Voicemail from abroad

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone.

I have just had 2 very confusing chats with O2 on live chat.

I initially contacted them to find out if Singapore was included in O2 Travel and was told it was not which is fine.

I was then advised to switch off my Voicemail when I am abroad as I was told it would cost 3 times the price of a normal call from abroad (once for the roaming call, once for the call back to voicemail and once for me to access the voicemail.

I thought this seemed odd and I know with my Vodafone contract that I am not charged when abroad for the part of the call where the caller leaves me a voicemail. I am only charged for calling my voicemail.

Anyway I assumed that O2 must charge for this whereas Vodafone do not.

After the live chat I looked through the O2 website where I read the following:-

If you're abroad, it costs the same to listen to a voicemail as it does to make a call to the UK. There's no charge for receiving a message if you don't listen to it.

This clearly states that there is no charge for me if someone leaves a message on my voicemail other than the call for me to pick up the voicemail.

I again went on live chat and asked the same question to another O2 representative who confirmed that the information I was given by the first representative was correct. When I pointed out the section on the website that contradicted this, they changed their mind and said that the first representative was incorrect.

Just as I was about to go they changed their mind again and said that they were wrong again and the original information was correct!!!

As you can imagine this was getting very frustrating.

When I asked why the O2 website contradicted this is was told that the website was incorrect and they apologise for that.

Now I really dont know what to believe but I am sure O2 would not have a gaping error on their website like that.

I do not want to turn my voicemail off as its important when I am away that people can get hold of me but equally from the information I have been given, the following scenario is the case:-

Over the 4 week period I am away, if I have 100 minutes of voicemails left in my mailbox it would cost me

100 x £1.25 for the first part of each call = £125

100 x £1.50 for the return part of the call = £150

100 x £1.50 for me to access the voicemails = £150

Total £425.

The O2 website reads as if the only charge I would have would be the last leg of the above to access the voicemails and in reality I would use TuGo to call the voicemail via WiFi so no cost at all.

I am sorry to you all for this ridiculously long post but I am hoping that those of you with more experience of roaming with O2 than I have may be able to tell me just what is the correct answer?

I thank you in advance.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Just put the phone in airplane mode, turn on wifi and just use Tugo - it will all be free then.
You will be charged for voicemails left over the GSM network.

[Cleoriff]

About voicemail when abroad....whether you listen or not is slightly irrelevant regarding some of the costs.  The fact is someone calls...your phone voicemail connects and picks up the call so you will be charged for that.

As a call has been made and connected. This is one of the reasons we advise people to turn off voicemail before travelling...

[MI5]

Unless you are using O2 travel, but in this case, that's not possible.

[Cleoriff]

Yes the op said they were in Singapore ..

[MI5]

Yep...