Inbound call charges

[Anonymous]

Can anyone help with this question?

I have a pay monthly contract with 500 minutes of talk time. I have had this for several years now and it has always served the purpose. 2 days before my limit was due to refresh I hit the 500 minute limit, so now expect to pay at O2s standard tariff rate. To avoid picking up charges, a friend contacted me from their BT landline and the discussion took 50 minutes. To my horror, I discovered that I now had a £11 charge on my monthly invoice for this call. I spoke to my friend who checked their bill and he also had a £7.70 charge (0.35ppm) on his invoice, so the 50 minutes call from BT landline to O2 mobile cost £18+. Should I now expect any inbound call to incur a cost while I'm outside of my tariff allowance - it seems criminal this can happen and isn't explained in the O2 website tariff detail at all - can anyone confirm this is how it works?

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous Yes if you are outside your allowance you will have to pay. It is explained to you when you sign up. The tariff changes are also available in your myo2 though inbound calls, only the caller should be paying but maybe someone else could elaborate more on that detail 

[MI5]

If you were in the uk at the time you should not be charged for the incoming call, regardless of the number of minutes left on your call allowances.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the feedback - I have deliberately not been using the mobile for the last day to avoid charges as I had reached my allowance cap - but an inbound call for 50 minutes has come up on my bill for £11. The caller has also had a £7 charge for the call at 35p pm, so I've no idea why I've been charged. I have spoken to two helpdesk operatives, the first said all calls recieved after reaching the limit would be charged and then tried to get me to upgrade to unlimited. I rang back and spoke to another operative who disagreed with the first and said no received calls should be charged, but then changed her mind and said that as it was a BT landline call to my mobile it could be charged - couldn't eloborate on this and couldn't point me to where this is documented in tariffs - hence in my despair i thought I would try this forum!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your feedback, but I have now discovered why I have been charged for receiving a call - really disappointed in the O2 helpdesk - they were simply making up the answers as they obviously didn't know - why can't they just say that they do not know why this has happened rather than lying!

[MI5]

That's complete bull.
No inbound calls are chargeable if you are in the uk.

[Anonymous]

You shouldn't be charged for incoming calls at all in the UK 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Sorry MI5 - should have told you what had happened - we have two mobile phones in the house (both on the same contract). My dear wife had been playing with the settings on hers and had put call forward on to mine. The inbound call was from a family member, so it was nothing out of the norm for her to ring on either phone. It appears that I have been charged for the call forward from one O2 phone, to another and my family member has been charged for the original call - £18 for 50 minutes - the dearest call I have ever NOT made!!! The call forward has now been removed - its taken 2 hours to figure this out!!! I had no idea call forward acted as a call...... its not publicised by O2, just happened to find it on this forum under another heading!!

[jonsie]

Yes unfortunately that would explain it. The advisers concerned really need training as without call forwarding activated there is definitely no charge for an i/c whether allowance has been reached or not. 

I have to say slightly off topic that out of allowance charges are disgustingly disproportionate. 

[Anonymous]

It's how they meet their profit margins & targets