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Getting Charged for Roaming when not using Plan

Kait_McMullen
I'm a participant level 3
I'm a participant level 3

Well, I can't wait to leave Fido. After switching to you guys I haven't even been your customer for a month and I have experienced issue after issue. I switched because you had a few better options but I have never been driven to the point where I have had to leave an angry post like this with a service I have used.

 

I'm traveling out of country for school and I took all the necessary precautions to not get charged for roaming because the fact that you have no out of country plan options besides fido roam is ridiculous since it doesn't work for people who need to leave the country for even a week whereas I am gone for 4 months but that's my fault I guess for not doing my research properly. I have data roaming turned off, I have Wifi assist turned off, I have not called or texted anyone. I have literally only used wifi since getting here but here I get a text saying I have 100$ in data charges from roaming??? I get my Mom to call in for me since I authorized her before leaving the country thinking oh they just made a mistake. At least you guys owned up to part of it and only charged me for one day instead of the whole 100$. Yet the day (September 11th) that it shows that I supposedly used my plan I have nothing on my phone to show for it: no calls logged, no text messages, nothing showing on my data reader or in the fido app to suggest I used data even if it had switched over automatically which it can't because I have wifi assist switched off. The customer "service" rep tried to give my mom a bs answer about having to have airplane mode turned on to avoided the charges but then how am I supposed to even use my phone since that disables the wifi?? I should be able to use wifi on my phone without getting charged for it. Would love an explanation and the last charge on my phone either removed or explained adequately. 

9 REPLIES 9

Cawtau
Senior MVP Senior MVP
Senior MVP

Hello Kait_McMullen,

 

  Welcome to the community!

 

  Sorry to hear you've receive that unpleasant surprise.

 


@Kait_McMullen wrote:...The customer "service" rep tried to give my mom a bs answer about having to have airplane mode turned on to avoided the charges but then how am I supposed to even use my phone since that disables the wifi?? I should be able to use wifi on my phone without getting charged for it.

  For future reference, enabling Flight or Airplane mode is indeed the best way to prevent roaming charges (other than removing the SIM entirely). Once Airplane mode is enabled, you can then manually enable Wifi in your settings. It would allow you to use Wifi without having to worry about roaming charges.

 

  To clarify, did the text inform you about $100 in data roaming charges or Fido Roam? That part wasn't clear as you noted you were charged for one day.

 

Hope this helps Smiley

 

Cheers


Kait_McMullen
I'm a participant level 3
I'm a participant level 3

Thank you for giving me some actual help! The service rep just rushed my Mom off the phone without any help with the airplane mode. 

 

The text message says 100$ in roaming data charges. I'm glad to be more protected with airplane mode now, but I'm still confused as to how I used my plan when nothing shows up in my data tracker or the fido app.

Kait_McMullen
I'm a participant level 3
I'm a participant level 3

Screenshot_20180917-202535.jpg

 

 

Hello again,

 

  The $100 cap was initially for roaming data overage fees and did not include regular Fido Roam fees. However, as of May 29th, 2018,  Fido Roam was combined with all other data roaming pay-per-use fees under a single $100 cap (see here). So receiving the text message does not necessarily mean that a large amount of data was used. It means your phone has somehow activated Fido Roam for an extended period.

 

  I understand your phone does not show any usage. What phone do you have? There seems to be a data-leakage issue with some iPhones (possibly some android phones as well)(see here and here). I'm not sure if Apple has addressed the issue in later versions of iOS. Is your OS up-to-date? It's possible your phone was showing similar activity.

 

  Hopefully, enabling Airplane mode will prevent any further roaming charges.

 

Hope this helps Smiley

 

Cheers


Kait_McMullen
I'm a participant level 3
I'm a participant level 3

I have a Huawei P20 Pro.

 

I still think there shouldn't be any charges at all considering there isn't anything showing on my data screens or the fido app, not even anything small like the leakage you're talking about. My OS for Android is up to date, I ran a check just in case.

Hello again,

 

  Thank you for the additional information. I don't disagree with you.

 

  The data leakage probably wouldn't show on data counters because it is usually so small (kilobytes, Kb) as opposed to most counters which measure megabytes (Mb) or gigabytes (Gb). If this is the case -- and I'm only speculating -- the data usage would only be shown on your next bill.

 

  Now that you have Airplane mode enabled, your best option is to wait for your next bill to see what triggered the roaming charges. If it does end up a result of data leakage, you might consider contacting customer service to see if there is anything they can do to rectify the matter.

 

Hope this helps Smiley

 

Cheers


FidoRanya
Former Moderator
Former Moderator

Hey @Kait_McMullen ,

 

Welcome to the Community and I'd like to thank you for sharing your experience with us!

 

I understand how this experience has been less than ideal considering you're outside of the country, I'm sure there's other things you'd rather be focusing on and we'll do our best to shed some light on this situation!

 

When did you initially block roaming from your device? I'm asking you this question as if data and roaming were blocked, no charges would have applied. If you were billed for data, some usage was definitely done through the foreign network you were connected to at the time. Sometimes the usage could show with a delay which is why I'm asking when was roaming initially disabled?

 

Let me know!



Kait_McMullen
I'm a participant level 3
I'm a participant level 3

I turned it off before leaving as I knew it could be an issue if I didn't when I got here.

Hey @Kait_McMullen


I went over the thread and would like to take a look at your account with you. From there, we can clarify what happened together.


I'm sending you a PM now. Talk to you soon.