Holy moly!Telegraph wrote:
A holiday-maker was shocked to receive a £31,500 mobile phone bill after downloading his favourite television show Prison Break.
Iayn Dobsyn, 34, was in Portgual when he decided to use the latest technology to tune into a crucial episode of the American drama by hooking up his laptop to the internet via the mobile phone.
When he got home landed the huge bill from Yes Telecoms, a Manchester-based telecoms company, landed on his doormat.
He had run up the charges without realising that his contract deal did not include unlimited web use abroad. He also downloaded some music tracks.
Mr Dobsyn, an IT contractor from Manchester, was determined to fight the bill which is normally works out at £150 per month.
So he contacted the Blackburn-based legal firm Farleys Solicitors LLP, who managed to reduce the bill to £229.
Mr Dobsyn, said: "The original figures looked like they had come down from the moon. I just laughed. There had to be some mistake.
"I knew I had used a lot of data while abroad, but not to the tune of £31,000. The figures just didn't make sense. It was ludicrous, but I was going to take this all the way to the end."
Danielle Mestraud, from Farleys Solicitors, was given the task of investigating the bill.
She said: "When Mr Dobsyn came to the Farleys free advice clinic I was not surprised to hear that he wanted to dispute a bill from the telecommunications company in relation to usage whilst abroad.
"The European Commission is currently looking to reduce the rates which telecommunication companies can impose upon their clients for usage whilst abroad in the EU, in some cases by more than 50 per cent.
"This highlights the importance of taking legal advice in disputed debt cases, but we would advise everyone to check the small print on their mobile phone contracts to avoid being overly charged."
Yes Telecom were unavailable for comment. An email it sent to the lawyer said: "We accept the bill was very high compared to Mr Dobsyn's normal usage.
"But we would have expected Mr Dobsyn to make himself fully aware of the charges associated with using his data card abroad before he went."
What a dumbass!
