Charged for roaming when roaming switched off - Zone 3

[#1]

Before travelling to Singapore and Australia I set my phone roaming to 'Off'. As soon as the phone was switched on in Singapore, Plusnet sent a text informing me that I had exceeded my data allowance and that I had been charged £30.00.

All I did was turn my phone on. Made no calls, texts or browsing. 

Can see from the forum that seems to be a popular issue.

I won't be doing this again. I purchased an Optus $40 sim in Australia which included 30gb of data and unlimited Australia and international calls for 31 days. So my advice is if you got outside of EU, take your UK Sim out and purchase a local one when you arrive.

Plusnet's customer service people said my phone must have been enabled for roaming but that's not the case.
There was no offer to refund the money and no further help offered.

Steve - Peterborough

[#2]

Hi @g0uihsteve

We're sorry to hear about the charges you received. 

Sadly, this is a known issue with mobile phones and is not provider related. When Mobile phones are switched off and back on again it genuinely does auto connect before data roaming 'off' kicks in. If you haven't switched off background app refresh or push notifications, your phone will still attempt to retrieve updates when switching back on despite you already having data roaming turned off. 

Although we can appreciate your frustration, this is a known issue and not related to Plusnet as a provider which is why we are unable to refund for the charges.

Moving forward, leave mobile phones switched on and data roaming activated before leaving the UK. This way you can ensure this kind of issue doesn't happen again.

Kind Regards

[#3]

Sounds like this is more likely attributable to the 'LTE bug' https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom_Roaming#WikiaArticleComments

[#4]

Thanks to OllieC and MisterW for your replies.

The LTE bug seems to be the culprit and makes interesting reading.

Chatting with a work colleague, he had the same issues so now buys local sim cards in the country he visits.

I would say that the network providers seem to have little sympathy with the users and are quite happy to continue charging people.

If you were charged for a service that you never wanted or ordered and refused a refund then I'd say it was a scam.

Steve

[#5]

@g0uihsteve  from that article and others , it seems it's possible to stop it happening by disabling 4g. Cant say I've had cause to try it myself, since as yet, I've only had  to roam in the EU and so it's not an issue

[#6]

So presumably setting a smartcap doesn't help at all in this case? If not, shouldn't that be made clear in your FAQs?

[#7]

I would assume the Smart cap still applies and once hit, data is disabled at a network level

[#8]

@MisterW , from reading the description of the LTE "bug" it looks as if the phone may make data transfers before contacting the home provider (Plusnet) where a smart cap could be applied, so there is a potential for up to £40 to be charged even if you have a £0 smart cap set.

As we have 3 Plusnet phones in our family it would be useful to know for sure.

[#9]

Hello @g0uihsteve,

I can appreciate how frustrating this must be and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused. Unfortunately we can't refund back for something that is beyond our control. However if the smart cap is set to £0.00 any charges incurred will be credited off the bill for the period this cap was in place.

If your smart cap is not at £0.00 and you do not wish to incur any charges, we can change this for you, please can you PM me the following information;

-Full name

-Mobile number

-Full address including postcode

-Can you also confirm you are the account holder.

[#10]

Hi - thanks for the reply.

The smart cap was set at £30 on the presumption that I may (or could) make a call or do a text, knowing that I had a small but usable limit.

The fact that I did neither (and did no browsing) and only turned the phone on, just re-iterates the fact the 'Smart-Cap' is in fact not really fit for purpose.

The smart cap should prevent you going over your usage, However if you don't actually 'Use' your phone then in my mind you are actually being charged for something that you have not used.

There is no point in having a smart cap if its a known issue that it will max out as soon as the device is turned on. You could set a a limit of £100 and the same issue will happen.

Now if I'd actually made a call or used the phone - that's a different matter and I'd have no reason to complain.

I did check my bill and the amount of data was 28mb with the £30 smart cap. 28mb sounds a lot a 'talking' between the device and the network even though roaming was off.

- Steve

[#11]

Thanks for getting back to us @g0uihsteve

We're more than happy to look into this for you if you'd like to private message the details my colleague requested above. For confirmation we would need:

- your full name & confirmation that you are the account holder
- your full address including postcode
- the mobile number in question?

Once you've sent the PM please do let us know via this post here so we can pick it up.