 2017)

Outrageous that Three made a billing error like that and only found the error when the regulator got involved.


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## Cervelo (6 Jul 2017)

Did they explain how they made the mistake ??


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## dodo (6 Jul 2017)

They said admin error but i believe they chancing their arm i really do as when issue raised at the start they had plenty of feedback why 6 hours of data cost so much as not in a bundle etc. I did it on behalf of someone close to me who not type to challenge them, when i rang him i said they cut it to 900e how that sound he said grand it better thsn 1700e, so when i said 13.49e he could not believe so free beer 2moro he said and i said now that would be a miracle


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## Cervelo (7 Jul 2017)

I would have thought that with the systems in place now and the fact that its a computer that caculates your usage and bill and not a person, that "admin error" was a thing of the past.
Well done and enjoy the beer but me thinks you should push them for a few more considering how much you saved them.


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## Hazelmcn (13 Jul 2017)

I feel the need to add to this conversation. Three sent a text message in April I think to inform customers that there would be an increase of €5 on their monthly bill. It also asked customers to click on a link for other increases. 

Many customers are unaware that those "other increases" were in fact an out of data allowance price increase of over 1600%. In the past month I have checked the price online and used data accordingly- this information was WRONG!! They never updated the crazy increase of 1600% online on customers online information! 

So to say I was surprised when my usual data overage went from €5 to €160 is an understatement. 

Even though I made them aware of this outrageous discrepancy between what people are told are the price and what they are actually billed - upon checking again online - the price is wrong. 

You absolutely 100% deserve all the refund you deserve. This is a horrendous way to treat people. I am also looking to get out of my contract and move to another provider considering the mis information and lack of transparency in relation to these charges.


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