A very polite and useful note from O2 on iPhone roaming data

A week or so ago I was getting a connecting flight at Schipol airport. I was looking for some wifi to check my email, when suddenly my phone connected via 3G. I double checked, and my data roaming was definitely off (see below). That was a bit of a worry.

Anyway, sure enough I got billed a few quid for that moment of connection. I thought I’d take it up with O2, not so much because I wanted the cash back, but more because I wanted to make sure I didn’t do it again. What follows is the most polite and helpful email I’ve ever read. It’s so polite that you’d almost think it was written by a 419 scammer. Hope it’s useful, and as Firdaus from O2 says “have a nice time”.

Hello Jonathan

Thanks for your email about the data charges.

Jonathan, I’d like to tell you that charges for using internet whilst
abroad are comparatively high and it doesn’t include in your iPhone
tariffs. Using data whilst in Netherlands cost you £3 per MB Therefore,
you’ve been charged:

– £1.87 for downloading 748 KB.

I’d like to tell you that all the above mentioned charges are excluding
VAT. You’ll be happy to know that I’ve applied a credit of £1.87 to your
account for these charges. You can view this credit in the ‘Recent
charges’ section of your bill and it’ll be adjusted on your next bill.
However, please note that it’ll be a one off credit and we’ll be unable
to refund any such charges to your account in the future.

Just for your information, I’d like to tell you that the iPhone allows
applications to use data in the background even if you’ve switched of
data. The email feature of the iPhone can use data even when data is
turned off. You may switch the email retrieval mode to ‘Manual’ rather
than ‘Automatic’. There are may other applications that override the
Data Roaming block. The reason these applications manage to do so is
because these Applications are developed by developers and they can
programme them to override the feature for functionality.

The only way to completely stop roaming charges Jonathan, while abroad
is to delete the APN. By deleting the settings manually you can avoid
the higher data roaming charges. To do that please follow the steps
below:

– from your home screen tap settings

– tap general

– tap network

– tap cellular data network

– tap APN and either delete completely or delete co.uk so that the
settings are incomplete.

Once the settings have been changed your iPhone will no longer be able
to connect to idata.co.uk. When you return to the UK or want to access
internet again, simply repeat the steps above and re-enter the correct
APN, idata.co.uk.  You can also update your iPhone to the latest
firmware to avoid this. You may do by clicking on the link below:

http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/index.html

Jonathan, you can also receive your account balance by text, all you
need to do is send a text ‘Bundle’ to 21202. You’ll receive details for
the following types of account information:

– remaining minutes allowance
– remaining text allowance
– remaining data allowance
– recent charges (unbilled since last bill).

Hope the above information is helpful in avoiding data roaming charges
in the future. If you should have any further questions, please visit
our online help centre at:

http://www.o2.co.uk/support/generalhelp

Have a nice time.

Kind regards

Firdaus
O2 customer service

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