A couple from Swansea was astounded to receive a mobile phone bill for over £163,000 in September and have now fought for months to clear their debt.
Alan and Carolyn Mazkouri have had a business contract with Orange for 15 years and pay the bill for 10 business handsets a month.
The couple normally pay around £300 a month for Mr. Mazkouri’s own business phone and his employees’ contracts, but were shocked to receive September’s bill for £163,178.86.
Last summer, Mr. Mazkouri complained his phone was overheating to Orange, who eventually replaced the handset. However, not long afterwards, Mr. Mazkouri’s phone was cut off. Orange informed the couple it was due to a large outstanding bill on the account.
The ridiculously high figure was reportedly due to an excessive amount of data use. In fact, the price equated to downloading more than five million emails or 15,000 songs over a three week period.
Mr. Mazkouri, a self-proclaimed technophobe, said he was “dumbfounded” by such a staggeringly high bill for the month.
Orange initially agreed to write off the debt as a mistake, but still continued to send him bills for the amount for more than seven months after the original bill. He continually tried to contact Orange about the issue and sought help from a solicitor to aid him.
Describing the bill problems as an “absolute misery”, Mr. Mazkouri has eventually received the recompense he has sought for many moneth.
Orange has now apologised to the Mazkouri family and cancelled the entire bill. The UK network provider has also offered Mr. Mazkouri £250 in compensation.
“We apologise to the Mazkouri’s for the inconvenience. We have fully refunded all charges from this exceptionally high bill and offered a further gesture of goodwill. We look forward to hearing from them,” said an Orange spokesperson.
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Via: BBC
