Cell Phone ignorance cost me a month's load!
By blungel0830
@blungel0830 (841)
Philippines
October 6, 2011 3:36am CST
I had a new Android phone a few days back and have not really learned fully to navigate around it. I have been busy transferring my contacts and customizing my phone the past 2 days. Yesterday I checked my prepaid balance and I got my biggest surprise -- my load's gone! The previous night I check I still have more than 100 pesos in it. The culprit? I had data access enabled on the phone which ate up my prepaid load. My new phone has cost me much not only in terms of the price that I paid for it but also time and money lost due to wrong settings.
Have you had a similar experience?
6 responses
@gloryacam (5540)
• Philippines
6 Oct 11
My case is worse because I have a post paid plan. A few years ago, I was browsing the internet while lying on my bed. I got sleepy and forgot to log off. When I woke up, I had slept more than 8 hours, so, I had been on the net for that time. Billing comes and there's that internet browsing charge for how many hours. 
Sometime after that, I got a new phone, and like you, I was not aware of the settings. And, so had my data access enabled, too. Good thing, I had discovered it immediately. I had a headache when my bill came. 
Sometime after that, I got a new phone, and like you, I was not aware of the settings. And, so had my data access enabled, too. Good thing, I had discovered it immediately. I had a headache when my bill came. 1 person likes this
@blungel0830 (841)
• Philippines
11 Nov 11
That is quite an expensive experience on the use of the internet on a mobile phone. Mobile companies should come up with anti-bill shock plans for mobile users too. A telecom company in our country have a plan called Anti-Shock bill which allows users to have control over their internet usage. A similar plan would be great for mobile internet so that users do not get shocked when they forget to log off. 
@gloryacam (5540)
• Philippines
11 Nov 11
I'm from the Philippines, too. Haven't heard of that. I'm with Smart. Is that a Globe thing?
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
6 Oct 11
i know someone who was on a postpaid line and that was also the culprit. it was a blackberry phone i guess and se forgot to log out and it kept running the whole time and when the service provider told her it was due to this, then they were sending her a huge bill!
they won't consider it because she left her phone with the issue and so that is what she got =( that is why i always turn off that data access. and only leaves my phone to access the internet using wifi and nothing else. :D
1 person likes this
@blungel0830 (841)
• Philippines
11 Nov 11
I did the same thing, I also turned off data access and just access the internet on WIFI.
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
7 Oct 11
woww... thanks for reminding me of this... i just got my android phone as well and this is all new to me... i hope i won't experience something similar like you with my new android phone... i wish that the retailer will let us know and make us aware of it when we get a smart phone so that we won't be wasting our money like this... :-( take care and have a nice day...
@highschoolrazors8547 (293)
• Malaysia
6 Oct 11
I experienced this kind of matter once, soon after getting my Nokia E63. Nevertheless, the data access could be enabled by default. That's why it ate up your phone credits. Since then, I always checked the data and internet part whenever I'm buying new phones.
Currently using Iphone and no problems such as that revolving around. Anyway, rest in peace Steve Jobs.
Happy Mylotting!
@clearwater18 (695)
• Philippines
10 Oct 11
Oh I have tried that with my postpaid plan. I don't know what happened. I'm thinking it was due to the internet. I kept on trying to access the wifi but then it kept getting disconnected. But then, I didn't mind it and just kept on using the internet. I was only aware of it when I received the bills for payment. From that time on, I was very careful with using internet on my phone. I seldom use it for internet now because I'm scared that my bills might get high again.
@jammyPaul (101)
• Taiwan
9 Oct 11
Some fees would never been told when you use the mobile phone. If you forgot to log off Internet, they would just charge you anyway, not kindly remind you that you log off the service. It is really not friendly for the mobile phone service. They don't design a program to tell you that you should stop the service or the extra fee would be charged. They just send bill to inform you that you have some extra fees has to be paid. Customers should learn the way of avoiding extra fee spending. In this technical world, every press may means charge. Just have to be very careful.
