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? 

[IBR17XVII]

Jonathan, I appreciate you taking the time to reply to me I really do but honestly, that's not good enough.

As I'm sure you are aware this issue has been going on for months & months with no resolution in sight.

I wouldn't mind so much if your colleagues in your support & complaints department acknowledged this issue but even when you point them to this thread they either ignore it or don't take any responsibility & blame the user for not switching off roaming.

I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get a refund & I certainly shouldn't have to threaten to go to the ombudsman before they will take me seriously. It's a load of hassle that I frankly haven't got the time for & shouldn't have to do in the 1st place.

I am going on holiday in 5 weeks time & I would appreciate your advice as to what I'm supposed to do? My roaming will be off, my spend cap is zero & I have asked to have international roaming removed from my account (which basically renders my phone useless in an emergency) but I still have no confidence at all that I won't be charged.

I will be taking a SIM from another network to use in an emergency but why should I have to do that? Why should I be second guessing all the time if I will be charged?

I've been with Three for a long time & always been satisfied which is why I've never moved networks but if this isn't solved in the very near future & if I get any kind of charge when I am on holiday I will absolutely be leaving.

[portobello]

That says it all

[markieboy7]

I just got back from a 2 week trip from Korea. we knew the costs were huge so bought a 20 day data only sim from the airport. My phone was off leaving the UK and Seoul airport and then removed Three sim and replaced with KT Korean sim. Got bill yesterday showing £6.24 roaming charges in korea. At no point was the phone switched on with three sim installed. had usual weird chat on the website and explained. any no point did they explain the cause just said services were used but they were issuing a credit as I was such an amazing customer ! How on earth can you be charged for roaming when the phone is off?

[portobello]

I am still trying to figure that out, Asking three in the shop or via customer services, none of them have a clue, They keep regurgitating the same garbage, make sure your data is turned off even though you have repeatedly told them that, they basically have nothing else to say. Can't wait until my contract is up. I wonder if any other network has this issue. probably not.

[markieboy7]

Three shop advised phoning 333 and pressing leave contract option. Wife did this yesterday and basically the women looked at the usage and basically repeated my wife had used roaming in South Korea and offered partial refund. My wife told her she wasnt here to negotiate and demanded a full refund. after speaking to her supervisor she got it refunded. Still got 2 kids bills to come so may have the same to do again. absolute waste of time when I went to so much effort to have three SIM cards removed and phone switched off before arriving and somehow we still got roaming charges, how is that even possible ?

[markieboy7]

Update on my story, wife got her bill today, did exactly as I did, phone off and sim out since London. Korean SIM fitted and switched on in Seoul. Apparently she ran up £26 in roaming charges on the day we arrived and then miraculously it stopped at £26 as mine did at £6.24 ! Our two grown up kids were with us so anticipating more nonsense. tried talking to someone on 333 and was very nice but just didnt get that its impossible to run up roaming charges when SIM card removed. customer service useless

[apadley1337]

Due to this issue - I moved to SMARTY - a subsidiary of Three. They bill differently in that you can't buy a roaming pass - you have to PAYG outside Europe to make / receive calls. By adding a Third Party eSIM by a Canadian Company called aloSIM (Referer code TC1L3B7), I was able to use data overseas and at the same time, by adding an Overseas credit to my SMARTY SIM, I could still receive calls in an emergency (in US for example, it's 5p/min to receive calls, but 50p/min to make them - so use something like Skype if you need to call landlines / mobiles a lot - this goes over your data eSIM. If you subscribe to Office 365, you get 60 mins of free Skype calls a month (which Microsoft don't advertise very well). I checked my data log in SMARTY and no charges while overseas - so this issue seems like either a Three specific one or SMARTY are filtering out small data system calls.

[jkasab]

*Ask what your credit limit is set to - mine was £150!**

Three is 100% deceiving customers. I am sorry you have had this experience, I have had ongoing issues since Feb with wrongful data roaming charges - despite having my spent cap set to £0, mobile data and roaming disabled and each individual app turned off in mobile data settings (IPhone 13). On all occasions I have either turned my phone off and on or it it has died and when charged I received a daily roaming charge text.  In some instances, I have incurred these charges at 2am or later when I have been asleep! These times have appeared on my bill as 0.0009MB which I am sure isn't even enough to access an app or the internet?!

I have escalated this numerous times on Three live chat, asking if there is anything else I or they can do to prevent this charges, each time I have been assured there is nothing to do/I can do & will not be charged. 

I wasn't until late March that I was informed my credit limit was to set to £150, not visible from what I can see in the App. Very deceiving from Three, with the occasional credit of £2 or £5 credited hours into the chat, it does not come close to what I have been wrongfully charged. It takes hours of communicating to be told this credit is in "goodwill' or 'just for you, a loyal Three customer'. They say they cannot do this more than once - despite this being a justified refund for incorrect charges!

Appalling. I've since looked into early termination of my contract - of course that wouldn't be simple. I have been given three different amounts for my early termination fee, differs via email, text & live chat.

Best of luck!

[IBR17XVII]

So you still got charged even when you had your cap set to zero?

Three are 100% robbing customers here & won't accept any responsibility.

Any comment on this @JonathanB ?

[jkasab]

Yes! Spend cap was set to £0 as still incurred charges. Since my credit limit has been set to £1, I haven’t received additional thus far. Hopefully that’s the end of it.