# huge O2 bill and 22GB usage.



## sillyaboutmo (18 Sep 2012)

Got a bill through today for 158euro.  my bill is normally 20.58 per month for 15GB usage. 15+vat.
i looked through the bill and noticed on 3 seperate occasions over 1GB being used.
my history on my laptop is deleted so i cant check the days in question but i know that we dont download music or films so its a mystery to where its come from.

do any of yous know how to retrieve history once its been deleted.  


I rang them up and they agreed to deduct 60% of the bill, im happy but id rather pay 20.58 because im sure its a mistake.

MO


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## vandriver (19 Sep 2012)

€20 per GB in excess charges! Is there no other provider in your area?


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## sillyaboutmo (19 Sep 2012)

loads of providers but dont know if theres a better deal out there and O2  are the best for coverage etc.  im happy with their service.  been with  them for 5 yrs and this is the first time this has happened.  ive never  went over my usage b4 so to go over by 7GB must be a mistake.


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## Boyd (19 Sep 2012)

At the least you should be able to see what/when the usage occured using your online summary.

What sort of broadband is it, O2 dongle (mobile broadband), router with wifi etc? 

If its a wireless network its possiblel someone may be using it if its not properly secured (using WPA2, as WEP is useless and can be cracked in minutes)


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## sillyaboutmo (19 Sep 2012)

its a dongle so no1 else is using it.


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## Boyd (19 Sep 2012)

OK well you should be able to check online to see what was doing the downloading, or what day it happened. Alternatively try Googling "Recover internet history"


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## ashambles (19 Sep 2012)

Might be OS updates, if they’re set to auto update it might be worth unchecking it and only updating somewhere there’s better internet.

If it’s a Windows machine I think the updates generally happen on Tuesdays but tend to be relatively small updates, but it it’s Apple they’re well known for requesting 1G+ downloads any time there’s a minor upgrade of one of their applications.


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## sillyaboutmo (19 Sep 2012)

yip done that already but apparently you cant recover history from mozilla firefox!!  tried system restore too but no good.  bummer.  i know the days it happened, it was 3 separate occasions and over 1GB used each time.  that would mean spending 10 hrs online which never happens.


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## Boyd (19 Sep 2012)

Yeah system updates are a good point, that could use up alot. Also a good point re: Apple/iTunes.

In the first post you said "We dont download movies/music".....are you sure whoever the "we" is doesnt do the above? Makes me wonder why the internet history was deleted.....


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## sillyaboutmo (19 Sep 2012)

just me and my husband. my 2 kids are too young.  i deleted the history myself a few wks ago.  wont be doing that again!

Mo


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## AlbacoreA (20 Sep 2012)

Wouldn't O2 know what had been downloaded?


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## sillyaboutmo (20 Sep 2012)

AlbacoreA said:


> Wouldn't O2 know what had been downloaded?




No data protection and privacy laws to protect the user are in place.  all they see is how much has been used and when.

mo


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## Sunny (21 Sep 2012)

That's a huge amount of data to be downloaded without you knowing about. Can't imagine any system update being that big. Dispute it.


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## shoestring (21 Sep 2012)

You say 'we' and I know you have two young kids but I caught my 2 1/2 year old one time downloading a movie on my iphone (not allowed have phone but got his hands on it). What age are your kids, they may have inadvertantly downloaded a game or something?


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## sillyaboutmo (21 Sep 2012)

shoestring said:


> You say 'we' and I know you have two young kids but I caught my 2 1/2 year old one time downloading a movie on my iphone (not allowed have phone but got his hands on it). What age are your kids, they may have inadvertantly downloaded a game or something?




hi shoestring,
they are 3 and 5 but they never get near the laptop.  i never leave it on unless im using it.

sunny
i know but ive no way of finding out for sure now the history is deleted.  i did dispute it and they took 60% of the bill.  still would love to find out what happened.


any1 else any ideas?

Mo


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## Boyd (21 Sep 2012)

Double double check it wasnt the ankle-biters!


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## sillyaboutmo (21 Sep 2012)

username123
thats crazy stuff!  at least they got their money back.  pity there wasnt some kinda alert when huge data is being downloaded! 

anklebiters lol.  havent heard that in a while.

seriously though my kids have no interest in the net or my computer.  too busy playing outside to be playing online games.

mo


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## AlbacoreA (21 Sep 2012)

sillyaboutmo said:


> ...seriously though my kids have no interest in the net or my computer.  too busy playing outside to be playing online games.
> 
> mo



You're lucky. I have to password protect everything from the kids, and they watch me to try and guess the passwords. The 4yr guessed the pin on the iPod then told the other kids. I didn't find out for a day or so.


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## sillyaboutmo (21 Sep 2012)

thanks, hope it lasts
 but im under pressure to buy a nintendo ds for my 5yo.  he's used his cousins and wants 1 from santa.  im trying tp out him of till he's 7.


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## AlbacoreA (21 Sep 2012)

Good luck with that! Mine are so used to touch screens, using a mouse and keyboard baffled the heck out them. Makes you feel soooo old. 

You either had something streaming/downloading that you didn't realise, or it was a mistake. Kinda hard to prove if neither you or O2 keep records. I would suggest using your own data counter and put alarms on it. O2 one is unreliable. I don't entirely trust post pay data packages which allow bill shocks to happen.


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## Boyd (21 Sep 2012)

Agree with above, some nasty shocks can occur. IMO you should get rid of the dongle, they suck for speed and data allowance anyway. Get a proper broadband in, they your limit will be huge and you wont need to worry about this sort of thing.


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## sillyaboutmo (21 Sep 2012)

good point albacoreA ill look into it. 

Mo


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## irbx (29 Sep 2012)

by any chance you did not start using netflix. my usage sky rocketed when starting using it. but i knew to keep a eye on it.


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