Charge in the US

[Gmac65]

I joined Three many years ago because I travelled in Spain and the US. The contract I had then included calls and texts made and received in Spain and the US. I have been travelling in the US more frequently in the last 3 years and noticed that some time ago that I wasn't receiving calls or texts, I had an alternative phone so didn't feel the need to address this problem. However, I contacted Three in January as I needed to receive calls on my phone. The Three agent was very helpful and said that my roaming had been turned off. He said he would switch it on there and then. While he was on the phone, I got a friend in the UK to call my phone. It did not ring. The Three agent got me to switch off Auto Network selection and to select T Mobile. That sorted the problem. The first issue I had was when investigating my contract on the Three app, I noticed that my contract was shown as starting on 29 May 2022. I was surprised as U had been with Three for many years and had not instigated a change. I also had no recollection of agreeing to a change of contract.

I didn't worry too much until I got my bill which changed from 9.40/month to 24.41. When I investigated on the Three app I could see that I was being charged for 'Out of allowance costs'. I contacted Three chat line. I explained that I had made 1 call in the billing period and no texts but had been charged 4.17 on 3 different days for data usage. I explained that I had not used the phone at all outside of the 1 call so couldn't understand why I was being charged. The agent was unable to provide a satisfactory answer. I immediately switched off mobile data for everything bar the Three app and Phone. You can imagine my horror when I received the bill for the current billing period which has 41.70 of 'Out of allowance costs'. I made 2 outgoing calls on 1 Feb and had 1 incoming call on the same day. I received a charge for call on that day of 4.17. I did not make or receive texts so no charge shown. However, I was charged 4.17 on 29 Jan, 31 Jan, 2 Feb, 4 Feb and 6 Feb for data usage!!! I contacted Three chat line again and asked why I was being charged for data usage when the phone was used to make 2 calls and receive 1 call in the entire billing period and was literally left in a drawer unused for the rest of that period. He could not provide an answer but suggested I set my Cap to 0. I have done this but that means I can neither make or receive calls or texts while in the US - so I'm effectively paying Three 9.41/month for nothing.

My understanding from Rate texts received from Three is that if I make a call or send a text while in the US, I will incur a charge of 5 that will apply for that 24 hour period. However, the reality of the charges above is not that. Can anyone explain what the 4.17 charges for data are for on the dates above?? 

[Gmac65]

Thanks @JonathanB , you've summarized my predicament perfectly. If I was only being charged £5 on the days I made a call or texted, I could understand that. However, it is the £5 charge for data usage on days where I have not used the phone at all, which is my issue. I have tried asking the chat live agents for an explanation of these charges on at least 3 occasions. While they have been very pleasant and tried to be helpful, they have not been able to give me an answer to my question. 2 of them have said it's because I used services on those days - but I didn't. I have made changes to my phone setup which I believe will prevent any mobile data usage for other apps etc, but the data usage charges are still being incurred. If you had any advice on the recommended setup which prevented any data usage but still allowed me to make/receive texts or calls, that would be so helpful.

Thanks

NB - to add insult to injury, my phone has just pinged with a message from Three to say I've incurred £4.17 for today!! I literally have not even had the phone in my hand!!!! 

[JonathanB]

Hi @Gmac65,

Sorry to hear this issue is ongoing for you. It's going to be a difficult one to narrow down on our end as our billing just quantifies data used, we can't actually see what app or websites are being connected to for data protection reasons.

If you've switched data roaming off in your phone settings, then either an app, or iOS itself is overriding this in some way. We've seen a few users mentioning this on the community in the past. It only seems to be reported on iPhones, but we've never been able to narrow down a particular app or setting, and whether this is down to Apple, or a common app.

Off hand, it could be iCloud private relay, this is a sort of VPN/filtering service on Apple's side, which could be causing your background data to go through an Apple server? It's intended as a protection feature from Apple but may be masking data that Three would normally class as free.

I've also seen a feature called Wi-Fi assist cause this sort of issue. It basically combines your cellular and Wi-Fi connection when the Wi-Fi is slow, and has been known to override Data Roaming. I haven't heard of this happening in a few years, but there were a number of instances where speed capped hotel Wi-Fi would trigger this Wi-Fi assist to kick in.

Let me know if either of these seem to be relevant.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[sc1999]

I am not sure but unless you have the data turned off it does not take more than an app trying to use some data to incur the charge. I find it annoying that apps that are supposed to be asleep, or off, to send data. I use duckduckgo on Android as it has active app tracking. In the last 7 days 33 app have made 53,693 tracking attempts. Many of the apps are making tracking attempts even though I have not opened them in days or weeks. I do not know if an app trying to send tracking data is enough for 3 to make the daily charge.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Gmac65,

The notifications are advising £4.17 as this will be the £5 charge pre-VAT. On your monthly bill the VAT is added on the front page when your Direct Debit is calculated, but the itemised billing shows the values before VAT.

The £5 Go Roam daily charge is attributed to the first call, text, or data usage picked up by the network on any particular day, that's why this may show against a call, text or data usage on your itemised bill.

In terms of disputing that data was used, or that there was any renewal or change of contract made, we can't view your account in response to a public post on the community. I'd recommend to get in touch with customer services so that these issues can be investigated further.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[sc1999]

The community is made up of customers and a couple of moderators who occasionally drop by. We have no access to your account.