£600 bill!!!

[sophie2585]

I have recently been on holiday to Turkey. When i landed i called EE, for advice on what was the best package for whilst i was away. I wasn't aware before the holiday that this country wasn't included in the normal holiday data packages. When i called i spoke to a male but the phone got disconnected as the signal was poor and he said he would call back. However, i called back myself immediately and was able to speak to a female. I asked her what was the best package as my phone wasn't working and i said i don't want a huge bill at  the end. we discussed that i had already put a £35 package on and was this actually worth while. She advised to go with the daily £8.45 rate that i could tx as and when i needed it as i had wifi where i was staying. She said she would remove the initial £35 for me and i was able to tx 150 myself. This conversation lasted over 10 minutes. She did not once mention that i would not be covered for phone calls. and that i would be charged a ridiculous amount for these. Now, i expected my bill to be a little higher than normal but £600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've called a few days ago to pay my bill but what a a shock. i cannot afford this. i've been through my phone calls and there isn't that many just standard calling home a few times. EE said they would listen to the calls and call me back in 72 hours. Shockingly when the called back they said they cant find my phone call, only the initial phone call that got disconnected. And as i didn't mention calls in that 2 minute conversation it was my fault. Does anyone know where i stand with this?  surely if a customer calls to ask for advice on how best to use their phones whilst away and specifically cannot afford a huge bill, would this not be thought about? please help!

[XRaySpeX]

Turkey is not in the EU & you have to pay for everything there. Outside the EU, you cannot use your usual UK allowances there but will need to pay the charges or buy roaming add-ons as set out in https://ee.co.uk/help/mobile/roaming/roaming-costs/countries/turkeyandnortherncyprus.

The £8.45 / day is for the Travel Data Pass. It doesn't cover calls & texts. The EE rep could've offered a similar roaming package covering calls & text but presumably didn't.

Looks like you spent about 4 hours on calls.

[Debbie_G]

Hey @sophie2585 

Thanks for coming to the community.

I understand how stressful receiving a higher bill than expected will be, to get this looked into further, I'd suggest giving our team another call.
 

Alternatively, you can also raise this to our dedicated complaints team via their web form, and they'll do their best to get everything investigated here.

Debbie 🙂