Vodafone, Google, Facebook - I HATE YOU

While I was in the U.S. I had my Vodafone India Blackberry turned on.  I did not make or receive any significant amount of phone calls but kept the phone on so I could receive email.  I have been using Vodafone for three years and I understand that the bulk of the roaming charges that I incur when I travel are usually from voice calls, not data usage. . . . I mean how much data does it take to send and receive an email.  Well, in reality, not much!

 

So why am I angry?  Because the Google Maps and Facebook applications on my BB ended up using INSANE amounts of data while I was roaming without me even knowing it!  Google Maps has a "current location" option that constantly updates your locations and in the process uses a lot of data.  Facebook updates photos of your friends into your contact book which, again, uses a lot of data.  I had no idea these features were even turned on! 

 

That brings me to Vodafone.  I have been a very high spending post-paid customer for three years - i.e. a high margin customer!  When I saw my bill I called Vodafone explaining the situation to see if there was something we could do . . . i.e. reducing the bill.  I assumed that being such a high paying customer would give me some leeway. I was completely wrong, there was nothing they were willing to do, even after I spoke to a few layers of "managers." I finally told them that I would just not pay the bill and instead get a new number with a different provider. They still didn't budge!

 

One of my friends told me that i should have just reported the phone as stolen and they would send a new sim and redact the charges.  Damn! I should have tried that first. I tried this method only after I had given them the prior explanation so it obviously didn't work.

 

So I'm torn . . . should I pay the bill or should I just leave it and go . . . . FYI the bill was >40,000!