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? 

[stewjoin]

Thanks. So there only seems to be 2 options change phone or change network provider in order to stop these charges.

[atommyk]

Quite. I’m back in the EU and not getting charged as long as spend cap is on 0. As soon as I increase that I’ll get charged. However, without an increase in the spend cap I can also not make any calls to the UK - so, one is a bit stuck really. I’ll aim to change away from three with broadband, smartwatch and iPhone contract as soon as I’m able to (Feb 2025 at the latest). 

[GordonP]

For my 2 days of roaming charges while I had roaming switched off on my iPhone 15 pro max I was given £5 credit for the £4 roaming charges. They said it was a good will guesture as I didn’t know about the charges. I clearly told them that I knew about roaming charges and that is why I had roaming switched of from before I entered Spain and to after I had left. And I told them about this forum. Still the response was that I had used roaming abroad and they would waiver the charge this time with the £5 credit. Not very honest from my point of view, but got charges back. Will have to do the same for next months charges, which is frustrating.

[ZoeM]

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? (I'm going to copy/paste this comment to Jonathan from Three above, in the hope that he will come back to me swiftly. Thanks.)

ZM

[atommyk]

You'll have to contact Three support either via phone or via chat. I don't think that Jonathan will be able to help you with issues regarding the bill. When I have the same issue in September, I successfully contested my bill with the three support and while that took some discussion, they eventually refunded me the extra charges. 

[ZoeM]

Thanks, I will do so - and point them towards this forum post if they try to deny responsibility...

[atommyk]

What really grinds me is that there is seemingly no way out of this mess. A recent example - parts I have previously reported: I travelled to Austria in Sept/Oct. At the beginning, switched off roaming and used an eSIM. Received daily notifications of roaming use despite this (sub-1kB data usage overnight as outlined before), so when the eSIM ran out, I bought a Go Roam Pass for 7 days. After a subsequent complaint, my roaming charges were dropped for the first week - as a 'goodwill gesture'. It's very obvious that I didn't 'use' any data as the charges were triggered by once daily <1kB data transfers - so you wonder why Three tech support can't filter for that adequately.

Fast forward, beginning of December. I arrive in Austria on 03/12 for 6 days - daily roaming charge triggered on arrival. I try to purchase a Go roam pass but can't as one is active on my account. I contact Three support via chat, and the support agent states 1) he can see the Go Roam pass being active 2) I should not worry despite receiving daily texts regarding the charges, this would be sorted out prior to issuing the next bill - and if it wasn't, I should contact them and it would be rectified.

Late December, I visit Portugal for 5d, and the same texts arrive regarding charges. Again, I try to purchase a Go Roam pass but not available as the previous one is active.

My bill arrives 28/12 - no surprises, daily roaming charges present on the bill amounting to >£15. I contact Three customer support, and I am told I was 'informed about the charges via phone' (referring to the texts I can only assume). After another 'good-will gesture' of £10 being on offer, I got rather angry as I had proof in writing that this should be sorted out as per Three customer services. Eventually, the £15 are waived, but I'm put in touch with customer relations to escalate my complaint. They offer a further more generous discount, but the upshot is that all that Three can recommend is to set the spend cap to £0 to avoid further charges in future, and if I can't purchase a Go Roam Pass I ought to contact them to reset the account. Apparently the spend cap will still allow me to make phone calls - I feel uncomfortable not having the ability to make phone calls in case of emergencies (even if that was construed as a 'rather odd situation' by customer support) but we will see how this all pans out.

Logging into my account right now, I still cannot purchase a new Go Roam Pass. When removing the allegedly 'active' one, the app crashes and won't allow me to proceed. I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I next travel. On the whole a rather unhappy situation still - I appreciate that Three really is the discount network out there, but the sheer challenges encountered every time I travel make me want to leave and join e.g. O2, just so that the whole roaming issues go away.

[GordonP]

I’ve also been charges for bill ending 23/12/2023 for 2 days roaming when roaming is switched off.

I will open a complaint.

[GordonP]

Judging by the text messages on those days I will be charged in my next bill as well.

Very frustrating when you are so careful to put all of the right settings and you still get charged.

[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?