Smart Consumer: Avoid a nasty shock when you change provider
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A Smart Consumer reader who doesn't wish to be named asked us to warn readers of potential pitfalls in switching mobile phone providers.
He makes a huge number of calls and uses the internet from his phone and was happy to switch to a new provider where, for €85 a month, he would get unlimited calls and texts and 1GB worth of downloads. He was told that he would be charged 2c for every kb over his allocation.
Our canny reader always takes note of how much he downloads so that he won't be paying over the odds, and the next month he was satisfied that he had used almost 200 megabites less than his monthly allocation.
You can imagine the shock he got when he received a bill in the post for €1,400!
It turns out that the new tariff with his new provider had started mid-month and so his allocation of everything was reduced accordingly.
But no one had told him that.
He complained and had a lot of detail to back up his argument. So he received almost a full refund and says he was "very satisfied with the response".
Notwithstanding the happy outcome, he wants everyone to check when switching whether they will have a full or partial month's worth or minutes, texts and downloads as "it could save somebody else a lot of grief".
Thanks to our reader for that really useful advice.
Usually when you switch provider it happens immediately, which means your first bill will either be for the partial month and the full following month or just for the partial month, with your allocation of minutes, texts, downloads and anything else tailored to that time frame.
You're being sold a particular package so it should be clearly explained to you if you should reduce your allowances for the first (shorter) bill period.
Remember, when you make a decision to buy, you are making it based on the information you receive and that should be accurate and true.
If you haven't received all the information you might not have made the decision to buy in the first place.
So make sure you ask the questions and if something goes wrong with it later, complain.
- Tina Leonard
Irish Independent
