Unexpected roaming bill

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Unexpected roaming bill

corksta

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#112102 26-Nov-2012 16:20

First of all, this isn't a rant or complaint, I knowingly used my phone (Samsung Galaxy S III) for mobile data overseas.

I was in Hawaii for a week, and my account was set to the default cap of $150, so that as soon as I reached $150 in roaming charges, data roaming would be automatically switched off.

I arrived in Hawaii on a Friday, then in the rental car used a bit of Google Maps, then over the course of the next few days a bit of Facebook, WhatsApp, stuff like that. Dropbox and Google Play were set to upload/download things over wi-fi only. Basically I used it sparingly, no YouTube, taking pics and emailing them, etc.

My data roaming was stopped on the Thursday, which I thought was pretty good considering how much driving we'd done and so on. I only had two days left there and had no more need for Google Maps or anything, but still wanted to use WhatsApp, so I overrode the limit so I could continue to roam.

Three days later when I'm back in NZ my roaming bill has shot up to $460 versus the $150 it was when it was disabled.

Do carriers overseas take a while to send the charges back home? Because that's the only reason I can think of as to why it went up by so much. I hardly used the phone at all after I had roaming turned back on, so I just wonder if during those first days only some usage was being billed then at some point it all caught up and evened out.

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#723144 26-Nov-2012 16:23

You should look at all the apps that are downloading stuff in the background, even those you think aren't using any data.

corksta

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#723147 26-Nov-2012 16:27

Yeah I did that using the Data Usage feature and there was nothing that would indicate an app had been downloading anything I wasn't aware of.

garvani

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#723151 26-Nov-2012 16:33

Same thing happened to me 2 years ago when i roamed in Aus on vodafone. I was checking my balance daily and the day i left it said i had used ~$250, however once home and a couple of days later i find out the actual bill was almost double that.

It seems that it does indeed take a couple of days for the actual usage to come through (this was my experience then, it may have since changed and maybe completely different with telecom)

mattwnz

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#723167 26-Nov-2012 16:54

I thought they now had a bill shock system http://www.vodafone.co.nz/data-angel-overseas/

keewee01

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#723174 26-Nov-2012 17:00

To me, there is always a delay in overseas charges - so it is very much user beware.

Do the terms and conditions of the cap mention anything about this situation?

wellygary

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#723176 26-Nov-2012 17:01

According to this
http://www.telecomroaming.co.nz/media/content/document/roaming_zones.pdf

You are paying $8/MB to roam in the US, so your $150 cap got hit once you used just under 20MB,
there remainder would have been for about an additional 40MB for a total of about 60MB.

fairly easy to blow such a small amount of data

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corksta

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#723181 26-Nov-2012 17:12

No that's not right. The first 12.5MB are charged at $8/MB, the remaining 87.5MB are free, then after that $100 is hit you are charged at $8/MB until you hit $150 then it's automatically switched off either until you tell them to unblock it or your next billing month starts.

http://www.telecomroaming.co.nz/promotion/

This 'deal' is applied automatically, you don't have to sign up to it or anything.

keewee01

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#723185 26-Nov-2012 17:20

corksta: No that's not right. The first 12.5MB are charged at $8/MB, the remaining 87.5MB are free, then after that $100 is hit you are charged at $8/MB until you hit $150 then it's automatically switched off either until you tell them to unblock it or your next billing month starts.

http://www.telecomroaming.co.nz/promotion/

This 'deal' is applied automatically, you don't have to sign up to it or anything.

I suspect you have to buy that pack in advance. Certainly have to with 2degrees.

Nope - as the OP points out, they are applied automatically

Very strange

corksta

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#723187 26-Nov-2012 17:22

No you don't, it's applied automatically.

From the T&Cs of that deal:

- Roaming data rate cap is applied to all consumer, and business accounts (excluding Gen-i managed accounts) automatically.

- If you travel to one of the three destinations covered under the roaming data cap and use data, you automatically receive the new pricing.

corksta

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#723189 26-Nov-2012 17:26

Further down it says:

- We cannot guarantee the accuracy of usage data alerts or when they will be received by you.

So clearly I got an alert at $150 but maybe I'd already actually used more than that by then and the correct amount used hadn't been received by Telecom yet.

AndrewMac

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#723318 26-Nov-2012 23:25

Have you talked to the helpdesk about it?

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plambrechtsen

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#723371 27-Nov-2012 07:39

AndrewMac: Have you talked to the helpdesk about it?

To me that is the best and only way for resolution.

What has the roaming helpdesk said about this issue?

As it sounds and reads to me you have done a fair amount of research into the T&C's.. but not actually rung up to speak with anyone to get them to check whats going on.

riahon

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#723390 27-Nov-2012 08:34

How did you override the $150 cap? Did you ring someone?

corksta

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#723535 27-Nov-2012 11:34

plambrechtsen:
AndrewMac: Have you talked to the helpdesk about it?

To me that is the best and only way for resolution.

What has the roaming helpdesk said about this issue?

As it sounds and reads to me you have done a fair amount of research into the T&C's.. but not actually rung up to speak with anyone to get them to check whats going on.

Not yet I haven't, just wanted to throw it out here first to see what others thought or if it was normal.

corksta

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#723538 27-Nov-2012 11:35

riahon: How did you override the $150 cap? Did you ring someone?

In the text they send you to say "you're done", they provide a link to go to a site where you can remove the limit or set it to a higher one than the default $150.

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