Telstra staff told me to turn off/on mobile data everyday to avoid overcharge

lgacb08 on 03/04/2015 - 22:06

So basically Telstra screwed me up yesterday and mistakenly deducted all of my main credit for internet usage while I had heaps of data and bonus credit allowance. This happened yesterday after I decided to swap from the Encore plan to the newer Freedom plan, I did recharge immediately after that and had make sure I got all the new correct bonuses. By the end of the day I found I only have about $0.01 left at which the web browser redirected me to a 'not enough credit' page. Strangely my data allowance was untouched and call cost got deducted from bonus credit as normally.

I only manage to called customer service when I got back home and got their number over the internet. A call centre staff did a check and told me because my phone (lumia 520) had maintaining its data session for an extended period (including the swap-over whereas I'd lose my old bonuses) and Telstra assumed that I only had main credit left. She then advised me that my best lesson would be to regularly check my phone's internet connection (literally going to setting and toggle on/off data usage) because that's 'how people using smartphone should do'. She assumed Telstra took no responsibility in this. So I requested to put through her supervisor. After that she came back to me and agreed to give me back the lost credit but still maintained her point.

So after that conversation I can't help but wonder how normal, sane people uses their smartphone and come up here to seek some advice. Am I just too slack and deserve to be treated like an idiot?

PS. the lady credited me over $50, the amount triggered bonuses similar to a $50 recharge and I got a whooping 3.7GB of data over a month so thing turned out not as bad.

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Comments

  • Davo1111 on 03/04/2015 - 23:10
    +1

    Not sure what she means by that. You should set it so updates only occur on wifi. Also, you should set it so data connection turns off when you connect to wifi.

    • singlefished on 03/04/2015 - 23:29
      +2

      You need to understand how the phone connects to the net….

      A "session" will commence once you connect and depending on how often your phone and apps check for emails, download news, facebook stuff, etc the "session" could run for many hours or days by the phone connecting and keeping the "session" alive.

      If you turn your phone off for a bit then the session will end… and a new session will start next time your phone connects.

      The OP's session before the plan change would have still been alive and thus the connection would have downloaded data as normal using recharge credit instead of using freedom credit like they were expecting.

      A new session would have commenced on the freedom credit and would have prevented the above issue :)

      OP may not have access to WiFi at home so the data phone connection is possibly the only access available… disconnecting from data sessions to connect WiFi sessions is a given on most phones but the time WiFi was connected may not have been long enough to actually close the data session.

      • lgacb08 on 04/04/2015 - 09:20

        She said I had a session on for like 18 hours straight, which is weird because I had wifi at home. I did the recharge at home when wifi was still available. I left home soon after that so a new session should've kicked in.
        I think there's some flaw within Telstra billing system because when I ran out of credit, it should've terminated the session or do something to check about the other credit option.

        Regarding update I left the settings by default to update only when connecting to wifi so it should not be the issue. Telstra is not very generous on data allowance but with their kb billing system I managed to use around 500mb/month just fine. The problem is once your allowance is done, they charge $2/mb so the real credit would go down pretty quickly

  • Devils Advocate on 04/04/2015 - 01:25

    Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I had used 60% of my 2.5G mobile plan with two days to go (I keep an eye on it fairly regularly). Got my bill for the month's usage a few days later and it was ~$80 higher than my monthly plan.

    I called up Telstra's customer service who told me that I had been billed that amount because I went "3700GB over my allowance, and should have actually been charged $6,000+". After I tried to explain that wasn't possible as I had been using my phone as normal in the final two billing days and had 40% of my data available she said that I should do what everyone else does and turn mobile data off when I'm not using my phone. I tried to tell her that no one in fact does this, but she insisted that everyone does.

    I then asked to speak to her supervisor, who looked into my bill and eventually just waived the excess and said it must have been a system error.

    TL;DR: a lot of the Telstra support staff have very little understanding on how data billing works.

    • juventino on 04/04/2015 - 02:31

      the support staff most probably doesn't know how big 3700 GB is or that it is impossible to download or consume that amount in 2 days

      • ATangk on 04/04/2015 - 12:14

        More likely was 3.700GB but didnt read the dot. Then it would be possible.

        • Devils Advocate on 04/04/2015 - 13:05

          Yeah I asked her if she was sure it was 3700GB and not 3700MB and she very uncertainly said "yes". However, once I spoke to her supervisor I asked about the 3700GB and they said their system showed I had gone over by 2.6GB, so I have no idea where the first operator was looking.

          Not very re-assuring though.

  • jennkei on 04/04/2015 - 01:29
    +1

    I only turn my data on when I need it. Immediately off when I'm done. But I'm probably on a much lower plan than you are.

    A while back, I went over data and got charged the awful rate once, so now also use 3G Watchdog to have logs in case it ever happens again.

  • xoom on 04/04/2015 - 08:10
    +1

    Regardless of wether or not everyone else turns of data when you are not using it. It still good practice to do.

    Not only do you save battery power you also save your data for when you want to use it.

    And setting download updates through wifi is also good.

  • Food on 04/04/2015 - 09:42

    So your have a windows phone?
    Use the data sense built in to set a data limit

    • lgacb08 on 04/04/2015 - 10:21

      Yeah, I know about data sense but I have been managing my data usage without it just fine for a while, before M$ came up with it in 8.1 update. And data sense would not help in this situation because Telstra took my recharge credit and left my 1.3gb data allowance untouched.

  • daver on 04/04/2015 - 09:52
    1. Step up network,
    2. Switch off billing and get on prepaid.
    • lgacb08 on 04/04/2015 - 10:16

      not sure who're you referring to, I'm already on prepaid.

      • daver on 04/04/2015 - 10:43

        yep OP you are correct. ☑

        Message should apply only to postdated account in that unfortunate while common - see @Devils Advocate, event, circumstance. On predated (Vodafone) I think they obviated this crap , such that when you receive the alert ala "insufficient funds" the separated bal cap+credit remains duly intact eg. allowance 750.00 never impacted.

  • singlefished on 04/04/2015 - 10:23

    I've found that adding the data on/off switch to the notification bar in the latest denim update to be the easiest way to rapidly connect/disconnect data.

    Swipe down, tap data, swipe up, done :)

  • daver on 04/04/2015 - 11:10

    It won't surprise anyone t$ prefer to not compete with apps:— going further to explain the racket behind data Off/on.

    Not to forget the lads who brought u "increments" by the MB |:
    The APPS need to stay on.

  • Daabido on 04/04/2015 - 13:33

    I didn't buy a smart phone so I would have to mother it by turning data on or off like its leaking gold out of the wires!

    What utter BS from Telstra.

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