You may be charged for International Day Pass even if you do not use it

Hello @GoodEvening,

We'd be more than happy to provide you with some more details about receiving voicemails internationally. Standard voicemail messages received when roaming outside of the U.S. are charged at international roaming calling rates, based on the international roaming feature on your account, or if you have not selected a feature, pay-per-use rates will apply. You are not charged for checking your voicemail messages while you're outside of the United States, but because you received a voicemail while International Day Pass was the international roaming feature on your account, this charge came from the voicemail that a caller left for you while you were traveling. Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

Sean, AT&T Community Specialist

@lizdance40@sandblasterThank you for your comments.  

My own experience and posts on this and other forums have taught me a lesson: day pass plan with ATT can be a trap. Other options should be considered carefully.

@sandblaster"If your phone rings, it is possible to get charged a minute and trigger the daily charge even if you don’t answer the call. The longer the phone rings, the greater the chance of being charged." 

From what fine print did you get this information? Here is what att.com says (on 08/17/2018):

Use and assessment of fee: Once you add this option to your device, the first time you use data or voice, or send a text message in an International Day Pass (IDP) country, you’ll automatically be charged a $10 daily fee. The fee covers additional data, voice, or text messages sent for 24-hours from the initial use in any IDP country during that period.

You’ll be charged an additional $10 fee for all subsequent 24-hour periods in which you use data or voice, or send a text message on a device set up with International Day Pass in an IDP country until you cancel the service.

There is nothing about the number of rings. I interpret YOU in "you use data or voice" as the customer.  My phone logs show that I (the customer) did NOT use the service, but yet I have been charged just because someone dialed my number and left a voice message. My bad: I did not count the rings. I realize that ATT is not a charity, and they want to make money.  However being non-selective about how to do it will not improve the reputation.

@GoodEvening It really has nothing to do with the number of rings. It is totally dependent on the foreign carrier and whether they charge a minute for the call or not. Most unanswered calls do not get charged by most carriers but it is a carrier by carrier thing, which ATT has no control over. If the foreign carrier reports the call usage, then ATT bills for it.

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@GoodEvening wrote:

 

 @MicCheck

 Thank you for

 this verification:

"In your case, though, YOU (the customer) did use the service, specifically, the voicemail feature." 

I wonder how you arrived at this conclusion.  You must know something about me that I do not.  To the best of my knowledge, I did NOT dial ANY number during my trip, including voicemail. Actually, my bill included 2 charges.  AT&T support, after 20 minutes on the phone, was unable to find any record showing usage of the phone, and they rolled one charge back: "it was a glitch in the system". Passing system glitches on the customer does not look like a very reputable business model, if they care about reputation at all.

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Perhaps I misunderstood when you said, "The representative told me that even if someone leaves a voice message, which I did not check, I have to be charged"

Answering a call is usage as much as making a call is. If you answered a call, even with voicemail, you used the service. It's not that you "have to be charged," you ARE charged for using the service. 

If no one called and left a message, then I agree you shouldn't have been charged. 

My wife and I have had this same issue (last year and this year).  We were in the UK for 3 weeks and used the international day pass a total of 4 times.  Those were the ONLY times we turned data roaming and cellular data on.  Other than that we were on wifi (including wifi calling).  We were charged 18 times (even while on the plane).  I called CS and initially they said they could not give us a credit.  That was not acceptable.  After over 45 minutes on the phone or hold, he came back and "offered" a credit for all but 6 charges (even though we used it 4 times).  

We are very aware of how this service works and know that our phones had data off until we needed the service.  Other than that we were on wifi.  I have been a customer for 15 years and this kind of stuff is maddening. It happened last year as well but they credited the entire amount that was wrong.  This is the kind of stuff which makes me want to switch service.  I would urge ATT to listen to their customers about erroneous charges (and then not try to sell other services while we are on the phone). 

@daninMichigan On the days you were incorrectly charged, what usage triggered the charge? Being on WiFi does not stop being charged for calls or texts if your phone is still connected to cellular service. You said you had data roaming off but you didn’t mention airplane mode. Data or data roaming off only stops data charges. If your phone was connected to a foreign cellular service, those charges may have been legitimate.