£324 bill for one text shock for ferry passenger

A man, who asked not to be named, said he and his wife were aboard Condor Voyager in St Malo waiting to return from a holiday in France.

They had roaming boosters for their mobiles and he asked his wife to send him details of her data usage while they had been away for his records.

He was connected to the Orange network but his wife’s mobile had inadvertently connected to the Condor’s maritime communication partner, AS, and on his next account from Sure he found they had been billed £324 for the message.

He checked and found that Condor Voyager had been in St Malo 20 minutes after his wife had sent the message.

They were unaware of what had happened until they got their bill. His wife had not received a warning of the network change.

‘If people are being automatically connected to another network they should be made aware of it,’ he said. ‘There should be a process in place where people have to give their consent first.

‘Tannoy messages and the likes are no good as passengers might be asleep or in the toilet.’

A Condor spokesman said it had looked into the issue, which included consulting its IT team and third party on-board telecoms provider.

Its on-board WiFi uses satellite technology.

‘The maritime network used on our ships is not switched on in port – it only becomes operational when a vessel is two nautical miles out to sea. We are unable to understand how the passenger’s mobile phone could have connected while in St Malo.

‘We accept that it is possible for this network to be picked up when the ship is in open water.

‘We display clear messages on the ship’s television screens, notifying travellers to disable data roaming, and WiFi assist for Apple devices, and our crews make a similar announcement on every crossing.’

Sure’s head of consumer Mike Fawkner-Corbett said: 'We are sorry to hear this customer experienced such a bill shock for data roaming, and have been in touch to discuss this further.’

Condor had recently launched a maritime roaming network on some of its services. It was used by customers who were unable to connect to a regular mobile network.

These networks rely on satellite communication and are significantly more expensive.

‘To keep customers informed and aware of their potential usage and associated bills, if customers connect to a maritime network we will send two messages – an initial message with pricing, and a follow-up that highlights that the customer is connected to a maritime network,’ said Mr Fawkner-Corbett.

‘In the second message we’ll also recommend switching off data roaming to avoid high charges.

'So that the messages aren’t received repeatedly, they are sent the first time someone connects to the network each month.

‘In this instance, as the customer had a much higher than usual spend limit, we are happy to review the charges and have been in contact to discuss this further.’