Huge bill on O2 - unknowingly downloading data

Culzean

Has anyone else had this issue and were they successful in pleading?

I have a Samsung smart phone but don't use it for anything other than calls and texts. Being "semi retired" I don't need access to the internet 24x7 and have never downloaded an app.

I have been with O2 since the very beginning, at least 15 years, and my bills are a constant £20 monthly plus or minus pennies.

I hadn't received a bill this month and was doing my finances today so looked at the bank account and was horrified to see that a DD had been paid to O2 for £280. I quickly called O2 and they said it was data charges ... I explained I didn't use data but they said it was 100% correct and moreover this month another £350 (up till now) was going to be charged. To cut a long story short I spent an hour on the call pleading with them but with no success.

I have had them bar me from data. I called Samsung and they went through a process that means I can no longer get data. I'm not one for "playing" with my phone and don't have kids here that might so I can't imagine what has happened. Perhaps I had inadvertently changed a setting, I don't know

I have to believe that O2 will have some empathy particularly as I have had no bill nor any alert to say my usage was 50 times higher than the norm (indeed more as I've never used data)

Perhaps I just need to chuck the phone and go back to a Nokia old style but it doesn't really help me with a £600+ bill so if anyone has had a similar experience and been able to successfully plea then I would be delighted to hear

rmas21920

That is very odd as O2 don't charge for going over data allowances on their current packages. If you reach your data limit your service is stopped until your next billing date. If you are on a package without data, they charge £1 per day which would only equate to £30.

Have you tried logging into myo2 on their website you'll be able to see a break down of the charges for the last bill and what had been charged on this one.

Culzean

rmas21920 wrote: »

That is very odd as O2 don't charge for going over data allowances on their current packages. If you reach your data limit your service is stopped until your next billing date. If you are on a package without data, they charge £1 per day which would only equate to £30.

Have you tried logging into myo2 on their website you'll be able to see a break down of the charges for the last bill and what had been charged on this one.

Thanks for replying

I dont use/have never used data and I have a SIM only contract for 300 minutes and 300 texts or something like that.

I have just gone to my O2 and it's all a bit alien to me but basically the invoice is showing numerous downloads at various times of the day (and night!!, such as 03.00, 04.14 etc) and the number/description column on all of them says mobile.O2.co.uk

JJ_Egan

Mobile Data is on unless you turn it of on most Samsung phones .
Apps may update in the background and the phone may sync content or backups .But your data charges are rather a lot for that .
Mobile Data should be shown as an icon at the top of the screen if you swipe down Green = data on grey = data off .

Culzean

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Mobile Data is on unless you turn it of on most Samsung phones .
Apps may update in the background and the phone may sync content or backups .But your data charges are rather a lot for that .
Mobile Data should be shown as an icon at the top of the screen if you swipe down Green = data on grey = data off .

I've had the phone since December and not had any of this.

I "panicked" after getting off the phone to O2 and went in and pretty well shut everything down that had a check mark next to it.

The only icon I've seen that I didn't understand was a couple of arrows at 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock (one up and one down) on top left of screen that are no longer there. I went to Samsung user manual but of all the icons they showed this one wasn't there??? It definitely wasn't the directly up/down arrows

grumbler

Two arrows mean mobile data enabled.

Ask O2 for full explanation. For their contracts mobile data ("UK browsing") outside allowances costs £1/day apparently: What are my additional charges?

Culzean

grumbler wrote: »

Two arrows mean mobile data enabled.

Ask O2 for full explanation. For their contracts mobile data ("UK browsing") outside allowances costs £1/day apparently: What are my additional charges?

Have just got off after 25 minutes! They say they cannot tell me where the data was downloaded from and the ridiculous times of day on MyO2 invoice aren't the times the downloads were necessarily occurring but just the time the systems were updating

I asked about a Data usage limit and was told that because my SIM only was before xx/12 then there were no limits

She said they wrote to me in December saying paper billing would be stopping ... but if I want it on again it would be £2.50 a month

I can't deny I shouted at the lady!

Didn't get as far as saying that they should have let me know that my spending was going crazy

rmas21920

Culzean wrote: »

Thanks for replying

I dont use/have never used data and I have a SIM only contract for 300 minutes and 300 texts or something like that.

I have just gone to my O2 and it's all a bit alien to me but basically the invoice is showing numerous downloads at various times of the day (and night!!, such as 03.00, 04.14 etc) and the number/description column on all of them says mobile.O2.co.uk

The times shown are when the billing system has picked up the usage, not necessarily when it was actually used.

How long have you had the sim only package the only thing I can think of is that you are on a package that pre-dates the £1 per day cap.

If that is the case I would call back to o2 and ask to speak to a supervisor to see whether you can switch to a data inclusive package.

rmas21920

Culzean wrote: »

Have just got off after 25 minutes! They say they cannot tell me where the data was downloaded from and the ridiculous times of day on MyO2 invoice aren't the times the downloads were necessarily occurring but just the time the systems were updating

I asked about a Data usage limit and was told that because my SIM only was before xx/12 then there were no limits

She said they wrote to me in December saying paper billing would be stopping ... but if I want it on again it would be £2.50 a month

I can't deny I shouted at the lady!

Didn't get as far as saying that they should have let me know that my spending was going crazy

Try emailing o2complaintreviewservice@o2.com use the argument that the cost incurred is massively out of line with charges customers pay now for data and that had you been on a current package the charges would only have been a fraction (£30) of what you were charged.

As for what the data was used on, the billing platform can't tell that. It's likely that data has been turned off on the handset previously and has become active somehow, this can sometimes happen if the phone is reset or the battery is removed.

Do you have a weather feed on the phone maybe this is what has used it.

Techhead_2

grumbler wrote: »

Two arrows mean mobile data enabled.

Ask O2 for full explanation. For their contracts mobile data ("UK browsing") outside allowances costs £1/day apparently: What are my additional charges?

The OP is getting 300 minutes and 300 texts for about £20 on SIM only

This tells us a few things.

Its going to be a quite old tariff, so data could be £3.50 per megabyte.
The OP must have purchased the phone separately.

I am afraid this is a case of someone not realising that smart phones will use data, that the tariff is inappropriate and not realising that it would be expensive. Also not realising that mobile networks will not nanny us, they expect us to understand what we do.


To the OP, I think you need to take a more level headed approach with O2. You are going to need them to make some sort of goodwill gesture. shouting down the phone and expecting them to police your usage is unlikely to motivate them to help you.

Culzean

Techhead wrote: »

The OP is getting 300 minutes and 300 texts for about £20 on SIM only

This tells us a few things.

Its going to be a quite old tariff, so data could be £3.50 per megabyte.
The OP must have purchased the phone separately.

I am afraid this is a case of someone not realising that smart phones will use data, that the tariff is inappropriate and not realising that it would be expensive. Also not realising that mobile networks will not nanny us, they expect us to understand what we do.


To the OP, I think you need to take a more level headed approach with O2. You are going to need them to make some sort of goodwill gesture. shouting down the phone and expecting them to police your usage is unlikely to motivate them to help you.

You're right on pretty well every count there .. particularly shouting at the lady at O2 ... but having spent the best part of 3 hours today on the phone to O2 and Samsung then her "couldn't really care less, it's your fault" attitude finally got to me.

I'm no technophobe but I certainly didn't understand at all the issues of data, as I don't need to having never used it, or had any intention to. Whatever has happened (and perhaps as suggested the battery coming out) something unbeknown to me has triggered it.

There is a weather icon (accuweather) but I think it was pre installed and would have been there forever

What is really getting to me (apart from £600) is the fact that O2 have turned paper billing off (apparently I was notified) but I get no advice saying my paperless billing is ready or here's a summary of charges and neither have they any alert system that recognises out of pattern activity. It's not rocket science but the lady I shouted at was happy to say "we can't sit here watching everyone's account"

I've written a letter to the CEO of O2. I'm sure he won't get to see it but hopefully someone with a sense of understanding will. If not then I'll try OFCOM as I've come across a report of theirs from over 2 years ago where they say they are going to ensure mobile operators warn customers about potentially unexpectedly high bills ... clearly something that never got beyond a nice looking report!