Free EU roaming

[dinnertime]

Eu roaming charges seem to be very much on the way back for UK customers. As many of us in the UK will now be returning, or thinking of returning, to international travel as covid restrictions ease, is it time for government action on this to compel these companies to remove these unjustified charges?

[coglioncello]

Most of the UK operators are keeping free roaming...the roaming charges 3 has introduced are excessive. Can this be escalated please? 

[JonathanB]

Hi coglioncello,

We appreciate that the free Go Roam was a fantastic benefit of Three contracts over the years. The decision to introduce daily charges was a difficult one, and only made after careful consideration, and we've made every effort to keep the charges to a minimum.

We're always happy to pass on feedback though, thanks for continuing to contribute to the Three Community.

JonathanB

[sc1999]

Jonathan, how about a lesson in roaming economics? Who charges who? Does 3 charge foreign networks and do they charge 3 or is it another profit centre?

[JonathanB]

Hi sc1999,

I totally appreciate the interest in this but there's little more that I can share. I can confirm we do pay the host operators abroad so that customers can roam.

Due to the volume of the underlying costs, we've made this difficult decision to set these daily charges, but it was identified as the best solution. Customers are clear on what they pay, it's a fixed amount, and in proportion to time spent roaming by each customer.

JonathanB

[cgkhive]

The fraud scandal by Three is reducing what they pay to host operators abroad by sending false information to Three customers.  

I've wasted a minimum of 3 man days on chat (being asked so many mundane irrelevant questions to waste time) and speaking to complaints department.   

While abroad, I was told I had used my 12GB fair usage roaming allowance.  My wife the same.  Three were unable to do anything until the next bill came out.  That showed we had used about 6GB and 2GB from memory.  And I was going abroad on another holiday so needed to have it resolved.

Three told me the over-reporting was a known issue with moving to a new IT system and should have been sorted, and I should reset my phone stats then monitor and as long as the Roaming stats were less than 12GB, I would be fine.  Sure enough, I got an SMS saying I was 80% through my 12GB monthly allowance.  Yet my accurate roaming data usage on the phone was only 2.2GB.  

[DK1083]

Just about to purchase 14 day Go Roam passes for EU but not sure if I should now having read these posts. Have the over reporting of data use issues been resolved?

[cgkhive]

I’ve not been abroad to test again. I suggest you do what Three told me to do. Reset your statistics on your phone which shows data usage and roaming data usage (certainly on iPhone anyway), before you leave UK, then when abroad as long as that remains under 12GB, ignore any messages you may get about over usage. 
Take screenshot of data at zero - proves date you did it - and when you get back. Then simply wait for next bill which will most likely reflect the actual usage.  Only annoyance is the man hours/days you will spend if necessary trying to get Three to comprehend. 

[sc1999]

If you check the dates of the posts there have not been any recent complaints. 

[sc1999]

Thank you.                                    .