O2 Data Charges
Extortion.
That is the word I would use to describe the charges I have incurred as a result of using my new O2 wireless modem. A wireless modem I bought for work, explicitly to give me access to my email when there was no regular wireless network available. At purchase I asked the person in the shop what the cost of using it was, I was told it would cost me about £25 quid a month.
’Brilliant, I’ll be needing it abroad a lot, does it work abroad,’ I asked. ‘Yes, should do.’ Came the reply.
Today I received a bill for £803.75p, which I apparently ran up during December on that very modem. Admittedly, I’d been surfing in Ireland, but that’s why I bought the modem in the first place, as I’d explained to the person in the shop.
I’d somehow managed to surf and email my way through 112386KB, which in laymen’s terms is about 112meg. On closer inspection and calculation, it appeared that the ‘112 Meg’ was run up over the period of around 15 minutes, which I’m sure you’ll agree isn’t great value at £803.75p.
I was more than a little vexed, so I rang O2.
They proceeded to pass me around several departments, before someone didn’t really clearly answer any of my questions. This made me more annoyed, especially when the person I spoke to said (and I quote), ‘Yeah, we roughly round up a visit to a page as a Meg.’
What?
‘You roughly round up one page to a Meg? That can’t be right.’
‘Sorry Nathan, (yes, they call you by Christian name) that’s how it works.’
Well, it’s hardly a surprise I spent £803.75p – silly me.
On top of all this, O2 had decided that they should put a bar on the SIM, because my bill was inordinately large - which I had to laugh at the irony of. Genius.
I am waiting to be granted an audience with a more senior billing person. I hope this person be able to explain to me how I could spend £183.62p between the time of 10:31 and 10:35 (some 4 minutes) on 13 December. Seems like a lot doesn’t it.
I think you’ll agree that this is a total rip-off and a great example of hidden charges pushing up profits at any cost to the punter. How easy would it be to warn me about the charges, who wants to run up £800 phone bills? Yes I was dumb and should have checked the charges cafefully before using the service, but I (like many others) trust a brand like O2 to be fair and just. Clearly they are not.
It’s like I have been duped out of a load of cash by a brand I trusted and liked.
Which, I guess essentially, I have.
Comments
7 Responses to “O2 Data Charges”
Leave a Reply
Ouch. That is horrendous - you have made me a little nervous as I use the same service with O2. Were ALL the charges while you were abroad? The UK surfing was all still free right?
UK is all free !
Each page is ~1MB ??? WTF???
We all knows its the pron nathan!
I was thinking about this service. I think I’ll give a miss now. Thanks for the heads up.
I just returned from Ireland too, and used my Shiny new iPhone a couple of times.
Thankfully not as horrendous as your bill, as I had roaming off, but it still works out at £6 per Megabyte.
Shocking.
I warned you about downloading irish porn fella