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? 

[Gurj]

Having had this issue several times last year and got £100's back in unfair charges, this year I have been turning off the Three SIM when abroad and using an ESIM or just WiFi. That's a pain because I can't receive SMS messages for some online services that still authenticate that way only.

Setting a Spend Cap did work for me, at limiting the charges last year when not turning off the Three SIM.

It's a shame Three's technical team are either still in denial or simply can't figure this out!!

[cinone]

I think that when you are abroad your phone connects to local networks, so even receiving SMS messages is a roaming charge, I wish I was wrong but I doubt it. If you didn't pay for roaming, you need to avoid any connection with foreign networks, so either in flight mode and using wi-fi, or it should work having set roaming and data off with a spending cap 0. Or accept the £2 daily charge for Europe if you're staying a week is £14, it can't be over it

[HD1983]

Yes you do get charged. Its an ongoing fault on the Three network, regardless of what device you use. Every 24 hours, it downloads between 1 and 5 kb, charging you for the entire day's roaming. even with the data turned off ands the SIM in flight mode. the only way around is to take the sim out before you travel / take off entirely. Initially customer support will deny the issue exists. After redirecting them to information online, theyll then claim you must have used some data. After continued pressure, they'll cave and admit the issue. The suggestion is that sim checks in with cell sites once a day if it is in any handset and that handset is turned on - regardless of settings. Setting your spend limit to 0 wont stop this. You'll need to set your "credit limit" to 0 - which poses a problem if you do need to use it in an emergency. This is Three's achilles heel unfortunately. Three is a great network with a value based service - but if you want reliability - you have to pay for it in the form of a backup SIM - especially where roamng is concerned.

[atommyk]

I’ve since complained to the Ombudsman. Unsurprisingly, when attempting to make a phone call abroad despite using a go Roam pass I was unable to. 

[HD1983]

This is such a shame - Three need to get roaming right. They're pricing is great - their systems aren't. I moved from Vodafone - which is very pricey - but the difference in system and product are clear - Three have a long way to go...depending on the merger

[cinone]

Hello, are you getting charged for roaming even if in Settings, Mobile Data is off?

[atommyk]

Difficult to tell. I certainly got charged when ‘roaming’ in mobile data options was off. I don’t think I ever ran the exact comparison with mobile data completely off, as my default position, if not on a go roam pass, would be to use an eSIM for which mobile data would be activated. 

// of note, ombudsman has accepted the complaint and started the case with the network. Let’s see what happens 

[revs]

Just had this same thing - Roaming is off, I have an eSIM for data.
0.0009MB for a couple days when I was away, and charged > £4 each day.

[HD1983]

As its affecting several people using different devices in different locations - it's clearly a Three Network issue. It needs to be sorted 

[revs]

They closed my case within a few hours and said nothing is wrong. Guess I have to waste everyone's time and open up a complaint.

They say 1KB of data was used. If roaming was on for even a moment, it would use way more than 1KB.