EU Roaming Fair Use Policy

[Trimmer]

I was shocked, alarmed and angered by a message sent to me by O2 yesterday saying "We've noticed your usage recently has been mostly in our Europe Zone lately." Can anyone suggest here what 'recently' and 'mostly' might mean here? I have been in the UK only since the middle of June and this is now late July; so, recently I have been 'entirely' not in O2's so called Europe Zone. 

Nobody at any point from within O2 had informed me about a 'Fair Use Policy' and now I'm being threatened by it and being told that my behaviour is 'unfair'! An absolute disgrace.

I have lived in Spain for more than 9 years so O2 had plenty warning that this customer is likely to be "Using our services in our Europe Zone for more than 63 whole days, in any four month period." Yet, this is the first I've heard of it. Further more I tend not to use my O2 phone when I'm in Spain because I have a Yoigo service and a seperate phone for it there. 

Has anybody else here been sent one of these messages from O2?

Really angry about this and about the tone suggesting that I am being unfair and abusive.

Neil  

[TallTrees]

What you say (as usual) is profound  @Cleoriff 

A person needs to be certain about the T&C's  and the

way they affect them particularly.

Best wishes TT

[TallTrees]

Understood @Trimmer 

Not being a traveller nowadays I do not have the experience to 

give advice with this regard but I do find T&C's difficult in every

respect.  Best wishes TT

[TallTrees]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

No problem at all @Trimmer  and I do feel sorry that you find yourself in this situation.

Believe it or not, I have also had my own problems when I failed to read T's&C's (not O2 related) . Since then I have been a bit of a stickler at reading all the small print so I don't get caught out again. 

Best of luck in the future and I hope I have helped a little, even though it wasn't what you wanted to hear

---

I agree with that statement ~ I think alot of  people have "walked the walk" and then try harder and make more enquiries (on here for instance!) Certainly since being on the Community Forum and reading many difficulties ~ I appreciate the advices given in good heart and goodwill and know we wish you well ~ 

@Cleoriff  and @Trimmer 

[TW]

yes just got one now and will switch from o2 as soon as I can

[jonsie]

EE have the same qualifying period for usage when roaming.

From their T&C's :

Stable Links

You must comply with the EE fair use policy which includes you being a permanent resident in, or having a stable link to, the UK. We will consider you to have a stable link to the UK if, during any four-month period, you:•spend a total of two months or more within the UK; or•mainly use your inclusive voice, text or data usage allowances in the UK, rather than while you are roaming.If we reasonably believe there is a breach of this stable links policy, we will monitor this based on the combination of your presence in the UK and usage in the EU/EEA/Switzerland for four months. If, during this four month period, we believe or know that you may have breached the conditions set out above, we will notify you of the breaches and ask you to explain the reasons for this, as well as setting out the type of proof you need to supply to satisfy us that your usage complies with EE’s stable links policy.

I think the other networks will have the same clauses now.

[MP]

Hello all

Just getting round to dealing with this same issue after receiving a similar message in October. My issue  was compounded, however, by having received a similar message back in June/July/sometime but, when calling O2 to query it, being told that 'it was an internal administrative error, don't worry about it'... only for it to then manifest as policy a couple of months later... 

Cue a series of increasingly frustrating calls to their complaints team, resulting in a sequence of misinformation; eg. 'You only need to touch down in the UK for the 63 days to reset', amongst others. 

Finally herded towards some 'higher' complaints team for a possible termination of contract only to have the customer service rep repeat the 'this is policy' mantra. Oh, and prior to which had a CSR use the very words 'yes we have been misinforming customers due to poor training'.. !?!? (Along with a slightly surreal discussion of the semantic differences between 'misinforming' and 'misleading'...)

So... an admission of wrongdoing, but... apparently they're not in breach of contract. While I am. There's more but it's frankly too much to get into. Suffice to say more or less every call has had some piece of misinformation that's been corrected/contradicted in the next.

What. A. Mess.

So my query, finally - has anyone had any success pursuing a complaint about these 'new' T&Cs? (I'm aware they have been around since 2017, just not deployed until this year...) Or with the ombudsman?

I guess, technically - and as ever with these companies - we've little to go on as it's all there in the 2017 T&Cs, but is there another avenue wrt enforcement/misinformation (I was also advised when taking out the contract that 'no there are absolutely no limits on roaming...' which was the initial basis of my complaint...)

Apologies for the length, but any help certainly appreciated.

Thanks

M