The Dangers of Data Roaming Don't Get Done Get Dom

I've been fighting your consumer battles for years,

but there are still companies out there trying to get one over on you.

They don't care, as long as the cash register's going "ching, ching", that's all they care about.

Thousands of you are still subject to an array of unfair treatment,

from poor customer service, to hidden small print, and faulty products.

What can we do?

Make a complaint maybe, that will get lost in the communications abyss?

These companies simply don't seem to care,

and are causing you, the consumer, a lot of unnecessary stress.

But, never fear,

because I'll take them on, to make sure you don't get done.

And coming up on today's show:

I tackle the costly issue of mobile phone data roaming for one hapless holidaymaker.

I contacted T Mobile and was told I had charges of over £2,000,

so my phone had been restricted.

Follow my guide to mortgage protection to ensure you don't get stung.

It was two years last month since I lost my husband.

And my biggest fear now is I can't pay the mortgage.

And we test your consumer knowledge on the streets of Britain.

Interesting! I'll remember that for the future!

There was a time when, to make a phone call,

your phone had to be plugged into the wall.

Nowadays, we've all got mobile phones and you can ring someone from anywhere in the world.

And not just phone calls either.

I can check my e-mails in one country...

..while surfing the net in another.

I can download movies while on holiday.

And stream brand new albums down while on a business trip.

International data roaming is a fantastic idea.

But it can come with a pretty big bill.

Oh!

Ouch.

And that's just what T Mobile customer, Dawn Christie, from Bristol,

found out on her return from a week-long trip abroad.

I went on holiday in September to celebrate a friend's birthday.

We went to Egypt to do a Nile cruise.

I took my phone with me.

And my phone was turned on, but was mainly in my cabin.

The reason I had it switched on was I wanted to be able

to receive calls or messages from home, because my father had been seriously ill.

So I wanted to be in touch with my family.

A well needed break from work meant Dawn had no desire to use her smart phone much while away.

I think I sent three or four text messages.

Other than that, didn't use it at all,

apart from when the battery ran out on my camera,

and then I used the camera on the phone.

After a relaxing holiday,

Dawn's stress levels were about to rise as soon as she got back home.

When I returned from Egypt,

the first thing I did was to ring my mum to find out how my dad was.

As I tried to make the phone call,

I got a recorded message from T Mobile, telling me I'd exceeded my limit.

I thought this was really strange because I'm on a contract

and I've never exceeded my limit.

I contacted T Mobile.

I was told I had charges of over £2,000.

So my phone had been restricted.

The charges were for a staggering amount of data use whilst abroad,

suggesting Dawn had accessed the Internet from her phone while in Egypt.

I explained to the operator I hadn't used the phone,

and she said my phone would automatically roam while switched on, which I wasn't aware of.

Horrified, and being told to complain in writing,

Dawn sent an e-mail to T Mobile, and soon received a call back from customer services.

The girl I spoke to was extremely rude.

Virtually implied I was lying,

that I had used the phone while I was abroad, which I explained I hadn't,

and that I didn't know about the data roaming charges.

She told me I would have known, because the pilot would have told me on the plane. Which he didn't do.

And I don't think it's the pilot's responsibility to tell me to turn my phone off.

Dawn was left with an unsupportive response from T Mobile

and no outgoing mobile phone line at the worst possible moment.

At the time when I needed my phone the most,

because my father sadly passed away,

I wasn't able to use it at all.

After more calls and e-mails to T Mobile,

Dawn's phone was eventually reconnected,

and they offered her a 25% reduction of the total bill.

But Dawn is adamant she shouldn't have to pay

for any of the data roaming charges within her bill of £2,209.80,

as she's positive she didn't use the Internet abroad.

I feel quite happy that Dom's taken this seriously,

that he's going to look into this for me.

I feel quite confident that, with the help of Dominic,

that something will happen.

I'll certainly try my best, Dawn.

But a face-to-face meeting is needed first, I think.

I've come to Bristol to meet Dawn Christie.

Her problem particularly interests me because it's one that keeps cropping up in my inbox.

-Hello.

-Dom, thanks for coming. Come on in.

-My pleasure.

-Nice day, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is a lovely day.

'First of all, I want to know how clued up Dawn is about her phone.'

-Is this the phone?

-Yes.

-Smart phones now, they're brilliant.

I've got the iPhone. You've got the HTC. They are good.

-But are you 100% certain what you're doing this?

-No.

-Right.

And that can be a bit of a problem.

Do you think there's any chance in the world

you might have pressed a button, done something, made a mistake,

and you've genuinely downloaded this huge amount data?

-No.

-You're adamant on that?

-Yes.

-OK.

-No one else borrowed your phone, stole it, anything else like that?

-No, it was in my cabin, locked away.

-Is it password protected?

-Yes, it's password protected.

-It's not that then, is it?

-No.

-Right.

-So it does look like you might be innocent?

-Yes. I know I am innocent.

Have they actually told you what it is that caused that?

Was it videos, music, radio?

No, they haven't told me anything.

Dawn did leave the data roaming function on instead of switching it off,

but didn't actively access the Internet from her phone.

And another puzzling thing about the charges

was the distribution of the data used, which Dawn spotted when the bill came through.

So, every single day there are some charges for mobile data.

And, most days, it's small amounts, less than £10.

Then we get to Monday 26 September, when there's two amounts,

one for £1,056.

And another one for £893.89.

They said it's because my phone was roaming.

So I was quite shocked to see it was all on one day.

What?

So, nearly £2,000 of Dawn's bill

was for data roaming charges on a single day. That's almost unbelievable.

I've taken my smart phone to Europe.

But, when I've been in Europe,

the first thing I get is a text message from T Mobile

asking me if I want to purchase a data roaming bundle.

And, if I purchase it, I can use the Internet. If I don't, I can't use the Internet.

So I would have assumed that would have been the case, internationally.

You may have hit the nail on the head, with the crux of the problem.

There's a certain amount of protection inside the EU.

Step outside of the EU and, all of a sudden,

-you can end up in an awful position like this.

-Yeah.

If you were going to Egypt next week, and were going to apply for a limit,

a data allowance limit or a cap on your bill, what would you set it at?

-About £50.

-Yeah. I'm with you on that.

-Because you don't want any shocking bills.

-No.

I tell you what would be very interesting. You've been with T Mobile for ten years.

Do some homework. Find out for me what other companies do about using your phone outside of the EU,

whether other people put a protection in place.

-You're definitely 100% positive it's a mistake, aren't you?

-Yes.

Is it, something that's happened out in Egypt? Is it their mistake, and T Mobile are innocent?

-Or was it T Mobile's mistake, or was it a combination of both?

-Yeah.

-I'll be on to it.

I might need to borrow that. Don't use, don't wipe anything on it.

If that's the case, I'll let you know, because I might need to get that examined.

-I'll see how I get on.

-OK.

One last thing. You tell me what you'd like to happen?

One, it would be good if they could wipe the bill off, or remove those charges. That would make me happy.

But I think, more importantly to me, is people are made aware.

Because I don't want somebody else to go abroad,

to be unsuspecting, and come back to amounts of charges.

These mobile companies shouldn't get away with it.

-I agree with you. And I bet the problem's massive once I start investigating it.

-Yes.

The problem I'm going to have here is,

if T Mobile are telling Dawn she's used all this data,

it's going to be very hard for me to prove that she hasn't.

But, even so, using £1,800 worth in one day, and they haven't even sent her a warning,

that in itself is wrong. Let's see how I get on.

Time to make my first phone call to T Mobile.

Let me tell you,

data charges for when people are abroad

are something which we hear tons and tons of complaints about.

From experience, a lot of these big companies dig their heels in.

I've got a funny feeling I'm going to end up with a battle on my hands here.

RING TONE

Please don't.

Just say sorry and she can have a refund.

"Welcome to T Mobile. If you are already a customer,

"or you're in the process of joining us, press one."

Unfortunately, getting through to the right department isn't that easy.

BEEP

Hash. Puts you through to an operator sooner or later.

-"Press one..."

-Hash.

-"If you are already a customer..."

-Hash.

-"If you're already..."

-Hash.

-"If you are already..."

-Hash.

"Sorry, that's not on my list!"

You're not on my list!

"Try again later. Bye-bye."

LINE GOES DEAD

And, believe it or not, things just get worse.

Damn it.

I'm not having a lot of luck here.

I can't seem to get through to anyone at T Mobile.

HIGH-PITCHED TONE

"Sorry you're having a problem."

PHONE LINE DEAD

I'm in disbelief that it's taken this amount of time

to get through to someone I can talk to about Dawn's case.

But, finally, it seems I might have a number for their PR office.

I've probably spent 20-25 minutes getting the phone number of someone to speak to at T Mobile.

Most people would probably have given up at that point.

I felt like it, but I'm not doing that because I feel even more determined to speak to somebody.

If this one doesn't work, I suggest you switch your TVs off,

because I'm going to smash that phone up.

DIALLING TONE

'Hurrah. Someone of use has finally answered.'

Basically, this lady went on holiday last year.

She's been billed for using 262 megabytes of data allowance,

literally in one day.

Now, she's got this bill which is £2,000.

'I explained the details, and they say they'll get back to me.'

Now, normally, I fight other people's consumer battles,

but this time, it's me who feels wronged.

Time to complain the only way I know. Firm, but fair.

Well, first of all, I tried your 0845 numbers. Then your 0844 numbers.

Then your 0800 numbers. Then, I eventually got through to a lady in the Philippines

and she gave me an 070 number.

Then I was given a customer service number which is an 01707 number.

Eventually, I got the number I've dialled you on.

Literally it's taken me half an hour and plenty of searching on the Internet.

I tell you what, for a communications company, it was shocking.

Bye-bye.

What a breath of relief. Finally, I got to speak to a human being,

who actually seemed very, very nice.

This lady said, fine, get all the details over to me,

and we will see what we can sort out.

That doesn't mean they're going to rectify this problem,

it just means they're going to look at it and give me their answers.

Which, I suspect, initially, is probably going to be,

she used it, she's going to pay for it.

Fingers crossed my battle, from now on, will be less taxing.

Supply me with concrete proof, and that's it, I'll go away, you won't hear from me again.

If you can't, I'm going to keep fighting on behalf of Dawn.

Consumer law can be very confusing.

You've got your Sale of Goods Act.

Distance selling. Right to return. I could go on and on.

But knowing just a few of these laws can save you not only money,

but a lot of hassle as well.

My research team

have been out on the streets, armed with questions to put to you,

the buying public, to find out if you know your consumer rights from your consumer wrongs.

Today, we've headed to Birmingham, in our quest for spreading knowledge.

First up:

"One month, your utility company takes out more money from your bank than your agreed direct debit.

"When you call to complain, they say your account is in arrears,

"and they need to cover the shortfall.

"Can they do this?" Yes, I think they can.

-No.

-No, they can't, because they've taken more than they agreed.

Two out of three of you correct.

If your direct debit is for a fixed amount,

they are not entitled to take a penny more.

To clear the outstanding debt,

they should either continue collecting the monthly payment until it's paid off,

or write to you to let you know the monthly payments need to be increased.

No? Right.

-And know your rights as well.

-Next up:

"You go out for dinner to a restaurant. The service is terrible.

"The menu states that a compulsory 12% service charge will be added.

"Do you have to pay this?"

Yes, you do, because you've had the service.

So I guess you have to pay.

No. Well, I wouldn't.

And you're correct, madam.

If the service was poor, then the restaurant have technically broken their contract with you.

Even if they say it's compulsory, you are well within your rights to refuse to pay it.

But if the service was satisfactory, and the charge listed as compulsory,

then you're obliged to pay it.

-I got one right.

-You did indeed, clever clogs.

And lastly:

"You're coming back from a holiday in Greece,

"and your flight home is overbooked.

"The airline asks for volunteers to transfer to fly the next day.

"They offer you a night in a four-star hotel, including a meal and transport back to the airport.

-"Should you accept it?"

-Yeah, I'd accept that.

If you weren't that bothered, yeah, I'd accept it. But you don't have to.

I don't think you have to accept it, but I think I probably would

because then you get an extra day in Greece in a four-star hotel.

Correct indeed. You're not obliged to accept the airline's offer.

Under EU law, there's no limit on compensation for passengers in these circumstances.

But if you did want to accept the offer, you should push for more benefits,

like travel vouchers or complimentary trips.

Interesting. I'll remember that for the future!

So there's room for improvement.

But clearly, some of you have listened to me over the years.

A little bit of know-how can go a long way to stopping you from getting done.

As a nation, us Brits just love our smart phones.

At the end of last year, there were ten million of them in the UK.

Take warning.

Each one of these has the potential to run up a huge bill when you take it abroad.

T Mobile customer Dawn got the shock of her life when she returned from holiday

to find a smart phone had run up a staggering bill of

£2209.80, mostly for data roaming while away.

I've gone over the holiday in my mind, over and over again.

And I never used the Internet, so I have no idea what the charges are.

T Mobile told Dawn that if her data roaming function was switched on,

the phone could have been downloading data in the background.

But still, more than £800 of the charges were for one day only.

Surely that's not possible?

While Dawn was in Egypt,

T Mobile were charging her a massive £7.50 per megabyte.

Now, given the right conditions,

a smart phone can download about two megabytes per second.

That means she could be getting billed £900 per minute

if the phone is doing maximum downloads.

All of a sudden, smart phones don't seem that clever, do they?

My research into T Mobile reveals that,

when it comes to international roaming on their smart phones,

they have data packages or boosters available to buy for travel in Europe

so you know exactly what you're spending.

By law, but only within Europe,

service providers now have to cap data bills at 50 euros per month.

But still around 1.4 million of you have complained to telecoms regulator OFCOM,

about bill shock, mainly from data roaming charges.

However, there are changes coming in to protect the consumer in 2014.

But customers will still be unprotected further afield than Europe.

So it's up to you, the public, to protect yourselves.

But the question is, do you know how to?

Well, I'm about to find out as I hit the high street find out

how many of you have had similar situations to Dawn's.

-Do you own a smart phone?

-I do, yes.

-Do you own a smart phone?

-Yeah, I do.

-Do you own a smart phone?

-I do, yes, an Android phone.

-Do you ever take it abroad?

-I do, yes.

Have you ever had any bills that were rather large, larger than you were expecting?

Yeah. That once stung situation.

I've tried it once,

and when I came back, they charge me around £120 for checking my e-mail.

How did you feel about having to pay about £120?

I'll never use my phone abroad again, never ever.

I was trying to follow cricket scores,

and also checking my work e-mail on holiday, which I know is a dreadful thing to do.

OK, so some of you have been stung by expensive data charges.

Phone operator websites do detail the charges,

but, for me, that's not really good enough.

What would you do if you came back from a holiday in Egypt,

and your mobile phone provider sent you a bill for over £2,000,

and said you had downloaded more than 250 megabytes of data,

and you didn't even know about it?

Oh my goodness, crazy.

If that happened, I'd be completely lost.

I wouldn't know where to go, what to do.

If she hasn't used it, then she shouldn't have to pay.

But the mobile phone company's saying you have used it, and she's saying, I haven't.

I still wouldn't pay.

I think the operators have a moral duty

to stop people coming back from holidays and having to fork out huge amounts of money on their bill.

In Dawn's case, two grand.

And no one can tell her how this has happened.

All they can tell her is they know she's downloaded that amount of data.

She's disputing it. But they can't tell her what it is was.

That seems a little tenuous to me.

If she's sure she hasn't, particularly in one day,

you'd hope they'd be a bit more open-minded about it perhaps.

I agree.

My chat with the general public confirms that lots of you sympathise with Dawn,

and have been stung in a similar way.

But it would be interesting to see exactly what other operators

have to offer their customers when travelling outside of Europe.

So I asked Dawn to research the four other major UK providers.

Hi, yes, I'm looking to get a smart phone,

because I want a phone where I can use the Internet.

If I'm travelling abroad,

what sort of data plans do you have there?

First up, it's 3.

He was very cagey about Europe and the rest of the world,

and just kept advising me, if I was travelling outside of the UK,

I should buy the sim card for the country I'm travelling in,

because it's very expensive to use data whilst outside of the UK.

Hm. Next, Vodafone.

He was noncommittal on the charges

because he said they were at the mercy of other mobile phone companies.

And he again said, if you're abroad, I would either buy a sim card for that country,

or turn your Internet off and use Wi-Fi.

Let's see what O2 have to offer.

She gave me some prices about abroad.

So, if you're in Europe, they charge you £3 per megabyte.

The rest of the world is £6 per megabyte. But they will cap.

At last, one company who capped data use worldwide.

Lastly, it's a call to Orange, who've recently merged with Dawn's provider, T Mobile.

If you're travelling outside of Europe,

you can buy a bundle from them for £15, which is 30 megabytes.

Once you've used that 30 megabytes, they won't charge you,

you then have to buy another 30 megabytes.

That's an awful lot of inconsistencies across the board.

But thankfully, two countries have plans in place

which help prevent overspending on data while travelling outside of Europe.

Had T Mobile implemented a similar system,

Dawn wouldn't be facing such a hefty bill.

But I'm still baffled as to how her phone

ran up this bill in the first place.

Dawn has no idea, and T Mobile have mentioned data being used automatically in the background.

What does that mean?

Time to speak to an independent technical expert.

In terms of what smart phones can do without our knowledge,

these bite-sized applications we use,

instant messaging, maybe going on the Internet, even our e-mails,

the news and weather widgets, every single feature and function of our smart phones

often picks up little bits of data, so there's loads of things going on in the background,

maybe whilst we don't notice.

Ah. So it's possible Dawn's phone could have been accessing the Internet itself

with programmes running in the background.

Maybe that would explain the 269 megabytes of data T-Mobile say she used.

It's quite a substantial amount of data you'd have to use.

250 megabytes of data is around 750 web pages,

maybe 500 e-mails with images.

So these aren't small amounts we're talking about.

To use that amount of data in a day, or even a month, is quite a substantial amount.

750 web pages? I think Dawn would remember visiting that many of them.

Not what you do when cruising down the River Nile!

How can T Mobile think Dawn had used this much data, mainly in a day?

Whilst it is technologically feasible for providers

to have access to a breakdown of data,

I've never known an instance where consumers have been provided access to it.

It's very much your word against the provider's.

They have a log, they have an itemised bill

that says you've used a certain amount of data on a certain date.

You can only insist that you haven't.

But it's very, very difficult to prove you haven't used that data.

Do you know? I'm not sure whether to be happy and sad.

It seems there may be ways of getting a more detailed breakdown

of what kind of data was used,

but it's not something readily available.

I'd better try and press T Mobile on this one

so, time for another call to their public relations team.

T Mobile have responded to some of the questions I've asked them with a rather lengthy e-mail.

In a nutshell, they say, hang on, this is Dawn's problem, not ours.

"We have given a small offer of a goodwill gesture," but that's all.

I'm not really happy with that.

I'm going to go back and see if I can fight this some more.

But I tell you what, this is going to be quite a hard battle to win.

This data usage is becoming a common problem.

I'm hearing a lot of people moaning about it.

Yes, a lot of people are moaning about it

because the industry is doing nothing to stop this happening.

269 megabytes and a two grand bill? It's just crazy!

In my eyes, not fair.

It's Dominic Littlewood calling from the BBC.

'Especially as Dawn and T Mobile have no idea how it happened.'

To suddenly say someone's used 269 megabytes

is an incredibly large amount.

You quote here, "This information was provided by the foreign network that provided the service."

Here lies the big issue.

How do you know that their figures are accurate?

I would like some sort of concrete proof from them that they say this amount has been used,

there's no errors there at all, and no additional charges which they think could be an error.

'As T-Mobile aren't budging,

'and what's happened to Dawn is happening to thousands of others Brits travelling outside of Europe,

'with a number of network providers,

'I want to take it to the top, to see how T Mobile are going to stop this happening in the future.'

Considering that,

at the moment, you're sticking on this 25% gesture of goodwill,

we'd like to bring the programme to the attention of Olaf Swantee,

and ask him if we can have an interview face to face with him on the programme, for broadcast?

Basically, I hit them with just about everything I had.

Starting with, can I go and meet the CEO, to talk to him about these problems.

That one normally does help situations

because, once the CEO's cage is rattled,

quite often things happen which don't, until you rattle it.

And I've got to keep my fingers crossed on that because

it's a very, very touch and go situation.

HE SOBS

Sometimes I love my job, sometimes I hate it.

I'm not going to lie.

I'm a bit worried about this case.

T Mobile are playing hardball, and they've refused to budge on Dawn's 25% discount.

They even sent me the information from the Egyptian service provider that I asked for.

Doesn't matter.

I'm going to up my game, and get Dawn's phone forensically examined

to see if I can find out what that data was.

The report from the provider in Egypt unfortunately doesn't go into any details.

Once again, all it shows me is the amount of data used, and on which days.

If this is all the information they have,

maybe a forensics expert can shed some light on Dawn's alleged usage.

I attached Dawn's phone to my laptop

and I extracted all the data from there.

What I found was that, during her period in Egypt,

she actually did very little with her phone,

there was very little activity recorded.

I found nothing which gave evidence of large data use during that period.

This is very interesting.

If the extraction is accurate,

how on earth can T Mobile be saying Dawn used all this data?

There's a number of apps installed on the phone, I notice.

This includes Spotify, YouTube, which streams a lot of data in the background.

There's a daily horoscope app installed there as well.

Now, these were set, I have discovered,

to update themselves in the background.

And it may be something that Dawn didn't realise at the time.

Not great news,

but it seems unlikely all the apps would have updated on that one day.

And even if they did,

Ernest from uSwitch told me the amount of data T Mobile claim Dawn downloaded

was a lot to use in a month, let alone 24 hours.

But I still need more proof.

With data usage,

you do not get as much information about what caused the data to be used.

With a text message, you see who it was sent to, from,

the service centre timestamp, the contents of the text message, etc.

At the moment, the granularity of detail available on data usage is rather lacking, I think.

So, what might have happened to incur Dawn's high charges

may have been related to a tiny setting on her phone.

But the results from my experts are still frustratingly inconclusive,

and, if no one really knows, how is it fair to bill Dawn over two grand?

Even Ofcom are pushing legislation

to cap and reduce data charges worldwide,

so surely T Mobile have to consider this.

Because Ofcom state, and I'm just going to read you this on my other phone -

they want to see more pressure on UK operators to adopt data caps

and spending alerts.

"Mobile phone providers must stop bill shock."

That's the headline I've got here.

'She tells me they're committed to working with Ofcom,

'so there's more transparency in their terms and conditions.'

Do you know in Dawn's case how many basic e-mails

the data you're charging for would mean she'd have to download?

According to Ofcom, it's quarter of a million simple e-mails.

It would be a 30 minute video

or a four hour radio programme

and that's for 250 megabytes - you're charging her for 269.

She's never used more than two megabytes on any day

previous to this.

She's adamant it's a mistake.

Do they seriously think Dawn spent her Nile cruise

sending a quarter of a million e-mails?

'Regardless of how ridiculous these figures are,

'T Mobile confirm they definitely can't give a breakdown

'of how the data was used and say there's nothing more they can offer

'than a 25% goodwill reduction they already have.'

Why don't you cap people's bills like O2?

You haven't got the capping in place.

People's bills come in at £2,200.

Is it just a financial reason why you've not put a cap on?

OK, if you can't comment on why other companies have put

a cap on, do comment on why you can't.

'Finally, I'm told they're introducing a new system

'for worldwide data roaming charges,

'but she can't give me any more information about it

'and I seem to have hit a brick wall regarding Dawn's case.

'So I'm forced, once again, to request feedback from the CEO.'

Is Olaf Swantee aware of this?

Has he been informed?

Is he prepared to have a meeting with us?

'I'm told it's not possible.'

We don't have concrete proof that that data's been used, Emily.

That's the reason I'm digging my heels in.

Supply me with concrete proof and I'll go away, Emily.

You won't not hear from me again.

If not, I'm going to keep fighting on behalf of Dawn, then.

Bye-bye.

When I told her

it's quarter of a million basic e-mails,

she sounded a bit shocked actually. Bit of a silence in the air.

But you know what,

they're digging their heels in and they're not budging.

I've told her, if we have to,

we'll take it to the Small Claims Court.

So many of you get in touch giving me

the low-down on your consumer nightmares,

that my little team of helpers here are worked to the bone.

Mind you, so they should be!

My inbox is overflowing and the phone hardly ever stops ringing.

But sadly, I can't meet every one of you face-to-face,

so follow my guide and hopefully you won't get done.

Right, crack on guys, come on!

We're looking at one of the most

important insurance policies you can have -

mortgage protection.

Meet 47-year-old widow, Fiona, who got a very nasty shock

when she discovered her insurance

didn't cover her family for what they thought it would.

If I had to go back to 2003

and meet that adviser again,

I would have my questions.

We naively thought and trusted the adviser.

You can't trust anybody.

Fiona was convinced their family home would always be secure

if anything happened to her or her husband, Colin.

The mortgage adviser was absolutely lovely, explained everything,

offered us everything.

Everything what they offered us - we had the full package.

Fiona is one of around 14 million people in the UK

that have a mortgage and many of us get mortgage protection,

so if for any reason, the mortgage holders are unable to work

due to illness, injury or unemployment,

the monthly payments can still be met.

He said,

"God forbid if you walked out of this door now

"and you got knocked down, your mortgage will be covered.

"If you contracted MS,

"Motor Neurone or cancer

"your mortgage would be covered."

We signed all the paperwork.

Everything was in joint names.

And it appears she made the right initial moves.

Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance is often,

but not always, sold to you by your mortgage lender.

By law, your mortgage provider has to give you 14 days

before contacting you about this protection

so that you're not rushed into a purchase.

The cost of your cover will depend on how much

your monthly mortgage repayments are.

If you need to claim, your insurance

payments will typically

begin around one month

without a salary,

either directly to your mortgage

lender or straight to you.

Sadly, six years into their mortgage, Fiona's husband, Colin,

was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given four months to live,

so Fiona phoned up to make sure their mortgage

would be protected when he passed away.

He says, "Can I get somebody to phone you?

"I'll get me manager to phone you."

The manager phoned and said, "I'm sorry, you're not covered."

I said, "Oh yes, I am."

I said, "I'm covered for Motor Neurone, MS and cancer.

"Them are your words, not mine."

He says, "You are not, Mrs Allcroft.

"You haven't got that policy."

Fiona and Colin weren't covered for what they thought they were.

Although they would receive payments while Colin was sick,

the bank wouldn't continue paying if he died.

The policy would only pay out in cases of accidental death.

If you take out mortgage protection,

it's very important that you receive your policy documentation

and keep it in a safe place for reference.

The devil's in the detail.

You need to read the small print

so you know what is and isn't covered.

Policies vary and may not cover you

for all types of sickness,

death and unemployment.

Tragically, Colin died in October 2009,

five months after he was diagnosed.

And all mortgage protection insurance payments stopped.

I still thought it was a mistake somewhere down the line.

The mortgage adviser just said it's our own fault for not checking

when we signed all the forms.

I was devastated.

Fiona was convinced that when they were sold the policy,

the sales adviser told them they were covered for death

as the result of an illness and complained,

but the bank were insisting the right cover wasn't in place.

A worried Fiona took her case further.

If you have exhausted

the complaints procedure within the financial company you're in dispute with,

you can contact independent bodies.

The Citizens Advice Bureau, or CAB, offer free, confidential advice

on a number of subject areas.

The CAB took Fiona's case to the Financial Ombudsman's Service.

The FOS will take an impartial look

at the dispute based on the paperwork provided

and deliver a verdict.

Unfortunately, the FOS ruled against Fiona, because she no longer

had a copy of the original terms of her policy and it seems

from the bank's current policy, that they would never have been covered.

So, Fiona has been left in a financially unstable situation

with her family home at risk.

It was two years last month since I lost my husband.

My biggest fear now is that I can't pay the mortgage.

All I'm asking for them to do is when the next person who goes in

for a mortgage and has got a family,

please just give them the right information.

What we need to remember is that mortgage advisers are there

to sell a product, so you need to do your homework

and learn from Fiona's difficult lesson.

She now has to sell her house, as without her husband's income,

she can't meet the mortgage repayments.

Make sure it's the right product for you.

Can you afford it

or could you not afford it if anything happens to you?

I wish then, in 2003,

we asked these questions,

but we trusted the mortgage adviser.

Good advice from Fiona

and if you follow my tips as well,

hopefully, if you take out mortgage protection

and need to claim for any reason, you won't get done.

Dawn's week-long Egyptian cruise left her with a sinking feeling

when she returned home from the holiday to a hefty mobile phone bill

from T Mobile to the tune of...

..mainly for data roaming charges.

So far, T Mobile are sticking to their offer

of a 25% bill reduction,

but there's no proof of how Dawn used the data.

Even Ofcom recognise an industry-wide problem

and say consumers should be protected

from data roaming bill shock.

Last time I spoke to T Mobile,

I asked to speak again to their chief executive

and it seems I might have ruffled some feathers.

I've just had an e-mail from T Mobile.

Listen to this. "Hi, Dom.

"We have just found out that we were already doing a policy review

"on international roaming cases and we have asked the team

"to review Ms Christie's case in light of this ongoing review."

This is sounding quite positive.

"We cannot guarantee what this will mean for Ms Christie

"but if you are OK to wait just a little longer,

"then I think that would be in everyone's best interests.

"Many thanks. Emily."

Now, I think that means

T Mobile are about to offer a resolution.

All phone providers are providing more and more services to us

that use data,

but it's the cost of that data that's the issue.

The real problem here is perception.

You see, we expect to pay a lot of money for data roaming

so we're charged a lot of money for data roaming.

Someone somewhere is making an awful lot of money out of it

and it's at the expense of you, me

and the likes of Dawn Christie.

Let's see what my technology expert thinks

of these astronomical data charges.

A lot of operators are now finding

that their total revenue for data is outstripping that for SMS

for example, for the first time,

so it's obviously a service which is being used more and more.

Again, as people go away on holiday, they want to take that with them.

I imagine international roaming, given that it's a higher mark-up

than domestic roaming,

would therefore contribute to their profits.

It seems there's only one way forward.

I believe that international data charges are too high.

There doesn't seem to be any technical justification

for each megabyte cost being so high

and the only way I can see that realistically coming to an end

on a global level

is with some sort of global regulation.

After all, if Dawn Christie's mystery data use had been capped,

it might be a 50 euro battle

instead of a £2,000 one.

But I want to know what happens if global regulations

don't happen soon or ever.

Without regulation being put in place,

I can only imagine acceptance

of people's desire to use these services

and therefore wanting to attract those customers

being the driving factor in reducing the overall costs to the consumer.

Winning business off each other is the only real incentive.

So it seems mobile providers

are making the most of consumer demand for worldwide data roaming.

But people are starting to wake up

and if regulations aren't in place,

I think unhappy customers should be reason enough

for providers to change their prices and policies.

And it seems T Mobile are starting to see my point,

because they've suddenly e-mailed Dawn Christie with another offer.

I'm back in Bristol to meet Dawn, except this time,

she's the one who has news for me, not the other way round.

Dawn, normally at moments like this, I'm here to give you good news,

but there's a reverse of roles now,

because you're going to give me the good news which T Mobile have

-gone behind my back and given you directly, haven't they?

-Yes, they have.

-What was it?

-They've reduced my bill from 2,300 to £200.

So when they sent you that e-mail,

tell me what happened when you read it.

I read the e-mail and I think I had to read it about three

or four times and then when it did

finally sink in that they'd reduced it down to £200

I was very excited.

I tell you what. It was not an easy battle.

I got onto them and I questioned how can someone with your history

where you'd only been downloading one or two megabytes per day,

all of a sudden have nearly 260 in one day?

1,800 odd pounds just in that particular day.

I said, "There's got to be a mistake." I started to question what was the data?

And this is quite interesting, because they can't tell you.

All they can say is, "It's data, we don't know."

The important fact is we've highlighted the problem,

your bill's down to a sensible amount.

-Happy to pay 200, aren't you?

-Yes, I'm happy to pay 200.

That's probably two months of charges anyway, so.

T Mobile said...

What have you learned from this?

What I've learnt is that if I go abroad,

either in the EU or internationally,

if I take a smart phone with me that I ensure

data roaming is turned off before I leave this country.

I think that's a really good message to send out there

to everybody who might be caught out the same way as you.

I think that's one thing people should check with their phones

when they get them, is if you have to enable data roaming

or turn it on or off, you should keep it off

and use Wi-Fi wherever possible.

Good advice!

Do you want a job?

Don't get done get Dawn?

Dawn's not the first person to be caught out like this

and she'll certainly not be the last.

The outcome for her has been good

but it could have been a whole different story.

Be careful!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd