Web Daily Bolt On questions...

[Anonymous]

Hi, I was unable to get this resolved satisfactorily by online chat with O2 cs rep but I wonder if someone on this forum can help. Basically I want to know the answers to the following :
1) How many MB per day am I entitled to? On the O2 website here (http://shop.o2.co.uk/whyIMightNeedData)it says Web Daily users are entitled to a max of 50 MB per day. But O2 cs rep said it is 100 MB a day. And she seemed very certain about this. She repeated it twice. I am still feeling a bit doubtful as I'm sure O2 would check what they type on their website before putting it out there for all to see... And I really need to know how many MB is the maximum. Does anyone know the definitive answer to this? Is the website really wrong?
2) On my O2 online billing, under the section "My Recent Charges", when I click "View Recent Charges Details", then click on "UK Browse and Download", then click on "Data Billing Information", it says there :
"O2 holds your mobile web Data billing information in Kilobytes to ensure secure billing. In some sections of your statement we round to Megabytes for display purposes; however we always bill you by the Kilobyte."
If I am billed by the kilobyte, I want to know how much I will be charged per kilobyte. The cs rep was unable to help me with this one. Can anyone here tell me exactly how much will I be charged per kilobyte?

[Anonymous]

Which contract do you have?
Assuming its a recent one then the Web Daily limit is 50megabytes.
One megabyte is 1024 kilobytes, so you can easily work out the per kilobyte cost.

[Anonymous]

My contract is brand new, just received my phone on Monday (was with Vodafone for many years before), so I suppose the 50 MB a day is the correct answer. The O2 website certainly says so. BUT. The cs rep never did ask if mine was a new contract or old. I was prompted to enter my name and mobile number prior to chatting with her so she might have been able to view my account details whilst chatting with me.. I wouldn't know though. But if she did, then there's no excuse. I even copied and pasted the link of the O2 website page which states that for Web Daily its a 50 MB limit per day - so she could view it for herself. But all she did was apologise and repeat once again that its 100 MB per day maximum. She seemed polite but in retrospect it appears she wasn't clued up unfortunately and needs more training. I've kept a transcript of the conversation we had on email just in case.
As for working out how much a kilobyte costs, the website says I will be charged £1.02 per day for the 50 MB. So 1 MB works out to be £0.0204 if I take 1.02 divided by 50. Since 1 MB is 1024 KB, 1 KB works out to be £0.000019921875. But here's the funny thing. According to my online bill, for the 9th August 2011, I was billed £0.835 for using 367 KB. Now that works out to be £0.0022752043... per KB, which is actually costing more than what was worked out based on the £1.02 per 50 MB that O2 charges. If all that number crunching puts you off, I can put it in a simpler way.
The 367MB I used on that day was only about 35% of the daily limit of 50 MB, but I got charged about 82% of the maximum charge of £1.02 per day.
I know we're talking small amounts of money here at the moment, and as I won't be intending to use much of the 3G capabilities of my phone because I use my home Wi-fi to access the internet on my phone half the time or more, I don't foresee having to use the Web Daily plan much, but the principle just does not seem right.
The billing system for Web Daily certainly does not seem to be pro-rata - if it is, please tell me what exactly is the going rate for 1 KB, and how it all amounts to £1.02 for 50 MB based on that going rate, so I can make sure my bills are correctly calculated in future??

[Anonymous]

I see where your confusion lies, there's a bit you've missed.
Data is charged at £3 per megabyte. If you have the Web Daily bolt-on then that charge is limited to a maximum of £1.02 per day as long as you don't go over the Web Daily limit. If you did then the excess would be charged at the standard rate.

[adamtemp64]

from the pay monthly t&c

Data Charges
1. If you have a phone that can use data, but you don’t have a data Bolt On then all our
Pay Monthly tariffs include O2 Web Daily. If you use data in the UK you’ll be charged for
the data you use up to a maximum of £1 per day (00:00am to 23:59pm). If you reach
your maximum daily charge of £1, O2 Web Daily allows you up to 50MB use of our data
network via your mobile phone for the rest of that calendar day. If you exceed the daily
allowance or breach these terms, we reserve the right to:
o impose network protection controls which may reduce your speed;
o remove the data access from your account;
o impose further charges; and/or
o disconnect your SIM Card at any time, having attempted to contact you first.
All data usage must be for your private and personal purposes.
Regardless of the amount of data you use, you must not use your SIM Card:
o in, or connected to, any device other than the one which it was supplied with or
intended by us for use with. (For example a mobile phone simplicity tariff SIM
Card is intended for use in a mobile phone not a modem. This includes putting
your SIM Card into a modem, modem usage or internet tethering on your
device unless stated); or
o in such a way that we reasonably believe adversely impacts the service to other
O2 customers.
We reserve the right to use appropriate traffic shaping or throttling measures to protect
our network from types of data usage which we think might impact on levels of service
for customers at specific times of day and/or in specific locations.
2. Data usage is measured in kilobytes (KB) and charged at £3.06 per MB. 1MB = 1024
Kilobytes (KB), 1024 MB = 1 Gigabyte (GB). If Data usage is less than £1 it’ll be rounded
to the nearest kilobyte on a daily basis, and charges are rounded up to the nearest 1p.
You are billed for the amount of data that travels over the data network. Please note
that your bill may include charges for re-sent data packets and packets added to control
the flow of data over the network.
3. The prices shown do not incorporate data roaming rates.

[Anonymous]

In addition to the previous information it is also worth you knowing that when you say you were charged £0.83 for 367kb, this shows only that you reached the max charge for that day, you cannot meaningfully divide these numbers for a cost breakdown.
The max charge is always this amount on your itemisation, it is VAT further on in the bill that rounds it up to £1.
Have you considered buying a monthly data bolt on, such as 100mb for £3 or 500mb for £6? Because the £1 a day is a good option for light use, but is potentially £30 a month.

[Anonymous]

So prking, according to your newer posts, its apparent that the t & cs mention a different billing system per MB apart from the £1.02 per 50 MB advertised - its now also £3.06 per MB yet the user is charged a maximum of £1.02 a day for a maximum of 50 MB usage. Yet earlier on prking, wasn't it you who told me in your first message to work out the cost per KB myself? You certainly did not mention a separate billing rate that you mentioned in your later post. So you have led me on a wild goose chase trying to find a pro-rata rate by simply dividing £1.02 by 50 MB/1024 KB. Then later you show me t& cs and say oh, actually its £3.06 per MB too. That's really unacceptable for customer service. If you are an employee of O2 then it shows once again that you, like your other colleague who served me, do not seem to have a clear grasp of facts and are misleading in your replies. What is the point of contacting cs services if they give the impression that they don't really know their products well??
To be honest I could try and break that down again - so if £3.06 for 1 MB/1024 KB, then 1 KB costs £0.002988... which, if multiplied by the 367 KB I used, would come to £1.096699... That doesn't even seem to come near what I was billed for - i.e. £0.835.. so this is still a very odd explanation for my bill.
And then beaufighter says "it is also worth you knowing that when you say you were charged £0.83 for 367kb, this shows only that you reached the max charge for that day, you cannot meaningfully divide these numbers for a cost breakdown."
Your explanation still does not justify HOW O2 billing arrived at the grand sum of £0.835 for me using only 367 KB of data that day. Firstly, why can't I meaningfully divide those numbers for a cost breakdown? I was told by cs rep that I would be charged pro-rata for any data usage, so if you say that the charges cannot be meaningfully divided by the MBs/KBs used, then how can it be truly considered a pro-rata billing system?? Why did an O2 cs rep tell me it is pro-rata??
If it turns out not to be pro-rata after all, fair enough - the company can set whatever t & cs it wishes, but then I now want to know exactly what mathematical/accounting process O2 billing utilised to arrive at the total of £0.835 for 367 KB of data. If O2 can break down the process of arriving at that amount for me, then I will accept that that is the way they work out the bill - but then that means that for subsequent bills I will be checking them with the method used and if that method isn't consistently applied across all bills then I will have to question why.
By the way I am considering another bolt on but not sure if I should as I will have to monitor my usage this first month to see how much I really need it for. When I was on Vodafone I never subscribed to any data packages, but I did try it once and found that I used so little that it was no point subscribing to a package. I don't tend to have time to go online or utilise the phone when I'm out and if I need directions for travel I already have a good sat nav. If it turns out that Web Daily users really are penalised for using Web Daily by being charged as close to £1.02 per day usage as possible regardless of how little data they use, then the Web Daily bolt on looks quite pointless and a bit of a rip off.

[adamtemp64]

so divide £3.06 by 1024 to get the kb rate once you hit the £1.02 a day rate cap inc vat the rest is free. so 1/3 of a mb = day cap so 341kb is days cap limit so 26kb free on your example

so use less than 341kb and you only get charged prorata. 200kb = 72p charged inc vat
is that clear £0.835 plus vat @20% =£1.02 = day cap

P.s. unless a username has @o2 we are all customers helping each other

[Anonymous]

adamtemp64, you have answered my question. Thanks!
By the way I never assumed anyone on these forums who have replied to me to be O2 reps. But they know seem to know so much more than the cs rep I spoke to, I have at times wondered if some of them were 😐

[Anonymous]

adamtemp64, you have answered my question. Thanks!
By the way I never assumed anyone on these forums who have replied to me to be O2 reps. But they know seem to know so much more than the cs rep I spoke to, I have at times wondered if some of them were 😐

How dare you be so rude to me as you were in your earlier post with your sarcastic tone.
We seem to know more because we take the time to read and understand what is clearly written on the O2 Website.