New Member
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17 Messages
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?
formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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113.3K Messages
1 year ago
@suds
You indicated 15 days ago that AT&T had called you. 2 weeks to work out a problem is not unusual. AT&T tends to work at a snail's pace, if at all.
Do not assume that just because I quote policy that that is defense. As a former AT&T customer I was very familiar with my online account and how to add and remove the $0 travel pay per use feature to prevent charges while outside of the United States. It worked perfectly. That feature still exists for current customers.
Also do not assume that because AT&T applies some relief, that it is admitting fault or error on their part.
A credit based on Goodwill is not that
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MicCheck
ACE - Expert
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13.7K Messages
1 year ago
AT&T definitely monitors the forum, but they don't read every single post and respond. In your case AT&T Help saw your post and messaged you directly. That's not normally the case so other customers shouldn't expect the same results.
Hopefully you get some relief; it's hard to say in situations like these. If your current ticket doesn't yield the results you want, you can file a BBB complaint to get escalated to corporate.
Hopefully you've also turned on IDP to avoid this situation going forward. If you don't use international service, there's no charge. If you do use international service, inadvertently or on purpose, it's a $10 charge per day. This situation would have resulted in a $10 bill instead of $400.
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suds
New Member
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17 Messages
1 year ago
@MicCheck @formerlyknownas : Thank you for your involvement her. Yes, I now know how international works. But my point for bringing it here, and all other mediums that I have already raised it, is to make AT&T aware that they have a hole they need to fill in here so that in future customers are not billed without their knowing that International service is active. Customers need to see that International Service is On, either list it permanently in My Plan Details or Add-Ons. Otherwise, its no different than any other scam.
@ATTHelp : Hope you will be able to provide an update on that internal ticket sometime soon.
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Constructive
Former Employee
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32.9K Messages
1 year ago
its an internal ticket so at&t wont share any updates or results with the public
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suds
New Member
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17 Messages
1 year ago
@Constructive : I hope they can DP and call and let me know in that case. Since I have been in the receiving end of this mishandled feature.
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MicCheck
ACE - Expert
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13.7K Messages
1 year ago
Good luck. I hope you get answers.
To be honest, I doubt AT&T changes anything. The number of customer who both 1) look to see if international PPU is on and 2) use service outside of an area covered by their domestic plan is probably incredibly small. My guess is that AT&T determines it's cheaper to leave things alone and adjust a few bills here and there or make a few people mad than go through the hassle of changing thing.
Keep in mind that making international PPU more front and center will likely lead to customer who never would have cared seeing a new feature and calling to complain, even though there's no monthly cost.
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MC94115
New Member
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20 Messages
1 year ago
Hey suds.
I understand your points.
Some of the replies to you are sorely unhelpful and I'm not sure why they keep replying other than to increase their post counters. MicCheck had an amazing reply however. At least in the distant past "Int'l Roaming" was a feature you had to specifically authorize on your lines. Now it seems - just default.
What I've learned:
- Int'l roaming is a default feature (or curse) on my postpaid plan
- the fact that you can seemingly manipulate - add/remove Travel-PPU on the ATT website means nothing - it's an advertisement and does not disable or enable the ability to Roam or not Roam centrally. It's misleading and in fact, I accidentally removed Travel - PPU from my line thinking "oh no - my phone won't work internationally anymore" and there is no way for me to add it back on the website to my line(just wont give me that option anymore) - to which phone agents said "no worries, it's not really an add on - if no other IDP plans on your account, Travel-PPU rates are default - roam freely! - the designation on website is for show only."
I'm sorry you were charged so much. In the past I've heard about them adjusting the bill or back dating a request for IDP - they wont do that for you?
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