Charged for roaming data I didn’t use

[Nelsonc95033]

I landed in Morocco today at 19:07 with airplane mode on. I turned it off for 30 seconds so i could activate my eSIM but by 19:08 I got a text saying I’d been charged £5 for roaming. Then another text at 19:08 saying I’d been charged *another* £5. I quickly turned airplane mode back on and turned off all cellular data. When I got onto Wi-Fi a few hours later I received a text saying I’d now been charged £25 in roaming data. How could I possibly have used 4.25mb of data when my phone has only left airplane mode for a total of 30 seconds and data roaming and cellular data have been turned off all day? I bought an eSIM for a reason so I could avoid insane roaming charges but now I’m being charged for data I’ve never even used. 

[StephR]

Hi @Nelsonc95033, thanks for joining us here at Three Community. I’m sorry you’ve had an unexpected charge for data usage. I get that’s not ideal news to hear on your first night away.

Smartphones are designed to keep themselves updated, and many apps will constantly look for a data or Wi-Fi connection to provide push notifications or to refresh information. This means that even if a network connection is made very briefly, it’s possible for your phone to use a surprising amount of data.

As Morocco isn’t one of our Go Roam destinations, standard roaming charges do apply there. For data, that’s £6 per MB. So the situation you’ve described does seem to be as expected.

I do appreciate though, that you were simply trying to activate an eSIM at the time. I’ve therefore sent you a few details on how to get in touch for us to take a closer look at this for you.

StephR

[WabiSabi]

Steph, I have a massive problem with data roaming: I am on Pay as you Go since I moved to Continental Europe and everything worked perfectly until now - I left for a trip around the world (Canada at the time), had Roaming disabled when I turned the phone on for the first time - and received 2 texts immediately that said I had used more than 35GBP on data… in 1minute. 20mins ago (USA/Hawaii now) I turned the phone on for the 2nd time (up until now I had used my German mobile) & received 5 more texts from September telling I had used even more! This time without even turning the phone on. I am really frustrated! Please help… I am also trying to log into my account, but apparently all the security codes are being so delayed that I put in a wrong one three times… (I hit ‚haven‘t received a code a few times.. ‌🙄)‌ - please let me know what I can do to be able to use my UK phone as a back-up at least. Many thanks! Sabine 

[DJarry]

Same here despite data and roaming turned off

was also welcomed by three to turkey when I landed in India

no help from online chat