Roaming charges rip off and rude staff

[Anastasiya]

So I’ve been with Rogers cellular for a number of years on and off and for internet and TV for at least 15 years. Ever since they implemented this stupid roam like home feature it’s been a disaster. I cannot completely turn off my phone when I am abroad, I need to see who was calling. Yet, I only turn my roaming on on the days I have no access to wifi. Every single time I go abroad Rogers charges me roaming for the days I never used it and every single time I need to call them, waste my time, explain and proove to them that there was no calld made/data used. They usually reverse wrong charges, but it is a pain and it takes time.
We went for a long family trip to Europe in July and I had at least 10 invalid roaming charges during that time. Unfortunately, I was not able to call Rogers about it. My credit card was charged automatically for the ridiculous amount, but we were going thru renovations and that card had so many charges that I did not pay attention to Rogers.
I just called and texted Rogers today about those charges and they told me that since it’s been over 90 days since the disputed billing period there is nothing they can do - it’s their policy that everybody is supposed to be aware of. The fact that my bill does not show any usage on these days is not suffucient to prove I did not use roaming. so what is that bill for?! I acknowledge half of the charges, I know I used roaming, but the second half is money purely made by Rogers out of thin air, or, to say more correctly, stolen from me! Yes, I did not call you within 90 days, but I did not know about this stupid policy and you know, people have issues and not always are able to spend an hour on the phone trying to dispute the charges that should not have been there to begin with! And what is even more ridiculous - the customer service guys on the messages are plain rude. I’ve never seen anything like this in Canada. G****Their manager, was absolutely horrible. With his choice of words, I have no idea how he manages to work in customer service to begin with.
Well, I guess I’ll have to suck up the roaming charges this time, but this will be the last roaming charges that Rogers ripped me off with Once my cell contract is up, it will be time to say good bye for all our services with rogers.
***Edited Labels***

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @Anastasiya.

I appreciate you being a member of the Rogers family for so long; welcome to our Community! We appreciate you sharing your recent service experience and hope to turn your experience around. 

Getting charged on the days, you are not using your phone can be agonizing. However, turning off the Data Roaming alone is not enough; you need to have the phone in Airplane/Flight mode. Many apps and services running in the background trigger the Roam Like Home charge when you are not actively using your phone to call/text.

You can opt out of Roam Like Home and use Pay-Per-Use roaming if this option suits your needs. But remember, if you have a smartphone, the moment you turn the Data Roaming On, the app/services running will consume data. And if the data consumed was even a few megabytes, the Pay-Per-Use roaming charges will be more than the Roam Like Home charge for the day. 

You can check Roaming FAQs to learn more about Roam Like Home, and let us know if you have further questions. 

Regards,

RogersMoin

[bethelrd]

This is still criminal ,with all the what ifs, turn this off ,this on etc. when dont want roaming it should be one switch . bull .

[kimr430]

Totally agreed! I’m currently in a similar situation with Rogers. I should not need to know how worldwide networks work!
I did what I thought was due diligence by changing my phone settings when I landed in my foreign destination.

[kimr430]

Agreed! Why would I be aware that I need to remove the SIM card from my phone to avoid charges. There could be a simple consent/not consent option when u get where u r going

[57]

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@kimr430 wrote: There could be a simple consent/not consent option when u get where u r going

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It's not that simple.

Some people may wish to use roam like home and are satisfied with the daily rate.

Some people may wish to pay per minute or text

Some people may wish to purchase a SIM in the country they're visiting since that can save lots of money, depending.

Some people may wish to leave their phone in Airplane mode for the utmost "safety" from charges.

Some people may wish to use WiFi for their correspondence since WiFi is available in lots of locations.

Some people may wish to utilize their phone's specific settings for data and cellular service depending on their needs.

Rogers typically notifies you as soon as you're roaming and it's your responsibility to understand your options and act/change settings appropriately.

[Rosemary52]

I am so angry at Rogers and their ridiculous roaming charges. I just returned from two weeks in the USA and was charged roaming fees for every day. I had cellular data turned off and was on airplane mode whenever I was not in a WIFI zone. At no time did I get a message that I was roaming. When I contacted customer service I was told that I should have removed my SIM card because I likely had apps running in the background such as FaceBook so my charges were legitimate. Huh?! I have travelled a lot and have never had to remove my SIM card - just needed cel data off and airplane mode on. I asked what had changed and was told “I don’t know”. I asked if there was an alternative travel plan to Roam Like Home which is super expensive. I was told to try using What’s App. I pointed out that I would have to use my phone, therefore, roaming charges. I was then told “don’t use your phone “. Not the best or most knowledgeable customer service. In any case, I will be looking for a different carrier. I’m pretty upset with Rogers right now.

[kimr430]

Totally agree! It’s complete mess.
I did manage to get the 6 days roaming charges reversed. It took a lot of time, effort & energy on my part.

[RogersCorey]

Greetings @Rosemary52!

I am sorry to hear of your experience with us on the phones. If you had airplane mode on and cellular data turned off then it should not be possible for your device to use any data even if you had apps running in the background.

I'd be happy to review your roaming usage. From the usage patterns, it should be apparent if it was accidental. Accidental roaming patterns should show a low amount of incidental usage since you're not using your phone actively.

If you travel to the US often and you don't want to use Roam Like Home, the alterative would be a Canada + US plan: Canada US Phone Plan FAQs - Rogers

Feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.  

Regards,

RogersCorey

[Babylegs1]

Unfortunately, regardless of which provider you go choose to go to, it will happen again and again if you don't know how to put your phone to the right settings. You need to keep in mind that it must be 

1. roaming off

2. data off

3. airplane mode on

once you have these settings you cannot take an incoming call, respond to a text, use data, or check voicemail.

I've seen it happen to many friends with Bell and Telus too.

[frubens]

Shame on Rogers for this scam. I landed in Asia and had my phone off during the flight. I turned it on and within seconds put it on airplane mode and cellular roaming off, but despite this I was charged for roaming that day. It isn't the money, it is the principle. They used to send me a text when I landed internationally and asked if I wanted to roam, so I can't imagine they don't have the technology to do the same. Now they have indicated in their response that I should remove my Sim card. I have never seen this recommendation before, but now I know. It is surprising they continue this unethical practice.

[mebe]

Attention passengers ... This is your Pilot speaking.

Airplane mode is a rather basic setting, that needs to be updated to make it impossible to incur any unwanted Roaming charges.

I would add a Helicopter mode. Once activated, it would behave like a helicopter parent, always hovering, trying to keep you out of financial trouble, and potential danger.

Mattel isn't a telephone company, but its Fisher-Price toy phone on wheels, with an attached cord to help pull it along while you move around, even from Toronto, Canada all the way to Buffalo, New York ... Without any Roaming charges! It's basic, but also brilliant!

Once this technology is added to our dumb cellphones, we can finally sing a much happier tune.

Oh give me a home,
Where the buffalo roam,
And the charges are avoided all day.

Home, home out of range,
Where the fear and the antitrust laws play.
Where seldom is heard,
A discouraging word,
Once the helicopter mode is unleashed.

Sincerely,
Can you hear me now?
How 'bout now?
Hello?
Are we in Buffalo, yet?
Airplane mode, sucks!

[Pauly]

i would turn the phone on while you are still in the air before you land, and then activate airplain mode, turn off roaming, turn off data roaming, so your phone does not have a chance to connect to the cellular network at all in the destination country.

also i think sometimes wifi calling might trigger a rome like home charge, does anyone else think so too?

[mlin77]

your explanation is not entirely valid.  This is coming from someone that knows cellular tech and data roaming.  If data roaming is off, none of the apps in the background will be able to access the network for data.   There is no way that would have triggered the charges.  It would have been either a text message or a phone call.  If none of those happened, then you are taking advantage of clients with these charges.  

[mlin77]

I am dealing with Rogers with this already and am waiting for a manger to call me back.  I had data roaming off the whole time during my travel and was charged the daily roam like home fee.  No texts/calls as I used an eSIM for data.  I'm waiting for rogers to tell me what exactly triggered the roam like home charge.  I suspect they are charging clients when your phone connects to the cell tower even though you or your apps have not used any data.  This whole thing is disappointing as Rogers is clearly taking advantage of their clients.

[diamond482]

One of the biggest scams of this decade.  Before they took over it was a one time charge for international roaming, for like 30 dollars for the month, with some restrictions on amount of data.  But it more than sufficient for my needs.  Once my contract is done ... I'm gone ... good riddance Rogers.  I'd get a local sim, but you still need access to your phone because of the banks 2fa requirements to verify the code they send sms, which is also wrong but I won't digress.  I really don't get how they attract customers, very very expensive business model.  No value for the money imho.

[RogersYasmine]

Good day @diamond482 ,

We appreciate you leaving your comments here in the community! I'm sorry to hear of your disappointment in our pricing. We definitely try our best to remain competitive with the rest of the Canadian market, as best we can! I realize that prices are going up in general, and it is very tough, for myself included. 🙁

With this being said, have you spoken to anyone to see if there are any offers available for you at this time? We'd be more than happy to have a peek for you. Feel free to send us a PM @CommunityHelps so we can take a look. 

Much appreciated,

RogersYasmine

[LordDrakkon]

That isn't how devices and apps work in today's world. Both apps and devices have their ways of turning data and cellular connections back on if the user tries to use a service that would normally be disabled by turning off roaming. What's App as one big example will hand off calls to cellular, even when cellular is disabled to maintain a call when WiFi is weak or dropped. This has lead to tons of complaints globally but nothing has been done because the company knows ignoring those complaints won't change how many people use their service. iMessage requires data to send and receive messages and can turn on data to do so when you try to send a message. There are so many exceptions to these switches to turn off services. That is why Airplane Mode at a minimum or removing your SIM are recommended.

[Mitchie]

Unless you use your phone's data and make calls daily overseas, this is not worth it! I was aware of the $15 per day "Roam Like Home" plan because I got hit with a hefty bill back in October which I paid.  It stung, but this was fine because I used the data to navigate around London and Palma. In December, I had to fly out for work and kept my number allowing clients to send me WhatsApp messages. To avoid crazy charges, I did the following: I kept the phone on airplane mode, data roaming off, connected to any wifi available, eventually took the SIM out (once I got the first set of charges)  and left my phone connected to the wifi in my rental. Unfortunately, I got charged for 18 days worth of usage.

Once I got back to Canada for an explanation, I was told that I used the phone consistently for the amount of time in question. This is simply not true. Why would I use my phone for 18 days knowing I would be charged $15 per day? In short, I had to pay a ridiculous bill for NOT using my phone for overseas purposes.  I get it...the first time in October was on me but being told you used the phone (for even a couple of messages and getting kicked off wifi isn't their problem) just doesn't seem right. And no...you don't get ongoing messages letting you know that roaming is active as this would have lead to me taking my chip out sooner. 

In hopes to get my message across, I was told to call the 611 number and asked to speak to a manager.  If you think talking to a manager will help, then think again. You may wait a significant amount of time for a manager to get on the phone. The alternative was to call at 7-9 am EST (quieter time frame) which is inconvenient if you're on the West coast.  To top it off,  I informed the representatives I spoke to that I will most likely end my plan with Rogers as this doesn't add up but was told that I could lose my number (nice little sneaky scare tactic with the intent to have me stick around).

In short, the responsibility is on me to ensure the right plan is applied. That said, Rogers not taking a deeper look into this and not providing the flexibility to come to reasonable outcome is very frustrating especially when I am fully aware I didn't use my phone. But hey...the Rogers system tells another story. 

[57]

Here's a link to a post on how to avoid or minimize roaming charges (please read link below).  If you actually had the phone in Airplane mode the whole time, then there is no way you would be charged since the phone cannot connect to a cell tower in airplane mode.  I can only assume that you turned Airplane mode off for some time during the day.  You can confirm this by turning Airplane mode on and off. When Airplane mode is on, you cannot see a service provider at the top of the phone's screen.  As soon as you turn Airplane mode off, then your phone can connect to a tower and you will be charged for roaming (if you leave the Rogers SIM in the phone).

Be aware that some Apps like What'sApp can override the "data roaming" setting, as discussed in the link below.

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Account-Support/Roaming-like-home/m-p/518044/highlight/true#M3...

Also, you can use the phone for GPS navigation without having access to data. Simply use Google Maps and download the offline map(s) for the area(s) you are visiting before you leave or when connected to WiFi and you can use the phone for navigation. It will not give you realtime traffic and may not have some obscure locations available, but it will work just fine.  It will have access to all information when connected to WiFi, so before leaving the hotel (or wherever you have access to WiFi) you can check your route and it'll even have traffic information before you leave.

[logitech123]

It should be explained this when you sign up with "Roam like home", just got charged days of roaming for receiving calls while travelling... and your customer service is quite bad, quite rude personnel