O2 Issues Warning After Man Receives £42,000 Bill for Data Roaming in Morocco
Andrew Alty, a small business owner, was shocked to receive a £42,000 bill from O2 for data roaming charges following a holiday to Morocco. Initially, he believed the bill was a mistake, but it turned out to be a costly reality due to a clause in his contract.
Uncapped Charges Lead to Massive Bill
While in Marrakech, Alty received a bill for £22,000 from O2. He told the Telegraph, "I was on my way to the desert. I made multiple attempts to call O2, but there wasn't much I could do. I could only assume there had been a glitch, or the account had been hacked." Upon returning home, he received another bill for £20,000, bringing the total to £42,000.
It was later discovered that his phone deal, purchased via retailer Currys and provided by O2, included a clause that left data roaming charges outside Europe uncapped. This meant there was no limit to the fees that could accrue.
TikTok Usage Results in High Costs
The massive bill was primarily due to his daughter's use of the social media app TikTok, which resulted in charges of more than £5,000 per hour. Alty expressed his frustration, stating, "There's no way they should be able to charge that. They made no effort to inform us, and just allowed the charges to accrue. I don't understand how they expect any small business to pay that sort of bill."
He added that dealing with the issue had consumed a significant part of his life over the past two months, describing the situation as "ridiculous" and noting that customer service calls often ended in frustration and despair.
Complaint and Resolution
Alty contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), complaining that the "opt-out of rest-of-world data cap" in his contract was not properly explained by O2. A spokesperson for O2 responded, "We're aware of Mr Alty's complaint, which the ombudsman ruled was a sales process dispute with his account provider Currys. We understand that this is now resolved, with Currys agreeing to waive all charges."
Currys confirmed that the charges were removed "given the scale and circumstances surrounding the case." This incident serves as a warning to consumers to carefully review phone contracts, especially regarding data roaming terms, to avoid unexpected high bills.
