Great Phone Offers With All You Can Eat Data | Three.ie
3Community Menu

Unexpected €2/day data charges

scottishwildcat
Connector

Unexpected €2/day data charges

I thought I was going mad when this happened last month and put it down to user error. But this month, it's happened again (and I've changed my phone since then too).

 

I'm on the BeFree Internet plan. I'm very careful about turning off mobile data on my phone a day or so before it expires, so I don't accidentally incur any €2/day charges when it runs out. Last month (when I was still using a Nokia 5), I disabled it as usual, and a day or two later I get a text saying "Your €2/day plan has been activated".

 

First of all, can I just say it's incredibly sneaky and customer-hostile that you no longer send out a text a couple of days before our plan is about to expire, and just tick us over to the standard €2/day data plan if we hadn't noticed.

 

But anyway, I assumed I'd just disabled my mobile data too late, and turned it off there and then. But again, next day, I got *another* text, saying I'd been charged another €2. I checked my mobile data setting, it was still turned off. I was about to complain at that point, but thought I'd leave it another day. I never got another text.

 

I re-activated my BeFree Internet plan on October 19. Coincidentally, last week, I got a new phone (a Moto G5), and swapped my SIM into it. This time I did just forget to turn off mobile data before it expired, and I got the "Your €2/day plan has been activated" text. That was yesterday. I immediately switched off mobile data to avoid any further charges.

 

Today, I got the text again, and was charged another €2. I checked my settings. Mobile data still switched off.

 

Looking at my recent usage, something has used exactly 1,019.60KB of data, exactly every two hours, between 18:20 last night and 8:20 this morning. The recent usage log on your website doesn't go back far enough to see if the same pattern occured last month when I was getting the texts.

 

I know you're probably just going to say "that can't happen, you must have had your data turned on". But according to my phone, at least, I really didn't. The Data Usage settings page also says no data has been used today, though I know that's never 100% accurate:

 

2018-11-19 12.32.48.png

 

(Yes, I know mobile data is turned on in that screenshot -- I've just turned it back on because I've just re-activated my plan again.)

 

It also seems weird that the start of that 2-hourly usage pattern more or less coincided with me turning off data on my phone -- there's no sign of a similar pattern in the previous days.

 

Any suggestions as to what's going on?

19 REPLIES 19

I apper to have the same issue. I never turn on mobile data but have been charged three times over two days. Iv checked the places suggested above and the phone has no record of any usage. I recived one text on the 25th about the day pass. Id also like to know why the charges are broken up?

 

Data24/08/1918:2000.15KB1.56Successful
Data24/08/1920:1900.15KB0.44Successful
Data24/08/1922:1800.15KB0.00Successful
Data25/08/1900:1700.15KB1.56Successful
Data25/08/1902:1600.00KB0.00Successful
Anonymous
Not applicable

@TGL They are just billed like that but its; still 2 euro per day for 200mb. Send your number in a pm and the mods can check it for you. You mentioned your phone shows no usage? not sure how you can see usage unless you're looking at app usage and the tiny little connections that you've shown, wouldn't really show there.

It appers to be accurate to the byte.

Screenshot_20190828-120244_Settings[1].jpg

@TGL Hi there, have you checked the WIFI assist section of your phone to make sure it's switched off? Here's a link to one of our blogs about it  WIFI Assist  @Anonymous has some good points too. Have you checked app usage rather than data usage? 

@Three_DeborahWIFI assist is off and there is no app usage.

@TGL Appreciate you checking and confirming. Send me a PM with your number, full name, address, and date of birth. I'll take a look at the charges and your account. Thanks'


@scottishwildcat wrote:

Gah, hasn't happened for a while, but definitely happened again today.


And again today. Turned off data at the weekend, got charged €2 this morning. Fun times.

@scottishwildcat, Hi there can you tell me which day you switched your data off? Cheers


@Three_Deborah wrote:

@scottishwildcat, Hi there can you tell me which day you switched your data off? Cheers


Can't remember unfortunately -- Sunday I think, just remember turning it off because I work at home Mondays so knew I'd be in WiFi coverage all day. And when I got the €2 day pass activation text, it was definitely turned off.

 

Kept it turned off until about 6.30pm Tuesday and never got a message Tuesday morning, so I assume it worked properly that day.

 

To be honest, I wouldn't even waste your time trying to investigate it again... you've passed on all my logs and details whenever I've reported it before, and presumably nobody's ever figured out why it happens. Just like you've passed on all my logs and details every time my balance mysteriously drops to zero then comes back again, and nobody's ever figured out why that happens either. Your systems are just flaky, and I'm kinda used to it now Robot Very Happy

Can I get you to send me a PM with your number, full name, address, and date of birth? I'll take a look at your account to check when the charge occurred & when your plan expired.