O2 text charges abroad

Geeandtee

Used texts whilst in egypt as free wifi wouldn't work. Automated O2 message received stated 40p per text. Which we worked out at about £30 for the texts sent. Bill for over £130 and 200 texts . We sent around 75 texts. They are now saying each text was 160 characters, but no reference to this or terms and conditions in the automated text we received. Have we got a leg to stand on as they have refused to cancel the excessive bill.

grumbler

Do you know what SMS stands for?

ste_wilko

If each of the texts you sent was 160 characters then you actually were sending 2 texts at a time, not 1

visidigi

Geeandtee wrote: »

Used texts whilst in egypt as free wifi wouldn't work. Automated O2 message received stated 40p per text. Which we worked out at about £30 for the texts sent. Bill for over £130 and 200 texts . We sent around 75 texts. They are now saying each text was 160 characters, but no reference to this or terms and conditions in the automated text we received. Have we got a leg to stand on as they have refused to cancel the excessive bill.

You don't have a leg to stand on.

And its not excessive. Its the price you were told it would be.

MataNui

You should think yourself lucky. Some phones automatically convert multiple texts to mms. That would have cost you a lot more.

afzaal1988

I m not sure if you sent all text at 160 or not, but up to 160 characters is counted as 1 sms.
So if you sent only 75 than check itemised billing to see at what time they show the rest of 125 messages.
It maybe possible that you didn't keep track of all the messages and have actually sent 200 messages or had more than 160 characters in each message you sent. if that what happened than unfortunately its not network fault. I still remeber old phones use to limit it to 160 or as soon as you went over 160 characters phone would show that you are sending 2 texts. But new phone these days dont do that.

afzaal1988

grumbler wrote: »

Do you know what SMS stands for?

I m going to help the op. Short Message Service

[Deleted User]

If your phone is a Samsung check the sending options when composing the message - click OPTIONS, SENDING OPTIONS, CHARACTER SUPPORT and check whether it's set to Auto or Unicode - it should be set to Auto or GSM alphabet because Unicode gives you less characters per text than the other two settings and does result in higher text charges.
If your phone is normally on a contract this problem wouldn't show up at home as most people never use all their text allowance.