"a tension-dealing, money-eating, phone-function-bricking roaming data plan"

[Anonymous]

Below is a letter I have sent (after much obfuscation from o2's chat with us service) to customer services. How do we all feel about 15 (count 'em) MB of data roaming per day? 

Dear o2 support, 

I've liked you as a company, I've found the service to be good, polite and not excessively expensive. At points you've seemed better than the competition in a variety of areas. Your shop staff are uniformly nice and always seem more helpful than the stresses of a busy retail environment would normally allow.

However your international data roaming product sucks BIG time.

Here's why 15MB isn't going to cut it in 2013:

1. My iPhone 5 doesn't have a dialup modem (ask your parents) so 15MB is going to run out pretty darn quickly.
2. My iPhone 5 runs Instagram - however, insert sad face, I'm reduced to about 3 uploads on your magnificent data roaming product. This requires a little more editorial control than I'm mostly bound to have with that 2nd glass of sangria in one hand.
3.  Facebook is an endless torrent of data. 15MB is about 15 friends updates in the last 20 minutes. Let's hope my status doesn't need updating beyond the quick "I'm frustrated".
4. Streaming anything at all is impossible.
5. I'm on holiday. In a foreign country. Google Maps anyone? Oh wait - you only get 2-3 daily tokes on that before you've hosed through your precious 15MB (notwithstanding any of the above uses, naturlich).

In essence you've created a data roaming product whose blatant customer unfriendliness is something of a brand-killer. Using it makes you feel like a tense angry child because the shiny expensive toy you've brought with you on hols now has an unsmiling wagging finger on the screen saying "Bad boy! You've eaten all the sweets already... Place money in slot."

Surely to gods someone in o2 "product development" roadtests these things before launching them? Seemingly not. You've created a tension-dealing money-eating phone-function-bricking data plan. Well done everyone, trebles all round.

I'd love to think you'd rethink this ridiculously disingenuous "service" - £4 a day for 75MB? That seems likely to make people think warmly of you again, like those heady days in summer 2012 when frankly anything seemed possible...

Oh, o2, where did it all go wrong?

Yours uploading on WiFi (just to be on the safe side).

Alex 

[Anonymous]

I agree totally

[Anonymous]

I disagree.

I have always managed to go abroad and go without either the use of my phone or without the need to access the internet. The only time I have ever really turned on data roaming was when I had a BlackBerry that used BIS and so all data was compressed.

If you are spending alot of time abroad and really do need to use Instagram and Facebook as you urgently seem to need to, then why not unlock your phone and purchase a local SIM where data will possibly be more plentiful and cheaper?

or even better...connect to a Wifi signal?

[Bambino]

As a way of reducing the amount of data you use, there is an app called NavFree which I'm pretty sure is available for iPhones. You can download specific country maps to your phone and once on there you can navigate just using GPS and no data. Works really well on my Android tablet.

[Anonymous]

Yes it's available in the App Store.

[Anonymous]

The point I think is more that O2 suddenly reduced the allowance from 25mb to 15mb for the same price whichever way you look at it it's a worse deal for the customer

[adamtemp64]

but it is still better than the price per mb with no o2 travel

with no o2 travel data would cost you for 15mb £6.90 so at £1.99 per 15mb  you save £4.91 per 15mb  to get extra 15mb blocks you send an sms costing 7p so extra blocks cost a total of £2.06 still saving £4.84 per extra block of data sms code and word are 21300 moredata.

either turn off o2travel and pay 46p a mb or use o2 travel

[Anonymous]

Yes but it was still cut down for no reason and with no change in charges

[adamtemp64]

@damien1 when that change happend they removed the usage of your inclusive mins on pay monthly so itwas only the 50p per 60 mins and not also use your allowance.

lets get over o2's corperat decissions if you do not like it then find a provider that suits your usage patterns.

[Anonymous]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion Adam and I am just saying I agree with the Op