The clear blue waters of 02 international roaming .

[Anonymous]

and

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[darrengf]

Not sure if this is what you want 

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/How-to-Guides/O2-Contract-with-O2-Travel-Inclusive-75-Free-Countries-a...

But it it’s all wrote about In here

[jonsie]

I'm not even sure what this thread is all about. No text just a load of sceenprints too small even to read. From what little I can see it's all available in your thread @darrengf and on the O2 International page.

[darrengf]

Yes me too @jonsie not sure what it’s about 

[Cleoriff]

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@darrengf wrote:

Yes me too @jonsie not sure what it’s about 

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Oh I am quite clear. Last week there was a 'discussion/debate/dispute' about roaming in a land 'far far away'

It opened up the intracacies about O2 and travel abroad.

Information that you @darrengf, have spent hours of your time deciphering for the rest of the O2 forum members. (Thanks for all your effort and constant updates) 

Some of us are getting to grips with it all and it's a lot clearer now. Many of the regular posters have even bookmarked your posts for easy reference. 

It's all there for everyone to see and in my humble opinion, doesn't require further debate. It's all been said before on this forum many many times.

[darrengf]

Thanks @Cleoriff

[Anonymous]

As our friend @Missyc1 in Australia discovered last week there is half a world and a huge amount of hassle of difference between being advised to have a roaming bolt on active, free or paid for, and discovering when you are 12 hours away that it isnt working, or its throttled or you cant make calls.

Had she posted here before she travelled - the advice would have been just that "get o2 travel, its £4.99 a day and you just need to contact CS before you travell outside of the EU. Yay I solved the query!"

What proportion of O2's 25 million customers are roaming on any given day?

Got to be at least 250k  may even be half a million.

How many have issues? how do you imagine those issues get resolved?

If only 1% of 1% of roamers have a problem thats 2,500 people a day whose phones have a problem when roaming. 

We (on the forum) arent even scratching the surface of the customer contacts that O2 probably have to deal with. We see one or two roaming post questions a week max, no matter how good the guides are.

Sooo £64,000 question.

Why is all the published information on roaming confusing contradictory and difficult to keep track of and needs for  @darrengf to have spent hours of time deciphering?

Considering what the contact volume must be?

Surely its in O2's intrest to keep on top of things and communicate fully and well so all concerned are clear?

They are really pretty good at communicating when someones bill is overdue say, and they are a communication company after all?

It's easy if you think about it - O2 along with all the other operators are seriously hacked of with the EU roaming inititative, as roaming has always been a grey area for networks, it's a huge money spinner, everyone traveling wants it, and so it generates a large amount of revenue for almost no effort - especially between places where internetwork roaming is not subject to legislative control. 

Why do we think the bolt on rate is set at £4 or 5 a day- when the out of pack rates are capped at £40 a month?- Simples cos O2 wants an extra £40 or so off customers who roam outside the EU and by god they are going to get it one way or another. And if making things as confusing as possible is a way of achieving that then thats what they are going to do. 

Thats why all the screen shots are posted - its cos O2 and all the other operator want roaming to be complicated and as clear as mud, so people overspend or get packs and the revenues keeps flowing!

Why else would the EU have legislated on it?

God only knows whats going to hapen after brexit - £15 a day to us our phone in Dieppe probably! Something to think about if you voted leave!

[darrengf]

The problem is that just posting pictures on here means nothing. In fact you can say it’s worse and more confusing.

I come on here to help people and share my knowledge as do many others.

The correct answer would yes get o2 travel. Just publishing pictures means nothing and shows nothing. It more confusion.

What o2 does to charge customers is up to them. I can only try and help people with my articles and help resolve people’s questions.

Sometimes the answer is a simple one and sometimes not.

If you wanted to prove something with your article then u needed to explain what.

Regarding Brexit will have nothing to do with Australia and no one knows what’s happening.
I can only speak for here and now which is what I write.

[Cleoriff]

Just to clarify, the thread I referred to was nothing to do with travel to Australia. it was to Jamaica.

Slightly irrelevant but wanted to clear that up.

Roaming abroad with O2 is a minefield to walk through and it has been requested O2 provide a simplified guide. We know that won't happen anytime soon.

This is a forum of customers who provide help and advice to other customers.

The acknowledged expert forum member  on travel abroad is @darrengf. who has spent hours writing and updating guides on anything roaming abroad related. We are grateful for his work as it gives other forum members a reference point to start giving answers to questions asked.

It's also the responsibility of any customer travelling abroad to find out for themselves what they will be paying for.

If they come here for advice before they travel, then that's all the better. If they don't (and haven't read one word about O2 travel) then sadly that's their problem.

I wouldn't buy a car without reading everything about it

I wouldn't buy a mobile phone without reading all the reviews available

I wouldn't buy a house unless I checked out the area, schools and transport.

Roaming abroad with O2 IS a minefield but there is information available on the website, customer services to advise and probably best of all, this forum who have members who have travelled abroad frequently.

[Glory1]

I have read through this thread and tbh the only people talking any sense are @darrengf and @Cleoriff. I also agree with @jonsie that I've no idea as to the original purpose of this thread as screenshots without any explanation are useless.

We have a very useful guide prepared by @darrengf. Any customers who come to us with roaming queries are provided with a link to this guide. Queries on international roaming are also dealt with by providing the appropriate call/data charges for the relevant country.

We cannot be held responsible for the 1,000s of O2 customers who don't either refer to this forum or Customer Services before travelling abroad. Help can only be provided to those that seek it, preferably before they travel.

As for Brexit. It's pointless guessing as to what is likely to happen. No one knows what's going to happen after Brexit, not even the politicians. So we can only deal with the here and now.