Free data usage

[Sixaparrat]

I'm on a Text and Web plan with 500Mb a month, which is usually adequate, but O2 recently added 1Gb to encourage me to browse more.
My anniversary date is 24th of each month, and the 1Gb was added on 25th with expiry date of 29th.
So I thought I'd give it a go. I was surprised to find that on the 28th I was notified that I was out of data and would have to either buy a bolt on or go to Web Daily. My phone only showed 500Mb of use, and after ringing O2 they informed me that the free 1GB was still there, although data was now coming off the Bolt on which I'd just purchased, and I'd have to use that first.
Surely it's crazy to have to use a month's worth of data in less than 4 days in order to avail oneself of the "free" data which expires in 4 days.

[MI5]

Sounds crazy but there's no such thing as "free".

Sounds like some clever marketing con to me.....

[Sixaparrat]

I received this text this morning "O2: Hello. Your free data allowance has now ended. Any data you use will be charged at your tariff's standard rates..." which seems to imply that I should have been using the "free" data, but I wasn't.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

That is usually how it works, although I can't find any T&C's for your offer to check.
Might be worth a call to customer services to check http://www.o2.co.uk/contactus

[Sixaparrat]

TBF the staff on the helpline 4445 were very good and reset the allowance twice, (approx 750Mb) but the free 1GB remained unused. I'm just wondering what was the point of the offer from O2.

[jonsie]

It's the way data is used unfortunately. Your basic data is used first, the any bolt on or rolled over data and then the free data (which is a 'virtual' data. meaning it doesn't show anywhere on your account). If you only have a limited time to use it then it's practically pointless. But of course it's free