Writing off a roaming bill of €1,500

A reader, who prefers to remain anonymous, contacted us with a story which highlights how quickly roaming charges can mount up and the value of digging your heels in when dealing with mobile operators.

Last month he was hit with a charge of over €1,500 for data roaming, which was incurred, he accepts, as a result of an error on his part.

While he was able to resolve the matter without our help, he still thinks it is worth highlighting the way his provider, O2, handled his case. Last month he went on holidays – he does not say to where – and before going he bought a €50 data bundle which gave him an additional 500MB of downloads to add to his monthly plan. “I had been stung before so I was watching my usage carefully,” he writes.

While away he downloaded two films on his iPad using the hotel wireless. A day later he discovered that the hotel wireless had been interrupted during the download and that the films had downloaded over his mobile phone network. He phoned O2 to report the error and was told there was no excess data usage showing on the account.

When he got home the company phoned regarding his usage and when he checked his bill it turned out that this single incident “led to a roaming data download of 5GB, billed at €1,481.70 ex-VAT.

“After several calls, O2 offered me first a 70 per cent discount and then, when speaking to a supervisor, an 80 per cent reduction in the bill. After each offer, I asked for the matter to be escalated. I was consistently assured that this would not lead to a better offer. I escalated the matter as far as the call centre manager and the charge was written off.”

He has a number of gripes. He thinks data roaming charges should be immediately capped and he says his “multi-level engagement with O2 on this matter seemed designed to extract the maximum amount of cash by encouraging me to “settle”. I also understand that the charges bear little relation to the cost of providing the service. This is also egregious and leads me to further question the lack of regulation.”

Crackers pricing for Tuc

A reader called Ali describes herself as a total sceptic when it comes to the food industry.

“I don’t believe their claims and I think they try every devious little trick in the book to make you believe that they offer you value for money when they don’t,” she writes.

“Sound cracked? Take this little example, courtesy of the nice people who make Tuc crackers,” she continues. She says that for a while the company was running a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on twin-packs – a favourite of many a child’s lunchbox. “They’ve kept the same twin-pack but now labelled it as ‘great value’. So that’s €3.69 for 300g or €12.30 per kg according to the tiny print on the shelf label in my local Dunnes Stores last week. And the standard, 150g single packet of Tuc? €1.69 or €11.27 per kg. So that’s €1 cheaper per kg. I wouldn’t classify their twin pack as ‘great value’. So how can they? I’m voting with my wallet and not buying their products any more.”

Sky gets a thumbs up for its great customer service

We sometimes complain about bad customer service in this column (okay we almost always complain). So whenever we get a good news story we like to give it a mention, particularly when it involves companies that more frequently feature here for all the wrong reasons as it shows that they are not always bad.

Miriam Fitzgibbon telephoned Sky about a problem with her television reception last week. “I spoke to a gentleman called Barry who assured me it would be fixed the following day,” she writes. And was it?

“I would like to tell you that everything was sorted by 1.30pm the next day. Well done to Sky.”

Well done indeed.