A TEENAGER who wanted to stay in touch with friends on Facebook while on holiday in Turkey was left ‘devastated’ after she was sent a shock bill for almost £3,000.

Carissa Grice, 18, used the Orange mobile, which is in her mother Ellen’s name, while they were on a fortnight’s break together in Antalya.

The teenager, from Greater Manchester, was using Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to chat to friends, downloading 630MB of data, and managed to rack up a bill for £2,907 last month.

She believed she was on the hotel’s WiFi, but was also charged by Orange at £8 per MB because her data roaming was also on, she said.

Miss Grice said: ‘When I got the bill I was in complete shock – I couldn’t speak. I just kept saying I’m in debt, I can’t afford to pay it.

‘They need to warn people and be open about the costs of roaming. When I spoke to them I said “I haven’t called anyone, I haven’t sent any texts, it can’t be right”.

Her father Rob, 43, said Carissa was in tears when she got home to discover the bill.

‘She was devastated. She is a trainee nail technician and on the minimum wage but I told her she was going to have to pay because we couldn’t afford to.

Mr Grice said he bought a data bundle before they went abroad ‘but it clearly wasn’t enough’.

He added that Orange shut off the phone and contacted her daughter when the bill hit £1,000, part-way through the holiday, only to tell her that there was a mix-up and it was reactivated again.

They then contacted her again on the day she came back, when the bill was now at £2,907, he said.

Mr Grice added: ‘I think there should be a cap, there are with other networks. She has a £30 a month contract, when anyone’s bill hits double that they should be contacted in my view, not when it reaches £1,000.’

Orange said today it had sent texts to the phone to point out the data use, and had demanded the bill to be paid. It has since decided to slash it to around £250.