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Found a bug in 3.0! Data Roaming Problem...MMS

ImAliveUK

ImAliveUK

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 30, 2007
75
0
Kings Cross, London UK
I am currently in South Africa so if I needed to get online i'd have to enable Data Roaming (i'm from the UK).

However, I was curious to see if MMS would work with it off (in my experience, to send an MMS you need to have a data connection).

I sent a friend a MMS and it worked - even though there was no 3G symbol next to the carrier in the top left as my data roaming was off.

For some reason - probably confusion (!) I then opened the weather app and the weather loaded!! So I then opened safari and web pages loaded no problem.

I checked my settings and data roaming was still set to off. Sending an MMS must have enabled data roaming/3G, but the 3G symbol wasn't showing. If I hadn't checked, my emails probably would have come through and I may have got a shock when I opened my phone bill!!!

BEWARE!!!

Can any Devs pass this on to Apple?!?

K
 
Charged £40.30 for 2 MMS meesages from India

I have just returned from a trip to India and have been charged £40.30 for data roaming while there. This is despite having Data Roaming turned OFF the ENTIRE TIME I was away.
Having done a bit of reading on the O2 Forum it appears that my situation is not unique, but related to sending MMS messages.
Please look at the following posts:
http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=131644#131644
http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=133869#133869
There is absolutely no way that I used Data Roaming while in India. There seems to genuinely be something wrong with the system whereby Data Roaming is activated when sending MMS messages.
 
£440 Data Roaming Bill with O2!!! ROAMING OFF

Hi,

I don't know whether my particular issue is related to this, but I have just received a bill for £660 (normally around £70-120 for a 2 iPhone business account) of which £440+VAT was for data roaming usage. My wife has the other iPhone and had been in Spain for 5 days when the line was cut. On ringing O2 they advised me that I had exceeded a safety threshold credit on the account and the line had been barred. She had been sending me photos of the kids via MMS!

I now have the bill and see that a consistant data usage of 32MB to 35MB had been used per day. This is dispite data roaming being switched off for the entire duration and no internet access.

I have raised a network investigation and either they will find that an error has been made in recording data usage, or they will say data was accessed (even though this is completely unknowingly) which I will contest.

I find O2 staff very friendly and helpful when I speak to them, I just seem to be experiencing a number of different technical and billing issues recently. :rolleyes:
 
O2 know about the issue and when you return to the uk they will refund your data roaming if you call them. They did when I went to Egypt.
 
ct2k7 said:
Have you installed the carrier bundle file which half fixes this problem?
Click to expand...

I only got back today myself, and have just seen / installed it.
Looked like quite a coincidence when it popped up...

My wife's iPhone is still barred, until she gets back to the UK next weekend. Probably for the best anyway ;)

When I find out what actually happened, I'll post here.
 
Gav2k said:
O2 know about the issue and when you return to the uk they will refund your data roaming if you call them. They did when I went to Egypt.
Click to expand...

Thats good to know. I am keeping positive on the subject.
I spent 50 minutes on the phone to them this afternoon. They were very understanding and seemed to have some knowledge of happenings that they didn't want to share with me. While helpful, they said a network investigation was required.

I'll sit tight and see what happens. The Direct Debit has been cancelled anyway. I even considered dropping O2 for this account and a couple of others if it was not resolved properly. I know this means no iPhones, but it did cross my mind :eek:
 
[UPDATE] REFUNDED: £440 Data Roaming Bill with O2!!! ROAMING OFF

As promised, I have just got off the phone with O2, following their network investigation they have confirmed that data was used in and out-bound. Looks like the email account had continually polled and downloaded mails (probably SPAM). The ironic thing is that she doesn't use email often because of the amount of spam received! :rolleyes:

The lady at O2 was not aware of any issues with data roming being activated in the background, but following a quick chat with a manager (after informing her of the issues posted on the forums), the data usage was refunded to my account. :)

She also says that a further investigation into the issue (generally, not mine) will be suggested with Apple and O2.
 
I made the mistake of chacking my phone bill whilst on holiday in New York.

I paid £20 for a data bolt on before I left the UK and even with this, I still got charged another £70 for data while away. All I did was check Google Maps about 5 times on holiday. My email accounts were turned off.

I have spent over a month arguing with O2 and getting constant emails back from an Asian call centre advising me that there is no way I can be billed for data I haven't used.

Anyway eventually they advised that it was an error with the 3.0 upgrade (despite the upgrade only being released halfway through my trip). Got the money refunded to my bill together with a free line rental credit for the trouble I had to go through to get a reply so I have something like 3 months free line rentals to look forward to now.

Bl00dy annoying though.
 
nomad01 said:
I made the mistake of chacking my phone bill whilst on holiday in New York.

I paid £20 for a data bolt on before I left the UK and even with this, I still got charged another £70 for data while away. All I did was check Google Maps about 5 times on holiday. My email accounts were turned off.

I have spent over a month arguing with O2 and getting constant emails back from an Asian call centre advising me that there is no way I can be billed for data I haven't used.

Anyway eventually they advised that it was an error with the 3.0 upgrade (despite the upgrade only being released halfway through my trip). Got the money refunded to my bill together with a free line rental credit for the trouble I had to go through to get a reply so I have something like 3 months free line rentals to look forward to now.

Bl00dy annoying though.
Click to expand...

Result! I didn't get any compensation, I was just happy to get the charges removed. Although my wife has been without a phone in Spain (other than my son's pay-as-you-go) for 3 weeks. :rolleyes:

I think O2 have one of the better customer services in the UK (IMHO from appaling experiences with Orange & Vodafone), they are always helpful and most are enthusiastic. Saying this, there infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. I get poor coverage (cell and 3G), lots of mistakes in package configurations (forgot to add data bolt-on to iPhone account, visual voice mail not configured properly, my 3G Modem bared for no reason, etc.), and this issues (although this is probably Apples issue to be honest).
 
mdtsuk said:
I think O2 have one of the better customer services in the UK (IMHO from appaling experiences with Orange & Vodafone), they are always helpful and most are enthusiastic.
Click to expand...

I think this may be correct if you call them. They usually seem pretty helpful.

For convenience sake I usually email and then spend ages pulling out my hair trying to get a sensible response from them. :-s
 
ImAliveUK said:
I checked my settings and data roaming was still set to off. Sending an MMS must have enabled data roaming/3G, but the 3G symbol wasn't showing.
Click to expand...

3G does not equate to a data connection, so there is no basis for your entire post.
 
Eso said:
3G does not equate to a data connection, so there is no basis for your entire post.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure on the basis of your comment.

OP's point was that once you send an MMS with roaming OFF, roaming is enabled without any visual indication on the interface, 3G or any other data connection icon. Looking in settings still shows data roaming to be OFF. Leading to large bills if email is constantly downloading without the knowledge of the user.
 
I noticed this bug about two weeks ago, after spending 10 days in the south of spain, i returned to the UK and noticed i had a bill including a 100 quid charge for data usage, I rang o2, and they agreed the charges where down to an error in data roaming and agreed to refund me 80 as 20 I was happy to pay due to the cost of calling abroad, which I knew I had done. Hopefully o2 sort this out.
 
Nintendolinky said:
I noticed this bug about two weeks ago, after spending 10 days in the south of spain, i returned to the UK and noticed i had a bill including a 100 quid charge for data usage, I rang o2, and they agreed the charges where down to an error in data roaming and agreed to refund me 80 as 20 I was happy to pay due to the cost of calling abroad, which I knew I had done. Hopefully o2 sort this out.
Click to expand...

Looks like there may be a few more people coming home from holiday and finding a surprise bill on it's way to them!
 
mdtsuk said:
I'm not sure on the basis of your comment.

OP's point was that once you send an MMS with roaming OFF, roaming is enabled without any visual indication on the interface, 3G or any other data connection icon. Looking in settings still shows data roaming to be OFF. Leading to large bills if email is constantly downloading without the knowledge of the user.
Click to expand...

This makes me think that this may be a small reason why the US still doesn't have MMS yet. They want to make sure things work correctly here and abroad so AT&T doesnt have another fight with its customers over roaming.
 
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