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New Member

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17 Messages

Saturday, August 13th, 2022 12:36 AM

International Roaming enabled by default, raking charges without informing customer

I am spreading the word about how AT&T has taken one of the oldest crimes of pickpocketing, put an Enterprise mask on it and has been milking money off unsuspecting and naive customers. Sadly, I was one of them, been  charged $400 for data roaming. The charged stemmed because it looks like the phone triggered a scheduled backup, and I was under the assumption that if no international plans were enabled, the phone would not connect anyway so I left the SIM inside the phone, instead I feel now that I should have taken the SIM off and burned it. Neither was I informed or alerted that my international roaming was active by default, with no option to turn it off, nor was I alerted at the time that my charges were going to be pay per use. Last I traveled out of US was 2016 and roaming was disabled by default. Looks like that option was stealthily removed. Customer care says there is nothing they can do as charges are valid. Here are my questions, 

  • Why is international roaming enabled by default without the customer’s approval?
  • Why isn’t the customer alerted that they are on pay per use? If you can send all the other advertising texts, you surely can send this alert.
  • Even if you cannot add or answer questions 1 & 2 apart from the fact that it helps you legally extort money from customers, why cannot you display in the Device add-on section on myatt website or mobile app that this feature is On by default so customers can take measures to avoid these charges. 

Is this what AT&T has become now? Is there no better way of making money your executives can think of?

ACE - Sage

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113.3K Messages

1 year ago

🤦🏼‍♀️

You can complain to whoever you like, but it's your responsibility to control your phone,  with any service provider,  so as to not get extra charges.

If you did not turn off data roaming, or turn off your phone, or put it in Airplane mode, or remove the sim card, then your phone would automatically connect to whatever cellular towers are available outside of the US.  

New Member

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17 Messages

1 year ago

I agree, customer should control, however, AT&T should inform the customer about these hidden features. Do you expect the customer to know "by default" about these hidden features? What prevents AT&T from sending an alert text, or show it in myatt.com that the feature is active?

ACE - Sage

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113.3K Messages

1 year ago

Ignorance is not an excuse.

And it's not hidden.   When your phone is connected to a different network it will show in your top notification bar.

According to AT&T day pass info,  when you do connect to another Network they send you a text message asking if you would like to enroll in international day pass. If you got that message and dismissed it or ignored it, you took the risk of incurring high pay per use charges.

Like this person..

https://forums.att.com/conversations/apple/cell-plan-in-dominican-republic/62f6aa614a366c200e4e0de7

New Member

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17 Messages

1 year ago

Nopes. I didn’t get any alerts.  And there is no excuse for AT&T for not showing active features on the myatt app. I feel this has been left out specifically for ignorant customers like me, and for obvious reasons. I got alerts when I activated and de-activated day pass, but no alerts stating I am on pay per use, had I got one, why would I deliberately leave it on. 

New Member

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17 Messages

1 year ago

And “formerlyknownas”, looks like you are an At&t expert, can you tell me why doesnt myAT&T account show me international roaming as an active feature on my line?Being my cellular service  provider, there is no excuse for not showing me the list of active features I have on my line, specifically the ones that I never requested for. This is something they should be doing if honesty is one of their guiding principles. 

ACE - Sage

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113.3K Messages

1 year ago

It shows as $0 travel pay per use as a feature on your line. 

Community Support

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225K Messages

1 year ago

Hey there @suds, we understand the importance of knowing when you're being charged and want to help clear this up for you.

Like @formerlyknownas mentioned, international roaming will show up as a feature on the wireless line in question. You can view your wireless features or add-ons by following these steps:

  1. Go to your myAT&T account overview and sign in.
  2. Scroll to My devices, and choose the line in question.
  3. Scroll to Manage add-ons.

You'll also be able to remove international roaming from your line if you no longer want to use it.

Thanks for reaching out to the AT&T Community Forums.

 

Dylan, AT&T Community Specialist

 

New Member

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17 Messages

1 year ago

So let me clarify. I did not have

1. “$0 travel pay per use” on my features. I had travel pass as an add-on between 12-15th of july which I removed. On 16th july, when I was charged $400 odd, I had no add-ons at all, and nothing in myatt that showed this feature was active. 

2. Customer service Supervisor mentioned its automatically added and is turned “On” by default, there is no option to turn it off. I have the chat transcript btw. 

 
Why would both of you consider that I am an ignorant (Edited per community guidelines) and posted this question without my investigation?

And could you be kind enough to let me where this feature is listed? If you are thinking its the Add-Ons, then you are wrong. 

(edited)

ACE - Sage

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113.3K Messages

1 year ago

1. “$0 travel pay per use” on my features.

Yes,  you do.   If it were not enabled your phone could not work on foreign carriers. 

I had travel pass as an add-on between 12-15th of july which I removed. On 16th july, when I was charged $400 odd,

Oops.   Why woukd you do that without controlling the phone's connectivity? 

I had no add-ons at all, and nothing in myatt that showed this feature was active. 

And yet it is 

2. Customer service Supervisor mentioned its automatically added

Whenever you enable a roaming plan,  as you did,  yes. 

and is turned “On” by default, there is no option to turn it off.

Not true,  it must manually be turned off,  just like day pass. 

New Member

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17 Messages

1 year ago

Again, no one has answered my question so far and its frustrating ..

Anyway, since you all are not focused on getting the facts straight, let me do that for you.

  1. You keep harping on "I could have seen the phone connect and connectivity bars etc", so I should have been aware.  True. But I had a local phone and wi-fi at there. So I disabled day pass. I used my laptop to access myatt to do this. The mobile app is anyway lightyears behind, hardly use it.  Once I was done with this, July 16th, i stowed away the phone. On the same day, later, the phone performed a scheduled backup which racked over this amount. 

This is the only charge I see, because I never used the phone until it was time to leave, and when I enabled  day pass again.

2. I had no addons showing international roaming active. Below is exactly how my addons screen looked. There is nothing called Pay per Use active.

3. Cust service (agent and his supervisor)confirmed as well. The service is on by default and if there is no package, I get charged by pay per use. 

So,  could anyone give me a single iota of evidence to show where this feature is listed in my account?

And, please note once again, my complaint is about the fact that if AT&T is providing me a feature I did NOT request, they need to at least list it somewhere in my account so I can "SEE" it.

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