BOF Posted July 12, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted July 12, 2013 Standard 'idiot uses thing idiot doesn't understand. Other idiots come to her defence and claim it's extortion'. Zero sympathy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Agreed. There seems to be one of these every few weeks. No sympathy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted July 12, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 12, 2013 For a moment I was wondering how Conor was friends with a 14-year-old from Bristol, but then I remembered that his friend's roaming issue was a little different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Standard 'idiot uses thing idiot doesn't understand. Other idiots come to her defence and claim it's extortion'. Zero sympathy. Fully cognisant of all of the contractual intricacies you may or may not have been party to at the age of 14? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 Standard 'idiot uses thing idiot doesn't understand. Other idiots come to her defence and claim it's extortion'. Zero sympathy. Fully cognisant of all of the contractual intricacies you may or may not have been party to at the age of 14? The response will be that the contract was with the parent, who should have educated/monitored/supervised the child, or else got a PAYG deal. Makes legal sense, but of course the business model is predicated on enough people not understanding the contractual terms, not being clear when they are incurring roaming charges, not being able to control the phone settings hour by hour when it's their child's phone, and so on. Another form of inertia selling, behind a veil of technology, legal jargon, and small print. That's what they do, because if they made you a transparent offer on this basis, no-one would accept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 The response will be that the contract was with the parent, who should have educated/monitored/supervised the child, or else got a PAYG deal. Makes legal sense, but of course the business model is predicated on enough people not understanding the contractual terms, not being clear when they are incurring roaming charges, not being able to control the phone settings hour by hour when it's their child's phone, and so on. Another form of inertia selling, behind a veil of technology, legal jargon, and small print. That's what they do, because if they made you a transparent offer on this basis, no-one would accept. Assuming they hadn't already done so, the parents should have made clear to their daughter about the cost of roaming charges. As long as you are acutely aware of the dangers of data roaming, you will not incur thousands of dollars' worth of bills, regardless of your knowledge of the minute details of the paperwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted July 12, 2013 Share Posted July 12, 2013 As long as you are acutely aware of the dangers of data roaming, you will not incur thousands of dollars' worth of bills, regardless of your knowledge of the minute details of the paperwork.Is that the case?Are we all always aware of the data usage of every application we have running, &c.? Not sure what 'acutely aware of the dangers' means other than being a rather businessspeak version of 'you should have known better and deserved less'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted July 13, 2013 Share Posted July 13, 2013 I'm not saying you should be aware of every single detail of your usage or that it is even possible. But you can remind yourself in a general sense that data roaming is very expensive and that it should be used sparingly. The option to turn off mobile data is on your phone for a reason. Quite obviously this girl wasn't aware of the costs of data roaming. Well, she's been burnt, but live and learn. I'm not making a judgment on whether the telco was doing the right thing. I'm saying that making sure you don't bust your wallet with data roaming charges is pretty easy, as long as you know roughly how expensive it is and make a conscious effort to limit data usage as a result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 14, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted July 14, 2013 Standard 'idiot uses thing idiot doesn't understand. Other idiots come to her defence and claim it's extortion'. Zero sympathy. Fully cognisant of all of the contractual intricacies you may or may not have been party to at the age of 14?Funnily enough I wasn't put into that situation as a 14 year old. If a child is incapable of using something properly then it shouldn't have it. Or parents foot the bill. Either way, I stand by my original post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Standard 'idiot uses thing idiot doesn't understand. Other idiots come to her defence and claim it's extortion'. Zero sympathy. Fully cognisant of all of the contractual intricacies you may or may not have been party to at the age of 14? Funnily enough I wasn't put into that situation as a 14 year old. If a child is incapable of using something properly then it shouldn't have it. Or parents foot the bill. Either way, I stand by my original post. I agree that it's the parents responsibility to educate their child and as they are responsible for the contract it's them we should be looking at here. However I will say this, do you think it's acceptable to charge that kind of fee for using **** data, abroad or not, in 2013? The law needs to change in favour of the consumer here, it IS extortion in my opinion though granted not necessarily in the way presented by that article. I'm surprised you stand by your post calling the 14 year old an idiot. I mean, why would she ever think it possible in this day and age to run up a £3k bill using the internet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted July 15, 2013 Author Moderator Share Posted July 15, 2013 I mean, why would she ever think it possible in this day and age to run up a £3k bill using the internet?The only way she wouldn't know it's possible is if she was an idiot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Why is there even a debate? Okay, the telco charged an outrageous sum for data roaming and that was wrong. It doesn't mean the 14-year-old wasn't an idiot, it certainly doesn't mean her parents did the right thing with regards to warning her about the dangers of uncontrolled data roaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Apologies if it's already here and I missed it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 15, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 15, 2013 It is, and you did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Bugger. I'm so, so sorry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted July 15, 2013 Share Posted July 15, 2013 Bugger. I'm so, so sorry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSHaCzb3yYk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 15, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 15, 2013 Having seen that Murray documentary last week I like her even more. Nice lady. I was going to say the same thing. She went up in my estimations after that. She seemed really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 This Euromillions story with the lady not paying in, due to morning sickness. I can't help but think: tough titties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 This Euromillions story with the lady not paying in, due to morning sickness. I can't help but think: tough titties. I thought the opposite. I thought what selfish bastards. We have a euromillions syndicate and if someone is off or on holiday and has forgotten to leave any money then someone chips in for them. I've done it for people and people have done it for me. The winners share would reduce from £2.8m to £2.5m if they included her. Its not going to make a bit of difference to them but it would change her life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morley_crosses_to_Withe Posted July 16, 2013 Share Posted July 16, 2013 (edited) What really gets my goat is the smug word removed in my team at work who sneers at everyone when we do a syndicate. If it rolls over for, say, five/six draws, he scoffs that he's saved himself around a tenner and comments that we've "once again" wasted our time. If we ever landed the big one, I don't know whether I'd buzz more off the money or the fact that I'd be able to stand on his desk and do a celebration wank. The smug clearing in the woods. Edited July 16, 2013 by Morley_crosses_to_Withe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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