iDmobile in breach of new EU roaming rules

boatman

For reasons only known to iDmobile, they have decided to charge for calls to other EU/EEA countries when you are roaming in another EU/EEA country instead of it coming out of your bundled minutes if you have them.

They have said they are aware of the issue and will no doubt change it when the summer is over and they have ripped off a few of their customers.

Just to clarify, calls to the UK and the country you are roaming in will come out of your bundled minutes. For example, if you are planning on holidaying in Spain and calling family in Italy, the call will NOT come out of your bundle, you will be charged.
I can see a lot of unhappy customers come September when they see the extras on the bill!.

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/eu-roaming

Ian011

Make sure you report this to Ofcom and to the office of the EU Digital Single Market.

Might as well mention it to BBC Watchdog while you are at it.

System

Ian011 wrote: »

Make sure you report this to Ofcom and to the office of the EU Digital Single Market.

Might as well mention it to BBC Watchdog while you are at it.

If you feel that strongly, social media for iD / Dixons Carphone (their parent company) plus Dixons Carphone CEOs office for comment might elicit movement.

It's not breaking 'EU rules' - it's actually unlawful.

Harald

boatman wrote: »

For reasons only known to iDmobile, they have decided to charge for calls to other EU/EEA countries when you are roaming in another EU/EEA country instead of it coming out of your bundled minutes if you have them.

Your bundle in UK only covers calls to UK numbers. Main rule of EU roaming is "like-at-home" so you should have exactly same allowance. It means calls to non-UK numbers remains international and outside allowance.
Nothing wrong here unless you have international minutes in your allowance.

Frozen_up_north

Sorry Harald, your interpretation is not correct. Bizarre as it might seem, when roaming in any EU country you can call any mobile or landline in any other EU country from your included U.K. mins.

Every U.K. network offers this, except apparently iD, who need to pay attention to the EU legislation.

Ian011

When roaming in EU or EEA member states and territories, calls and texts to landline and mobile numbers in the UK, in the country you are in, and in all other EU and EEA member states and territories are charged the same as calling and texting UK numbers from the UK. The regulations set all landline and mobile numbers throughout the EU and EEA as a single market but the regulations apply only when you are roaming, i.e. using your phone outside of the home-registered country.

boatman

https://www.idmobile.co.uk/planFeatureContent/eu-roaming
"You CAN'T use your minutes to call another non-UK destination (for example, calling France when you're in Germany). If you do this, international call charges will apply."

This link and quote above from iDmobile clearly shows how wrong they have got it!!

OFCOM responded to me with this:
"As you are aware, the rules require that intra-EU calls (i.e. roaming calls made in the EU to any other EU country) are charged the same as calls made domestically (i.e. at the domestic retail price). It appears that iD mobile are charging for these calls.
Thank you for bringing this to Ofcom’s attention. I have raised your concerns with the relevant team, who are actively monitoring consumer complaints following the introduction of the new rules. They will use this and other information to help to identify where we may need to take action."

Ian011

Let's hope that the action is swift, i.e. before the end of the holiday season, and requires affected customers to be refunded in full.

boatman

Ian011 wrote: »

Let's hope that the action is swift, i.e. before the end of the holiday season, and requires affected customers to be refunded in full.

That is exactly what needs to happen, I don't know why they think they can get away with it. You can see a mile off how this would pan out, customers call them up and complain, they say yes yes we'll sort it out, 3 months later you are still chasing. That's for the customer who actually looks at their bill, I guess they hope people won't.

d123

Harald wrote: »

Your bundle in UK only covers calls to UK numbers. Main rule of EU roaming is "like-at-home" so you should have exactly same allowance. It means calls to non-UK numbers remains international and outside allowance.
Nothing wrong here unless you have international minutes in your allowance.

To show your incorrect view on what calls are included when roaming in the EU is definitely wrong:

When you are roaming in the EU, all calls to mobile and fixed numbers in the EU will be counted against your national volume of minutes (or will be unlimited if you have unlimited calls at home), exactly as if you were calling within your home country.

If you have distinct so-called ‘on-net’ and ‘off-net" volumes in your national bundle, all the roaming minutes may be all deducted from the off-net volume, and also when you call another subscriber of the same domestic operator while roaming.

For example: If you have a Belgian card and you travel to France and call either a hotel in France, back home to Belgium, or to any other country in the EU and the EEA, you are roaming, and you will pay Belgian internal domestic prices.

On the other hand, if for example, a Belgian SIM card holder calls from Belgium to Spain, she/he will pay the international tariff . Calls from home to another EU country are not roaming and are not regulated.

http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=45382

Money_Grabber13579

IMO, that seems like quite a bizarre rule to have brought in, at least, in its current form!

I live in Northern Ireland and say for the sake of argument, I lived in a region close to the border with the Republic of Ireland, such that I could pick up both a U.K. and RoI signal.

Under the new rules, if I wanted to call a number in France, it would be much more beneficial for me to switch to the RoI network, in which case it would be "free" otherwise it would be billed as an international call from the UK.

This doesn't seem to comply with the fundamental EU freedoms, one of which is for a country to treat all citizens of the EU in the same manner, irrespective of whether they are citizens of that country or not. With this rule, citizens of other countries are now treated more beneficially, albeit at the cost of their own mobile provider...