Charged excessive amount for data call

[Tommo]

I’ve Been charged an excessive amount of £104.22 for data calls!? I thought messenger video just used your data? No way could I have gone over my 8gb allowance that quickly. And if I have it’s been accidental surely a loyal customer shouldn’t be penalised excessively for this? Thoughts?

[Glory1 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tommo

Yes Messenger uses your data which will come out of your monthly allowance. However you should have received a warning text from O2 when you had used 80% of your data and another text message when you had used 100% of your data. Did you not receive any texts?

It is up to you to keep an eye on data usage. You can do this by checking your phone, which may or may not be totally accurate. There are apps in the Google Play Store and the App Store, if you're using an iPhone, you can download that will show you your data usage and which apps are using the most data.

Unfortunately, as you are on a business contract, your data doesn't stop once you have reached your monthly data allowance. And O2 charge £3.06 per mb per day until your monthly allowance resets. If you were on a consumer contract, your data would stop once you had used all of your allowance.

I would suggest you speak to Customer Services 8002, 8am is the best time to call as you will avoid a long wait on hold. Do not use live chat, account queries are best dealt with by speaking to a Customer Services advisor. If you didn't receive any warning texts from O2 you should mention this as this may help you obtain a refund but it's not guaranteed as you are responsible for monitoring your data usage. 

Finally, if you use Messenger video, Facebook, Twitter , Instagram or any other social media app, this can, and probably will, use large amounts of data. It may well be an idea to increase your monthly tariff. Again Customer Services will be able to advise you on the best way forward.

Good luck and welcome to the forum 

Edited for grammar and typos.

[Cleoriff]

@Tommo

Just to add to @Glory1's comprehensive response above, I am wondering why you don't choose to use WiFi?

I use messenger a lot, though only ever over WiFi. My data allowance is rarely affected.

As said, you should've received warning texts, which would have enabled you to buy a bolt on but that's an expensive route. If your access to Wifi is limited then you definitely need to think about increasing your tariff.

I'll add my own welcome to the forum and hope you get this sorted soon.