A man who was slapped with an eye-watering £32,000 mobile phone bill following a trip to Morocco has insisted he was the “victim of a hack or a bug.” Dominique, 63, from France, received the astronomical charge from his mobile provider Orange, which alleged he had run up the sum through excessive data usage.
However, the Maule merchant, who visits the North African country “regularly”, insisted he hadn’t “touched” his phone and had never previously been charged more than €140 (approximately £120). Orange billed the long-standing customer a staggering €37,737.11 (roughly £32,700) after his trip last spring. The provider maintained it had alerted Dominique about his usage through 16 text messages, according to Le Parisien.
Dominique, who runs the Flynt bar-tabac in the French commune, said: “I go to Morocco regularly, and my previous bills have never exceeded €140. Either I was the victim of a hack or a bug.”
The ordeal had another unexpected consequence for his livelihood. Orange disconnected his phone line, which his bar also relied upon, leaving Dominique without internet access and unable to operate his till.
Dominique, who maintained he had a 5GB plan valid for use in the Maghreb region of Africa, decided to switch to a different provider whilst battling Orange over the enormous bill.
Orange insisted he had received an initial message warning him he’d reached 80 per cent of his allowance, followed by another “at 100 per cent + blockage.”
Fortunately, in an outcome demonstrating that customer loyalty can occasionally prove worthwhile, Orange dramatically reduced the enormous charge to a more reasonable €500 (approximately £430).
The firm cited Dominique’s “good faith and loyalty” as justification for this clemency and even reinstated his telephone and internet connection, though it emphasised there had been “no hacking or malfunction.”
Spanish publication 20 Minutes reports that Dominique had remained a devoted Orange subscriber for an impressive 38 years and consistently kept up with his payments.
Dominique revealed: “Orange made me an arrangement. The day after my business reopened, they called me to inform me that the bill had been cancelled.
“They restored my phone line the day after. In any case, I was determined to see this through to the end and take legal action if necessary.”
Dominique isn’t the only person to fall victim to roaming fees. In January, reports emerged that a British holidaymaker had been hit with a £6,500 charge after contacting her network to resolve connectivity issues while in New York.
Hilary O’Donnell discovered that upon arriving in the United States, her mobile phone wouldn’t allow outbound calls. She had tried contacting Plan.com via WhatsApp multiple times within less than 30 minutes.
Her roaming costs amounted to 850 megabytes of data, totalling £6,648. She told The Guardian: “I was to blame as I didn’t have a spending cap. [But] I didn’t realise I was even using the service as I had installed an eSIM to avoid being overcharged.”
Plan.com informed her that she would be without internet or signal until the bill was settled. Despite Hilary taking her case to the Communications Ombudsman, the ruling was ultimately not in her favour.
A spokesperson for Plan.com stated: “We maintain transparency in our pricing, and our fees are clearly outlined on our website.”
They added: “While we understand that mistakes can happen, it’s important to clarify that the error, in this case, was not caused by our company.”