Meteroic Morons - €720 to roam for a year

So as you probably know I'm off around the world next week for a year. So I'm trying to tie up a few loose ends. Today came the turn of making sure my mobile would work while in some far flung destinations.

Background
3 months ago I changed from meteor bill pay to meteor pay as you go - So I wouldn't be paying a monthly fee as I don't intend to be using the phone too often. I have roamed with meteor many times including to countries that are not on their list

The Call
So I called customer service and spoke with Lindsey who explained that I would need to go into a meteor shop to register my credit card details, fill out a direct debit form and pay €60 top up before my roaming would be activated and I would be able to roam out side the list for the next 30 days.

Although this is awkward, it is not ridiculous. Apparently my contract with them as a Bill paying customer isn't sufficient to justify my roaming with them now as a Pre pay customer.

The ludicrous part is... they will want me to do this every 30 days. So when I repeated that fact I will not be able to go to a meteor shop every 30 days while thousands of miles away - I was informed I could fax the form to them every month. But would still have to top up by €60 to get the roaming activated for the next 30 days.

So for 12 months roaming they would charge me €720 whether I spend it or not.

Update - while trying to get released form meteor Carmel put me on hold for 5 mins then hangs the call up, despite having confirmed my details an accessing my account she in unable to return a call.