Hit by high Data usage charges from Vodafone- Please help

csrivats999

Me and my wife recently went to Dubai and carried our respective iphones along.

I am on O2 and my wife is with Vodafone.

Only 02 sent us text when we were there detailing the charges.

Despite my numerous warnings about high roaming charges my wife ended up using the internet (facebook) on 1 or 2 instances.

We are now facing a charge of £85 + vat from vodafone as WAP charges.

I cannot understand how a few mins of data usage would cost us soo much.

Is this justified?

Is there any way I can possible try and speak to vodafone to challenge / reduce this charge?

Any help please let me know.

daleski75

Simple answer yes it is justified as you warned your wife but she used Facebook anyway and you can try to get the charge lowered but I would not hold out much hope for it.

For reference here are the charges below for UAE so as you can see it would take no time at all to ramp up charges without realising it.

£3 per MB for the first 5MB. £15 for every 5MB after that. (In MB increments per day, UK time)

daleski75

Your best bet in the future is to turn off all data on your iPhones and then when you reach your destination just get a local sim card with a data allowance that way you won't come home to any nasty surprises.

NFH

Vodafone Data Traveller costs £5 per day for up to 25MB. O2 may publish their charges by text message, but Vodafone publish their charges on their web site. Knowing that data charges are so high, why didn't your wife opt into Vodafone Data Traveller or use wireless internet instead? Data is charged in megabytes, not in the minutes that you quote. Orange charges £8/MB so Vodafone's charge of £3/MB or 20p/MB is comparatively cheap; I'm not sure what your complaint is.

Guys_Dad

Ask for a breakdown of usage, if you are still unhappy. However, if it was a smartphone, then it will have been updating etc in the background. Get the daily use or log from Vodafone to set your mind at rest.

Take it from there.

The time to have checked the costs was BEFORE you went, of course.

mrcamp

I'd say you are lucky it's only £85. Could have been worse. I will suggest you take this as lesson learn and just pay up, since these are legitimate charges. For next time, follow the advice already given.

gjchester

csrivats999 wrote: »

I cannot understand how a few mins of data usage would cost us soo much.

Did you disable data /roaming at other times? As Guys day says unless you do then there will have been background update for apps like the Weather and Shares you may not appreciate.

NFH wrote: »

Vodafone Data Traveller or use wireless internet instead?

Data traveller is Europe only at £5 for 25MB, Dubai isn't Europe, Vodafone do a worldwide package but don't say the costs or MB permitted, it just says call them.

NFH

gjchester wrote: »

Data traveller is Europe only at £5 for 25MB, Dubai isn't Europe, Vodafone do a worldwide package but don't say the costs or MB permitted, it just says call them.

Dubai is indeed not Europe but "rest of the world", where Vodafone Data Traveller costs £5/day for 25MB/day. For Europe it's much cheaper at £2/day or £10/month for 25MB/day, but we're not talking about Europe, so I'm not sure why Europe is relevant here.

gjchester

NFH wrote: »

Dubai is indeed not Europe but "rest of the world", where Vodafone Data Traveller costs £5/day for 25MB/day. For Europe it's much cheaper at £2/day or £10/month for 25MB/day, but we're not talking about Europe, so I'm not sure why Europe is relevant here.

Sorry me not reading VF's web site right...

Vodafone

Hi csrivats999,

If you would like to see a breakdown of the data usage and charges, you can either log into My Account or email me personally via the address here with WRT135 FAO Heidi in the subject. Please also include a link to your post if emailing.

Many thanks,

Heidi
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK