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? 

[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

[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. 

[rossmac100]

I am also suffering from this same issue! It turns out it has been happening since February, using up my GoRoam passes unbeknownst to me...  Wild, considering I was in South Africa and GoRoam doesn't apply there. And then I get hit with a bill which is £40 higher than expected for October. To add insult to injury, upon being text to say I was being charged £5/day to be in Australia, I spoke with the support team via chat who assured me there were no additional charges on my account. Oh, and, of course, when I raised the issue on the phone and via support chat (both first level and complaints, then with an escalation to the billing team for 'investigation') I was told that the billing is all correct. I'm tearing my hair out with frustration and have no idea what to do. I've done nothing wrong! Extract from one of my previous bills shown for reference.

[JonathanB]

Hi @rossmac100,

Thanks for sharing this earlier bill, so it looks like the small amount of data was still happening back in May, but didn't trigger a Go Roam charge? Just to check have you upgraded at all since this bill generated in May 23?

Thanks,
Jonathan

[rossmac100]

Sorry for the slow response. No SIM upgrades since May. I was on an iPhone 13 Pro Max in May and an iPhone 15 Pro Max in recent weeks - same issue with both devices. It seems that whilst a GoRoam charge wasn't applied, the 0.0009MB of data usage used up one of my 56 GoRoam passes (odd, considering I wasn't in a GoRoam destination), and once those ran out I started being charged. 

[JonathanB]

Hey @rossmac100,

No need to apologise. I appreciate you taking the time to reply. Just to clarify you lost a number of roaming passes on the April/May usage you shared before, or was that a more recent situation? Just checking as most reported instances of this only started in September.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[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

[IBR17XVII]

Add my name to the ever growing list as well.

Data roaming literally never on & tiny amounts of data are triggering the charge. WiFi assist also off.

TBH it's not good enough. I'm fortunate enough to go away a few times a year & this is happening literally every time I leave the UK. I've then got to go through the hassle of live chat, wait for a response etc etc.

Amending your spending cap to nil shouldn't be the answer. What if you do need to use your phone abroad? 

My contract is up in 4 months & although I have been with 3 for about 15 years I will quite happily go to another provider where this doesn't happen.

[eug333]

Hi all - also adding this has happened to me countless times over the last year. Not sure yet if there is a formal fix for this. I am currently overseas and will raise a live chat ticket when open. Would appreciate if the moderator could also add my details into this investigation?