Vodafone Customer Gets £27,000 Phone Bill

A customer who had an unlimited data tariff with Vodafone UK received a bill for over £27,000 (US$54,000) after he neglected to notice that the tariff did not include using the phone as a modem connected to his laptop computer.

Ian Simpson, a 29 year old factory worker told The Mirror newspaper "My mate told me how to wire my mobile to my laptop as a modem. It meant I could download faster than on the handset and get a proper internet connection in my flat.

"I probably downloaded 20 or 30 TV shows and four albums. I assumed it'd be OK, but they cut me off. I rang up and they said I owed them nearly £30,000.

"If I'd known it would cost so much I wouldn't have done it."

Vodafone later decided to waive the invoice and charged just £35 for the monthly tariff. The company said that their systems did not flag up the usage as unusual as he downloaded most of the content in such a short time frame that the bill had already ballooned before their system alerted them to the abnormal usage.

On the web: The Mirror

Posted to the site on 2nd January 2008