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]

Surely that's got to be absolutely impossible?!?!?!

[LL63]

So sick of this issue. Landed in Spain 17/4 with roaming off (have screenshot). Did not use until following morning. Happy to pay for it when I use it but not when I don’t. Has happened on other occasions & raise the issue via webchat charge is refunded. Not this time. Received v curt msg from them this morning saying they’d looked into it & there was no issue & case closed. No opportunity to respond. 
Seriously thinking about leaving 3 as don’t have hours to sort out issues that shouldn’t be happening in the first place. 

[atommyk]

Clearly we all need to take some time and write 1) formal complaints and at the same time 2) to the ombudsman complaining about these business practices. 

[portobello]

That's what they do, send you a message saying they are looking into it and then maybe one minute later send another saying there are no issues, They know there are big issues but they don't care. Go through the Ombudsman, They soon change their minds when they are involved.

[MZone]

Try sending them a Tweet. Find you get a better response from the social media team 😉

[IBR17XVII]

Let's not forget either that 3 effectively forced the roaming charge on me by removing my old contract that had roaming included.

@JonathanBI would like your confirmation that if I have a zero spend cap & international roaming is removed from my account that I will not be charged.

[LisaJH]

Pleased to have found this thread! Just had another bill from Three where they have charged me for roaming when roaming was turned off on my phone. Spoke to the Billing department and the only solution offered was to put a "zero spending cap" on my account so that I cannot be charged for roaming when abroad. How can they charge me when roaming is switched off? We have 2 iphones, one on Three and one on EE. The settings on both identical. EE did not charge my husband for roaming but Three did charge me. This has happened a couple of times in the past 12 months (we travel a lot,) and I had put it down to issues with the e-sims we were using but it just can't be the case. It seems the only way to avoid roaming charges with Three is to switch the device off. 

[IBR17XVII]

I have set my spend cap to zero & removed roaming from my account so I'm hoping that should be enough.

I still need to receive texts so taking the SIM out would be a last resort.

[MZone]

I have experienced this myself on iPhone 14 Pro Max whilst in Spain. Luckily I got the £2 a day roaming charges refunded via live chat for the 3 days it triggered using the tiniest amount of data. Appears to happen when you switch your phone on after it’s been switched off or when your phone dies so you plug it into charge and then it switches itself on. Very odd and never experienced this issue on any other network. Think roaming should just be free in the EU and then they wouldn’t have to worry about this issue as much. 

[LeM]

Went to our local shop - the agent there confirmed that this is a problem he sees frequently (several times a week). It even happened to him a few months back and he was unable to resolve it. He says that to avoid charges you either have to use a different non-3 sim abroad, or leave your phone at home. He has passed complaints up the chain and the management are not listening.
I suspect that charging for a service which is not requested or agreed to, must contravene consumer laws. This sounds like 'mis-selling'. Any lawyers out there?