MSE news: Complaints over erroneous iPhone data roaming charges

Sharon_Pallett

I travel abroad regularly and ALWAYS switch off my data roaming within the settings of my iphone. However, odd charges kept cropping up - annoying, as I have wifi in my apartment overseas and never use roaming. Anyway, after emailing o2 whilst I was abroad, they said that some applications use data, even when data roaming is switched off. So, I went back into my settings and noticed the 'Cellular Data' switch. Either I hadn't noticed this before, or it was a new addition following the recent update. So, along with the 'Data Roaming', I also made sure that the 'Cellular Data' was turned off too. Then I found that when I tried an application which asked to use 'my current location' it said that data was turned off and I needed to switch it on to use this function. Perhaps this was the 'data' that had been running in the background and adding those annoying charges. I did notice that after turning off 'Cellular Data' along with 'Data Roaming' I no longer received any further charges.

I don't know if this is the full solution - maybe there will be other 'hiccups' along the way, but it seemed to solve the problem for me (for the time being anyway!).

It's worth noting that I'm fairly sure that I've read somewhere that turning off cellular data can affect the sending of MMS messages. Not sure on this, but it's worth checking if you want to send / receive picture messages. (I switch the 'Cellular Data' back on when I return to the UK - just in case.)

Hope this may be of use.

elvis_girl

Can anyone tell me what cellular data actually means? I have the iphone3 & data roaming was definately turned off but I the cellular data was on. Only got charged £4 but its annoying as the only thing o2 says to turn off is the data roaming

Adam_Doran

I had the same problem whilst away on a business trip to Guernsey, earlier in the year. I blogged about it and received a response plus refund from Vodafone. It wasn't really clear whether the network or iPhone were to blame. The workaround given was to modify the APN gateway to be an incorrect value thereby completely precluding the possibility of rogue data access.

adamdoran dot com slash ?p=11

...Being a new member it seems I'm not trusted to post links

sephrenia

Even though Martin's team picked this story up back in April, the Daily Mail has finally picked it up too and is on their site in case anyone is interested

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1297159/Hundreds-Apple-iPhone-users-left-facing-huge-bills-surfing-web-abroad-internet-switched-OFF.html

Deniselaine

My phone bill in April was nearly £100 following a trip to Lanzarote where I had used the hotels wifi. I queried it with O2 and was given the same story as other writers here. they refused to give me a refund, saying it was my fault. do you think I should try again to get some money back ??

rusty-london

I'm having the same issue with Vodafone. Even with data roaming switched off and the automatic fetch/push settings switched off, the iphone connected to the data network at midnight every night and downloaded an amount of data.
The total charge was £33 + VAT for data.

I've called Vodafone and they've told me that it must've been me that's connected it or someone else has had access to my phone. The daft thing is that I was in bed every night at midnight and the phone was beside my bed!

They seem to be angling towards me paying the amount as it's my fault but they're not getting the money out of me....they're gonna have a fight on their hands!

maddiejoe

I've just got a £21 refund from 02. I was in Portugal and just switching my phone on when we landed, and turning it on each morning, playing games, looking at Apps, all incurred small charges of 23p each which added up over the holiday. It is an iPhone problem and this needs to be pointed out to O2, they need to take it up with Apple. Although data roaming is switched off as a default you still need to turn off 3G and Cellular Data - they should be defaults too. You can still make and receive calls and texts, they go via GSM which uses the local non-data cellular network. With these turned off you can still pick up your internet etc on WIFI. If you want to play games and look at your stored emails, then switch on Airplane mode.

timdrewitt

I arrived in New York last week and - with data roaming off - within seconds of turning on my iPhone 4, a visual voicemail came through. This then appeared to trigger 25 e-mails, which used 1MB of data, for which I was charged £7.63. I called o2 who promptly refunded the charges, without any fuss. They advised me to also turn off the new Cellular Data feature, which I did. This definitely did stop any further data leakage and I've not received any more data charges. I'm pleased to now see that these postings have hit the headlines:

Daily Mail, 24th July 2010, p45 "New Apple iProblem...using phones abroad" (Niall Firth). Wasn't allowed to post you the direct link.

...so hopefully, other customers will be able to cite this article, if they get any push back from o2 staff, who may not be as informed.

Quaff

I travel abroard quite a lot so am aware of the need to turn off 3G and Data Roaming. But during the course of my trips I quite often connect to download emails, so expect charges.

However in June I went to Berlin for one day and was shocked to discover that I had incurred £150 in Data Charges!

I queried this with O2 and was shocked to discover what had happened. Whilst in Germany I had used my GPS to find my location. I switched of my Data Roaming after using the Map, but the Blue Location Dot was still on the Map. I checked several times and Data Roaming and 3G were switched off. The iPhone specialist admitted to me that if you have Location Service switched on, then regardless of whether you have Data Roaming ON or OFF, it will connect to the Data Network. This includes any App that use Location Service, Camera, Compass etc.

O2 agreed to credit me all my Data Roaming Charges back to 1st April, but I have it in mind to look back over my bills for the last 4 years and reclaim all.

The iPhone specialist also told me that if you connect to Wi-Fi whilst abroad, you must switch it OFF after using it. Because if you leave Wi-Fi switched On and move out of range the Wi-Fi host you were using, the iPhone will continue to try connecting via the Data Network, even if you have Data Roaming switched OFF.

Surely these charges are illegal, I have used iPhone for over 4 years and have never been told by Apple of O2 about these potential charges whilst abroad.

sporedude

Quaff wrote: »

I travel abroard quite a lot so am aware of the need to turn off 3G and Data Roaming. But during the course of my trips I quite often connect to download emails, so expect charges.

However in June I went to Berlin for one day and was shocked to discover that I had incurred £150 in Data Charges!

I queried this with O2 and was shocked to discover what had happened. Whilst in Germany I had used my GPS to find my location. I switched of my Data Roaming after using the Map, but the Blue Location Dot was still on the Map. I checked several times and Data Roaming and 3G were switched off. The iPhone specialist admitted to me that if you have Location Service switched on, then regardless of whether you have Data Roaming ON or OFF, it will connect to the Data Network. This includes any App that use Location Service, Camera, Compass etc.

O2 agreed to credit me all my Data Roaming Charges back to 1st April, but I have it in mind to look back over my bills for the last 4 years and reclaim all.

The iPhone specialist also told me that if you connect to Wi-Fi whilst abroad, you must switch it OFF after using it. Because if you leave Wi-Fi switched On and move out of range the Wi-Fi host you were using, the iPhone will continue to try connecting via the Data Network, even if you have Data Roaming switched OFF.

Surely these charges are illegal, I have used iPhone for over 4 years and have never been told by Apple of O2 about these potential charges whilst abroad.

Thats why you should be checking your bills, 4 years worth back? Good luck, No chance.