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? 

[NadiaYan]

Hi all,

I was away in August and September, while I had used roaming in August and paid for it respectively, I intentionally switched off my roaming in September for a month since I knew I will not need it as I had Wi-Fi connection 24/7. Three have charged me roaming charges for this month as well. I was baffled as to why I was receiving messages saying that my daily charge is £1.67. I only turned my roaming on towards the very end of the month since I was travelling back and needed the data. I have been with Three for over 8 years and I get this unfair treatment. Three please start appreciating your customers a bit more and sort this issue once and for all. You cannot have a system reporting incorrect information. I will not leave this until there is a fair resolution to the problem. Thank you!

[BlueyVIII]

After months of trying to get this resolved with no success, I've given up and gone back to EE!!

Having spent many hours on the phone/chat with 3 Customer Support during my frequent foreign business trips I have absolutely confirmed that an Iphone does indeed consume very small amounts of data (<100Kbps per day) even with mobile data turned off. However, this appears to be just enough to trigger the data roaming when abroad.

To confirm this also happens with other networks, I reset the statistics on my wife's (EE) iphone during a recent holiday to the USA and noticed her iphone also consumed this small amount of "system services" data even with mobile data turned off, but hers didn't trigger any EE Data Roaming! Once again, my Iphone on 3 did!

I think 3 could solve this very easily by just increasing the threshold at which data roaming is triggered!

I hope for all their customers sake they this get this fixed soon, but after 6 months of them not taking this seriously I ran out of patience! I genuinely think they don't believe they have an issue and it's all down to users not having their Iphones set-up correctly! When the retention manager (a very nice guy called Deepak) called me to try and convince me not to leave I encouraged him to come and read this thread to see how big a problem they potentially have! I hope he does!  

Good luck to everyone affected, but if you're reading this with a view to moving to the 3 network I would urge caution, particularly if you travel a lot and need use data on an-hoc basis when abroad!

[HD1983]

And its not just iPhones either - it's every single device. I don't have this issue on Voda, or on o2, but i do have this issue on Three. I actually took photos of my data settings turned to off - and Three did refund the charges - but it did take a lot of work. Three is a great network for value - but this is where it really lets all its customers down. If three mobile is going to be the only line you have - don't move to Three. If you have to have several lines and Three serves a particular purpose (like my case) then it's a great option to keep. But if you use it as your main line and you're moving from a network that does have great support and treats its customers fairly in most cases - you'll be disappointed with Three. I still have a few lined with Three and will keep them - but unless i need to roam with them - I'll divert all calls to another line then take the SIM out of the phone entirely prior to departure. If there was only a reliable way to forward SMS - that would make it all bearable. 

[KevinL]

Please write to BBC Watchdog as I know they are interested in hearing from people who have this problem and who have failed to get it resolved.

watchdog@bbc.co.uk

[KevinL]

This issue has affected me in the last few weeks and am in the process of trying to get it resolved through the complaints procedure - see my post below.

https://community.three.co.uk/t5/Account-and-services/0-0009mb-roaming-charges-when-Roaming-switched...

from what I can see Three are still in denial and the only real course of action is to ditch Three as a service provider at the earliest opportunity.

[Andreas]

Happened to me when I went to Asia. I got a few texts saying my Go roam has been activated and would be charged £5.34. I thought since my data roaming is off I wouldn’t get charged. I called three today and had to really fight for my case. It sounds like it’s a big problem just with three? 

[atommyk]

I have since complained via the Ombudsman who accepted the complaint and Three executive office agreed to waive the early termination fee, offer a PAC and provide further refunds as a good will gesture. I can only recommend that path to anyone equally disappointed. 
I did provide a vast amount of well organised evidence - chat transcripts, copy of emails, call logs. Whether that was absolutely necessary I cannot tell, but I’m sure that helped my cause. 

[TVOR1971]

Such a relief to find this thread!  I've had this issue in Brazil in February and in France just last week.  Spoke to someone in the call centre who did seem aware of it and gave the explanation others have said, that tiny amounts of data are transferred when you're in a foreign country and that having Data Roaming set to off doesn't change this.  He said the only way to stop it was to either block the service (which I don't want to do) or leave in Flight Mode, which I'll try next time I'm abroad.  Really annoying and I wish they would sort it out.  It's not so much the money, £2 a day in Europe isn't so bad, but it's the principle.  Why have a Data Roaming setting if it's useless?

[HD1983]

Now - just a thought for a possible solution- what if - you set up an unconditional divert to an alternative number prior to leaving the UK - and synch your phone with google messages online - which allows you to reply and receive text messages on your browser (laptop or phone). Then put your phone in flight mode or better still take out the sim - this may work, allow you to send and receive texts too - but as it never connects to a foreign network - there should never be a charge. This is a long term Three issue - and clearly we know more about it than 90% of their staff. I see this as the drawback for a more economical deal long term. You see if you pay for Voda and o2 - you get Voda and o2. but - if say Voda is charging you 8 times as much - you might be better off on Three - even with this headache. Another workaround is to set credit limit (not spend limit) to 0 and then set it back when you return - apparently that's a failsafe. But as this is Three's approach - it indicates there's no plan to resolve the issue int he near future. For that -there has to be clear admission that the fault exists in the first place. It is a real shame -but this is Three and not Voda. I miss Voda, but not the bills. Voda also have more international partners - but here's the think - even if you look at roaming costs - Three is cheaper. You may be better off just buying a multiple day pass - as there are additional savings to be made there too - and other networks can't compare on pricing - unless of course - you divert all calls to Smarty (run on Three) and use them in Europe - free. Lots of options 🙂 For me - after being Voda for 10 + years - the renewal price was several times higher than Three - who - have very competitive business plans. I keep a spare line on another network as a backup - but have switched multiple lines to Three as a result (apart from the few backup lines).

[atommyk]

I don’t disagree with you at all - after all, it's a personal decision and everybody needs to do the maths themselves to see where the priorities are. For me, the opportunity cost of regularly (routinely...) spending over an hour with Three customer support ranked quite highly in my considerations. Our respective families live in the EU and we can estimate to spend 4-5 weeks per year in Europe - sometimes more (my wife was recently on mat leave). At a cost of £10 for a roaming pass (yes there are third party options out there which come out a bit cheaper, but then you have the hassle of having to engage with Three support all the time when they mistakenly charge you for roaming, as is evident in this thread), this is an added cost of £50 per year. I had a plan with IDMobile previously but was keen to try Smartwatch pairing which is only available on the major networks. So if I spend £170 per year (£14 per month) for my Three plan incl roaming, I have a whole host of options. There's an O2 plan which includes roaming and 30GB for £8 via Uswitch, e.g. That's almost half of what I paid with Three - yes, renewal will come round and then it's about haggling. But if I know I'd have paid £170 with Three anyway, I can 'afford' to go to £15/mo without losing out. 

Just my 2p