Roaming charges

[Chrissy]

Hi,

I went recently to continental Europe for just over two weeks. Before leaving the UK i turned roaming data off on my iPhone however, during my stay abroad I got charged for using data 5 times. Any ideas what could've triggered the data charges? I have an eSIM installed on my iPhone as it's simply cheaper than Three's daily charge, yet still got charged for using data despite turning it off completely. Any ideas welcome

[apadley1337]

The charge appears as a 1kB data charge and happened a minute after both phones got the 'Welcome to the USA' message just after we landed. Roaming was off the whole time on both phones so whatever is being sent by the SIM is an SMS message but it is being billed as a data message.

[JonathanB]

Hey everyone,

We're still trying to find out what may be causing this issue, so I'm sending you each a PM to direct you to a team that can gather a bit more info from your accounts. Please have a chat with them, and they'll help get this escalated.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Bmanashe]

Hi Jonathan, can you please investigate mine too. I keep getting charged random daily roaming charges whilst in Poland, even though I have a local e-sim installed and no day switching option turned on (the local e-sim is set as default for data and phone). Also seems to happen at around 2am- when asleep, as a lot of people have said! Not happy with keep on getting charged when I’ve gone out of my way to get a local e-sim installed. 

[Bmanashe]

Sorry, that was supposed to say NO DATA SWITCHING TURNED ON

[Gurj]

@JonathanB I confirmed on several family iPhones that there were no outgoing messages visible in the message app (during the entire visit to Florida) so if there was a message it was some sort of system/hidden mesage.

Being very small (0.9KB) does suggest some sort of small setup message. Possible causes could include:
- WiFi Calling setup for Three (since calls are still active)

- Some other sort of network setup message related to Three (perhaps triggered by the Three SIM)

- iPhone software bug using the wrong network for a very specific setup message (in my case I was using an ESIM from Airalo, so data was available, just not supposed to be via Three SIM).

Thanks,

Gurj

[apadley1337]

Could be a roaming partner check that happens to make sure that your account is in good standing and three forgot to filter out the message from the user.  SMS was originally created for this type of carrier communication. Hopefully it will be sorted soon. For ref, we are connected to AT&T

[rossmac100]

I am also suffering from this same issue! It turns out it has been happening since February, using up my GoRoam passes unbeknownst to me...  Wild, considering I was in South Africa and GoRoam doesn't apply there. And then I get hit with a bill which is £40 higher than expected for October. To add insult to injury, upon being text to say I was being charged £5/day to be in Australia, I spoke with the support team via chat who assured me there were no additional charges on my account. Oh, and, of course, when I raised the issue on the phone and via support chat (both first level and complaints, then with an escalation to the billing team for 'investigation') I was told that the billing is all correct. I'm tearing my hair out with frustration and have no idea what to do. I've done nothing wrong! Extract from one of my previous bills shown for reference.

[JohnM]

Hey @rossmac100,

Let's get this looked at!

The direct link included in the PM I have sent you will take you to our specialist team who will investigate this, as we cannot access your account information here on Communities.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

John M

[milly1983]

I am also having this same issue. I get data charges with data turned off and for 1kb / 2kb whenever I turn on my phone abroad. I never had this issue prior to getting an esim recently which makes me wonder if it is the esim requesting data. I spoke to your customer support and they were no help at all. This is a recurring issue across multiple different users, why hasn't it been fixed?

[atommyk]

I don't think it's the eSim. Lots of us have standard sims still and we occur the same roaming charges despite roaming being switched off. I'm assuming you're on an iPhone as well? Would you mind posting iOS version and iPhone generation?