2 January 2008
The hazards of not studying the small print of mobile phone contracts have been brought home by the case of Ian Simpson - who was hit with a £27,000 bill earlier this month.
It emerged that the 29-year-old Darlington factory worker mistakenly thought that his Vodafone contract allowed him unlimited internet downloads.
Mr Simpson, who used his phone as a modem for his PC and downloaded several TV shows and music albums over his connection, was subsequently hit with the five-figure payment demand.
After his predicament was publicised nationwide, Vodafone said that they would waive the bill as they accepted their customer hadn't done it deliberately.
"It's such a relief", Mr Simpson told the Mirror.
Under the current terms of its £41-per-month internet tariff, Vodafone allows 120MB of downloads per month - the equivalent of around an hour of medium-quality mp3 audio.
Mr Simpson was charged around £18 for every minute of downloading above this upper limit - resulting in the enormous mobile phone bill.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
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