Data roaming cap exceeded Talk mobile

NFH

buscape wrote: »

It's worse than that, 1GB is 1024MB so they're charging £7680 and Orange are charging £8192 per gigabyte. Ridiculous.

No, the 1024^3 definition of a gigabyte is largely confined to RAM. When referring to data transmission (i.e. the topic in question), the metric 10^9 definition is used. Wikipedia has a good explanation at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte

NFH

Bailes550 wrote: »

The data roaming charges for Turkey are £7.50 per megabyte these are set by the network.

Who is "the network"? They can't mean the Turkish network because they wouldn't set their wholesale charges in GBP, more likely in TRY or possibly EUR or USD. Do they mean Vodafone, on whose network Talkmobile SIM cards operate while in the UK? If so, Vodafone charges its own customers £5/day for 25MB/day for data roaming outside the EEA. I would be surprised if Vodafone's wholesale charge to Talkmobile exceeded Vodafone's retail charge to its own customers. I think you should ask more questions.

buscape

Fair enough, I stand corrected.

uk2012

Bailes550 wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone else has come across this issue.

Just come back from Turkey, 1st day arrived turned my phone on, and forgot to turn data off, text recieved saying £44 limit has been hit and you will be charged, fair enough my fault.

But on coming home, ive checked my bill and i owe £113 of data charges, on calling them, they said they couldnt put the cap in fast enough, as alot of date was consumed within a 20 minute spell and ive got to pay it and theres nothing they can do. Im thinking isnt the cap rubbish if thats the case :S

Now i dunno if this is just BS their spouting, but has anyone else had something similar to this. Not to even recieve a text or any notification to tell me this was the case, i find a bit harsh to say the least. Looking over the forums, it sound like i got off lightly with some of the bills being wracked up.

how you get on in the end?I got the same when home from turkey £132.00 inc vat. rang them up not nice customer care at all, just wanted me to pay so could get phone back on .asked for PAC code ,going else where.

helpthejuggler

I've just stumbled across this old thread which didn't seem to have a conclusion and have just encountered a similar problem with Talkmobile.

We had a recent trip to Guernsey and despite having Data Roaming turned off (Android, so not the iPhone bug). This setting had worked in Belgium 2 days earlier, we were surprised to see a data connection. So turned off mobile data but there was no indication of roaming on the channel island network (JT I think). Suspected we were not actually roaming. Maybe it doesn't work as we share the same international dialing codes.

After returning TM hit us with a £350 bill for data over a very short time window of about 1hr. I started a complaint with TM and after 3 weeks they concluded that the charges stand as the Channel Islands are out of the EU (£7.50/mb).

After checking that they had not made a mistake (and during these 3 weeks I have spoken with 4 of their reps, none of whom spotted their error) I said...

We had followed the steps given and stated by OFCOM on their website to avoid roaming charges. See...

consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/03/check-your-phone-before-you-roam/

With further reference to the same OFCOM website, it clarifies

All mobile operators have to apply a cut-off limit once you have used €50 (excluding VAT) – around £40 – of data per month, wherever you travel in the world unless you choose to opt out.

If you don’t opt out of the limit, the provider must send you an alert when you reach 80% and then 100% of the agreed data roaming limit. Operators must stop charging for data at the 100% point, unless you agree to continue to use data.

We followed advice to turn off data roaming
No welcome message was sent to outline that charges
The Guernsey network did not indicate as a roaming network.
There was no 80% alert as required by OFCOM
There was no 100% alert as required by OFCOM.
TalkMobile did not stop charging for data at 100% as required by OFCOM

It went quiet for a while.....
They said the cap could not be applied because the data had been used very quickly.

I said OFCOM say you must, and it is not my problem.
He checked again and came back to say the charges would be covered.

I am now writing to them to complain about the way my original complaint was handled, mis-judged and they have been ignoring OFCOM. I'm hoping to make a later complaint to OFCOM once I have their response.

It is clear they are not training their staff or purposely ignoring the rules. I also want compensating for my phone time and research doing their jobs for them.

The short story from this is...... don't let TalkMobile bul!$h!t you.

NFH

Apparently some phones will not perceive a Channel Islands network as "roaming" because the networks there share the same Mobile Country Code (234) as UK networks. Therefore turning off data roaming has no effect.

grumbler

helpthejuggler wrote: »

...
consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/03/check-your-phone-before-you-roam/

With further reference to the same OFCOM website, it clarifies

All mobile operators have to apply a cut-off limit once you have used €50 (excluding VAT) – around £40 – of data per month, wherever you travel in the world unless you choose to opt out.

If you don’t opt out of the limit, the provider must send you an alert when you reach 80% and then 100% of the agreed data roaming limit. Operators must stop charging for data at the 100% point, unless you agree to continue to use data....

To be honest, it's the first time I hear about this. And Ofcom is notorious for issuing ambiguous regulation that they are incapable of enforcing.

helpthejuggler

As this is MSE and Ofcom advice which looks to be incorrect maybe we can highlight the error to the MSE team somehow.

Ofcom may have their faults, but If it had gone to the ombudsman the guidance is there so I was on solid ground.

How Ofcom deal with TM ignoring them is another matter.

grumbler

I think "MSE team" don't care, but I think it's worth starting a new thread on this as many people ignore resurrected old threads.