I bought an iPhone on a £35/month contract, with o2, roughly three months ago, having been an o2 pay as you go customer for the past 7 or 8 years.
I've just returned from a holiday in Porto Santo (Portugal, EU), and have received a bill from o2 for approximately £400 (four hundred pounds) due to internet use abroad. I turned the data roaming function off the second day of my week-long trip, and instead connected to the internet through the hotel's free wi-fi connection (having been told the hotel provided free wi-fi internet access at the welcome meeting on day two). I probably accessed the internet for around an hour / 90 minutes per day, for checking work e-mails, flight times, and other general browsing. I did not download any songs or videos.
Is there anything I can do to query and reduce this cost? I am both astonished and gutted at having run up such a bill.
I received inadequate warning of the cost of browsing, and no warning of the charges I was incurring day by day. Obviously if I had known when I reached £20 or even £10 I would have stopped browsing the internet immediately and completely.
My girlfriend received a text message from vodaphone just before midnight one evening saying that if she remained connected to the internet beyond midnight UK time, she would be charged £4.99. I received no texts of the sort.
Are all mobile phone networks the same in terms of allowing users to run up such bills?
I have e-mailed o2 about this, but their response said that I was charged because the wi-fi network that I was using was chargeable, hence the bill of £400 for accessing the internet through wi-fi.
The bill is due on the 28th June, by direct debit. I am considering cancelling the direct debit until the issue is resolved. Is this wise?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
GHA
