I'm a new customer, and I've had an issue with unexpected charges for text messages. I've got nowhere with customer support, and I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and managed to solve it.
There are two related issues:
1. Being charged for texts to a European mobile, which my contract says (albeit nor clearly) are included
2. Being charged for 10 messages when I only sent 4, apparently because there is a character limit (not mentioned in the contract).
1. The wording in my contract is:
Unlimited minutes and Unlimited texts to standard UK landlines and mobiles within
our Europe Zone. Calls from the UK to any other country, or any calls outside our
Europe Zone, will be charged at standard international rates.
I read the first sentence, and assumed that included calls or texts from UK to Europe. The second sentence contradicts that, though - although says nothing about texts. I can understand that they may *intend* to exclude texts from UK to Europe, but they have not explicitly stated that, and it is really a very poorly and confusingly worded statement.
2. Perhaps I am naive and everyone knows this, but I thought character limits for SMS were a thing of the past. Is this normal? Regardless, even having counted the characters, they *still* overcharged me!
Anyway, I spent most of today (really - from about 10 am to 5 pm) trying to untangle this mess on web chat. They very reluctantly agreed, eventually, to refund the extra 6 texts; then after a lot more persuasion, they refunded all the texts as a goodwill gesture. I was hoping they might offer me something by way of a gesture for the time and inconvenience spent sorting it out, but they refused and cut off my conversation whenever I asked!
If anyone else has had a similar experience, I'd be interested in hearing about it; I'm especially interested in the legal status of poorly worded contracts that are open to misinterpretation.
Thanks, and happy new year to everyone!
