Warning about overseas charges!!

Mobile_phone_anger

I have just had a very frustrating conversation witrh Orange over data roaming charges and have learnt some intersting facts that I wanted to share. Basically, I recently forgot to switch off my data roaming on my iphone when returning to france where i work. As soon as i tried to access an old email, i realised my mistake and immediately switched data roaming off but not before the server had downloaded a 3 line email from my hotmail account. OK, this was my mistake and I accepted there would be a small charge for this. However, when i checked my bill i found I had been charged four pounds ninety, the cost of 1.92 megabytes! I wrote to Orange asking how they justified a 3 line email (without any attachments) was 1.92 megabytes. Guess what? They were unable to and eventually apologised and refunded me a credit. My point though is this: what if i didnt check my bill? After some digging I now understand that NONE of the UK phone companies check the bills that are sent to them by third parties! Ergo, if you go to Greece and leave data roaming on (as I did a couple years ago for four hours whilst travelling from the airport to the hotel without once accessing the internet ) then the Greek telephone system can pretty much charge what they like and the UK phone company will pay it, plus of course their exhorbitant cut. So, two simple rules. First, turn data roaming off and second, should you forget to do that then argue every bit (pun intended) of data that you are charged for.

grumbler

I think Orange just CBA to argue about five quids.
In fact, if it is a smartphone, you cannot be sure that your phone downloaded just "3 line email".

I recently forgot to switch off my data roaming on my iphone when returning to france where i work.

Why have you switched it on in the first place?

Rusty!

The email might have been three lines, but I'd be confident in saying the phone did a bunch of other stuff in the background before you turned it off.

Buzby

In much the same way as as tourists here have their data calls handled b UK networks, it is a trade agreement (in bulk) so no 'bills' in e conventional sense - however, they are not 'invented' just expensive. Very expensive!

redux

Mobile_phone_anger wrote: »

Basically, I recently forgot to switch off my data roaming on my iphone when returning to france where i work. As soon as i tried to access an old email, i realised my mistake and immediately switched data roaming off but not before the server had downloaded a 3 line email from my hotmail account. OK, this was my mistake and I accepted there would be a small charge for this. However, when i checked my bill i found I had been charged four pounds ninety, the cost of 1.92 megabytes! I wrote to Orange asking how they justified a 3 line email (without any attachments) was 1.92 megabytes.

Just checking for emails every few minutes uses data, so if the phone is set to do so automatically then add that on top of the few kilobytes of the one you did actually read.