I paid for roam in europe but it never worked.

[Gregster1970]

Hi there,

I recently purchased the 14 day europe roaming add on for £24. When I was in europe, my phone wouldn't work, so I had a chat online with an assistant (Rohan) who basically said "That doesn't work on your plan". I told him I puchased it as an add on for my plan and again was told "That doesn't work for your plan". I appreciate we all have a bad day from time to time but I have been with Three for at least 14 years and never had an issue. I am genuinely not happy with the responses and have saved the chat log but my contract ends on the 4/4/2025 (Rohan was super quick to tell me that) and genuinely feel I will be going elsewhere, as I go abroad very often.

Anyone else had this experience? Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance

[Blakeji]

I’ve experienced a similar problem with Three this month. I flew to the USA and bought a 14 day data pass add-on using the 3 app. I didnt receive a confirmation text or email. I tried everything to see if the service was working, and it wasnt. So i thought maybe the purchase hadnt gone through, so ordered the pass again. After allthat, nothing. The following morning i found a cafe with wifi and called the customer services (in india) and spent the next hour and a half of holiday restarting my phone and trying different things, to no avail. I used to work at an IT help desks so im a bit tech savvy. The service never worked for my 2 weeks away, and upon returning to the uk last week i only then received 2 texts confirming i had signed up for the add ons. Obviously there is something wrong on three’s side. Now im having to fight three to remove the charges for two add-ons at£60 each. If i dont get some satisfaction i intend to go to various consumer platforms to tell them my experience. 

[Moonriver375]

I have purchase a £24 add on to my granddaughters phone as she is in Spain st the moment. It’s not working either. They insist it should be but it’s not. It’s ruining her holiday and she wants to come home. Did you resolve it?

[JonathanB]

Hi @Moonriver375,

I'm sorry to hear this. I think the Add on not activating may be masking some other underlying issue. These add ons activate automatically as soon as you use your call, text, or data allowances.

Assuming her data roaming is switched on in the phone, it's worth testing network/carrier selection on manual in the phone settings. By testing any other local networks, this should help confirm if there's an issue with the network her phone connected to automatically.

If she still can't get service, we'd recommend to check in with customer services again. Most likely, either roaming isn't active on the account, or a spend or credit limit is preventing her from accessing the services.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[JonathanB]

Hi @Gregster1970,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience whilst abroad recently, and it's disappointing that we didn't find a solution. It's a very odd situation, as the Add on not working, wouldn't prevent you from getting a connection whatsoever though, if you don't have a compatible add on, your SIM should still connect on the standard roaming rates for the destination.

Where were you visiting? Does our Roaming destination checker confirm this is a Go Roam in Europe destination? For example if I choose France, and Pay Monthly the page shows:

When you said your phone didn't work, did it not connect to a network at all, or were you encountering error message when trying to call or connect to data? This may help us understand what went wrong a little better.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Gregster1970]

Thanks for the reply. I will be charged the £24 when my bill is paid (even though I coul;dn't use it). I have a zero spend cap on my phone after I previously went abroad and spent over £60 by using the ships internet (my mistake). I thought it safer to just buy the add on and use that but instead, I got treated like an idiot and even after a couple of weeks, I am still fuming. It wasn't even about the money but more I was told "you can't have that with your package" (I have the advanced package). Honnestly I am so disappointed with the customer service that it has just left me annoyed. I work for Hutcison (Harwich International) and I would never speak to a customer like that (annd many try my patience).

Anyways, again, thanks for your help and it was appreciated. 

[MZone]

Did you get a text message when you arrived abroad letting you know the rates for that country?