Opening a bill is not exactly a comfortable experience at the best of times, even when you’re expecting it, so in today’s fragile economy imagine getting a demand for payment of tens of thousands of euros that you hadn’t anticipated.
This is exactly what has happened to some French mobile internet users who signed up for an “unlimited” 3G Internet package with communications giant Orange.
Jean Spadaro, a doctor from Fontainebleau outside Paris must have needed to use his own medical training to resuscitate himself after receiving a demand for almost 160,000 euros just for one month’s internet use.
This means the poor guy was in blissful oblivion surfing the internet whilst unwittingly clocking up a bill of 40,000 euros a week. When he found out he started negotiating with Orange about the amount which he was sure was some sort of mistake.
Spadaro also complained that Orange never once told him that he was running up even more on his bill during the time he was disputing the amount.
“How is it that I never received any warning or alert as to the size of the bill” he said on a radio interview.
Then there was the café owner by the name of Eric Gernez and the Insurance executive called Christophe Aupy-Fargues, both of who received massive bills and who finally brought the outrageous charges to the public attention.
Gernez and Aupy-Fargues were hit with mobile internet bills for 46,000 euros and 39,500 euros respectively, amounts that any of us would be reluctant to hand over for Internet use, especially these days now that free Wi-Fi is so widely available.
Shockingly, when these two got in touch with Orange to find out what was going on they were basically told that they had failed to interpret the terms of the deal.
Although the package was indeed “unlimited”, they would be charged for downloading anything more than 1 Gigabyte. The two of them also discovered they were being charged roaming fees for using their Internet outside France.
Gernez, who lives near the Belgian border, appears to have accidentally connected to a foreign network.
Aupy-Fargues allowed his colleague to use his Internet in Spain unaware that the roaming charges would apply.
“If we had known that the unlimited package didn’t apply outside France he wouldn’t have taken the 3G with him,” he said. Apparently in this case, Orange said they gave Aupy-Fargues plenty of warnings that his bill was rising.
Take heed, always read the small print.
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