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? 

[HD1983]

Do contest the bill - of you push and push they will admit the fault and re-imbourse you. I have moved all my Three lines to Three Business - but use another network for my main line - to avoid issues like this int he future. I use the Three SIM purely for data in a handset or as a hotspot - and hopefully will have some other provisions for roaming. Let's see - i'm not looking forward to having to query the bill again the next time 🙂

[AndyB]

I am in the same position, roaming switched off, phone locked in a safe and I was in bed at the time they say the phone used data. I can't contest it until the bill is produced, which is ridiculous as they know there will be a charge. There is something fundamentally wrong here. Clearly a money making scam, or is it fraud. 

[Hunain1983]

Just sent you a really long and detailed reply. Unfortunately the Three system crashed while uploading it - kind of like how their billing system struggles to cope with incorrect roaming charges 😞

[Hunain1983]

Really disappointed this is still happening though - it's fraud in the sense that Three know about the problem and are knowingly billing incorrectly. It's not fraud in the sense that they will refund you. problem is you have to train their staff on the issue each time as they don't which is what leads to the pain and suffering. But they are a freindly and polite bunch though 🙂

[KevinL2]

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.

http://watchdog@bbc.co.uk

[AndyB]

Just spent another long session with their customer service team. Now they admit my complaint is valid and have offered to refund the charge and even offered a very small compensation. I have told them I'm not interested in the money, that just resolves the symptom. I want to know what causes this to happen and their technical team should be able to provide an answer as it is not unique to me. I've forwarded my transcripts to the BBC. Thanks for the advice.

[SledgeHammer]

I’ve had the same thing and was told “if you use roaming these are the charges” just waiting for my bill to contest it.

[HD1983]

In addition to my previous reply - if you set your spend cap to 0 - this won't happen as far as I'm aware. you can increase it with immediate effect at any point.

[LL63]

I was told the cap does not apply to foreign telco charges as it is out of 3 UK domain. So in other words setting cap is useless.