Shocked! Charges for Wifi abroad from Orange

Ru_

I was so careful about how much I used my data abroad, I bought a 4Mb bundle, which is meant to cover hundreds of emails, more than enough for the travelling I was doing, 2 weeks in Croatia. So when I was over there I constantly checked for Wi-fi hotspots, had mobile roaming turned off except very rarely for important emails about accomodation etc, and thought I'd be ok with that.

However, I'v come home to a bill for £117, £81 of which is data roaming for 9Mb, and I just didn't understand why it was so high. Ringing them up, they said it is because some sites/apps, are charged for on Wifi (!?!). Like facebook might use 1Mb if you load it up. My charges are only for the first week of the trip, I don't yet have the bill for the 2nd half, which I am absolutely dreading! How on earth can they justify charging me for Wifi, when it's already using someone elses internet and my data roaming is turned of? If I had a laptop/netbook or something, I'd be accessing the same stuff for free right? I just don't get it, there must be something I can do about it.. Unfortunately I don't get a breakdown of what data, when etc all the charges are for, I just get a bill and have to accept it.. My phone was pretty new, thought it was a godsend when we needed internet abroad, but this Wi-fi charging is ridiculous!

Anyone else had this problem? Or have any advice on how I can fight these charges??

Thanks, Ru (ps, my first post in a forum ever, just had to do something about this ludicrous situation )

Jon_01

They don't charge for wifi, it is free (unless the hot spot has a charge). So something else is going on here.

What phone do you have?

withabix

Some Apps use mobile network for data even when you think you aren't actively using them, as long as you have data turned on.

Get 3G Watchdog (if it is available for your phone) and you will see what I mean.

Badger_Lady

My iPhone is a nightmare abroad (as I found out when visiting family in France this year).

They charge "data usage" for GPS access abroad. GPS! That means my TomTom app with European maps is basically useless outside of the UK, beacuse it uses such a huge amount of FREE data that's charged by my phone operator. Who are based in France!

Ru, I totally feel for you, bruh.

Exhortation

The first thing you do is demand a full breakdown of the charges from Orange.

Jon_01

Exhortation wrote: »

The first thing you do is demand a full breakdown of the charges from Orange.

That can take months, the billing team have to wait for the roaming network to send it over and some of them take their own good time about it.

Based on that, you might get the charges deferred until the logs arrive ?

DrScotsman

Badger_Lady wrote: »

They charge "data usage" for GPS access abroad. GPS! That means my TomTom app with European maps is basically useless outside of the UK, beacuse it uses such a huge amount of FREE data that's charged by my phone operator. Who are based in France!

You're probably mistaken.

The GPS signal has nothing to do with mobile networks - hence the lack of a SIM card in dedicated GPS devices. It is free worldwide.

What does use internet access is downloading the maps. However the impression I've got from a Google search is that the TomTom app has all of the maps downloaded in advance - no data usage required.

What happens if you try the TomTom app with the SIM card out?

EDIT: TomTom entry on the app store claims No roaming charges. Hrm.

jamespir

the 4mb only covers you in this country and if you ahd your phone on all the time it would connect to roaming so that it could update you with textx calls plus mobile web ( wifi is a different thing) would cost you £10.00 a mb

Ru_

It's a HTC desire, and i'v put on a toggle on my home screen so it's easy for me to ensure the data is turned off. Can some apps like facebook override my settings?

Ru_

Jon_01 wrote: »

That can take months, the billing team have to wait for the roaming network to send it over and some of them take their own good time about it.

Based on that, you might get the charges deferred until the logs arrive ?

Thanks, I'll try it.

Maybe it was to do with GPS too, we got lost in a pretty dodgy area and I got a map of the area up. Don't think this phone will be going abroad again with me...

Jon_01

Ru_ wrote: »

Thanks, I'll try it.

Maybe it was to do with GPS too, we got lost in a pretty dodgy area and I got a map of the area up. Don't think this phone will be going abroad again with me...

Ahh. Now while the gps signal is free to use, which mapping software were you using ?

If it was Google maps that downloads the maps as you go, so it would have been using quite a bit of data ??