Charged by O2 for using the hotel's wireless network abroad

[Adam]

On holiday this week I connected to the hotel's private Wireless Network. It was a bit flakey and kept dropping but I would reconnect and it would be ok for another 5-10 minutes. During this time I knew the connection was lost (even though my iPhone showed that it was connected still) because I received an error message stating that roaming for data was off. I left this setting off to avoid running up a large bill incase I checked my emails not thinking etc.

2 days later I receive a couple of warning text messages telling me that data is expensive and I had already racked up over £30 in charges (£3 per mb). I don't understand how they came to this conclusion as I never actually connected to a single website or used any applications (the message about roaming appeared everytime).

I called O2 when I returned and some Indian guy informed me that of course I would be charged when using the hotel WiFi. I argued that this doesn't make sense as the connection is between my handset and the hotel's wireless access point, it never went via O2 or movistar that I was connected to.

He was so sure that he was correct that I said I'd do some more research and call back. To me this makes no sense and I don't understand why O2 would decide to charge me for using the hotel WiFi.

While it's not a massive amount of money, I do want to get to the bottom of it. If I am wrong then a lesson learnt the hard way I guess!

 

[Adam]

Maybe when the wireless dropped your phone automatically connected to mobile internet instead? I know mine has done that in the past and ended up going over my contract usage by a few quid.

No I don't think so, every time it dropped it says "Cannot Open Page, Data roaming is turned off blah blah"

O2 have zero way of knowing whether you used Hotel wifi or not. You have been charged because you used mobile data on a mobile network, whether you think you did or not.

Fair point, but surely no data would be transferred via the mobile network as the connection is between my handset and the wifi network? Are you therefore suggesting that every piece of data I download at home when connected to my wireless router goes via O2 as well?

 

[Adam]

No, I am suggesting you downloaded data via the mobile network instead of wifi on occasions. I am suggesting this is your mistake, not O2's.

Which would make sense and I would have no problems paying if this was the case. However, if data roaming is off (I checked this and I have never altered the setting) then how could I have downloaded any data?

If I wasn't connected to the wireless network and tried to navigate to a website then the error message about roaming would come up immediately and the site would not load. I do not see how they can charge me for this.

Not sure how I am going to argue this with them though.

 

[Adam]

Ok so I called again armed with more information that I found via google. Seems this is a common issues and there are a number of cases where the iPhone will do this. The suggestion of using the airplane mode is sensible, thanks!

So they refunded the charged as a "bill shock" but couldn't explain to me how I could have been charged despite data roaming being off. This should, in theory, stop any data being downloaded while abroad. At one point the guy suggested (like the first) that WiFi data still goes via the mobile network while abroad. I asked what I should do next time and they said not to use Wireless Networks, brilliant!

Also, are you sure O2 are based in the UK? Both had very strong Indian accents and were supposedly called "Dave"?