$7200 Fido Bill - HTC - Help!?

[zx6r_stoppie]

So I got a call from Fido today saying that from Nov 15 to Dec 8 I had somehow racked up $7200 in data charges.

A little history, i have an HTC Wizard (cingular 8125) that runs WM5. I've been using the phone since September and not had any problems with billing. I've been on the 25mb/month plan and it hasnt registered any data on my bills except for when i would roam to the USA.

I use the internet.fido.ca settings. I was originally using wap. and it worked fine for GPRS, but one day it stopped working, and when i switched it to internet. it worked fine.

My 2 business partners have the same phone, same settings, one is on rogers and one is on fido, and both have an average of 20mb/month usage and have verified that as of today.

I can't think of any reason why my data charges are so high. I have not changed my usuage at all in the last 3 months. Browse the web once a week, and download my email headers as they come in. i have 2 accounts which are set to imap SSL, and i get about 75 msg's day, send maybe 2 or 3. Of those 75 i maybe read 10% of them, mostly because i'm in front of my computer most of the day. I never download attachments or anything.

My email is set to download 2KB of the header and msg.

I think either my phone has a virus or has been hacked. I know these sound like outlandish ideas, but i work in technology, and cant think of any sound reason why there is so much usage showing. $7200 represents 1.3 GB of data is 23 days. I doubt i use that on my business and home internet connection COMBINED, let alone on my cell phone?

Anyone with any more ideas i can give fido would be GREATLY appreciated. I spent 90 minutes on the phone with them today, and they are calling me back today. My guess is this is over thier heads, too.

Thanks

[conqsoft]

Wow. Makes me glad I have an unlimited data plan for my PPC-6700.

[tgillespie]

Has to be a virus. Is the HTC device sold and supported by Fido? Sooner than later I would give customer care a call and ask to speak to a rep. Makes me thankful I have unlimited data.

[peterska2]

Thats definately not right.

And your package wasn't just for wap and not the whole web was it? I got caught by that technicality once and a difference of £0.05 per kb to £0.95 per kb.

To use $7200 in a month is well wrong though, unless any of the following occurred:

1. you left it online on a refreshing screen for a long period without realising it
2. you have been accessing ppv info or sites rated as premium sites
3. something else i haven't thought of



I've been using the web on my cell as my modem for the last 4 months (only got my internet fixed last week and it had been off since early september) and haven't exceeded 3GB/month in that period even though I hadn't made any real changes to my normal browsing (just turned images avs and sigs off to keep things moving a bit as it's a lot slower).

[ManagerJosh]

I personally would get them to do a complete audit on the entire period and evaluate usage minute by minute. I'm not sure the rate of transmission is for Fido, or any GRPS, 3G, 4G phone is at the moment, but if you sit down and do the math for an hourly period, you should be able to prove that unless you were awake for 24hrs a day, 7 days a week for that entire month (impossible I might add) or even prove that there was no way possible for your phone to consume that much data/exceed the limit for a set hourly period, you basically will start cornering them into a corner forcing them to evaluate what's going on.

It's going to be a long and steep logic process to make them see clearly.

[marcus71]

My FIDO bill was $1300!!!!

I opened my monthly fido bill expecting it to be the usual $70 but instead saw that it was for almost $1300!!!

Under the data transfer section I was being charged over $1000 for December 18, 2006.

I have never surfed the internet with my cell phone (and honestly am not even sure how to).

I phoned them at once expecting that they would correct this obvious error but they treated me like a criminal trying to rip them off.

And get this... they told me my phone was accessing data at 10:58 then 11:59 then 12:59 then 13:59 then 14:59 then 15:59. Clearly there is some sort of computer error here, but they insist it is just a co-incidence.

I can vouch for where I was at all of those times that day and I know that I was not using the phone or connected to the internet.

Nonetheless (much like the mafia) Fido is trying to extort more than $1000 from me.

So the question remains, how can this happen? Can someone hi jack my sim card and steal my cell phone identity?

The other question is, how can FIDO justify charging $33 per kilobyte of information from people who are downloading information? Is this legal in Canada? What kind of company are they?

[Joe Gronlund]

I have unlimited too, but i am with Telus..

[parm775]

I am in India rs499 per month (aprox US$11 per month) for unlimited data transfer for both wap and WWW and I use it almost every day for an hour or so.
Cant believe Fido charges you guys sooo much its extortion , why dont you guys switch to other service providers?

[T.S.]

You would probably find more help in the Fido section of howardforums.

http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48