Woman shocked by $1,500 phone bill after reportedly clocking over 222GB of data
A middle-aged woman was shocked to receive a phone bill exceeding $1,500 after she was charged for reportedly using 222GB of mobile data — more than double her usual usage.
Ms Huang Anna (transliterated) told Shin Min Daily News that she received a text message from telco M1 at 8.11am on Feb 16, informing her of $795.91 in additional charges.
She contacted customer service and requested for data usage details, but claimed this was denied as the bill had not yet been generated.
Ms Huang said she subsequently turned off her mobile data.
She added that she had been on the same plan for eight years, which comprises 30GB of data, 100 minutes of local calls and 100 local SMS each month. In addition, M1 provides an extra 70GB of data, along with 900 SMS and 900 minutes of local calls.
“Every month, I use 100GB. I was studying at home during that period. I don’t usually use my phone to watch shows or play games. How could I have used so much data?” she said.
Bill exceeded $1,500
On March 5, a customer service manager contacted her regarding payment. Upon checking her bill, Ms Huang found she had exceeded her data usage by 122GB, bringing her total usage to 222GB for the month.
This resulted in a bill of $1,516.13.
“I contacted M1 customer service again. They checked my phone settings and found nothing wrong,” she said.
The manager offered a goodwill waiver of up to 75 per cent of the additional charges, but Ms Huang refused, maintaining that she did not use that much data and should only pay her usual monthly fee of $25.42.
Ms Huang told Shin Min she is using another number. “I don’t dare use my original number any more, in case unexpected charges appear again,” she said.
M1 says multiple alerts were sent
M1 said it had sent the user more than five notifications during the period.
A spokesperson told Shin Min Daily News that Ms Huang used 41.99GB of data on Feb 6 and was alerted the next morning via SMS that her remaining data had dropped to 1GB and later 200MB.
The telco added that it also sent app and push notifications, and attempted to call her twice on Feb 16 but received no response. She later returned the call and was informed she had incurred additional charges.
M1 said she continued using data after that, clocking an additional 25.96GB between Feb 16 and Feb 28.
As a goodwill gesture, M1 offered to waive up to 75 per cent of the excess charges, but she declined.
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