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iPhone Internet Use Abroad - £400 bill

Anonymous
Not applicable
I bought an iPhone on a £35/month contract, with o2, roughly three months ago, having been an o2 pay as you go customer for the past 7 or 8 years.

I've just returned from a holiday in Porto Santo (Portugal, EU), and have received a bill from o2 for approximately £400 (four hundred pounds) due to internet use abroad. I turned the data roaming function off the second day of my week-long trip, and instead connected to the internet through the hotel's free wi-fi connection (having been told the hotel provided free wi-fi internet access at the welcome meeting on day two). I probably accessed the internet for around an hour / 90 minutes per day, for checking work e-mails, flight times, and other general browsing. I did not download any songs or videos.

Is there anything I can do to query and reduce this cost? I am both astonished and gutted at having run up such a bill.

I received inadequate warning of the cost of browsing, and no warning of the charges I was incurring day by day. Obviously if I had known when I reached £20 or even £10 I would have stopped browsing the internet immediately and completely.

My girlfriend received a text message from vodaphone just before midnight one evening saying that if she remained connected to the internet beyond midnight UK time, she would be charged £4.99. I received no texts of the sort.

Are all mobile phone networks the same in terms of allowing users to run up such bills?

I have e-mailed o2 about this, but their response said that I was charged because the wi-fi network that I was using was chargeable, hence the bill of £400 for accessing the internet through wi-fi.

The bill is due on the 28th June, by direct debit. I am considering cancelling the direct debit until the issue is resolved. Is this wise?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

GHA
Message 1 of 24
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23 REPLIES 23

Anonymous
Not applicable
I bought an iPhone on a £35/month contract, with o2, roughly three months ago, having been an o2 pay as you go customer for the past 7 or 8 years.
I've just returned from a holiday in Porto Santo (Portugal, EU), and have received a bill from o2 for approximately £400 (four hundred pounds) due to internet use abroad. I turned the data roaming function off the second day of my week-long trip, and instead connected to the internet through the hotel's free wi-fi connection (having been told the hotel provided free wi-fi internet access at the welcome meeting on day two). I probably accessed the internet for around an hour / 90 minutes per day, for checking work e-mails, flight times, and other general browsing. I did not download any songs or videos.
Is there anything I can do to query and reduce this cost? I am both astonished and gutted at having run up such a bill.
I received inadequate warning of the cost of browsing, and no warning of the charges I was incurring day by day. Obviously if I had known when I reached £20 or even £10 I would have stopped browsing the internet immediately and completely.
My girlfriend received a text message from vodaphone just before midnight one evening saying that if she remained connected to the internet beyond midnight UK time, she would be charged £4.99. I received no texts of the sort.
Are all mobile phone networks the same in terms of allowing users to run up such bills?
I have e-mailed o2 about this, but their response said that I was charged because the wi-fi network that I was using was chargeable, hence the bill of £400 for accessing the internet through wi-fi.
The bill is due on the 28th June, by direct debit. I am considering cancelling the direct debit until the issue is resolved. Is this wise?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
GHA
Message 11 of 24
1,263 Views

Anonymous
Not applicable
I bought an iPhone on a £35/month contract, with o2, roughly three months ago, having been an o2 pay as you go customer for the past 7 or 8 years.
I've just returned from a holiday in Porto Santo (Portugal, EU), and have received a bill from o2 for approximately £400 (four hundred pounds) due to internet use abroad. I turned the data roaming function off the second day of my week-long trip, and instead connected to the internet through the hotel's free wi-fi connection (having been told the hotel provided free wi-fi internet access at the welcome meeting on day two). I probably accessed the internet for around an hour / 90 minutes per day, for checking work e-mails, flight times, and other general browsing. I did not download any songs or videos.
Is there anything I can do to query and reduce this cost? I am both astonished and gutted at having run up such a bill.
I received inadequate warning of the cost of browsing, and no warning of the charges I was incurring day by day. Obviously if I had known when I reached £20 or even £10 I would have stopped browsing the internet immediately and completely.
My girlfriend received a text message from vodaphone just before midnight one evening saying that if she remained connected to the internet beyond midnight UK time, she would be charged £4.99. I received no texts of the sort.
Are all mobile phone networks the same in terms of allowing users to run up such bills?
I have e-mailed o2 about this, but their response said that I was charged because the wi-fi network that I was using was chargeable, hence the bill of £400 for accessing the internet through wi-fi.
The bill is due on the 28th June, by direct debit. I am considering cancelling the direct debit until the issue is resolved. Is this wise?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
GHA


Same thing happened to me, though I only ran up £50 before I noticed something was up. Unable to roam (as roaming was off) but when using WIFI it used data. Turned to airplane mode when wifi browsing after that.

Got home, complained to O2, they refunded without question.
Message 12 of 24
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Anonymous
Not applicable
When I'm in Spain I leave Data Roaming off and used WiFi at my golf club and local pub, don't run up any costs as WiFi is supplied free by them.

I Don't understand how you got charged by O2 if your data roaming is off?!?! I couldn't get any data connections even in 3G areas as roam was off. The WiFi is a paid for connection by the host, the same as your broadband at home.

Either roam was on or there is a problem with your phone.
Message 13 of 24
1,263 Views

Anonymous
Not applicable

I Don't understand how you got charged by O2 if your data roaming is off?!?! .


Neither do I, but thems the facts. This only happened when I was browsing via WIFI. If I attempted to do anything when not connected to WIFI the phone correctly told me data roaming was off.
Message 14 of 24
1,263 Views

Anonymous
Not applicable
Talk me through this again as I am off to the States on Sun for a week. I want to use the iPhone 3g purely like an iTouch. I don't want to make / receive calls nor text any one, just send emails via various free wifi points.
Message 15 of 24
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adamtemp64
Level 66: Unequalled
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Registered:
to do that turn airplane mode on and then re enable wifi
iPhone 11 Pro 256gb on unlimited data
iPad Pro 12.9” 2020 256gb refresh o2 family discount
Apple Watch series 4
My first mobile was in 1995 a CM-R111 from sony on Cellnet.
Wincanton South Somerset (Full 4g 3G 2g indoor coverage) Remember we are all customers here not customer services

Message 16 of 24
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Anonymous
Not applicable
Roaming set to off ? Aren't some posters claiming that roaming off doesn't work and that you will still be billed as if you had been using a telephone network.
Message 17 of 24
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adamtemp64
Level 66: Unequalled
  • 16454 Posts
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  • 1316 Solutions
Registered:
also in ios4 you can totally disable cell data also stopping the issue
iPhone 11 Pro 256gb on unlimited data
iPad Pro 12.9” 2020 256gb refresh o2 family discount
Apple Watch series 4
My first mobile was in 1995 a CM-R111 from sony on Cellnet.
Wincanton South Somerset (Full 4g 3G 2g indoor coverage) Remember we are all customers here not customer services

Message 18 of 24
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Anonymous
Not applicable
That happened to me too using the airport wifi in gran canaria. O2 refunded it without question.
Message 19 of 24
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Anonymous
Not applicable
hey guys, im in italy, and i have iphone 3g,

my advise to anybody traveling with the iphone overseas is to call o2 4 days before you go and add internet barring, and call barring. while you are away.

if you are in europe, you should added a bolt on called my europe extra, which gives you 1000 minutes for recieving free in coming calls. I believe there is bolt on for other places as well.

Also there are overseas data bolts as well, 10mb, and the highest i believe is 30mb

I learned the hard way, in the last three months, I have bills over 400 pounds.
300 pounds has been data usage.

Also becareful not to change your carrier overseas, as your calls are charged more, and when u get back to the uk. it screws up the o2 network carrier settings.

When i came back to the uk, i switch my carrier to orange to by pass the barring
Message 20 of 24
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