A UK tourist ended up with a £6,500 mobile phone bill after calling her provider to fix a connection issue on holiday. Hilary O’Donnell was left with extortionate fees during a trip to New York.
She was left thousands of pounds out of pocket due to one ‘small error’ while using her phone abroad. Her phone was not making outgoing calls when she arrived in New York.
So she tried to ring her provider in an attempt to resolve the issue. Hilary made several failed attempts to get through to Isle of Man-based firm Plan.com on WhatsApp in under 30 minutes.
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It ended up costing her £6,648 as the high roaming charges saw her plough through 850 megabytes of data. Each MB priced at £7.75 outside of Europe, Express reports.
Hilary, from Nottingham, said she discovered the charges after returning to the UK. She said they were ‘excessive and unfair’, especially because her seemingly faulty phone led her to believe she was not using up any data.
She told The Guardian: “I was to blame as I didn’t have a spending cap. [But] I didn’t realise I was even using the service as I had installed an e-sim to avoid being overcharged.”
E-sims are a popular way to limit high costs while using mobiles abroad by providing a set amount of data at a budget price. For Hilary, money was taken from her account, leaving her overdrawn.
Plan.com said she would not have internet or signal access until the entire bill had been paid. She tried to take her case to the Communications Ombudsman on the grounds that she had paid an unfair price for ‘a small error’.
But the organisation ruled in favour of the mobile operator. A spokesperson for Plan.com said: “We maintain transparency in our pricing, and our fees are clearly outlined on our website.”
They added: “While we understand that mistakes can happen, it’s important to clarify that the error, in this case, was not caused by our company.” Mobile phone expert Airalo said: “Travellers should be wary of add-ons and extra fees when travelling.
“If customers aren’t aware, costs can significantly stack up and create an extravagant bill. Downlading an e-Sim for travelling, and turning off your primary SIM can significantly reduce fees when travelling, which makes for efficient roaming when abroad.”
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