o2 sneaky international text charges

HelterSkelter

I have been using the O2 Text 200 Bundle option for about 1 year now and it has always included International Texts. Each text works out at 7.5c each, a good deal! I send a lot of texts to the UK so it has saved me quite a bit. But today I noticed they have been charging me 25c per international text. So I phoned up and they tell me that international texts are not included in text bundles anymore. The thing is they didn't even notify me. They said a "curtosy text" was send to customes to inform then but I never got one. My contract says I have to be notifed in advance of any changes in charges. On top of that the supervisor I was speaking to said that the international texts were never supposed to be included in the text bundle and it was a mistake in the billing system that they were. She said I was just lucky I was not charged for them up until now. She seems to think I should be greatful even though they advertised them as being included in the package. I remember reading on the website when I signed up that international texts were included for a promotional period (I think I have a screenshot of the web page at home somewhere).

So the question is do I have a leg to stand on? I told them I want a refund for all the 25c international texts they have charged me to date. The supervisor doesn't agree though! I think this is a low move by O2, the least they could have done was write to each customer. If I had known in advance I would have cut back sending international texts.

Stello

I'm only just after using my first monthly bundle (I got 100 messages, and I've two left now - going for 200 next month), and I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that international texts were included. I hadn't expected them to be, which is why I only got 100 bundle in the first place - I mainly text with my mam who's in Finland, so I thought the 100 bundle would do me for all other texts. But having been checking my (Speak easy) balance and the amount of remaining bundle messages, I've noticed that those international texts have been taken from the bundle, and not from my balance, which suited me just fine!

I happened to notice this topic earlier on today (I was looking to see if any others had problems with O2 as my phone couldn't send/receive anything for about 24 hours - that's been sorted now), and now that my phone works again, I sent a few texts to my mam, and now it's charging my balance, yet the last two bundle messages are still available as I haven't yet sent local texts today

Very disappointing! It would have saved me a fortune if international texts would have stayed included in the bundle..

FX Meister

I got a text from them a few weeks ago saying that international texts would no longer be a part ot text bundles.

JTMan

There were advertised as been included in the bundles at the start .. Good old fat margin O2 Ireland have taken them out ... If you do a lot of international texting then it is worth consideration that Meteor are 40% cheaper for international texts and about 60% cheaper for international calls.

Stello

Fungus wrote:

If you do a lot of international texting then it is worth consideration that Meteor are 40% cheaper for international texts and about 60% cheaper for international calls.

Cheers, I'll keep that in mind.. (There's still 2 x €10 monthly O2 credit coming my way, so I'll be using that first, anyway)

lomb

the best thing to do is buy an o2 speakeasy sim card and a cheap phone and post it to ur friend there then shel b roaming and wont cost anything to recieve the txts and wont cost anything for u to send them over and above an irish txt

monkeyfudge

This is annoying. And I haven't recieved any notification.

Did you know that the International Caller bolt on only includes a handful of European countries? They didn't tell me this when they called me up and sold the package to me... I subsequently ran up quite a large phone bill on calls I believed should have been half price.

I took a good bit of arguing.. but I did get the difference back.

HelterSkelter

They were denying outright that they ever offered International Texts as part of the bundle to me (this was a supervisor I was talking to). I definitely remembered it saying so on the web site. Anyway I logged on to My Account to remove the bundle from my account as I don't need it anymore, and guess what I found!!!...and I quote "If you buy your texts in bundles, you now only pay 7.5c regardless of who you are texting. The only exceptions are roaming, premium and international texts*. (*For a promotional period International Text are included in your bundle.)"

I promptly called the supervisor back and she seemed in total shock. I said I wanted my account to be credited for all the international text messages they charged me for. She said she'd have to check it out and call me back. Tomorrow I'm gonna write a nasty letter of complaint to both O2 and Comreg.

jester77

About 2 years ago I had an O2 billable phone and was spending alot of time in Europe. Back then, sending texts while roaming was charged at the same rate as when at home. All of a sudden I was being charged a much higher rate. I phoned O2 and asked them to explain. They said that there had been no roaming agreement between operators for texts and that they were just after bring it in. As I was not informed they refunded me for all texts that I had previously sent.

Keep after them to get a refund, you were not informed. They charge enough as it is. Good luck!