Please help - Voicemail charges incurred abroad

Gb112470

Please help! I have just been landed with a ridiculous phone bill after getting back from Turkey. I hardly used my phone to make or receive any phone calls but my bill is showing lots of voicemail charges. I understand with T Mobile you are charged once when someone leaves a message and then again to retrieve the message, however I have been charged 6/7 times within the space of just 10 minutes on several occassions when I know I only had 1 voice message.

They are now threatening to cut me off if I don't pay and I am tied into an 18 month contract. What are my rights in such a situation as I do not feel these charges are legitimate?

Jon_01

Could an error in the billing process.
If the cost of retreating a vm here is, say 5p, the roaming cost maybe 25p. Rather than showing at one item at 25p it can show 5 items at 5p each.

Best bet is to call billing and ask them to check the info sent from which ever network you roamed on over there. . .

DonnyDave

Those 6 or 7 calls that were charged, but where you didn't get a message would have been where someone rang you, got to your voicemail, but didn't leave a message.

Information on this from T-Mobile:

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/going-abroad/using-phones-abroad/set-up-your-phone/

4. Voicemail

Before you go

If you want to retrieve your voicemail while abroad you'll need to use a voicemail PIN number. To set up a PIN number, call your voicemail from your mobile before you leave, press 2 then 1 and follow the instructions.

Charges for receiving voicemail

If your voicemail diverts aren't set before leaving the UK, you will be charged for any messages left/received. Anyone contacting you will only pay for a standard UK mobile call. You will be charged at international rates for the part of the call that goes from the UK to your destination.

If you don't answer the call, you will then be charged, at the roaming rate applicable for the country you are in for the message to be diverted to voicemail which is held in the UK.

Voicemail options and charges

It is important to set up the right diverts before you leave the UK as you may pay for voicemail messages left for you while you are away.

Essentially what happens is someone calls your UK 07 mobile number. The call is routed abroad to whatever network you are currently roaming on (or, I believe, roamed on last). If your phone is either unavailable (i.e. switched off or out of range of the network's signal), or you don't answer, the foreign network will make another call back to the UK to your voicemail service. Hence you are charged for two legs of the call.

To avoid incuring roaming charges for calls to voicemail, either turn off your voicemail completely before leaving the UK, or divert all calls to voicemail before leaving the UK.