Cruisers beware!! -- My wife and I have been signed up to O2's 'Abroad in Europe' scheme since it's inception many years ago, happily paying the £1.99 a day package charge. During that period we have been on dozens of trips and cruises throughout Europe (semi-retired OAPs that we are) without a hiccup. We have just returned from a 2 week cruise stopping daily at various ports in Spain and Portugal and I have been charged £40 and my wife £80 (approx) for allegedly being in Iceland of all places, well over 2000 miles away! The very unhelpful customer services operator and her supervisor, tell me "hard luck, this is normal as the ship's mast must have been connected to Iceland so the charges stand". They weren't able to explain why the 2 phones incurred different charges, expecially as neither of us ever had any connection either to the internet nor phone, whilst at sea, most of which time was overnight whilst we were tucked up asleep in our cabins. Both stated that we should have known that this was likely to happen on a cruise, but as we signed up to it years ago, when cruises were far from our thoughts, this was certainly never mentioned at the time. They were also unable explain quite how this had not happened on previous cruises, and vehemently denied that this was just a way for O2 to claw back the roaming charges lost since 15th June. To add insult to injury, when the supervisor checked back on my statement that following my earlier query solely on my account I had been promised a re-credit by the operator (Rhoge 02) there was no mention of it - obviously a promise made purely to get rid of me. I doubt that the promised management call-back (if it occurs) will result in any satisfactory outcome, as the 3 different operators spoken to in person, and the 1 at the chatline were obviously reading word-for-word from the company handbook. If it does stop anyone else being similary conned though, then I might have achieved something. J & S Crowther.
