Hi guys,
I am another victim of these Fido Roam Charges while I was in Mexico from Jan 10 to Jan 18. I was conscious about turning off my Cellular Data as well as ensuring the Roaming Data is also off on my phone prior to boarding the flight to Mexico.
When I return and saw the Fido bill, I was surprised by these roaming charges. So I start googling and calling up Fido customer support.
From googling, I found out that this is a very common issue for iPhone users where there are still "leakage" of data usage when the phone has Cellular Data turned off.
The data usage was as follows (the 5M data usage on Jan 10 was prior to boarding the flight):
And I was charged with the following:
So I called customer support and tried to dispute these charges but end up unsuccessful.
My argument is as follows:
1. My Cellular Data as well as Roaming Data was switched off.
2. From the small data usage, it prove that I have no intention to use data at all during my trip and these are somehow glitches in the phone or system that I am not aware about.
3. I have not consented that I wish to use Fido Roam or activate Fido Roam
4. I was not informed that I have activated Fido Roam for each of the days I was charged
Below is their argument saying the charges are valid:
1. There was roaming data usage, it doesn't matter how much so I was charged for the full day
2. They have sent a text message explaining the charges and that Fido Roam was available if I were to use
3. I should have switch on airplane mode or pull out my sim card instead of just turning off cellular data and roaming data
The best they could do is to refund one day worth of charges ($12) and offer me extra data and free long distance call in the next cycle.
I just find this to be ridiculous how they can charge a full day for a 15kb usage (Jan 14th). Also by them sending you a text saying Fido Roam is available you automatically opted-in on the service and they can charge you the moment they detect any usage. They don't even tell you Fido Roam is activated for the full day.
After calling them and speaking to multiple reps with the same result, I now decided to switch to a different carrier and I will be filing a complaint to the Business Bureau and CRTC.
Hello Anneh247,
Welcome to the community!
Firstly, you should note that merely receiving the Welcome Abroad message does not necessarily mean you have incurred roaming charges. Those Welcome messages are a notification that your device had connected to a foreign network. I was able to confirm that to be true here. 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.
@anneh247 wrote:
....My Android phone has roaming off by default so no idea how this is happening. ....
You should also note that, other than Airplane or Flight modes, most modern phones do not have a setting to disable roaming entirely. While most phones have settings to disable roaming data, that setting does not prevent roaming for voice and messaging -- nor prevent the device from connecting to a foreign network.
That said, Fido is supposed to have an accidental roaming solution in place for those who live or travel to areas near the US border (see here and here). It's possible that particular US cellular tower has not yet been identified as problematic.
You might consider manually selecting your network to Fido. That should prevent your phone from switching to a US tower.
You should note these forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. If you wish assistance with your matter, you would need to contact customer service again. In addition, they can also be contacted via Live Chat, Facebook, or Twitter. Those methods can be accessed via the contact page posted above.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello Teresajeanie,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you've incurred unexpected roaming charges.
@teresajeanie wrote:
...fido insists sometimes when using whatsapp if the wifi signal is not strong enough your phone will automatically switch to using data....
There is an apparent bug with the app. While it's not mentioned on their website, it appears as though the app will automatically switch to using mobile airtime minutes (within the app) if it deems the internet connection is insufficient for voice calls. Unfortunately, it has happened to many people across Countries and even Continents (see here). One suggestion to prevent the switch would be to enable Airplane or Flight mode and manually enabling Wifi prior to making the call(s). Doing so should prevent the app from switching to mobile minutes if the Wifi internet connection is not sufficient. However, it also means that you wouldn't be able to make WhatsApp calls using a mobile data connection. Since your phone had Airplane mode enabled, it should not have been able to switch to mobile airtime minutes, though.
I understand you requested a roaming block on your line. However, is it possible they helped you opt-out of Fido Roam rather than blocking roaming? If they only opted-out of Fido Roam, usage would have been on a pay-per-use basis.
Alternatively, had you also used Wifi-calling? It should be noted that while using Wifi for regular internet access will not incur Fido Roam charges, there seems to be some misunderstanding regarding Wifi-calling. I'm not sure how people have gotten the impression that Wifi-calling does not use the networks. However, that is not true. While the calls and messages do not transmit via cellular towers, they still use the networks via the internet gateway (see image here). The cellular towers and Wifi are merely alternate means of accessing the networks. Calls and messages would not be able to complete or get sent/received without the networks. As such, using Wifi-calling is technically using Fido services and may incur roaming charges. However, they have allowed certain usage to be free from additional charges. All the messages and calls you receive (from anywhere in the world) will be taken from your plan's voice minutes and messaging limits. As well, all Wifi-calling messages and calls you make to a Canadian phone number while abroad won't incur long-distance or roaming charges (see link above).
Is it possible your roaming charges were for using Wifi-calling abroad to non-Canadian phone numbers? It could explain the roaming charges despite Airplane mode enabled. It could also account for usage with the roaming block as I'm not sure whether Wifi-calling would be affected.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello @Jcb1 and thank you for sharing this with us here on the Community.
I'm really sorry to hear about your experience, it's defnitely not what we want for your. In order to get this looked into, it will be important to take contact with our customer service.
You can find all the ways to reach our team here.
Hey @Rebecca23,
We're sorry to learn about this incident with your latest trip!
When it comes to Fido Roam, it is an option that can indeed be enabled and disabled at any time by contacting us.
To avoid any charges, we do suggest to leave the phone on airplane mode, turn off data roaming or even remove the sim card from the phone during the trip.
If you're planning on using your phone, depending on what you need it for, keeping Fido Roam's daily rate or switching to a Pay-Per-Use rates could be best for you.
You can always compare the cost of Pay-Per-Use Roaming and Fido Roam Daily fee here.
That said, if you had any unresolved concerns with your Fido services, please contact us here and we'll be more than happy to go over this situation.
Hello again,
I replied to your other post here. As mentioned, there is unfortunately no 100% guarantee your device won't use other services and trigger roaming charges. Customers would need to ensure their devices do not use services.
@Rebecca23 wrote:
.... can I be assured that there will be no other roaming charge than texts sent or phone calls made, ...
It should also be noted that answered incoming calls would also be considered roaming usage and incur roaming charges.
As also mentioned, the issue is device related and if it is using data with those settings disabled, it is entirely possible you would incur data roaming charges with the other providers as well.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
The same thing has happened to me. I pay for a different American phone number and use an eSim in order to avoid these fees. I always have my American eSim set as on and turn off my Fido number / data / data roaming the moment I am about to leave the country. I was charged for 6 days in the states whereas one phone number was receiving texts from my Canadian number somehow? This should never have happened? And two days in Mexico for <1mb of data when I was NEVER able to connect.
After speaking to two representatives I am able to get ONE credit of $15.
I'm so happy I've been with this obnoxious company for 10 years. When I said I would be looking into leaving Fido I was just told how long it would take to pay off my phone. Thanks y'all I feel very valued.
