CSL Data Roaming charges **HELP

Hi,


My son just received a phone bill for 20k HKD for data roaming whilst in Spain after my young niece inadvertently turned it on for one day.


I have contacted CSL regarding this charge and awaiting their response.


Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing or can offer any legal advice on how to handle this as we are trying to appeal against such high charges (equated to 150HKD per MB)


Thanks

Mark

there's an ongoing court case (documented in SCMP) and covered in another HK expat forum.that's yuor best chancereally, but my gut feel tells me that you won't have much of a chance for this case

Ok thanks for the reply Cookie. I have just been reading about that on another forum. I have spoken to CSL but don't hold much hope at this point.

I just had something similar happen while I was in Japan recently, I got lost while driving, I switched on my data roaming and then tried to access google maps to figure out where the hell I was.


I would say I had it on a mere 15 minutes or so...and well, by the time I came back to HK I found my data plan was not working, so when I went in to Smartone they told me that they had cut it off, as a security measure, because they noticed a sudden rise in my roaming data use the week prior and had tried to contact me but to no avail, so they cut it off until they could assertain whether it was legit and not a case of mistaken "data roaming left on" which could run up to the 10's of thousands of dollars.


They said they cut my dataroaming when they flagged that it had been charged over 1600HKD already.


I am grateful that they have this contingency plan, that they are on the ball with this, but that said, I am NOT looking forward to my upcoming mobile phone bill!


I will definitely have to pay it, not going to be able to get out of paying it, thats for sure...and I do know of others who have been billed 10K + when their kids got a hold of the mobile and surfed the net while in Oz. So yeah, I heard of this happening to others...I guess the only suggestion I can offer is that maybe you can find a legal means to approach them and ask what kind of "cut off" plan they have and why they didn't try to contact your son or warn him...unless they were looking merely to ream him!


I think, its worth fighting it...and the other way you can fight it is to say that it was accidental, so there has to be some means for you to fight it. In my case I actually used the data roaming and google maps...its not about the time, its about the amount of data and apparently, maps and GPS is a LOT! So yeah, I am screwed, but also glad they cut me off to cover my ass.


CSL didn't protect your son, so for that, you could find a way to accuse them of screwing you guys royally. Your son could quit using them, get another number while fighting this issue through the legal system or whatever...either way, I would fight paying it if it were me, 20K is insane! There must be some way to negotiate paying the daily rate or something...in retro...*shrug*


So everyone else out there, be warned, DO NOT let your kid play with your phone while you are away on holiday! EVER. Its expensive as hell.


And yes, sign up for the "daily unlimited data roaming" plans they have, usually runs about 166HKD a day or something, its a lot cheaper than it can end up without it...ask me, I know!