O2 abroad subscriber - Cruise around Spain, get charged Icelandic rates!!

[Anonymous]

Cruisers beware!! -- My wife and I have been signed up to O2's 'Abroad in Europe' scheme since it's inception many years ago, happily paying the £1.99 a day package charge. During that period we have been on dozens of trips and cruises throughout Europe (semi-retired OAPs that we are) without a hiccup. We have just returned from a 2 week cruise stopping daily at various ports in Spain and Portugal and I have been charged £40 and my wife £80 (approx) for allegedly being in Iceland of all places, well over 2000 miles away!  The very unhelpful customer services operator and her supervisor, tell me "hard luck, this is normal as the ship's mast must have been connected to Iceland so the charges stand". They weren't able to explain why the 2 phones incurred different charges, expecially as neither of us ever had any connection either to the internet nor phone, whilst at sea, most of which time was overnight whilst we were tucked up asleep in our cabins. Both stated that we should have known that this was likely to happen on a cruise, but as we signed up to it years ago, when cruises were far from our thoughts, this was certainly never mentioned at the time. They were also unable explain quite how this had not happened on previous cruises, and vehemently denied that this was just a way for O2 to claw back the roaming charges lost since 15th June.  To add insult to injury, when the supervisor checked back on my statement that following my earlier query solely on my account I had been promised a re-credit by the operator (Rhoge 02) there was no mention of it - obviously a promise made purely to get rid of me. I doubt that the promised management call-back (if it occurs) will result in any satisfactory outcome, as the 3 different operators spoken to in person, and the 1 at the chatline were obviously reading word-for-word from the company handbook. If it does stop anyone else being similary conned though, then I might have achieved something.  J & S Crowther.

[jonsie]

I can only assume that maybe it was an Icelandic cruise ship and you possibly connected through the ships network. Even small updates in the background would rack up data charges up to the £43 per month cap. 

[MI5]

Unfortunately cruise ships carry their own charges which are completely independent of any of the networks.

[madasaf1sh]

Data charges dont just happen, The app stores will download automatically anything under 100MB without wifi, unless you specifically tell it to do everything on a wifi connection only..

It's not o2's fault that you didnt read the t&c's or looked up the cost of roaming on board ferries and cruise ship, they have always been high even back when i started roaming in anger (back in 200x)

So not sure what you want o2 to do, your handset used the data so you pay end of...

[MI5]

Incidentally, you mention the charges been at night which isn't the case at all, as all the data used throughout the day is added to the account at night, so this doesn't mean it was used then, but an accumulation of the days usage.

[MI5]

A assortment of previous threads from the forum too which show it isn't a way to recoup lost roaming costs - we've been giving the same advice about avoiding using ships networks for years.
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Cruise-Ship-Charges/m-p/974910/highlight/true#M...
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Apple-iOS-Devices-iPhone-iPad/Roaming-on-a-cruise-ship/m-p/46351/highl...
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/Ferry-roaming-charges-also-relevant-for-cruise-...

[darrengf]

A clear SMS would have also been sent.  I've received one every time advising of costs and warning that using ships are not normal costs.

maritime as well as aircraft use a network source called a home locator. In you case it's the Icelandic network.

you ship will have a satellite that beams to Iceland then its resent on again to your local network who the forward it to who I've called. 

Cruise ships and aircraft are always charge as this is the cost for transmitting, and equipment.