£710 mobile bill!

Italia2012

Please advise: I'm on holiday in Italy and the hotel has free wifi. My daughter, who has taken ill, was watching a barbie film on YouTube and was connected to the wifi. Unfortunately connection failed and it connected to 3G, I did not know this. Yesterday morning my phone stopped working and I phoned my mobile provider who stated that my phone had been cut off because my bill had exceeded £700. I have an eu data roaming cap of £40 but mobile company said this did not work as Italy did not 'register with their system as an eu country!' please help. holiday ruined and still have a sick child!!!

gjchester

Italia2012 wrote: »

Please advise: I'm on holiday in Italy and the hotel has free wifi. My daughter, who has taken ill, was watching a barbie film on YouTube and was connected to the wifi. Unfortunately connection failed and it connected to 3G, I did not know this. Yesterday morning my phone stopped working and I phoned my mobile provider who stated that my phone had been cut off because my bill had exceeded £700. I have an eu data roaming cap of £40 but mobile company said this did not work as Italy did not 'register with their system as an eu country!' please help. holiday ruined and still have a sick child!!!

Unfortuatly you will have to pay this, but hard as it seems try and forget this bill at the momentat the moment, turn the phone off, put it away and concentrate on your daughter.

When you get back and she's better call the telecom company, no EU country can "opt out" of the data cap, but depending on the mobile company if you took out a EU data bundle you may have opted out of the cap yourself.

Hard as it seems now, call the mobile compnay, explain what happened and see what they can do , they may reduce it or set up a payment plan, but at the end of the day you will need to pay for the data used, the question is can you get anything off for goodwill.

Hope your daughter gets better soon.

NFH

Which mobile network is it?

Do you have a data roaming bundle? For example, have you opted into a fixed daily charge for a daily allowance of roaming data?

zagfles

gjchester wrote: »

Unfortuatly you will have to pay this, but hard as it seems try and forget this bill at the momentat the moment, turn the phone off, put it away and concentrate on your daughter.

When you get back and she's better call the telecom company, no EU country can "opt out" of the data cap, but depending on the mobile company if you took out a EU data bundle you may have opted out of the cap yourself.

And if the OP didn't, then he doesn't have to the bill (above the cap).

If the mobile operator didn't apply the cap which they must by law, then that's their problem, not the OP's.

NFH

If your UK SIM card remains disconnected, get a local Italian SIM card, but make sure your phone isn't SIM-locked to your UK network. Plenty of advice at:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italy.php
and
http://prepaidwithdata.wikia.com/wiki/Italy

Guys_Dad

Have a look here http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/regulation/index_en.htm

As said above, as long as you didn't but a data bundle or sign for any special things like Vodafone passport options, then you are covered by the EU agreement.

You need to contact your provider and they need to tell you why they think the rules don't apply.

Guys_Dad

zagfles wrote: »

And if the OP didn't, then he doesn't have to the bill (above the cap).

If the mobile operator didn't apply the cap which they must by law, then that's their problem, not the OP's.

Regrettably, in this day and age, it is certainly the network's responsibility, but, as we have seen so many times on this forum, it remains the OP's problem till it is resolved! :beer:

But I agree with your general comment's sentiments.

Italia2012

Thanks for all your replies. I spoke to the network provider and with a lot of explanation resolved the matter and only had to pay my capped allowance of £40.