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? 

[MZone]

From Apple’s support pages: Wi-Fi Assist won't automatically switch to cellular if you're data roaming. 

[LeM]

Nope - both of us had Wi-fi assist turned off as well as mobile data off and data roaming off. I've checked the dates and exact times of the charges and it was on some (but only some) of the occasions when I connected to a wi-fi network. So I think its a problem with a misclassification (by Three or its partners) of the exchange between the iphone and some wi-fi networks/providers. They classify it as user data when its just some data sent from the phone to the wifi hub to establish a connection. This used to be called a 'hand-shake' in the good ol' days but no one uses the term anymore - maybe that's why they can't 'see' the problem.

[Jnet80]

Three called me back regarding my complaint for the roaming charges. Said the charges still stand as we accessed data whilst abroad. Obviously I pointed out again that we did not and that we had a spending cap put on this account after the last time this happened so it wouldn't happen again. Got put through to the complaints department who said the spending cap for calls and minutes were set at 0 but data was set at £45. In which I replied, why would I set that at £45 when that was the whole reason the spending cap was put in place. They offered me a £10 goodwill gesture, I declined, why should I pay for something we didn't use and took every step to ensure we wouldn't use data abroad. He has now escalated the complaint, could be up to 7 days before I get a response. Its a nice money making racket for three!

[danielshanahan]

Good luck with this, hope it gets sorted. Unfortunately it seems like the staff have basically been educated on what to say and you can only get somewhere if you keep pushing. Shame that Apple and Three can't work out how to get around this issue, I'm sure it's a simple fix. However to two big companies like this, the issue is probably not even on their radar 😞

[apadley1337]

The issue is not with Apple. All phones send data to the roaming partner even when roaming is off, to validate the phone is not stolen, the SIM is not blocked etc. The issue is the roaming partner and Three are not filtering that data properly so Three think it's user data so you are getting billed.

[danielshanahan]

I now have a spending cap of £1. I turned off both Mobile Data and Data Roaming this weekend when I was in Copenhagen. I have not been charged as yet and there is no 0.0009MB data usage showing. So clearly either the spend cap or the turning off of Mobile Data (in addition to my usual turning off of Data Roaming) has mitigated the issue. Unfortunately, I don't know which one it was!

[markieboy7]

posted here a few times about our issues. Flew London to Seoul via Munich. removed SIM cards in Munich, switched phones off. arrived in Seoul and all 4 of us ( 2 grown up kids ) inserted Korean SIM into iPhones ( 1 sim space ) and turned on our phones to get Korean network. I got charged £7 and wife £26 for roaming the day we arrived but not any other time in the 2 weeks. kicked up a fuss and they refunded but still said we used data which clearly would have been impossible. waited for kids bills to have the same nonsense but they didnt get charged anything yet we all followed the same steps and have the same phones and plans?

[slbarron23]

I opened another complaint since they closed mine after trying to call me once. Said again I must have used it and as the bill had not yet been paid they couldn’t do anything anyway. Then when they realised I had already left three said there was no way to refund me anyway! Asked if they could close the complaint, I said no since it wasn’t resolved. Randomly got an email yesterday refund £5.45 (my charges this month were £8 +Vat) 

I’m on o2 now and only paying £8 a month for 40gb plus free eu roaming 

[atommyk]

That's amazing, where did you find that deal? I can only find SIMO deals for £15+ on O2 (still better than having to spend hours with Three support if that gets rid of the roaming issues...)

[slbarron23]

I went through uswitch - just checked and still some great o2 deals on there!