Orange charges customer with phone bill of almost £7,000

Orange has slapped UK customer Chris Wilson with a £6,875 phone bill, which could drive his painting and decorating business into the gutter, he tells the BBC.
The network insists Wilson ran up the data charges from downloading films and TV programmes. Wilson, said: "I rung up to pay my bill and the lady said she wanted to warn me that the month's bill was going to be slightly higher than normal.
"Then she told me how much it was going to be - £6,875. I nearly had a heart attack. The only thing I did differently to any other month was I downloaded a TV programme which was 43 minutes long.
"Now, if that is going to cost £6,000, it would be cheaper for me to fly out and watch the programme being filmed."
This is a massive case of a rising trend known as bill shock, which has risen in the face of data roaming charges and web-enabled phone devices. More than half of smartphone owners recently admitted they want to customise their tariffs, while a China Mobile user accidentally topped their PAYG account up by $107,000.
Wilson told Orange he couldn't afford the bill and the firm has threatened to cut him off. Orange then went on to reduce the bill by £2,500, but Wilson still considers the 9,000 MB data use on the bill is inaccurate – his tariff only covers 750MB.
Orange, said: "Mr Wilson's bill resulted from very heavy and sustained data usage throughout the month, such as streaming films, TV programmes and podcasts on his business account.
"We have sent him an itemised bill with the exact dates, times and the amount of data used. We have acted responsibly and reasonably in investigating this case and offered Mr Wilson a significant and substantial reduction, which he has refused."

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