Use of Sonera mobile broadband in Sweden brings customer surprise bill

Monthly flat fee does not apply outside home country

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Broadband Internet services using the mobile telephone network can prove to be unexpectedly costly when used outside one's own country.
     Mobile broadband services in Finland generally cost EUR 10 to EUR 30 a month. However, when the same device is used abroad, the flat rate does not apply. Instead, the user is billed according to the volume of data transfer, which can boost the bill into the thousands of euros.
     
Hanko resident Juha Gabel received a bill for EUR 2,300 after he had used his Sonera subscription in Sweden. His normal monthly rate is EUR 14.90. Gabel says that when he signed his service contract, he specifically mentioned that he would use the connection abroad, and was assured that the price would be the same, regardless of where the service is used.
     Gabel says that when he asked Sonera's customer service about his bill on April 16th, the reception that he received was rude.
     
"I was told that it is not Sonera's practice to alter its invoices. Customer service also said that information on the services and its conditions can be found on line."
     He said that he was not given the conditions on paper until in mid-April. The huge bill had been accrued in March.
     TeliaSonera customer service manager Petri Lahtinen promised to investigate the matter.
     "A customer should get the conditions of the agreement in connection with signing the contract. If the course of events was as described by the customer, then we have acted incorrectly", Lahtinen says.
     
At the Finnish Consumer Agency, lawyer Miina Ojajärvi says that she knows of many cases in which customers have been surprised at how much the use of the Internet abroad has ended up costing. In March, the financial daily Kauppalehti reported of one case in which a subscriber was billed EUR 25,000 for Internet use while abroad.
     "The conditions and restrictions of the service should be expressed clearly. Considering how much people travel nowadays, a sales representative should also mention the exceptional pricing of service when abroad", Ojajärvi says.
     One case is currently under review by the Consumer Disputes Board involves the use of the mobile Internet in Finnish Lapland. The subscriber suspects that a large bill resulted from inadvertently logging on to a network of another country.
     
Sonera markets its mobile broadband service on its website with the slogan "Surf as much as you like", with no mention, in that connection, about the price of the service outside Finland, and some descriptions of the service also fail to mention that the flat rate only applies to use in Finland.
     Service providers Elisa, Saunalahti, and DNA emphasise in their marketing of similar product that the service does not include use abroad, or that billing for use in other countries is different.


Links:
  Consumer Disputes Board
  Finnish Consumer Agency

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