Hello Soccpuppet,
Welcome to the community!
Sorry to hear you've incurred unexpected roaming charges. Are you referring to the Welcome Abroad notification message? 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.
While receiving SMS would not incur the roaming charge, it's worth mentioning that the data contained within MMS (incoming or outgoing) would be considered roaming data and charged accordingly. You should note that MMS are not solely restricted to pictures or video messages. Messages with subject headers or group messages etc are also considered MMS. Disabling MMS should prevent that data transfer. Though, it should further be noted that iMessages and RCS messages are sent (and received) as data and not as text messages (SMS).
So, while receiving that message does not necessarily mean you've incurred a Fido Roam charge, if your device also used data when it connected to the foreign tower, a roaming charge is possible. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anyway to track your roaming usage in real-time (see here). As far as I am aware, Fido does not receive your usage in real-time:
For post-paid roaming, when the user first switches their phone on, the visited network checks in real time whether the home network authenticates the customer and authorises its use abroad... ~ taken from here.
That would result in the Welcoming text message we receive when our phones connect to a foreign network.
...But the data records (CDRs) with the details on each SMS and data session are sent to the home operator with some delay (up to several days).. ~ also taken from link above.
If home networks don't receive usage information in real-time, it's not possible for them to provide customers with notification that a roaming session has begun without a delay.
The situation is different with pre-paid services where a real-time exchange is required to prevent the balance of the roaming customers' accounts from becoming overdrawn. That's likely the reason why pre-paid roaming often costs more than post-paid roaming.
Was that a roaming charge on your monthly bill? If you were referring to receiving the Welcome Abroad notification, it's possible you might not have actually incurred a roaming charge.
I understand you did not set roaming, however, you should note that Fido Roam is automatically enabled on Data, Talk & Text and Talk & Text plans. If you did not wish to use the feature, you would need to opt-out of Fido Roam. In doing so, your usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. You can view those rates here. You can also request a roaming block on your line. That block should prevent any roaming on the line. It should be mentioned, though, as far as I am aware, that roaming block would also prevent devices from accessing extended coverage in Canada (Fido-EXT). You would also need to be clear as to which option you choose as there have been instances where people have thought they blocked roaming (no usage abroad) but only had opted-out of Fido Roam (pay-per-use abroad).
In order to prevent unintended roaming charges, it is generally recommended to disable data and roaming data. However, you should note that disabling those settings does not prevent roaming for voice and messaging. In addition, some manufacturers might allow some data usage to occur despite those settings (see here).
Alternatively, if you did enable roaming data, you should note that data can transmit in a fraction of a second. Briefly enabling that setting -- even for only a second -- could have been sufficient for a device to send and/or receive data. While you may not have intended on using data, your device might have accessed data while abroad. That's why it is also generally recommended to enable Airplane and/or Flight modes in order to prevent unintended roaming usage. You could then manually enable Wifi when required.
For completeness sake, 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. 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).
You should note the forums are community-driven and not intended as a venue for customer services. If you wished to discuss your matter and/or 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.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
Hello again,
Thank you for the additional information. However, could you be confusing opting-out versus opting-in?
@Cawtau wrote:
... you should note that Fido Roam is automatically enabled on Data, Talk & Text and Talk & Text plans. If you did not wish to use the feature, you would need to opt-out of Fido Roam. In doing so, your usage would be on a pay-per-use basis. ...
Your reply sounds like you might be thinking that Fido Roam is an opt-in feature. That is, calling customer service in order to make the service available on your line. However, that is not how Fido Roam is set up. Rather, it is already available on your line and you would need to contact them in order to remove the feature.
If you did not change anything related to roaming, Fido Roam would still be enabled on your line. That is likely the reason you were charged the Fido Roam fee. If you did not wish to use Fido Roam you would need to contact customer service to opt-out of Fido roam. That is, calling them to make the service not available on your line.
Hope this helps 😀
Cheers
