Voicemail abroad on '3'- Warning.

boatman

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, did try to search.

I have been charged about 80p on my 3 bill because i was left a message on my voicemail whilst i was in France. I did not answer the call whilst abroad because i know roaming charges are expensive, i waited until i was back in the UK before checking for messages.

When i spoke to customer service they suggested that when i go abroad i turn my voicemail off so i don't get charged. If i do this how will i know who's called!!?

I have been with all the other networks and as far as i know have not being charged for this before. If i answered the call or phoned voicemail from abroad i could understand it.

GlennTheBaker

When you let a call go through to voicemail, the call has been "answered" by the system and therefore if you are roaming abroad, you are charged for an incoming call. To avoid this, either ask your provider to turn off voicemail completely or have all incoming calls diverted to voicemail BEFORE leaving the UK. Using the second method, the call never gets as far as your phone so you don't receive an incoming call.

Malestrom

Yep, this is the same with both Orange and T-Mobile too. When I went to Spain last month, both customer service reps advised on disabling the answerphone until we returned. You don't even have to answer a call to pay for it, just the call being connected will incur a charge. I was advised of this too and I was charged for a call I didn't answer while away.

planetf1

Yes, this is normal with all networks I've used.

I phoned 3 before going abroad and asked them to disable the auto-divert to voicemail (this overrides the handset settings). This they did immediately, and I can now use the handset divert to switch all off before I go abroad.

With orange it took about 3 calls to sort, so one-up for 3.