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Data roaming 'massive bill' HELP!!!!!

Jeza

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Hi All, We are fairly new to the 'iphone' world purchasing one a couple of months ago. We have just returned to Australia from 2 weeks in Bali and received a call from our carrier about data roaming charges whilst overseas. Whilst I haven't yet received the bill, the total is in the vacinity of $15000AUD... We have been advised that we had activated the 'data roaming' feature in the settings and that there were a whole heap of apps that were continually downloading data predominately relating to games.

Perhaps we are inexperienced and ignorant about the hazards of international charges such as these. Knowing the costs of calls, we refrained from making any calls and only sent SMS and were of the belief that on th very few occasions we accessed the Internet, and our son downloaded games we were utilizing the accommodation wi-fi.

Our carrier is looking into the bill further and was going to discuss it with hierarchy but had no immediate solutions or suggestions.

We are simply not in any position to pay a $15,000 bill and are astounded by how this has transpired - perhaps our negligence?

A couple of days before we left, I rang the carrier and asked them to activate international roaming. We don't recall activating data roaming within settings. Does anybody know whether the default setting of data roaming on the iPhone 4 is on or off, or whether this is something that can be activated remotely by the phone carrier?

I'd appreciate any suggestions and advise on what to do in our situation?

Cheers,

Jez
 
Call up your carrier, explain what happened and they should be able to help you.

Sent from The Droid... The one you were looking for...
 
You make reference ti games, I think unfortunately you may have turned on 'in app purchases' a setting that IMHO should always be off, as I think it is defaulted to On.

obviously you had no intentions of ever spending such vast amounts but then again not the carriers fault directly, but morally given the massive cost they should have throttled back your data access given the unusual usage level and the tack I would use if it were me to argue the bill down.

If intransigent threaten to go public, tell news papers, Tv channels etc

And perhaps get the kid a Ninetendo 3DS ;)
 
You make reference ti games, I think unfortunately you may have turned on 'in app purchases' a setting that IMHO should always be off, as I think it is defaulted to On.

In App purchases has NOTHING TO DO with data usage of that magnitude. Period.

Odds are email was not setup properly and was using the default "check every 15 minutes" instead of "push". And even with ONE email account, if they are not deleting the emails then the system has to download all the headers to reconcile what to display. That usage would add up VERY QUICKLY.
 
i agree, call your cell provider and ask for there help
 
Skull One said:
In App purchases has NOTHING TO DO with data usage of that magnitude. Period.

Odds are email was not setup properly and was using the default "check every 15 minutes" instead of "push". And even with ONE email account, if they are not deleting the emails then the system has to download all the headers to reconcile what to display. That usage would add up VERY QUICKLY.

We have to agree to disagree :).

Recently a family went from UK to Southern Ireland on holiday, child had a dongle into laptop for Internet at home, and used it in Ireland. Resulted I'm massive roaming bill.

It made it onto BBC watchdog (consumer program).

I'm UK Based, and going on holiday to Mexico later this month for 2 weeks. I checked and T-mobile rates who will charge £7.40 per meg of data, so gamer updates, content downloads and in app downloads would cost me a lot of money were I unaware (but I hope not as much as the o/p).

I'm checking with the venue if WiFi is available, if so I will use Skype.
 
Skull One said:
In App purchases has NOTHING TO DO with data usage of that magnitude. Period.

Odds are email was not setup properly and was using the default "check every 15 minutes" instead of "push". And even with ONE email account, if they are not deleting the emails then the system has to download all the headers to reconcile what to display. That usage would add up VERY QUICKLY.

We have to agree to disagree :).

Recently a family went from UK to Southern Ireland on holiday, child had a dongle into laptop for Internet at home, and used it in Ireland. Resulted I'm massive roaming bill.

It made it onto BBC watchdog (consumer program).

I'm UK Based, and going on holiday to Mexico later this month for 2 weeks. I checked and T-mobile rates who will charge £7.40 per meg of data, so gamer updates, content downloads and in app downloads would cost me a lot of money were I unaware (but I hope not as much as the o/p).

I'm checking with the venue if WiFi is available, if so I will use Skype.


There is nothing to disagree about. In App purchases use VERY LITTLE data to complete the transaction. The code is already in the application. Hence it is IMPOSSIBLE for a in App purchase to cause this condition.

BTW, I am an Apple iOS developer. It's my job to know this.


Now updating the full application is an entirely different situation. But using $15K AUD worth of data wouldn't be something where you we be wondering how it happened. Since you are now talking about downloading several gigs of data.


Which means it has to be an app that was online and already in place. One that would be forgotten about because it is being used on a daily basis. Hence the likely issue is Email since most people never think about how much data is being used.
 
Email would definatly eat up data but I dont believe that would be the only thing. Do you have any idea how many MB's you used up on your trip?

Data roaming is turned on by default but can easily be turned off. Settings > Network > Data Roaming. There is also a warning underneath it saying to disable data roaming when traveling...
 
Email would definatly eat up data but I dont believe that would be the only thing. Do you have any idea how many MB's you used up on your trip?

Data roaming is turned on by default but can easily be turned off. Settings > Network > Data Roaming. There is also a warning underneath it saying to disable data roaming when traveling...


Interesting. Data Roaming on US based Verizon (CDMA) phones is turned off by default when you purchase one.
 
I always have to switch mine off after a fresh restore. It is turned on and warns you to switch it off when travelling.

Interestingly the warning is different on ios5 compared to ios4...
 
Skull One said:
In App purchases has NOTHING TO DO with data usage of that magnitude. Period.

Odds are email was not setup properly and was using the default "check every 15 minutes" instead of "push". And even with ONE email account, if they are not deleting the emails then the system has to download all the headers to reconcile what to display. That usage would add up VERY QUICKLY.

Whatever caused it, thats an astonishing bill, is it all data where what you say makes sense, or is it the costs of bought in app add ons? Perhaps the phone did not disconnect having made a call?

We are all guessing until the o/p gets an actual breakdown of the costs, may well be a navigation utility left running using net based data as example.

Imho be wise for o/p to note current usage, reset and check it daily, keeping note, i'm no legal eagle but it might be useful in any court case to show normal usage and perhaps prove a degree of neglect and lack of due care in the providers conduct to develop into such a situation.
 
Thank you all for the responses that I have received so far. I am still yet to receive the actual bill so don't have any specifics about 'break up' of costs. The carrier did acknowledge that there were no actual phone calls during the 11 day period we were overseas and that it was all data related.

I hope that I receive some form of realistic solution from the carrier, but this maybe too optimistic? The carrier is rather small and of community nature so the ability to 'absorb' costs is likely to be limited... Having said that, certainly not as limited as my ability to meet this cost...

If ok, I may seek some more guidance and advice once the details are to hand?

Thanks very much,

Jez
 
Jeza said:
Thank you all for the responses that I have received so far. I am still yet to receive the actual bill so don't have any specifics about 'break up' of costs. The carrier did acknowledge that there were no actual phone calls during the 11 day period we were overseas and that it was all data related.

I hope that I receive some form of realistic solution from the carrier, but this maybe too optimistic? The carrier is rather small and of community nature so the ability to 'absorb' costs is likely to be limited... Having said that, certainly not as limited as my ability to meet this cost...

If ok, I may seek some more guidance and advice once the details are to hand?

Thanks very much,

Jez

Everyone here i'm sure hope's it pans out for the good, 'there but for the grace' etc.

Can you please report back on how you get on, what resolutions are/were made and any help to prevent it in the future.

Stories like these serve to undermine the public confidence in using these what are otherwise excellent services, who ever is at fault the providers need to take more strides with their systems to prevent hardships caused accidentally by being less aware.
 
I think there will be a stiff rise in sales if lead boxes to fit your iPhone in after this story gets more widely published :eek:)
 
Skull One said:
There is nothing to disagree about. In App purchases use VERY LITTLE data to complete the transaction. The code is already in the application. Hence it is IMPOSSIBLE for a in App purchase to cause this condition.

BTW, I am an Apple iOS developer. It's my job to know this.

Now updating the full application is an entirely different situation. But using $15K AUD worth of data wouldn't be something where you we be wondering how it happened. Since you are now talking about downloading several gigs of data.

Which means it has to be an app that was online and already in place. One that would be forgotten about because it is being used on a daily basis. Hence the likely issue is Email since most people never think about how much data is being used.

I'll bow to you superior knowledge :).

I have paid for mainly business apps that update, sometimes it's short others times given time taken it seems to near replace the whole program code.

I'm going on holiday outside the EU, my data is normally unlimited (within fair usage whatever that is lol!) but while in Mexico the charge us a whopping £7.80 per meg. This will show as data (not in app purchases).

So I won't be using mobil signal for Internet, just hope there is sensibly priced WiFi on site or in nearest pub ;), but I wonder if that is some the o/p's 'unknown' costs were derived?
 
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