£290 to access email & facebook abroad

Big_Ron

Tesco Mobile has charged me more than £290 for accessing my gmail and facebook accounts in ONE DAY when I was in Bangkok. This was for less than 1 day of occasional checks.

Initially, I was told the pricing costs were "on the website". It took four emails for someone at Tesco Mobile to tell me exactly where on the website.

The website actually says something like "3G = £8/MB in Region 4 countries". I have asked them to tell me what this means in English. And haven't had any reasonable response.

On arriving in Thailand, I got a text saying £1.49/minute phonecalls from Thailand to the UK. That makes sense.

Looking at the website (and Vodafone's too), apparently there's a block at £35/day to use data using 3G. But not outside the EU.

Clearly, Tesco Mobile and other suppliers are making a killing from this as the cost of moving 1MB of data is neglible. Any suggestions on my next move as I don't seem to be making any progress with Tesco Mobile?

john-306

£8/MB into £290 = 36.25 mb of data used, but for

gmail and facebook

less than 1 day of occasional checks.

Does seem excessive.
I'd request a breakdown of charges, but you'll probably have to pay it anyway as ignorance of the charges is no defence....unfortunately:(

Big_Ron

I was told today that we consume 33.8GB of information daily. So, think how much that would cost if I were to consume if using my iPhone in Thailand!

The bill has been paid as I don't want my credit ratings affected. My points:
- lack of clarity on the website (including customer service at Tesco Mobile)
- differences between EU & non-EU cut-off points
- it costs Tesco Mobile almost nothing to provide this service, so what are the profit margins on this? It is theft! And if Tesco Mobile is at it, then all the service providers must be at it too.

KimYeovil

Hmm, cost of data on mobile tariffs when not in your own country is prohibitively expensive. Who knew :confused; ?

JJ_Egan

I was told today that we consume 33.8GB daily .
GB 33 thats a hell of a lot of data .

This go abroad and spend a huge amount on phone bill is very common judged by all the posts on this forum .

jje

Jon_01

Tesco are being charged by the network you roamed on in Thailand. So little of the cost in really going to Tesco.

Its far from theft, the costs are there on the website if you'd have looked before you went or even called them to ask the price's. . .

robt_2

You say all you did was check email and facebook... what phone do you have? Was it using data in the background like most smart phones will do?

Techhead_2

Just to say a single facebook page can be about 1 megabyte.
So that data usage looks possible.
I can't understand why you wouldn't check charges before going.

NeverInDebt

Might be wise in future to leave phone at home or read MSE advice


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-roaming-calls

gjchester

Big_Ron wrote: »

- differences between EU & non-EU cut-off points

Consider the fact the inter EU cap only came in due to the EU enforcing it. No suprise that as intra EU data came down then other data access went up.

4810510

I'm not really into this Facebook stuff, but why would you check it on holiday without testing in the UK to see how much data it uses?

Personally I just take a normal book and sit and relax and read.

Back to your problem, as Tesco Mobile to provide you with a detailed breakdown. Nevers ceases to amaze me that people pay these extremely large data bills without getting a detailed breakdown.