$1400 BILL for ROAMING?! HELP!!

[Yanzelle88]

Hi all

Just happened to open the Rogers my account app to check my balance and it's just over $1400!
Took a 5 day trip to Italy, 4 of the 5 days I kept my phone completely shut off. Had a wifi connection at the hotel and it appears that I've been being charged all along.
Does anyone have any suggestions? ?

[joninator]

Did you turn data roaming off? Sounds like you didn't and when you were on wifi it got disconnected and you were using data? Never trust wifi since it can randomly drop and reconnect.

[Treatz]

Wifi shuts off once the phone sleeps...
so if you had data roaming enabled, which by default it ISN'T, then you used the data

[WorldIRC]

Agree with Treatz. WiFi is not reliable and can turn off at anytime, especially when the screen is in sleep mode. The user would have ENABLED data roaming; therefore the charges are valid.

[bubble.tea]

ouch...$1400. Someone wanna do the math on how much data that is?

In this day and age., who doesn't disable roaming, but also TAKE OUT YOUR SIM CARD, when travelling overseas????? Unless you're a baller who wants such a bill, this is silly.

[Treatz]

ouch...$1400. Someone wanna do the math on how much data that is?

In this day and age., who doesn't disable roaming, but also TAKE OUT YOUR SIM CARD, when travelling overseas????? Unless you're a baller who wants such a bill, this is silly.

you don't have to take our your sim card, that's just silly

I had no issues roaming all over italy getting SMS's back on the W810 in 2007. the Key here is KNOWING how to use your phone

Leaving it turned on, with data roaming off, as is the default will result in $0.00 bill.

[robsaw]

The OP asked for suggestions:

1. Pay your bill.
2. Call-in and plead ignorance, lack of affirmative warning, can't pay it anyway and beg for leniency and a partial reduction.

[E2EK1EL]

Sorry to see this happen to you, please update us all with your process of dealing w/ Rogers.

[ceredon]

ouch...$1400. Someone wanna do the math on how much data that is?

Assuming $0.03/KB, that would be about 45MB of data usage. Pretty easy to hit that with a youtube video or other fairly light usage.

OP enabled data roaming, used data and is surprised at the bill. Hard to justify Rogers rates as anything but profiteering, but the OP obviously knew roaming would be expensive (hence trying to keep the phone off and only using wifi), but they enabled data roaming and used data regardless.

[Nuclearjack]

The OP asked for suggestions:

1. Pay your bill.
2. Call-in and plead ignorance, lack of affirmative warning, can't pay it anyway and beg for leniency and a partial reduction.

plead ignorance and ask for bill to be adjusted to the cost if there was a data roaming package on before the trip.

I dont know if Rogers actually does this or not and its still a higher then normal bill but its less then $1400.

Any Rogers CS want to advise how often/easily Rogers rerates?

[theplayground]

I don't see how U can completely avoid paying this bill. Like other posters in here have suggested, u will have to call Rogers and try to act as if u are shocked!!!!...........and have no idea of what just happened. I know depending how convincing and genuine u sound, u can probably reduce ur bill, but there is no way they'll let go off the full bill.

Sorry to hear this, I hope u can get it reduced by atleast more than 50%. I think that will be a success, and if u get a super rep, and since its ur first time.........they may waive it off which is highly impossible, but like I always say nothing is impossible in this world. Nothing beats trying.

Hope u pull it off. Good luck.

[Steveanderson13]

The OP asked for suggestions:

1. Pay your bill.
2. Call-in and plead ignorance, lack of affirmative warning, can't pay it anyway and beg for leniency and a partial reduction.

Good post. I can share my experience and hope it's helpful. Ten years ago, as a new cellphone customer with AT$T and newly on the road, I got $1,200 domestic voice roaming. I called and explained my ignorance. They basically said tough ****. I basically said **** you. Cancelled my account. The lawyer/debt collector offered a deal of half, I accepted. They would have saved a lot of money by doing that in the first place.

Switched to Verizon, screwed up a few times with data overages, etc, have ALWAYS gotten some relief. The last time, had six months of charges in error; I asked for credit, denied. Called back later to different person, he asked his manager, got two months credit. I was happy.

So it depends on your company's character and the nature of your account.

I wouldn't pay the roaming in advance of any discussion. But I had paid the six months erroneous charges before asking. $1,400 is a big risk. Maybe you have an arbitrator up there?

Is Rogers an ******* company? You'll have to take the first step and address the problem. If no relief with first contact, take it a step up, etc. If no relief at end, then seek third-party recourse. If you plan on staying with Rogers and it gets that far, might be better to pay it to maintain your good faith, according to what third-party advises.

[Rogido]

If you ignore the bill, eventually their collection people will try to call you. I would venture to guess you can easily get them to discount the amount by 30%, if not more. Once I owed them for ECF. When the collection gal called, she offered a 30% discount even without my asking, if I paid the balance right away.

[Steveanderson13]

If you ignore the bill, eventually their collection people will try to call you.

Wouldn't that be after disconnect? Don't think the OP seeks that, but...

[DataDude]

Agree with Treatz. WiFi is not reliable and can turn off at anytime, especially when the screen is in sleep mode. The user would have ENABLED data roaming; therefore the charges are valid.

Ugh, it probably cost about 1400 CENTS to actually provide said service...

Anyways, doesn't Rogers have some sort of policy where they reduce outrageous bills like this by half, if it's a first-time mistake? I seem to recall something along these lines.

If I were the OP, I'd call Rogers, explain that Europe generally has pretty reasonable data rates, and explain that you can get 6 GB for $30 in Canada. Ask how a non-technical user would be able to know that WI-FI gets turned off when the phone is put in sleep mode. Question the rep on specific phones, and their default settings and little quirks like this, which they probably won't know. Hopefully, out of plain old common sense, they'll reduce this figure a bit.