MSE News: O2 charges holidaymaker 100 times more than promised for US roaming calls 11 December 2017 at 5:29PM in Mobiles 13 replies 2.3K views

MSE_Luke

A MoneySaver has won an apology, refund and compensation from mobile phone firm O2...

Read the full story:
'O2 charges holidaymaker 100 times more than promised for US roaming calls'

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RedDwarf82

I am so freaking exhausted of having to argue these things with all kind of companies.

This was a genuine mistake

Sure, the text message was a genuine mistake. We all make mistakes. But the fact this needed to reach the Ombudsman is mind-blowing.

aj23_2

o2 charged me for data usage in Albania even though I had my phone on Flight Mode and only used Wi-Fi because it's not in their EU zone. I asked them to show me what I had done and used, and they couldn't, so I said refund me and they did.

boatman

He must have known it wasn't 0.99p, just trying it on.

Kind of have some sympathy with O2, but what they should have done was refunded him, said thank you for pointing it out and quietly changed it to the correct £0.99 or 99p, not the clearly wrong price of less than 1p.

Ian011

"Calls ... cost ... 0.99p a minute to UK landlines" ... so under 1 penny per minute to make a call ... Actual cost: 99p per minute.

"Receiving a call will cost 0.99p per minute" ... so under 1 penny per minute to receive a call ... Actual cost: 99p per minute.

"Texts back to the Uk cost 0.49p per message" ... so under half a penny per message ... Actual cost: 49p per message.

So, it turns out that of the five prices in the text message three of them were incorrect.

Li0nhead

boatman wrote: »

He must have known it wasn't 0.99p, just trying it on.

Kind of have some sympathy with O2, but what they should have done was refunded him, said thank you for pointing it out and quietly changed it to the correct £0.99 or 99p, not the clearly wrong price of less than 1p.

If you get a legitimate message from a company with an offer to you and you choose to use that service you expect it at that price.

boatman

Li0nhead wrote: »

If you get a legitimate message from a company with an offer to you and you choose to use that service you expect it at that price.

Oh no, I've deleted that PPI message, I knew I should have claimed the £10,000.

boatman

Ian011 wrote: »

"Calls ... cost ... 0.99p a minute to UK landlines" ... so under 1 penny per minute to make a call ... Actual cost: 99p per minute.

"Receiving a call will cost 0.99p per minute" ... so under 1 penny per minute to receive a call ... Actual cost: 99p per minute.

"Texts back to the Uk cost 0.49p per message" ... so under half a penny per message ... Actual cost: 49p per message.

So, it turns out that of the five prices in the text message three of them were incorrect.

They most definitely got it wrong, as Lionhead says, on the whole you would expect to be able to trust a text from O2.
But I can't help feeling that the customer probably knew it was wrong but took it further only to prove a point, there are probably a hundred different things that the mobile companies do that I would love to see challenged, but I'm not sure this is one of them.

phillw

Li0nhead wrote: »

If you get a legitimate message from a company with an offer to you and you choose to use that service you expect it at that price.

It all comes down to whether he knew it was a mistake.

I don't see why I should subsidise someone when they milk a company when they spot a mistake.

o2 charge 5p/minute within the uk on pay as you go, 0.99p/minute is an obvious mistake.

mobilejunkie

I'd milk it. Companies do plenty of things to trick their customers so where an offer is in writing and provable they should be liable to honour it. Not my problem what other customers do - I already cost them a fortune since I make a profit on all my contracts and those who choose not to and often pay large sums for what they get have the same choices I do.

It's quite amazing that a good news story of a customer who was mislead, in writing, complained and successsfully took it the the Ombudsman (who usually protect the networks rather than the consumer in my experience), wins in full then becomes the villain on here with MSE users. It says far more about them than the victim.

boatman

mobilejunkie wrote: »

I'd milk it.

Do you really want to stoop to their level...?

They definitely deserve it, of that there is no doubt.