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? 

[ZoeM]

Hi Jonathan,

Sorry for the long copy/paste - I've posted this comment in-thread below too, just wanted to ensure you saw it soon, as my bill payment is impending and I need help getting this charge removed. Thanks.

I too have got this problem. Went away a month ago at end of November 2023 to USA. Before I departed the UK, I switched off data roaming on my phone - iPhone SE 2022, iOS 16.6.1 - and also switched off mobile data on the Three SIM. This is because I would be using an American e-SIM (Maya Mobile) for mobile data roaming for the duration of my stay, which I had uploaded and activated whilst still in the UK.

On arrival in the USA, my American e-SIM worked perfectly, I could see I was using data on that e-SIM and I had no text message from Three saying 'Welcome to the USA', so I assumed everything was fine and my Three SIM was not data roaming. However, 36 hours later - at 01:37AM - a text message from Three arrived saying "Your daily roaming charge is £4.17 excluding VAT..." and that I could use my "plan's allowances for 24 hours at no extra charge". I couldn't understand why data roaming had kicked in, when it was switched off (I checked, and took screenshots) and I was using the e-SIM for mobile data.

Because I didn't want to get further incorrect roaming charges added to my Three bill, I immediately switched off my Three SIM. This solved the issue of any further texts and roaming charges being applied, but meant I wasn't able to get phone calls for the rest of my week-long trip and had to inform all my friends, family and colleagues to only message me via Whatsapp (ie. using data, not the phone network). I should not have had to do this, but I didn't want to return to a huge roaming bill, when I wasn't even using Three data!

On checking my bill which arrived a couple of days ago, I can see that on the night I was charged the £5 roaming fee, 0.0009 MB of data was apparently used "for Data usage while roaming outside EU" - but clearly this is an error, as I hadn't connected to the phone network once, had data roaming off, and was using an e-SIM for mobile data. A Google search led me here, so I am adding my experience to this forum post to ensure this matter is fully investigated and solved. I want this charge removed immediately, can anyone advise how best I should go about this?

Zoe

[Mmm]

I started having the same issue in September 2023 as well. Also on iPhone, I get a text message on random days (not every day, sometimes it's every other, sometimes it's once in 4 days). The text message usually comes at night, but also arrived at midday one day. Mobile data and roaming are both switched off on my iPhone. I have contacted customer service about this problem twice by now. Both times they offered £10 voucher against my bill. That's all lovely but very temporary solution that doesn't solve anything. I have also been advised for my spending cap to be set to 0 which obviously prevents from any phone calls being made in case of a possible emergency. And another solution offered was to remove the sim card from my mobile device whilst being abroad - outrageous! They of course also ensured me it will not happen again because they put a note on my account that I shouldn't be charged, LOL! I am travelling with my partner who has exactly the same phone and same configuration as myself and is also a Three customer yet doesn't have this issue, why that is a mystery. I don't think the billing customer service quite understands it is a technical issue and most likely suspects I am secretly using mobile data despite me stressing multiple times that I have them switched off. I have requested to speak to a technical support, I highly doubt it will change a thing for me. Good luck to you all, I might be leaving Three if this continues.

[JonathanB]

Hi @Mmm,

I'm sorry to hear you've been affected by this issue, we're still looking into what may be causing this, but I'll PM you some details to get you in touch with some colleagues that can collect some information for our investigation.

It may be helpful to be able to gather info from your partner too if they have the same phone and set up, but aren't experiencing this.

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

[antinbath]

I've replied elsewhere but have the same issue. Within 2 minutes of landing in Japan I had a text saying I'd used 100% of my roaming allowance. Roaming is off. I'm using an eSIM for data, not Three.

A few hours later a text that I've maxed out my spending. When I log in to my account I have zero roaming data usage. 

Online help didn't resolve the issue, just kept repeating I'd used my data. 

having had issues when in France I screenshotted my settings when I landed so I can prove roaming was off. 

[bronxboy]

@JonathanB please read my post above which I have copied in part here:

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.

I logged into my account this morning - I know without a doubt that this week I did not use any mobile data - all my usage was on WIFI 

However, every day small amounts of data have in fact been used.

Whether this is an iphone issue or not, I do not know - but definitely data is being used. In UK it just comes off the monthly allocation - but when travelling, even that small amount would trigger the daily roaming charge.

A VERY BIG ISSUE THAT NEEDS FIXING OR THREE WILL LOSE MANY CUSTOMERS 

[apadley1337]

No need to shout. I've already left 3 because of this issue and taken my three other family members with me. Was actually quite quick - but get your PAC code via text - don't bother calling. Hopefully 3 will get this fixed. Only reason posting is because I quite liked the 3 service over the years, when go-roam was included in the pricing and disliked some of the competitors but markets change and hopefully 3 will too. That being said, I've only moved to SMARTY, which is owned by 3 so they still get my money, but it's a different plan so won't get affected by these issues with legacy 3.

[JonathanB]

Hi @apadley1337,

Thanks for continuing to check in with the community in spite of switching I do appreciate your feedback. From what we're gathering this small amount of data is triggering in the UK too, it's just that it won't be impacting the bills.

Have you noticed the same behaviour on Smarty, or when testing any other SIM out of interest?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[apadley1337]

Not anything specific as I haven't travelled overseas yet. I have been looking at 'Wi-Fi Assist' which is in 'Settings->Mobile Data' and at the bottom is a setting called 'wifi-assist'. If this is on, it automatically uses mobile data when wi-fi is poor'. I checked on my phone and this was set to 'on'. It shouldn't work but unfortunately I'm not able to check it now as I'm not overseas. Perhap others who have been seeing this problem, could see if it's enabled on their phone? 

May be some sort of race condition that the phone can't see wi-fi, switches to cellular before it has a chance to check roaming settings... just speculation here for now.

[JonathanB]

Hi @apadley1337,

Thanks for getting back to me, and though it is speculation, your logic is sound. WiFi assist certainly could cause this. I've seen scenarios in the past where slow Wi-Fi abroad has triggered charges, like the sort of capped connections you get in hotels/public transport for example. So it may be something similar here too.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Gurj]

Out of interest does your partner have WiFi Calling turned off while you have it turned on?
Just wondering if we can narrow this down to s setting we can use to avoid the charge.

It's also possible (perhaps likely) that this is just an issue with Apple software and how it manages network access.