Monday 11 August 2008

Ooh T Mobile, you little rascal!

"You in the shit"
"Err, why?"
"Phone bill. You been on the internet"
"Nooo...no..."
"Yes. Yes you have. The bill is £125 for your phone. £94 of that is internet."

Now, I KNEW I hadn't been on the web n walk thing on my N95 phone. Knew it. All I do every now and then is connect up via the wireless option, through the house internet or anyone elses which happens to be in range. Which is free, surely? Like a laptop, I imagined. You search for wireless internet, you find it, you connect, as long as you know the access code...it's free. Yes?

£94 says it isn't.

Ooh! I win!

The cheeky little rascals hit me with data charges or some crap... what's what about? My dad was going mental mental chicken oriental and all I could do was proclaim ignorance...BUT I HAVEN'T USED TMOBILE...I'VE USED WIRELESS! IT'S FREE! It's not free. IT'S FREE! It's not free IT'S FREEEEEE. It's not freeee.

I'm so confused. Extensive research (yahoo answers, random geek message boards, my phone booklet) tells me it should be free. I'm sure up until now it has been free as I've not been charged for it before...so what's going on? We called them up and T-mobman said 'Ah yes, that's internet charges' But we connected through the home network 'Yes but it's still using web n walk'. Anyway, so their sneaky ploy worked and now I pay £7 a month extra for the joy of internet on my phone...and they gave us 3 months free. But whatever. Shove the small print...where's the LARGE PRINT!!

What's the deal? Anyone got a Nokia N95 who knows the score?

Please advise

Confused, disgruntled and POOR, NW London xx

16 comments:

weenie said...

Dontcha just hate hidden charges? I don't know anyone with a Nokia N95 but my colleague was stung for similar charges and it was because they didn't pay 'extra' for their internet stuff, the £7 a month you're referring to. My next mobile upgrade will be web enabled but I think I'll stick to my laptop for the browsing and stuff. You're lucky actually that the bill was only £94...my colleague's was closer to £200! :-O

Robbie said...

I've got an N95 I've never had such a problem. I was on O2 (UK) and now I use Orange (Spain).
I use wifi for loads of different things, like internet browsing, flickr, podcasts, maps, etc.
You really shouldnt be getting charged by tmobile. First I dont understand how they would know when your using your own wifi network to connect to the internet or even if that's legal?
When you connect to the net, on your phone, do you have two arrows facing away from each other in the top left corner or do you get a symbol that looks like 4 little squares joined together to make a bigger square in the top right hand side?
I know it sounds stupid, but are you sure you're connecting to the internet with your wife?
(If you want to email me about this my address is itsmoirob[at]gmail[dot]com)

Robbie said...

Forgot to add, if you have the two arrows then that means you are connected to the net through 3G/WAP with Tmobile, rather then your own network

Elaine Denning said...

The way I see it is: (and I'm no expert)

If you put a pay and go sim in your phone and connected to a wireless network, you wouldn't be charged because it's already paid for.

I think they're screwing you.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

weenie - Yeah, it's sneaky sneaky...why can't they just make it free? Laptops are deffo the way forward. FACT.

robbie - It comes up as the four little blocks as far as I know / can remember, and they can't say exactly what the data has been clocked up by only that it's internet / wap, and yep, definitely connecting to the house wifi. The only thing I can think of is that using Google Maps has done it. But even so, I've still been connecting through the house wifi to get onto that. I have a feeling it's google maps.

Miss - It's difficult to tell though isn't it. You get the feeling that there's a catch with every application these new phones offer. Google maps....charges. Surf the internet...for a price. Upload your pictures to a blog! for more money... blah blah. Is nothing free any more?

Robbie said...

First of all, you do know that Nokia has a great Maps application built in to the N95? You can download (from your PC) maps from around the World and they will always be on your phone (so you won't need to use the internet to access maps, like with Google.)
But I think you should double check that you are definitely connecting via wifi (I know it sounds simple but it's the best place to start)
Another thing to check is when you access your internet browser, go to the Options and look in General. The Access Point should say the name of your wifi (or it might say always ask) If you set it to your home wifi then it will always connect via that before trying anything else.

What other applciations do you use that connect to the net? Anything else?

Are you using the internet a lot outside of your house/wifi range?

Robbie said...

One other thing you can try to make sure your wifi is working is; if you press the power button at the top of your phone once it brings up the profiles. If you select the 'offline' mode and wait a few seconds your SIM will switch off. Then try surfing the web connecting through your wifi and see if there is any change? If your not connecting properly then it might be that you have been connecting through WAP

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

Yeaaah when I said googlemaps I meant the nokia maps application, the one on the main screen. I don't know how to go about downloading the maps though from the internet?

It's definitely that that's racked up the charges, I just clicked onto it and the two arrows came up in the corner that you said means I'm using Tmobile to connect. Shit! I'm always tapping about on maps thinking it's just using the home internet! I don't use any other applications and I definitely always connect via a free wifi spot / my own internet / someone elses.

I've got the internet enabled now so I should probably get some more applications to make the most of it...or that might just be a really, really really bad idea.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

Ok, when I go into offline mode, I went onto google (my homepage) then tried clicking on igoogle, then it asked 'connection to server needed. connect?'

If I say yes, it says 'Create WLAN connection in offline mode?'
then connects through my home wifi.

Robbie said...

Ok, if your using Nokia Maps what you need to do is go in to the options|Settings|Network and where it says Use Network does yours say When Needed? If it does then that will be why ouve been racking up data charges.
What you'll want to do is change it to "Never" That way you will never access the net with Nokia maps.
The way Nokia Maps works is it installs all the maps on your phone so you never have to access the net.
If you've been Nokia Maps when out and about then it might of been that thats been using up your data.
Also check out nokia.com/maps and download the nokia map loader for your PC. You can downlaod maps for any country on to your PC and install them on your phone.

Robbie said...

If you've not had your phone long what you should do is try out the N95 updater to improve your phones firmware. It will give you better battery life and quicker access to applciations.
Also check out mosh.com for loads of different applcaitions/themes/screensavers to download for your phone, and they are all free.
Another good applciation, and a favourite, is the podcasting application. Download an podcast direct to your phone through wifi. Neat.
Also nokiabetalabs is a great site as you can find a lot of new stuff on there, sportstracker is good (especially if you do alot of jogging/cycling) and Conversation is a good application for text addicts.

The Unbearable Banishment said...

Here in the U.S., you have to be very careful about what buttons you push. Verizon is a sneaky bunch. The call plan can change at a moment’s notice and something that was once free is can become a chargeable option. And they don’t have to notify you. You have to be on your toes with these bastards. I hate them all but, let’s face it, WE’RE ADDICTED.

Robbie, you are THE MAN. You’re the antidote for folks like me who don’t like to read the fine print or are too lazy to do the necessary homework.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

unbearable - from what I've seen from looking at the forums there's a lot of confusion over the US networks.

A lot of people are gonna miss this thinking it's just me whinging on...but there's actually a whole wealth of info here for clueless nokia people like me. Thanks for the advice Robbie, I'm on the case with the map downloading and will be checking that website out. I've got ShoZu on my phone but don't think I've ever used it. I'm a bit warey of charges etc, but I must be fairly covered with my £7 a month blurb.

Anonymous said...

I have an N95 on T Mobile with Web and Walk but last month they tried to charge me an extra £37 for internet access.

Mr Pads went nuts and they realised that they had indeed made a mistake.

Phone T Mobile and check.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

Thanks for the heads up, I'll check it out later.

Bec said...

A few Christmas's ago I went online on my crappy little phone to check email and someone sent me a large attachment. I paid no attention and downloaded everything, put phone in pocket and went out. The next morning it had downloaded and all was lovely.
I paid £170 for the pleasure of seeing an episode of some TV show I didn't even like.
Yes, that was T-Mobile.
I'm now with o2 and go nowhere near the internet on my phone. Ever.

 

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