International Roaming enabled by default, raking charges without informing customer

🤦🏼‍♀️ Oy... you disabled day pass, which is essentially a safety net against excessive charges, but then you didn't disable the phone before putting it away.   This is why airplane mode of off exists.   

Even with International day pass you are not covered for Aero mobile charges or cruise ship charges.

The path provided by atthelp is correct to access add on features,  including international day pass.   Long distance pay per use, and $0 travel pay per use.   If you are not finding it using the website, use the Myatt app on your phone.   Despite your claim the website is better I have always used the app,  much simpler.

I know. All I want is something productive ocmes out of this and AT&T show’s it somewhere in the features sections or addons section in myatt that roaming is active. Some way of letting the customer know, making it a bit customer friendlier. Otherwise,  its a hidden charge. Customers who are less tech savvy will end up with thousands of dollars in charges which they will get to know only when the bill is generated. 

Excerpt below from the IDP “See Details” 

Pay-per-use rates: Apply when traveling in countries not included in IDP and/or when you have not added a package.

https://www.att.com/international/day-pass/?source=EC1N250000000000P&tfn=homesolutions&WT.srch=1&wtExtndSource=%2Batt+%2Binternational+%2Bcoverage&ds_eid=700000001881312&ds_cid=71700000049100867&ds_agid=58700004870023942&ds_kids=p41933981554&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuuKXBhCRARIsAC-gM0ijs4kgM1Up3U6MpR2yc1MuMG7BUU9DUprKKtvajXqSRzoZB6vON4IaAhPaEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Again, I see all these different links and pages, but its after the fact. It is AT&T’s responsibility to list it in the active services’s section in myatt under my account. If it can list all other active services, why cannot it list International roaming as active? This is my one and only question. Does anyone have an answer? Is it that technically impossible to do it, or are there any other nefarious reasons behind not choosing to do so.  

I am not asking for a refund, I want AT&T to stop using these unholy means to make money out of naive customers. 

Read your terms and conditions and it clearly listed. 

International roaming rates apply to any calls made or received, messages sent, and data used while outside the U.S. International roaming rates are subject to change without notice and vary by country. If you do not subscribe to an international roaming package or plan, you will be charged pay-per-use rates that may be substantially higher on a per unit basis than international package rates.

also it’s listed in the app. 

So I am seeing a lot of new users are posting replies without getting a thorough understanding of the problem. I am copying the evidences from one of my posts out here so you all can read through it, otherwise we would just be running in a hampster wheel..

1. I had a local phone and wi-fi while I was abroad. So I disabled day pass. I used my laptop to access myatt to do this. 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 thats 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. 

It does matter where terms and conditions pages are, and a customer should not have to search and browse though it. If there is a service that AT&T has active on a customer's line, they need to let them know. All the other services are shown in "My Plan Details", why not International Roaming, if it's active by default all the while.

Not sure what you mean by new users…..regardless as I indicated previously it’s in your terms and condition. Let me guess you didn’t read the terms? 

If you do not subscribe to an international roaming package or plan, you will be charged pay-per-use rates that may be substantially higher on a per unit basis than international package rates. 

Hi suds, based on your international charges inquiry, we want to get you in a Direct Message(DM). Check the message icon in the upper portion of the page and reply back. 

Thank you for our ACEs for stepping in to help. 

In the meantime, please keep in mind that International charges apply when you talk, text, or use data outside the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But you can save if you have AT&T Passport(currently retired for new customers), AT&T International Day Pass(IDP), or a similar plan for international travel.

Also, when you arrive in an included country, we’ll automatically add IDP to smartphones with eligible rate plans. We’ll send you a text to let you know we’re adding it, and what to do if you don’t want it. Learn more

We recommend turning off data roaming if you want to place calls and receive texts but not use cellular data. Turning off data roaming blocks:

• Emails
• Web browsing and downloads
• Visual Voicemail
• Picture and video messages 

Laslty, we do appreciate the feedback and we will forward it to the relevant team for areas of opportunity. Again, keep an eye out for our DM! We look forward to speaking to you!

Rhoda, AT&T Community Specialist