Since I connect mine to wifi at home and at work the only date I use is inbetween and when out and about, I've used 1.4GB in a year.

There would be no reason whatsoever to tell O2 that he was using his standard SIM in a different phone. So long as the phone meets GSM/3G standards O2 don't care what handset you are using for a regular tariff.


I think the person the OP spoke to was pretty clueless to be honest. Talking about having to use a special SIM (complete nonsense) and thinking that he was trying to trick them - which again is patently not the case. I believe that O2 do care which SIM the phone is in if you have an iPhone tariff (something to do with the agreement with Apple I think), but as this wasn't an iPhone tariff this isn't really relevent.

Clearly the OP should have checked what the data charges on his tariff would be - and also quite how much data he would be using on the iPhone (obviously wasn't just checking emails and light surfing if iTunes was involved). That said, I think O2 should be willing to be reasonable about this as the charges are clearly extremely high. I would try calling back and hoping to get a more co-operative CSR. Try to remain calm and reasonable though - carefully explain the situation and simply ask if there is something they would be prepared to do. If it's something they can't do then ask to be passed to the next tier of support as they may have the authority to do so. If all else fails then perhaps a chat with citizen's advice bureau would be beneficial.

At the end of the day though - make sure you know what you are going to be charged before you start using the services!

if data roaming is set to on on the iphone (check settings --> general --> network) this would be a contributing factor.

on a side note your story is not that surprising really, I work on a mobile phone desk ordering phones from O2 and many a time I've had people ringing up with no data package complaining why there bill is so high and turns out that they had been using an iPhone and not bothered to tell us to get them data on their phone, one person was downloading all kinds off iTunes and app store they racked up about £600 in data charges.

unfortunately you will just have to fork up the money as you cannot complain to O2 and get a refund cause it was your own fault.

The Data Roaming toggle is only relevent if the phone is being used abroad - but from what the OP has said that doesn't appear to be the case.

Edit: OK I just saw that the OP has his location set to Texas - is that actually where he was using the thing?! If that is the case then no wonder the charges are so high! Even being on an unlimited tariff wouldn't have helped as it is only unlimited when using it in the UK.

OP - where are you? if your in the UK and used a UK O2 pay monthly sim then can I ask, when was the last time you upgraded? If it was after the start of 2008 then you SHOULD be on a capped daily rate of a maximum 98p per day for data.

http://www.o2.co.uk/support/broadban...o2active/costs

This only applies to contracts taken out or upgraded since the start of 2008 and for data usage within the UK using the O2 network tho.

also, I assume you changed the iphone data network settings to get online? What did you change them to as you may have accidently changed them to the incorrect settings (PAYG instead of PAy monthly for example).

Thats what they tried to say too. I still dont see what business it is of theirs what handset I used. Now say I was with Orange and used an unlocked IPhone, they may have a point, but I just moved my Sim from one phone to another, like I have done countless times. It just happened to be an IPhone this time.



I dunno... Customer service? Unusual usage? Yes my friend knew, but it doesnt affect them its my O2 account that has been charged, not theirs.



Yes I was only joking about the stolen thing. Thats illegal.

Thats what Im going to try today. Wish me luck!

No. Apparantly Im pretty stupid. But Im not that stupid. Phone was used on a trip home.

well in this case it is important as if they knew you were using an iPhone they would of checked if you had a data package and would of offered you the data and you wouldn't of had an £800 bill

An iPhone that you didn't own. If you hadn't used your own sim, they'd not have been able to bill you. However, as you used your own sim in someone else's phone, they were quite happy to let you rack up a bill (size to be determined at a later date) because they had a way of charging you. When I went overseas earlier this year, I wanted to use a different phone out there - I rang T-mobile to check it was OK to do that, & was told it was fine as both phones were in my name & were already registered with them. However, I was also told that had I not rung & had just gone ahead with it, they'd have blocked my calls until I confirmed it was me using the phone & not someone else. If I'd used someone else's phone, they'd have charged me for it because I was using a phone that wasn't part of my contract, wasn't registered to me & didn't have me as an authorised user.


Which is why O2 let you carry on. Look on the bright side - at least you only did this for a week.

I think O2 are pulling a fast one. I remember a few years back when I signed up for a contract with O2 for a Mio A501 (Windows Mobile)

Luckily I checked before I listened to Internet Radio, even on the lowest bitrate it would have cost me an absolute fortune. Try emailing the chief executive Peter Erskine (was in 2006 anyway)

Or Customer relations...

Katie Halstead

O2 Customer Relations Executive

Email: katie.halstead@o2.com

Tel: 0845 3300684

Fax: 0113 3881153

again from 2006

I have been using my 3 sim in my Iphone for a month now, with no problems. They charge a fiver a month for unlimited net usage, so I may look to renew with them if all goes OK for the next few months until my contract expires in December (this was an Nokia N95 originally)

I don't know what o2 are doing, living in the 1990's, £3 per MB is ridiculous

To be fair, this is an old tariff that has been replaced at least 2 years ago.

Well, obviously in this case. But as I had had no issues through countless other handset changes, I assumed this would be the same.

Well, I would have rather they blocked it and assumed it was stolen and then Id have to call and they would have warned me!

Of course you would, but that's because you're soon to be out of pocket to the tune of some £800. Someone who was using their own phone but not the one registered with 02 or was using someone else's phone with their permission may not be quite so understanding, especially if they were needing to use the phone in an emergency. I would have been livid if I'd had my access blocked, even more so if I couldn't get it unblocked for several hours. From 02's perspective, it's better to let someone use the phone & possibly run up a bill than to regularly cheese off lots of customers using their own phone & lose their business. It's also a lot less work for 02.

Part of the problem has arisen because the amount of use you made of the phone. If you'd just used it a few times, you wouldn't have got such a huge bill & you wouldn't be complaining now. Maybe you wouldn't be complaining if you were a multi-millionaire & that was less than you normally spend. You can keep saying they should have blocked you, they could have contacted you etc, but "shoulda woulda coulda" probably won't get you out of this mess, because it equally apply to you, perhaps more so.

Whats with everyone saying he shouldn't of called O2 before putting his sim in??

Im sure most people here who had those old phones (3310, 3210 etc etc) all rang up their networks the minute they got one of the funky 3G phones when they came out. Remember the manuals all saying 'You need to call your network provider to activate 3G' because 2G and 3G are diffferent.

The iPhone runs different to other phones on the market as im sure your all aware from the fact O2 sell specific plans just for the iPhone. If their other plans worked for the iPhone then people wouldn't complain about the iPhone so much :P

Im not having a go at the OP but i went on holiday last year and i got back and turns out i made £180 worth of calls back to the UK while i was there (usual plan was £20 a month). Long story short, i didn't complain and paid it off because it was my fault and i took the blame. I havn't made the same mistake the 2 following times i gone to the states, learn your lesson OP and cough up :P. You can't use something then expect O2 to turn around and go 'Oh you didn't know you used it? thats fine, we'll just wipe off the debt' :P

You should never ASSUME as it makes an ASS out of U and ME.

You've no defence, and I'm afraid, no sympathy here. Cough up.

Reading this thread makes me soo happy I am on PAYG. When I bought my Nokia 5800 last Sunday I had no data tariff on it, ok it's not the iphone. I wanted to try the internet out on it but I also had something in my head saying, test for a few minutes only. I think I was on it for about 2 minutes and it cost me about 85p. The point I am trying to make is if I didn't know anything about sim cards, internet, o2 charges, it was ONLY going to cost me £15 that I put on. I used to have a contract phone but never again.

PAYG is a very good deal for the iPhone, particularly if you mainly use it for texts. If you don't make a lot of calls you only need to top-up £10 per month, which makes it a lot cheaper than doing the same thing on contract.

Well I've pretty much always just had contract phones, and usually when I changed handset it was due to an upgrade - so the operator implicitly knew that I was getting a new handset. There have been occasions when I have used my SIM in a different handset though and never have I been required to tell my operator that I was doing so - they simply don't care! Besides which, your network know when you change handset anyway as whenever your phone connects to the network it registers the IMEI of the handset along with the SIM number anyway. The only time a network will care if you are using a SIM in a different device is if it will have an undue effect on their network (e.g. using an iPhone tariff SIM with its unlimited data in a 3G dongle for browsing / downloading with a laptop - as this will cause much higher data usage than an iPhone could ever manage and would be against the Fair Usage Policy).

Moving from 2G to 3G handsets is slightly different as in theory you ought to have a different SIM (technically called a USIM) for a 3G handset - however in reality most 3G phones will work absolutely fine with a regular GSM SIM as the standard is backwards compatible. Notifying your operator when going from 2G to 3G is generally so they know to enable video calling for that phone number.


The iPhone is no different from any other 3G phone in terms of how it operates on the network - it's still basically just a 3G phone (or a 2G phone if it's the original iPhone). The only slight variation from standard operation is visual voicemail, and that is hardly a must - it will happily revert to standard voicemail if visual voicemail isn't available (O2 PAYG iPhones don't get it anyway, and O2 are quite happy for you to use an iPhone on a non-iPhone tariff - they even have a page on their website to explain what data settings you need to change if doing so).

The reason there is a specific iPhone tariff is because originally Apple got a share of the line rental (not sure if they still do), and also because it includes the specific iPhone unlimited data & wifi, along with support for visual voicemail.

My better half is using my old 2G iphone with a Simplicity SIM+Data bolt on for ages now and has no problem. Seems the iPhone will take any O2 SIM but without the data bolt it would be extremely expensive. However 800 quid is practically unbelievable unless:

A) you were abroad and roaming
B) have a jail-broken iPhone and were tethering your laptop to it
C) you were streaming audio+video to your phone over the cellular network practically constantly 24/7

As you say it is your own fault for putting your SIM in the phone. But hopefully they can find a resolution, or at the very least they can tell you why the charges are so high. I would be interested to hear of the outcome.

I have been following this thread with some interest but haven't commented until now.
I actually have some sympathy with the OP. Some time ago my granddaughter ran up a bill for £200 on a phone of mine that was on a £15 tariff and had never once gone over the monthly minutes quota (it was a phone that I had stopped using and was waiting for the contract to run out). Just like most comments on here, I didn't have a leg to stand on, just paid up. However, it seems to me that there is a certain amount of cynicism being displayed by the network operators with this sort of thing. It would not be difficult to send a text message at pre-determined levels of charges e.g. a fixed amount (set by the user) of say £50, or when this month's spend reaches 4 times the average monthly spend over the last year. This would be trivial to program into their software. However it is not in their interest. But it would completely eliminate the exceptional (and I agree, outrageous) one off charges like the £800 of the OP.

If that was the true cost, then I would hold my hands up and (ruefully) pay the costs.

But the fact that for 7.50 a month they would write off all those charges is what is particularly galling.

In business its never a good idea for someone to feel like they have been screwed over, because tehy wont deal with you again. The best relationships come when both parties feel like they are getting added value.

In the grand scheme of things 800 quid isnt a lot of money, to me (in teh grand scheme of things, mind. It still hurts) or to O2. But its especially not a lot of money when you consider another 10,20, or whatever years of service with a company paying a monthly charge.

A couple of suggestions. First have a few words with Trading Standards and put your "complaint" to O2 in writing. In a worst case scenario take it through the Small Claims Court, either they claim it off you or you pay under duress and claim it back.

I an no legal expert but I reckon that the word "reasonable" in relation to the charges and the fact that you were not alerted to excessive use may carry some weight.

Make a fight of it!