Caught by an 02 £370 gprs bill, be careful...

scoobysnaks

Looks like I have been caught out through late arrival/delay of gprs charges from 29 march (possibly to the present day) which will be billed next month by the looks of it.

My account has an Upper Usage Limit £100.00

Please Note: Calls may be added at a later stage due to 'late landing' call data.
The usage limits are for guidance only and cannot be used for call cost control.


29 March 2006 08:07:24 mobile.o2.co.uk 8460 49.57
30 March 2006 08:05:31 mobile.o2.co.uk 1825 10.69
30 March 2006 08:25:56 mobile.o2.co.uk 2473 14.49
30 March 2006 20:58:10 mobile.o2.co.uk 2238 13.11
31 March 2006 08:56:18 mobile.o2.co.uk 2234 13.09
31 March 2006 09:52:39 mobile.o2.co.uk 6618 38.78
01 April 2006 08:21:04 mobile.o2.co.uk 7264 42.56
01 April 2006 11:36:41 mobile.o2.co.uk 1148 6.73
03 April 2006 07:58:19 mobile.o2.co.uk 19414 113.75
03 April 2006 09:44:42 mobile.o2.co.uk 9465 55.46
04 April 2006 07:46:03 mobile.o2.co.uk 1819 10.66
10 April 2006 13:34:55 wap.o2.co.uk 0 0.00
25 April 2006 18:28:43 mobile.o2.co.uk 0 0.00
29 April 2006 22:29:30 mobile.o2.co.uk 217 0.54
30 April 2006 02:31:07 wap.o2.co.uk 64 0.16
30 April 2006 18:40:29 wap.o2.co.uk 342 0.86
Total 63581 370.45

Hope this post may help others who may be using o2 gprs thinking it is free as it does not show up immediately through online billing but that is not to say you will not be billed a few months later.

dan2002

so what you are sayings, if you have sat nav on your phone you are going to be charged

Woby_Tide

dan2002 wrote:

so what you are sayings, if you have sat nav on your phone you are going to be charged

thats GPS not GPRS. What he's saying is that if you have been using GPRS via O2 recently it appeared to be free and wasn't being charged and they have suddenly spotted the flaw and retrospectively billed him

Stonk

Woby_Tide wrote:

thats GPS not GPRS. What he's saying is that if you have been using GPRS via O2 recently it appeared to be free and wasn't being charged and they have suddenly spotted the flaw and retrospectively billed him

It's not exactly cheap either!

I really think you should argue and try to pay the 100.00 upper usage limit. They really should have cut you off when you reached it. I know they've tried to squirm out of it by saying it is not for "cost control", but what on earth is it for then?!

When I had a contract phone, I had an upper limit which I thought of as a safety parachute. Occasionally you read (usually in the Daily Mail) about some unfortunate person who's run up a £5,000 phone bill, and I assumed that could never be me.

scoobysnaks

Thanks for all your replies and yes I do feel as if I have been ripped off as I check my bill online daily faithfully to see what my total call & gprs costs are. They did not tell me that gprs logs can appear on my bill some length of time later taking me more than 4 times over my upper limit. What can I do? write to customer services? Any tips anyone please?

teenage_Drama

ive been charged 50 quid for my calls cos o2's system doesnt update wen i call..

guess i jus gotta pay it

Woby_Tide

I'm not sure I understand, are you complaining they did not cut you off or that they caught you trying to cheat the system? which ever way you view £370 of GPRS usage isn't a 'mistake' you must have known you were using a lot of data

redux

scoobysnaks wrote:

but that is not to say you will not be billed a few months later.

I simply don't understand the assertion that this is all retrospectively applied much too late - that bill seems to be up to date and contain only one calendar month

lynne1985

Hi this happened to me with text messages they appeared to be free so i kept texting constantly and ended up getting a bill in on september for £420 for texts sent from Jan until september, my own fault i know, i didn't pay the bill as i insisted they should have been on my monthly bill, i still haven't paid the bill and as far as it goes on my credit report the account has been closed. I won't use 02 again as i like to know what i have used on a monthly basis rather than getting a huge bill months later.

Anon

Just noticed a new heading has appeared on my online bill this month (not there previously). Under "Unbilled Usage" it has another heading "Unbilled Usage to Date" - clicking on that now shows UK GPRS Mobile web - spent £30 last month without even realising it (as it has been completely free in previous months). I didn't receive a text message notifying me of this change, but then it has been free when it was supposed to be charging so I suppose I cannot complain (and phone is on 12 months free line rental anyway on a Mobileshop deal, plus was given cashback, so I suppose I am still ahead!).

Anon

scoobysnaks

Sorry wooby tide I never tried to cheat anyone.

To everyone else I am a non professional whom is trying to get answers to charges which I feel are a little unfair.

Therefore I filed a complaint directly to 02.

Dear o2 Online

*** COMPLAINT ***

Below are the details of a complaint that I wish to pursue with you. I
would be grateful if this issue could be dealt with at your earliest
convenience.

Ideally, I would like all correspondence (wherever possible) to be via
email to me directly at [EMAIL="xyz@yahoo.co.uk"]xyz@yahoo.co.uk[/EMAIL] (by replying to this
email)

Alternatively, you can contact me in writing at:
xxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxx

or by telephone at: 07xxxxxxxx

Yours faithfully,

Mrs xxxx xxxx



** COMPLAINT DETAILS **

Date of Incident:
29-04-2006

Rough Value of Transaction:
£250-1000

Order/Customer Number or Reference:
001 xxxxxxx

The incident occurred at:
mobile gprs charges

I have previously contacted the following about this matter:
[EMAIL="peter.erskine@o2.com"]peter.erskine@o2.com[/EMAIL]

Product or service supplied (or issue):
mobile gprs

Main cause of Complaint:
Hidden costs

The following would be considered a proper resolution:
Financial compensation

Complaint Details:
Sent to:

[EMAIL="peter.erskine@o2.com"]peter.erskine@o2.com[/EMAIL]

Ref: 07711-xxx-xxx





Dear Sir/Madam,

Please would you kindly make an investigation into my account as it
seems over £370 in gprs charges have very recently been applied to my
account from 29 March 2006 which I feel are very unfair.

During March alone I ran up over £100 in gprs charges which have only
very recently been applied to my account during May and has resulted in
my account being barred at present even although my account is paid up
to date.

Please can you offer any explanation as to why:

1/ O2 have allowed myself to go over my £100 upper usage limit as I
thought this was a safe guard to prevent unusual high spending.

2/ I was not advised that O2 had started charging for o2 gprs as I had
previously used the service up to and including the 28 March for free.

3/ Your customer service representative informed me that a text was
sent to all customers informing them that gprs was now being charged for
during march, why did I not receive this text or better still a letter.

4/ When will my phone be reinstated as it has been barred from
yesterday 7 May 2006 as I have already paid for my 200 free minute 100 free
texts this month and unable to use them.

5/ I still have receipt of the only text message I have ever received from o2 dated 23 May 2006 which reads “Your mobile usage is unusually high. A call restriction may be places on your line. Please call the customer services number on your invoice.” It seems like your upper usage safe guard to prevent unusual high spending may in fact be increasing o2 net profits as customers like myself trusted this facility which seems may not working properly? Would you care to comment please.

Please note the compensation of £50 and £167.64 received on 17, 31 May 2006 which has been credited to my account without any written explanation to the points written in my complaint's is not acceptable.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Thank you kindly.

Yours Sincerely.


xxxx xxxxxx


*** END OF COMPLAINT ***

Sent through howtocomplain.com.

Hope this post may help someone else.