Does the legislation apply to international mobile phone calls?

[zukkster]

I was just thinking. I have a mobile, it's on a contract, the ombudsman has said their international call charge are excessive.

I know the charges exist and I don't object to reasonable charges, but surely they cannot prove that the additional charges levied on International calls are fair and a propotional to the extra cost of providing the service.

UK text 12p, international text 47p. Are they really incurring 4 times the cost to provide this service?

Anyone know whether the same type of action would work?

[barracad]

An international call would be a lot more expensive to handle. I don't know technically how it works but would assume the call has to be routed through usual UK networks, then transmitted overseas, then routed through the overseas network, for which the UK operater would have to pay a fee to the overseas operator for handling the call.

[thunderpuss2k]

To part answer your question..

Mobile operators in the UK exchange text messages with each other at 3p each - interworking charge. Whether they actually get together once a month, tally up the differences and swap money across the table, I'm not sure about. There is transmission charges to account for, but that's minimal.

Thought I'd enlighten you on that - so the 12p gives quite a lot of profit.

[zukkster]

Thunderpuss.

Can you see where I'm goign with this?

If the banks charging an outrageous penalty for going overdrawn is illegal under the 1977 Unfair Contract Act, then surely the mobile phone companies are doing the same by putting a multiplier of (at least) 4 on their services.

Am, I understanding the Act correctly and is it worth a try?

[hagenuk]

Frankly I would think not. 12p per text is not a penalty is it? Its the cost to you of a text.

[blueskies]

No it wouldn't work as it is an advertised service charge. A company can charge what it likes to provide a service in a contract. The customer either accepts the contract or doesn't use the service.

With bank charges it is a penalty fee for breaking a contract. This has to be a reasonable pre-estimate of the cost.

[Rooster-UK]

Also, you would have to send a hell of a lot of texts to build up a figure worth going to court for.

[zukkster]

I'm not complaining about the 12p more about the 45p

However I think I see. I had a look through the site and also saw a reference to the Supply of Services Act 1982 c 15

"Where, under a contract for the supply of a service, the consideration for the service is not determined by the contract, left to be determined in a manner agreed by the contract or determined by the course of dealing between the parties, there is an implied term that the party contracting with the supplier will pay a reasonable charge."

Which I think translates to, if the price of something isn't explicitly stated in the contract up front it need to be reasonable. I'm guessing bank charges aren't stated up front but mobile cost are.

[hagenuk]

Bank charges are stated up front but are still considered unlawful because they are not a genuine preestimate of the banks costs.

[thunderpuss2k]

This is a difficult one, and I'm by no means a lawyer, however I think it'd be tricky to win over the mobile phone companies.

It's one thing the EU saying that the charges are 'too high', but another proving that it's illegal under law. As a few people have pointed out, it's a service which you are purchasing. Unlike bank charges, it hasn't been thrust on you without choice - you sent the text, so you knew how much it would cost!

You know most retail stores have quite high markups? How about the Coca Cola company - it probably costs 1p-2p (if not less) to make a can of Coke. How come it costs 50p+ in your local corner shop?

I know exactly where you're coming from, and don't disagree that the charges are high. However, challenging them as 'illegal' would be, IMHO, expensive, time consuming, and ultimately not very worthwhile at this point in time.

You could always vote with your feet, and not send texts! There's companies around that will give you cheaper texts from a website, or you can add bolt-on's to your service package or PAYG account to give you cheaper international SMS.

[thunderpuss2k]

Originally Posted by hagenuk

Frankly I would think not. 12p per text is not a penalty is it? Its the cost to you of a text.

Exactly. How much does a farmer get paid for a pint of milk versus how much does the supermarket pay you for that milk? It's called markup - and whether you like it or not it makes the capitalist world we live in keep on turning.

Alex