If you have a Fido Pulse plan, Fido will have enabled (whether you wanted it or not) the Fido Roam plan. You might think you can just ignore it if you have no interest in using their roaming services but that is not the case. There are in fact a few sneaky little gotchas that may cost you upwards of $180 in extra charges on your next bill if you aren't fully informed. Read on.
It used to be that when you arrive in a destination country, you'd recieve a text message informing you that you were roaming and that pay-per-use roaming charges would apply. You would then even be given some roaming package you could choose to opt-in to. Cool!
Not the case anymore. Now with Fido Roam enabled, what happens it that once you arrive in your destination country, you'll recieve a text message that looks something like this:
It would be very easy to think that by just not turning on your data (and data roaming) you'd be ok BUT that is not the case at all. There in lies the grand trap that cost me a small chunk of change!
You will automatically enable Fido Roam services for a 24 hour period at whatever cost was specified in the initial text if you simply send a text message OR recieve an MMS message (a text with a picture) OR recieve a call and reject it (rather than letting it ring and go to voicemail). You won't have any idea that you activated it either until you get your bill at the end of your billing cycle. Further more, you can't even disable it from your customer account portal, you need to either get onto live chat or call a customer service representative to have them disable it!
I have a dual-SIM phone and in my case, it used to be that upon leaving, I'd disable Fido's data and enable my host countries data plan and I'd be free and clear. If I recieved a text or call on my Fido line, I could simply respond to it and pay the one time usage fee... turns out this year, that wasn't the case and rather than paying $10.50 for sending about 14 text messages I was dinged $84! Now that's one hell of a markup in price!
I highly recommend you disable Fido Roam ASAP before travelling and instead, get a SIM chip for the country you are visiting. You will almost ALWAYS get a far superior deal to any roaming package Fido offers you!
Going forward, here is what FIdo should do:
1) When the roaming plan has been activated for a 24 hour period, you should recieve a text message indicating it has been activated and should also give you the exact time it will be deactivated (as it lasts for a 24 hour period).
2) There should be a quick and easy way to opt out by text message.
3) It should NOT be automatically enabled on any plan, instead users should be able to opt-in to it like before.
4) It should be easily enabled/disabled via the customer service portal as opposed to having to actually have a customer service rep do it for you.
I don't forsee any of these happening though because there is money to be made as data overage and roaming charges bring HUGE dollars to telecom providers.
Hope this helps someone from falling into this trap because if you think Fido will reimburse you, you are sorely mistaken. You will be told that their roaming policies are "clearly laid out" on some part of their site for anyone to read... sadly this is all after the fact that you've fallen into the trap!
Now cue the customer service reps and community mods to chime in with their copy-pasted responses indicating how sorry they are that I feel this way and that it's not for everyone and so on....
Hello Aadium,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you've incurred unexpected Fido Roam charges. It is unfortunate those calls you received were all SPAM calls. If you were not aware, the Fido Roam charges will only incur if your phone uses services -- make or receive a call, send a text message or use data abroad. If you did not answer those calls, you would not have been charged for roaming.
I understand there are instances which necessitate answering calls -- even though you might not recognise the number. If you did not wish to use Fido Roam, you would need to opt-out of the feature. In doing so, any usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. You can view those rates here. If you wished to opt-out of Fido Roam, you would need to contact customer service. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
I understand you are a student and receiving such a bill even more distressing. If you're unable to make full payment on the bill, you might consider trying to arrange a payment schedule. To make an arrangement, you'll need to contact the credit operations team. It should also be mentioned that any arrangement would be at the discretion of the credit operations team.
You should note that this is the community forum and not intended as a venue for customer services. We would not have access to customers' accounts. If you did wish to discuss your situation, you would need to contact customer service.
Hope this helps š
Hello Danben,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you've incurred unexpected roaming charges. I understand you might have previously contacted customer service. However, you should note that the forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. Since we do not have access to customers' accounts, we would not be able to determine why that charge was incurred. For example, Fido Roam would have been $12 per day. On the other hand, the pay-per-use rates don't readily add up to the charge you note.
If you would like to discuss that charge, you would need to contact customer service. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
It should be noted that most modern devices do not have a setting to disable roaming entirely. The settings available are usually only meant to disable roaming data. In order to prevent roaming charges, it would be generally recommended to enable Airplane or Flight mode enabled for the duration of your time outside of Canada. You could manually enable Wifi when required.
Hope this helps š
Cheers
Hello again,
Is that extra charge for roaming? Generally, 45 minutes away from the border should be far enough to not connect to a US cellular tower. That said, Fido is supposed to have measures in place to prevent accidental US roaming while in Canada. If your device did connect to a US cellular tower while you were still in Canada, there might be a problematic tower of which they are not aware. You would also need to contact customer service in order to investigate the matter.
Hope this helps š
Cheers
Hey @MEInc
If you have questions about our bill or need clarifications, you can contact us and a member of our team will be happy to help!
Hey @storminne,
Thank you for connecting with us through the Community and sharing your feedback!
Rest assured this isn't the experience we aim to provide our customers with and we're sorry that you had to go through this. We want your experience to be seamless. That said, if you had contacted us to opt-out of Fido Roam and it wasn't done, please reach out to us and we'll make sure to rectify the situation on our end.
It's good to know that we normally send our customers email confirmation when the opt-in or opt-out of a feature too. Had you checked your emails?
As for Fido Roam, you can always confirm your enrollment status by texting the word ROAM to 222 from your device.
Hey @RoamingRiOff,
We understand that having a higher than expected bill is never a pleasant situation and we're sorry that your experience when you called in wasn't a positive one. Rest assured that's not the type of experience we want our customers to go through.
In regards to Fido Roam, you can check out the solution above to learn more about the types of usage that will trigger a daily fee. Also, it's important to note that the Data Roaming feature on your device must be turned OFF before roaming to avoid any charges for the internet. If Data Roaming is ON and your device connects to a foreign partner's network, your device will use data automatically in the background which will trigger the daily fee.Therefore we recommend turning the feature off before travelling and before arriving at the destination.
You will only be charged if usage is actually made from the device, it's not possible for us to charge you if there was no usage detected through the SIM card.
You can also learn more here.
Hey @RoamingRiOff,
I assure you our intent is to offer you a reliable service whether you're in Canada or abroad.
When you connect to another network, they send us the charges and we mitigate the charge with our Fido roam option.
Rest assured, we operate within the legal bounds of Canadian law and we inform you of any charge that will apply to your account while travelling.
You can get more details here.
