O2 Travel - obscene charges

[Anonymous]

Can a member of staff justify the pricing behind the O2 travel package; clearly when going abroad you should be able to sign up to a data package, as you can with O2 travel. Being able to pay £2 a day safe in the knowledge that you can use data and not suffer eyewatering charges is useful. However, you should not be forced into also accepting a £0.50 per call charge, I'm sure it's no accident that O2 are aware very few people who will make calls abroad will be on the phone for a full hour and are therefore simply profiteering from this package.

Is there a good reason the charges cannot be made reasonable; it would be interesting to see some figures published showing how much O2 make from overseas calls which are <1 minute or even <10 seconds in length. Charging £0.50 to connect to an answer phone for a fraction of a second is clearly not good for anyone actually using the service and paying their bills. Can O2 publish their average cost per minute of overseas calls for people using O2 travel? I suspect it would be over and above the 15p per minute call cap imposed by the EU. Surely charging only per minute for the first minute and then kicking the £0.50 charge in to ensure customers have a choice would be fairer and in line with the spirit of the law?

[Anonymous]

We are all customers here like you apart from site staff and a couple of O2 staff who post on an unofficial basis.

[Cleoriff]

Re Call charges....I think it's all a matter of personal preference.(and perspective.) I travel to Spain frequently and the 50p connection fee is no problem for me at all. Unless its an emergency, my family know I will be contacting them at a certain time of the day that suits us all.....so a call can (and frequently does) take up to 59mins...where we know the set up.

Most of my family/friends are with O2..... so for them to ring me from the UK costs them nothing and costs me just the 50p connection charge.

I am lucky enough to be able to use Wifi a lot so other apps are also useful.

Compared to costs when I was on PAYG...its an absolute 'gift' to be on contract now

[jonsie]

Justified for long calls but it depends on your usage.
Personally I had occasion to benefit when phoning my bank from Spain....just over 50 minutes with the fraud department and another 30 minutes to my local branch.
of course for short calls we lose out, even just connecting to the local operator telling you the number isn't recognised costs.
There is again the option of opting out if you prefer...

[darrengf]

I understand where you are coming from, but I also do like the 50p charge, it's saved me loads when I've been to loads of different parts of Europe.

I think it would be nice of O2 to say that you will be charged ... Per min until you reached 50p and then you won't be charged any more for 59 mins etc.

But it's poss down to how the billing system works.

Voda have a sim system, again you can opt in or out of it and pay standard rates.

For me, the 50p is fine as I'm on for 40+ mins talking to friends and family. I even say ring me as I only pay 50p max.

I would like to see O2 to introduce more like this for other parts of the world like usa, Turkey etc.
but then I use my TUGO when on free wifi. 👍

[Cleoriff]

Same thing for me with my bank @jonsie  When I 'lost' my cards in Spain I rang two of my banks to report the loss. Long calls obviously but the whole process was pretty painless. In fact the only reason I wanted them get off the phone quickly was more to do with the fact I was boarding the plane...

It is as we say, a personal issue. I tend to text people if I know they are unavailable to take a long call...

Or even message them over FB if using WiFi.....so many options really

[MI5]

What we need is a suggestions board for customers to feedback issues such as this officially.

[darrengf]

That's a good idea re suggestion board

[jonsie]

I think a suggestion board had been suggested before. I suggest  someone suggests it again...

[darrengf]

Lol. So Do we need to email O2 to suggest a suggestion board for suggestions.

God I'm confused now lol 😜