Accidental international call - no refund offered

Ben117 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:31:27 GMT

My partner who is from South Africa had to make an urgent call home for an emergency and needed to use my phone to do this.

Obviously usually we would call over wifi using WhatsApp for this. For whatever reason on this occasion, the WiFi disconnected and the call ended up being via the network.

it was a 48 minute call and on my next bill I saw this had been charged at £150.

I called as soon as saw this charge and was advised by someone I spoke to that the bill hasn’t been technically issued yet so nothing could be done, but if I called back nearer the end of Feb I should be able to get at least a partial refund as this is a common situation and O2 understand accidents can happen.

Now, I know that technically this is a valid charge. I’m not disputing that. But I’ve just called back today and been told nothing can be done.

The other factor is that when I recently upgraded my phone I ended up doing this over the phone rather than online. I wanted to arrange a spend cap at the time of £30, and was verbally told this was arranged, but obviously this didn’t happen. I’ve since made sure a spend cap is in place but obviously this doesn’t help with that initial charge.

None of the context seems to matter at all. Again, I understand it’s technically a valid charge but to be charged £150 for an accidental call of less than 1 hour?

I’m not even asking for a full refund. Just a partial one as a gesture of good will and understanding.

I was told this wasn’t possible despite the person on the phone trying to argue my case. I wasn’t able to speak to anyone who actually had the ability to make the decision.

This just seems very unreasonable. I’ve been an O2 customer for a long time. This all gives the impression that they don’t really value their customers, to say the least.

Would appreciate any advice anyone else may have.

Thanks

Re: Accidental international call - no refund offered

MI5 — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:37:20 GMT

WhatsApp over data would still have been a free call (using data from your allowance) so this must have been made via the network.

Other than trying again or via social media, there's not much else you can do.

Re: Accidental international call - no refund offered

jonsie — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:44:59 GMT

It's well worth calling back to see if you can get a sympathetic adviser

Not all are authorised to give goodwill gestures but normally it would have to be a UK adviser

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Accidental international call - no refund offered

Re: Accidental international call - no refund offered

Re: Accidental international call - no refund offered