Heafty phone bill from Cruise ship network
The Wizard
Posts: 11,071 Forum Member
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Just got home to find I've been whacked with a £102 mobile bill after O2 sent me a text message saying I would be charged no more than 50p per hour for making calls whilst roaming.
Turns out when the ship is at sea my phone was automatically connecting to the ships on board maritime satellite network which costs a whopping £1.20 per minute. The network was called "On Waves" and according to their website I should have received a text message stating their on board charges but I didn't. All I got was a text from O2 saying while I was in Europe I would only be billed 50p for the first hour then normal UK rates thereafter. I did get a notification saying I was now connected to the Thomson Dream Network but just assumed as we were still in Europe standard roaming rates still applied.
Do I stand any chance of contesting my bill as I was not informed of such charges and none are listed on their website so no way to find out before making calls? My phone connects automatically so I was unaware that I was being billed at a higher rate.
Turns out when the ship is at sea my phone was automatically connecting to the ships on board maritime satellite network which costs a whopping £1.20 per minute. The network was called "On Waves" and according to their website I should have received a text message stating their on board charges but I didn't. All I got was a text from O2 saying while I was in Europe I would only be billed 50p for the first hour then normal UK rates thereafter. I did get a notification saying I was now connected to the Thomson Dream Network but just assumed as we were still in Europe standard roaming rates still applied.
Do I stand any chance of contesting my bill as I was not informed of such charges and none are listed on their website so no way to find out before making calls? My phone connects automatically so I was unaware that I was being billed at a higher rate.
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Comments
If you select show all countries it does list ships/ferries/airline networks.
Information is on the website, and you should never assume that you are been charged standard European rate on a cruise ship.
You can try and contest it, but I wouldn't have relied solely on a text from 02 with regards to rates, I would have taken my own responsibility, and only used the phone on land. Maybe not the reply you wanted...but sometimes we have to take our own responsibility rather than blame others.
The ship networks are their own thing and are charged differently. As previously mentioned, all details are on the O2 website.
I rang O2 before I went to ask about roaming charges and all they asked me was, "Are you staying within Europe?" Which of course I was. They never mentioned anything to me about cruise ships and how was I to know it was connecting to a satellite network when my phone connects automatically to the nearest available network without notifying me.
I think a bit more transparency is needed here. The link you provided just asks you to supply a country. It's only when you click on 'show all countries' then right down there at the bottom of the list it says ships/ferries/airplanes. They don't exactly go out of their way to make it clear. They asked me if I was staying in Europe and I was. I've never been on a ship before. I just assumed that whenever it was near land it was picking up the local network from shore. I had no idea it was picking up the ships satellite otherwise I wouldn't have made the calls. I rang for advice and even told the guy that I was going on a cruise because at the end of the call he said, 'enjoy your. cruise'. Surely they should have been advising me. correctly seeing as they know more than I do. Knowing I was going on a ship, why wasn't I offered a different calling plan?
Try calling O2 and see what they say, if the adviser on the phone gave bad advice and you make enough of a polite fuss, in writing, with all the details, they may knock some of the bill off as a gesture of goodwill.
Remember they are not legally entitled to, so be polite and hope for the best.
And it is a scam, the idea that "you should have checked" is nonsense. These companies (the cruise ship) know exactly what they are doing.
I quite agree, I am with the OP on this. There is just not enough transparency when it comes to phone costs. I consider myself pretty savvy on such things, but my friends and relatives haven't a clue. I just pointed out this morning that a work colleague of mine (I pay the bill) incurred a £15 charge on a single 0845 call from his mobile. He said "I thought 08 numbers were free, I deliberately didn't use the landline because I thought that would cost.
I've been on boats (Scandinavian Seaways from Harwich to Esbjerg) and I think that has one of those onboard phone networks. Bear in mind, for some of the journey you'll pick up signal from nearby land - such as the UK, Netherlands and Denmark - but then you'll also roam onto the ship system. That's where it's risky as you might have opted to enable roaming, but can't effectively bar one network over another.
The boat has free Wi-Fi, which didn't work all of the time, so it's funny that you can surf for nothing but be expected to pay a small fortune to make a call. I guess you could Skype, but it may or may not have been blocked.
Perfectly clear to me, but then again I did look, and read what it says, rather than expect it to jump out in front of me, so that is no excuse.
Though speaking to someone and been given bad information is something else, I hope you remembered the details and person you spoke to about this.
Without a call log it's pretty much my word against theirs and they say they can't find the call on their system even though I have it logged on my handset.
Have you tried the CAB to see if they can suggest anything?