Hello Nithishvarghese,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear your wife incurred unexpected roaming charges. The Fido Roam charge incurs when your device uses Fido Services abroad. That is, the charge will incur when you make/receive calls, send text messages or your device uses data outside of Canada (see here). Fido Roam is already enabled on plans. There is no activation of Fido roam other than using services. If people wish not to use Fido Roam, they would need to opt-out of the feature. If you opt-out of the service, any usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. Those rates can be found here.
@nithishvarghese wrote:
... Her monthly bill even has no usage data on the dates that we were in states ...
I understand her bill might not show any data usage, however, using any services would be considered roaming. It is generally recommended to enable Airplane and/or Flight modes to prevent unintended roaming usage. You could then manually enable Wifi when required. That said, I do understand her phone had Airplane mode enabled when it was not connected to Wifi.
@nithishvarghese wrote:
...She did not answer any calls, nor reply to any messages
I also understand she may not have been able to answer calls or reply to messages when Airplane mode was enabled. However, had she used any services through Wifi-calling? 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. 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).
If there was no usage, there would not have been any Fido Roam charges. The mobile providers only know usage. They would not even know her phone was out of the Country unless it used services. I understand her monthly bill did not show any data usage. Is it possible she used Wifi-calling? Are there any calls made and/or received or messages sent during your time away on the bill?
You should note that the forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. You would need to contact customer service for specific account queries. 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
