Roaming charges whilst data roaming turned off

[bcracknell]

I was on holiday in the US last month and had data roaming turned off before I even left the UK. At no point did I turn my data roaming on. Three texted me randomly at 3 points during my trip saying hello and welcome to the USA, outlining the costs associated with using my phone whilst in the USA. These texts were not telling me I was using my data, just letting me know I could. I've just received my bill to find I've been charged 3x £5 plus VAT for roaming services whilst in the USA. I can see on my bill that these supposed usages were really tiny amounts of data, <10MB. When I tried to dispute these charges, stating that I had my date roaming turned off the entire time,  I was told there was no way the system could be incorrect. However, clearly, the system is wrong if I can be charged tiny amounts of data usage whilst my data roaming is turned off. Please can you advise what I can do in this situation? 

[bronxboy]

I was in New York City last month. I am on PAYG so I do not get charged the daily roaming fee. I have my mobile data switched off as WIFI hotspots are plentiful in NYC. When I do need to use mobile data, I manually turn it on, then turn it off when done.

Between 7 October and 14 October, each day sometimes a bit before 00:00 and sometimes a bit after 00:00 (UK TIME i assume) my usage shows that small amounts of data - as little as 7 KB and as much as 865 KB - did come off my data allocation. 1000% sure I was on WIFI only at those times.

So I fully understand why people are getting charged - total rip off !

I have also noticed here in UK, if I remove a 3 SIM, put in another SIM (say O2) for a few minutes - then re-insert the original 3 SIM, a small amount of data (12 kb) will be used.

FYI - I use a iPhone.

Good luck trying to get a credit - perhaps this needs to be sent to someone like Martin Lewis - tends to be pretty good at getting awareness for rip offs like this.

[apadley1337]

To be fair, I've had a good experience from 3 in refunding the charges. They can't really deny them - a 1KB data charge is not something a person can really do. On that note, I do travel a lot and can't be fighting 3 every time I go overseas, so have decided to leave as my contract is up; they can't run a service in this state - it's not fit for purpose.

[Gurj]

I agree. I travel a lot too so if this isn't fixed by my next renewal it will be the same for me and my family.

[apadley1337]

Just updated to iOS 17.1 over hotel wifi ( to see if it made a difference). Phone rebooted and as soon as I put in my Three SIM PIN  code, I got charged. No 'Welcome to the USA' message this time though ( and I was on hotel wifi the whole time). Roaming and wifi calling both off for the Three SIM. 

[apadley1337]

As an addition to this, Ive found that if you turn your phone off ( power off) then as soon as you power it back on, you will be charged but dont get a Welcome to USA' message.

[JonathanB]

I do recall something similar happening a number of years ago, it might have been on the iPhone 4 or 5 and I was with a different provider then, but essentially the software was failing to turn data roaming off or activate flight mode till after some other checks were ran after powering back on.

There's also historically been issues with iPhone's Wi-Fi assist feature bypassing data roaming settings, and using mobile data to prop up weaker Wi-Fi speeds. This tended to be particularly common when users were on hotel Wi-Fi as these tend to be speed limited.

We've got a few examples passed over now, so we'll let you all know as soon as we figure out the root cause. It still seems to universally be an iPhone issue, so I do suspect that there's a setting triggering this, or a software bug.

[Gurj]

I raised a formal complaint with Three a week ago and just got a call where they acknowledged there is something wrong and credited me back the ~£190 of excess charges across 4 SIMs.
I then followed the instruction above and contacted the social media chat team and they wanted to do the same.

The chat team can only help with the refund and the investigation is another dept so I wasn't able to provide any more help for that.

@apadley1337 Try turning off the SIM for a couple of days. I think that will confirm you don't then get any charges.
Also you could try turning off WiFi Calling to see if that is the cause (there was a suggestion earlier that it might be a setup message related to that).

[apadley1337]

I, too, have been in contact with the team at three and had the initial charges refunded. Good call about WiFi calling, I'll try it to see if I get charged again. I'll do the same in my other phone (wife's) that doesn't have an eSIM. May just be a simple call that the SIM does to call home to update your settings while you roam. Who knows. I'll keep an eye on the forum to see anyway. 

**Just checked on wifes phone and she has wifi calling already turned off but still got charged. **

[apadley1337]

Got hit yesterday again, seven days after getting the first charge, in the USA. Ive already been in the USA for a week but yesterday, got another Welcome to the USA message, during day, seemingly randomly, then got charged immediately afterwards for a days roaming. Why do I get a second 'Welcome to the USA' message while I've been in the USA for a week already. Seems like whatever is triggering this type of message and the  triggering of the daily charge could be linked?

[JonathanB]

Hey everyone,

I've sent a PM to everyone that's replied on this thread. Please have a chat with the team I've directed to there and they'll help gather some more info from your accounts for our investigation.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan