A Scottish holidaymaker returned from his travels to find a bill from T-Mobile for £1,200, despite having not made one call from his iPhone while away.
Jeff Craw, 41, managed to run up the huge bill from his iPhone while using his hotel’s wireless internet system to view web pages and watch videos, according to a report in the Daily Record. The Scotsman didn’t realise his iPhone’s data roaming function kicked in once he left an area not covered by a wireless signal, despite regular horror stories in the press about holidaymakers running up eye watering bills while out of the country.
The cost the data he received while away is almost as much as the £1,500 he paid for his winter break to Thailand. Mr Craw said he can’t afford to pay the bill, despite T-Mobile offering a 25% discount as a gesture of goodwill.
Mr Craw’s tale serves as another in a long line of salutary stories which should be getting through to smartphone owners. Those that don’t want to be met by a huge bill after their adventures abroad should turn off their handset’s data roaming function before they leave the UK, whether they’re using an iPhone, BlackBerry, Samsung, or any other type of mobile.
New EU laws to cap the amount networks can charge for data roaming are due to be introduced over the summer months, which should go some way to reducing the number of phone users who are caught out in Europe. These changes would have had no impact on Mr Craw’s sorry situation though, as his bill was run up while outside of the EU. O2 customers benefit from an automatic cap of £40 on data downloaded abroad, a feature campaigners would like see rolled out by other providers.
Although roaming charges are viewed by many as extortionate, phone users receive regular warnings from consumer groups and phone networks themselves that they will be charged for downloading data abroad automatically if they fail to deactivate the data roaming function on their handsets. The method for doing so is usually very simple on most mobiles. Phone owners should check their smartphone’s user guide if they’re unsure how to turn off their data roaming function.
Ignorance is no excuse. While network’s will usually offer a discount when a bill like Mr Craw’s looks like it might be picked up by the press, the amount left to pay will still be substantial if large data roaming fees are built up.
Those who do want to use the internet on their iPhone while abroad should contact their network provider to ask about roaming charges and prepaid travel data allowances. Most UK phone networks offer add-ons that allow their customers a daily data allowance while out of the country. Failure to get on top of your data use when abroad can quickly cost you a small fortune, as Mr Craw and others will testify.
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January 21st, 2012 at 7:51 am
Besides the “Roaming” charges, also be aware of “Connection” charges. I was caught with that little twist in terminology.
Before I left on a trip, I asked my service provider “do you or your partners, associates, etc. charge Roaming fees”, “No” was the answer. The reason for my call, and I made this clear to the service provider, was that my cell phone (their brand) had no “manual” setting available for selection of the service provider, only “automatic”.
When my bill came the Roaming charges were zero. But there were plenty of “Connection Fees”, 5 Euros each. It seems that every time I went around a building corner (Inner City in Vienna, Austria), I lost connection to one service, and was connected to another service and charged for it.
Good thing I had called before my trip and, as we are told every time, the calls are now recorded, I was able to make a claim. First, I was told they had no control over what their partners do. Then I mentioned that it was their bill that they sent me, and it was their printer that printed “Connection Fee”, which tells me they do have control. Then I mentioned that they can choose to drop the charges as they are obviously Roaming charges, or they could attempt to convince a judge. I was told that as a one time service they would drop the charges.
I was/am happy, but I now know to take another “manual” enabled cell phone (handy), which is set to “manual”, when I make trips out of my area.
Once I am in the destination area I find out what the most prominent service provider is, and set my cell phone to that service provider. I am happy to report that I have had no more connection fees problems since then.
Surprisingly enough, I have also had no connection fees charged to my bill whenever I reconnected to another service provider in another city.
One more trick. When in a relatively small country, I do research for service providers that cover the whole country, and then, if possible, use that service provider. So far it seems to have worked.
Good luck, and don’t tempt the billing gods.
January 23rd, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Thanks for the additional info Strauss, there are some great tips there for people traveling abroad!