Data charges from Singtel

[Juneoesque]

hi, am posting to see if anyone else met with similiar incidents. My mum changed her phone to iPhone this year when dad passed her his iPhone. My mum is a homemaker who does not even really know how to sms let alone use data charges.

over the span of 9 months, singtel has been charging her different data charges. every month is a different amount. sometimes $20, sometimes $50, sometimes $60. Initially charges are low so my dad just went ahead to pay them until these 3 months, the charges went up to $100 odd and $299! Over the span of 9 months, they clocked about $1000 odd of data charges on my mum's line.

We tried to call Singtel to reason with them. From her sms usage (only 3 sms sent last month), its also an indication she is not good with her phone.

Also, a regular data user (someone like myself) would have a consistent data usage. How can my mum's charges be so inconsistent on a month to month basis?

Worst still, in my first phone call to singtel, they tried to say they will waive it off if i take on a data plan after this which is totally missing the point because my mum does not need it. why would we want to take on something she does not need and let them over-charge us legitimately? I refused to take up this offer because i find it totally unreasonable.

i have asked a few friends who have incurred such charges. I would like to know if anyone has a good idea how to handle this situation.

[leo]

I think your mum accidently went online without realising. I had this problem. Singtel waived the charges, which was not much and I ask them to cancel the internet service for my phone which means I can't send MMS also but I don't mind. It is ridiculous for them to insist you sign on a data plan.

[evontehh]

As iPhone is a smartphone, it will constantly connect to GPRS to retrieve data to update its applications (eg. games/maps/stocks). That's where all your notifications from the apps comes in. Even though she might not have accidentally hit on the apps, the apps actually run itself in the background. The only way to stop incurring data charges is to 1. get singtel to remove the gprs components at their back end for her mobile line or 2. which only applies for iOS 4 and above, under Settings>Network>Turn cellular data off. You might not be subscribed to a data plan, but that doesn't mean you are unable to access GPRS. It will go by per usage basis, and that's a lot more expensive.

[efai]

disable 3G on the phone

she might have clicked some icons that will auto connect to the internet in the background