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iphone unlocked, but still received at&t roaming charges for calls. Help

R

roundtheworld

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2009
3
0
I had my 3GS iphone unlocked when I traveled to Asia for work so I could use a local sim card and save on roaming charges.

I turned off the data roaming plan, inserted Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese prepaid sim cards in and proceeded to run the credit to $0.00 on all three, so I know they were working.

So I was pretty horrified to find over $900 in roaming charges when I looked at my at&t bill. This was all from calls not from data transfer as I've seen mentioned before. What did I do wrong?
 
roundtheworld said:
I had my 3GS iphone unlocked when I traveled to Asia for work so I could use a local sim card and save on roaming charges.

I turned off the data roaming plan, inserted Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese prepaid sim cards in and proceeded to run the credit to $0.00 on all three, so I know they were working.

So I was pretty horrified to find over $900 in roaming charges when I looked at my at&t bill. This was all from calls not from data transfer as I've seen mentioned before. What did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

You must be leaving something out. There is no way AT&T even knows where you are without the simcard in the phone.
 
+2

It is impossible for AT&T to charge you for calls when your SIM is not in the phone. To them it will be as if your phone is not even turned on. So what are you leaving out?
 
Did you power on your the phone before switching simcards in the other country? If you do, all voicemails you get will be billed as international calls.
 
Fishy

Yes, I realized the problem may not be how I unlocked it, but how I didn't keep an eye on the sim card. The att sim card been sitting in an envelope in the desk drawer of my guesthouse. I looked for it last night and it was gone. My fault for not leaving it at home or keeping it safe.

The only thing I can think is that someone took my sim card and made calls (I called a few of the numbers on the bill from another line and received a Vietnamese speakers and a few recordings). So my carelessness got me my $900 + phone bill. Think at&t would even entertain removing them seeing as how I illegally unlocked my phone?
 
roundtheworld said:
Yes, I realized the problem may not be how I unlocked it, but how I didn't keep an eye on the sim card. The att sim card been sitting in an envelope in the desk drawer of my guesthouse. I looked for it last night and it was gone. My fault for not leaving it at home or keeping it safe.

The only thing I can think is that someone took my sim card and made calls (I called a few of the numbers on the bill from another line and received a Vietnamese speakers and a few recordings). So my carelessness got me my $900 + phone bill. Think at&t would even entertain removing them seeing as how I illegally unlocked my phone?
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert. But can't you just tell them someone took your phone? They wouldn't know that you took your phone overseas if you took out the sim.
 
roundtheworld said:
Yes, I realized the problem may not be how I unlocked it, but how I didn't keep an eye on the sim card. The att sim card been sitting in an envelope in the desk drawer of my guesthouse. I looked for it last night and it was gone. My fault for not leaving it at home or keeping it safe.

The only thing I can think is that someone took my sim card and made calls (I called a few of the numbers on the bill from another line and received a Vietnamese speakers and a few recordings). So my carelessness got me my $900 + phone bill. Think at&t would even entertain removing them seeing as how I illegally unlocked my phone?
Click to expand...

Your sim card was stolen. That is what you need to report.
 
Yes, it was stolen, which makes this more of an issue with AT&T then macrumors. But for thos eof you who asked, I called AT&T. They agreed to suspend my account so no new calls could be made, but said I am liable for of the $794 charged on the phone (made to several numbers in Vietnam).

My loss, but a lesson learned. The next time I travel outside of the US, I will take my iphone as its useful for wifi but I will either leave my sim card home in a very safe place, or suspend the account while I am gone. It stinks, however, as much of the charges are AT&Ts profie, that I'm still held liable for the full amount.
 
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