£290 to access email & facebook abroad

flyingscotno1

Simple answer for me is use a PAYG sim when travelling rather than a contract or either grab a local PAYG sim. I checked my e-mails a number of years ago in Paris and it cost me £9!

OP- come on, that paranoia is tinfoil on the roof stuff. The advice is good- it is very expensive to use data abroad, and when you surfed the web, Tesco have charged you for what the Thai network states you've used.

mrcamp

I can't believe this is happening again. Considering all the information out there regarding insanely high bills that people have received for using their phones abroad. It's a known fact that roaming is very expensive. Especially outside the EU. Bottom line - Do not use (for voice or data) your UK based sim card outside the EU, unless it's critical that you do.

*Kat*

I work for Tesco, but it's the same with all providers, I've seen so many posts about expensive bills after using your phone abroad, once you read them it just becomes common sense not to use your UK phone abroad unless you've arranged it with the network provider, or at least checked the prices

jayme1

Big_Ron wrote: »

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?

taking this and adding it to this:

john-306 wrote: »

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


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:(

36.25MB is easy peasy to get to, were there any photos on the facebook? thats a major reason.

ah well you have learnt the hard way, you know next time to not use your phone abroad, surely you can do without facebook for a couple of weeks? you are on holiday !!!!!!!

Big_Ron wrote: »

I have a suspicion that some of these answers were posted by Tesco Mobile (or other service provider) employees.
How can I "check before I go" when no-one (and certainly no-one at Tesco Mobile) was able to tell me what constitutes 1MB of data using an iPhone? It is hardly transparent pricing.

also it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell you what 1MB means some websites are over 12MB in size some are less than 100kb it is not an excuse to say 'well I didnt know'
the police dont accept 'I dont know murder was wrong' and I dont think tesco should accept your excuses.

also google 'mb' it comes up with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte bish bash bosh DONE you know what a MB is now.

Big_Ron

Clearly, once bitten, twice shy with this. But that's an awful lot of people who have to be bitten before they learn. If Tesco Mobile were a genuinely customer-centric organisation, then I wouldn't have to be going into the furthest corners of its website, or the depths of my iPhone settings to prevent this. I'd only had my iPhone a couple of months, and this was the first time I'd gone abroad with it.

If I pay £20/month for unlimited access in the UK, is it reasonable to expect to pay £300 for a day in Thailand? That'd be £9,000 a month Tesco Mobile!!

Loanranger

Big_Ron wrote: »

Clearly, once bitten, twice shy with this. But that's an awful lot of people who have to be bitten before they learn. If Tesco Mobile were a genuinely customer-centric organisation, then I wouldn't have to be going into the furthest corners of its website, or the depths of my iPhone settings to prevent this. I'd only had my iPhone a couple of months, and this was the first time I'd gone abroad with it.

If I pay £20/month for unlimited access in the UK, is it reasonable to expect to pay £300 for a day in Thailand? That'd be £9,000 a month Tesco Mobile!!

You don't need to go into the furthest corners of Tesco website nor the depths of your phone. Just find the OFF button. It's usually on the front of the phone, somewhere obvious.

robt_2

Big_Ron wrote: »

Clearly, once bitten, twice shy with this. But that's an awful lot of people who have to be bitten before they learn. If Tesco Mobile were a genuinely customer-centric organisation, then I wouldn't have to be going into the furthest corners of its website, or the depths of my iPhone settings to prevent this. I'd only had my iPhone a couple of months, and this was the first time I'd gone abroad with it.

It is three taps from the home screen. The default is off.

jayme1

robt wrote: »

It is three taps from the home screen. The default is off.

although there was that bug that made that setting not fully work but just above it is 'celular data' that completely kills all data usage of the phone.

personally if I was to go abroad I put the phone in offline mode before I leave the contry, that way the network still 'thinks' I'm in the UK so I dont get charged for recieving calls and texts that I will miss while the phone is not connected to a network. and only use wifi if I need data.

Wintermute

Big_Ron wrote: »

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?

Tesco aren't a charity, they will be making money off data roaming, but it wont be as much as you think as the bulk of the price will be what they're getting charged for the foreign networks then you've got to take into account those people who continue to dispute the charges until they're credited back, they push the costs up for everybody else. You're being charged for what you've used, I agree, it is a lot, but it's what you've signed up to, you did use the data so the best you can really hope for is a goodwill gesture as they are not in the wrong.

kb1_3

I was there in Nov. 10. on arrival, still in the 'tunnel' before joining the airport building, there were giving away free SIMs with 35 Baht credit (first min. cost 5 Baht and 1 Baht per min. there after). However, this is not totally free. They subtract 35 Baht from your first top up. I still find that this is ok. I could ring around to arrange being picked up, etc. before having to top up. I don't know if this is a usual phenomenon, if not, there are plenty of shops at the airport which sell SIMs. They are as good as free you pay only the credit. The most well known shop is the grocery 7/11 directly at the train station underground. There, you have plenty of choices of networks. Local (in land) call cost less than a penny per min. Your family/friend in the UK can call you for 0.5 p per min. and you don't have to pay anything to receive calls. As for internet access, there are plenty of free WiFi places and internet shops. I can't remember how much do they charge to accress the internet via mobile network but certainly not as expensive as British networks. And as it is pay as you go, you will not receive surprise bill.