topic Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad in Discussions & Feedback

O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:38:13 GMT

I'm a fool for thinking there were reasonable limits imposed by Ofcom on mobile phone providers, but thought it would be interesting for others to know that I just received a £2700 bill for data usage while visiting the US for three weeks. This is a single billing cycle.

After a certain point, this is plain and simple profiteering. Wouldn't it be reasonable to say, once a customer has spent £500, to cap his bill for data usage in that billing cycle?

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

MI5 — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:59:12 GMT

I believe it is capped unless you over ride it....?

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

jonsie — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 22:01:04 GMT

I'm not sure how you managed to rack up those charges.

Have a look here about data usage outside Europe.

http://www.o2.co.uk/help/bills-and-payment/calling-texting-and-data-usage-abroad

Data

So that you don't have to worry about racking up a huge bill when you're abroad, we'll cap your data usage.

If you're going to Europe, we'll cap your internet use at £43 (inc VAT)/255MB. If you're going outside of Europe, we'll cap your usage at £40 (ex VAT)/50MB.

You can raise this cap to £120/705MB in Europe, 200MB outside of Europe, or remove the cap completely, by contacting us. Once the £120 cap has been removed, you'll be charged per MB for the country you're travelling in. You can find out more information on cost per MB here and our demystifying data help article explains data consumption.

If you want to reapply your £120 data cap contact us when you're back in the UK.

Terms apply

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

viridis — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 22:05:19 GMT

@MI5 @jonsie forgive my ignorance here, not travelled outside europe with my phone, but does that mean the op, at some stage in the past, has requested the data cap be removed?

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

MI5 — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 22:06:57 GMT

@viridis wrote:
@MI5 @jonsie forgive my ignorance here, not travelled outside europe with my phone, but does that mean the op, at some stage in the past, has requested the data cap be removed?

It is my understanding that is the only way, unless there has been some major system issue, which I'm sure O2 will investigate.

Maybe if CS can't help a complaint may be worth raising for an investigation http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

jonsie — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 22:12:57 GMT

I've always switched mobile/cellular data off but Igiven all the reports in the press over the last 12 months and the information coming from O2 both on the web pages and via texts I received from O2 on my last trip, data is capped at £40 each billing cycle.

There is something badly wrong here and it needs O2 to investigate.

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

Cleoriff — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 05:48:28 GMT

Sounds like a system failure to me. Surely even if the OP removed the cap it wouldn't have risen to £2700 of usage without some sort of warning text?

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

viridis — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 14:03:45 GMT

Unless it's one of those issues where O2 say you used all your data in 5 minutes but this time, charged someone for it.?

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

jonsie — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 14:15:07 GMT

@viridis wrote:
Unless it's one of those issues where O2 say you used all your data in 5 minutes but this time, charged someone for it.?

I'm more inclined to think that the system has failed.

A complaint should sort it. O2 cap at £40 per cycle unless opting out.

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

MI5 — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 15:10:18 GMT

It has to be a system failure as I said earlier.
Even if the OP had opted out I'm sure you get texts telling you how much data you had used and surely this would have alerted them to a problem , but I guess these never arrived either.......

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 16:48:47 GMT

I am sure that once you use all your free data allowance on o2 you cant use any more unless you call customer services and buy a bolt on, are you sure this is data and not standard roaming charges?? this very much sounds like a system error and would be more roaming and not data.. call customer services and they will be able to drill down into your bill and go through it. next time download TUgo and use this as its free to send texts and make and recive calls over wifi, just put your phone in flight mode and use Tugo once your on wifi. even if your not making calls etc you will still be charged for roaming as your still connected to a network such as AT&T or Verizon (these are americas most used networks)...

Re: O2 £2700 bill for data usage abroad

viridis — Sun, 30 Aug 2015 18:31:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am sure that once you use all your free data allowance on o2 you cant use any more unless you call customer services and buy a bolt on,

But with roaming outside eu, no data is free.

It would not take long to get to £2700 in America.

If the initial cap was lifted, and no travel bolt ons were in place, the op would only need to use 450mb of data to get to £2700.

Not really a lot nowadays is it.