Roam Like Home charges

[Hoggerjeff]

Am I mistaken or is there nowhere on the Rogers site that tells you that the $5 daily Roam Like Home charge is per line?  I looked everywhere for that before I took the plunge, changed my plan to a Share Everything and ported my second phone number over from another provider.  

I honestly thought that the "Share Everything" included the roaming access with the Roam Like Home plan on all devices that are part of the plan.  Naive? Perhaps, but the dual $5 charges on my first bill were a shock. 

Rogers - maybe you should think about changing the name of the plan to "Share Almost Everything".

Sure would have been nice to even have some fine print somewhere on the web site that would have indicated this sneaky bit of accounting Tom-foolery...

[schwabea]

Rogers recent Roam like Home price change is highway robbery! Who else can increase prices by 80% ($90 vs $50/month previously) and get away with it? I bet most people don’t even realize it and will be in for a shock. Rogers notified me about the $5 to $6 daily increase (20%) but didn’t say anything about the 10 to 15 day maximum, which is a much bigger increase

[Kkpk]

I was in US with my data off and my roaming off. Connected to wifi and was charged for everyday I was there. I was told that unless you are in airplane mode (and therefore also not connected to wifi) you will be charged. Makes phone useless unless you pay

[Gdkitty]

That is more of a PHONE issue per say, than a phone carrier thing though.

Any charges like that, you could get, is due to your phone connecting TO the wireless carrier down there.  They say "Hey, your not a (example) AT&T user, your on rogers, so im going to bill rogers" and then rogers gets that, and in turn bills  you.
That can be initiated as simply as connecting to the US carrier.

Though, in your case, with roaming off.. it SHOULDNT have connected to the others.  It must have at some point.

In the case of airplane mode, it usually completely turns off the cellular antenna. 
Not sure on all phones, but on many, you can turn the wifi back ON while its in airplane.

[ctlow]

This remains largely inscrutable. Last year I thought I understood it, but thne reading the latest information at https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/roam-like-home-and-roaming-support is i) too voluminous and ii) uses jargon.

For example, "premium texts" are treated differently (and they're not good). But what are they? I've never heard of them and the page doesn't provide a link.

Then, it says:

"Keep in mind that you will not be charged the Roam Like Home daily fee for incoming texts from family and friends — no matter where they are in the world."

So, this seems to be stated in isolation, after another section on MY5 or MY10, but not clearly related to it, so how does Rogers know who my family and friends are?

It looks like I wouldn't in general be charged for incoming texts.

It doesn't say what happens if I get a call and don't answer it. At least, I can't find that info.

I seem to recall last year it saying that I wouldn't be charged if I didn't answer the call.

So, no point having a phone off Airplane mode if you're going to get charged even if you decided not to send a text (which then falls into more categories of charges than I've mentioned here) and decide to decline calls, but want the option of someone reaching me and answering.

Have I got my confusion well-enough understood?

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @ctlow

Thank you for sharing your concerns with the Community. I surely appreciate your position, a total comprehension of a product/service is very important. 

Premium Text Messages:

Premium messaging is an option used to purchase messaging programs or subscribe to them, provided by third party content providers at premium rates. These programs are initiated through five or six-digit numbers, known as short codes. Short codes are similar to a telephone number and are used to route text messages from mobile phones to interactive mobile messaging applications.

Premium programs are advertised in all types of media including television, radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet.

Most common premium programs:

• Alerts and tips, i.e. weather alerts, sports score alerts, daily jokes, horoscopes, dating tips;
• Purchasing of content, i.e. games & game credits, ringtones, wallpaper, screensavers;
• Chat services;
• Interactive voting during TV shows and/or radio shows.

Roam Like Home charge:

The charge is triggered on the day you make/receive a phone call, send an SMS/MMS, or use data i.e. browse the Internet, check emails, and use maps or any application which uses data.  And your understanding is correct, incoming texts will not trigger the charge.

Hope some of your confusion got cleared. 

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[ctlow]

Merci, RogerMoins,

It's always been a jungle. The help and FAQ pages need to be easy to find and crystal-clear on these matters, and that is not now nor ever has been the case.

Internal links on those pages to the questions you've answered are surely necessary, for example.

A remaining confusions relates to _unanswered_ phone calls - do they trigger the Roam Like Home charge?

What happens to voice-mail calls while roaming?

Charles

[DeanT]

I agree with your posting.  Especially today as the rate is now $7 per day up to 15 days per billing period.  I really am unhappy with Roger's being able to increase rates while I am still working within the original contract.  3 phones expire in August and I will be re-evaluating my long term commitment to Rogers at that point.

[Gdkitty]

One thing to be aware of. 
This goes for ALL carriers now (as far as I am aware) and not just rogers.

Your CONTRACTs now, have nothing to do with the plan itself (well, one caveat which i will explain in a minute).
It used to be.. you had a plan contract and sometimes a hardware one completely separately.
Right now, the only contract is HARDWARE.   You get a new device, can get $X off the phones full price.  This is almost a loan per say.  paying your monthly bill, pays off $X a month off that loan over the 2 years.
The PLAN is completely separate.   Where as before you were stuck on the same plan for that contract period, you can now freely change your plan as often as you want.. month by month even if you wanted.
(With the one caveat...  to get the hardware discount, you usually must retain a plan MINIMUM.. that the monthly plan cant be below a certain $ amount)

So really, the plan pricing, etc.. has nothing specifically to do with the contract.

I am not sure if other carriers like bell, etc have a similar to roam like home..  BUT, their pricing, etc is and could be changed just the same.

(Its similar now, to how both Rogers AND Bell are getting 'sneeky' with their pricing on new signups.  Used to be you sign up for new service, and its $99/m for 2 years.  Was sort of set in stone.   Now its worded differently.  They say right now you pay $99/m, vs the regular price of $149.  A Guaranteed savings of $50.  Thats where they get  you.  If there is a regular service increase for TV, Internet, etc.. as long as they are still giving you a full $50 off, they are fulfilling the contract)

[ctlow]

DeanT, here's another little variable: it used to be, and I haven't recalculated, that it was cost-neutral to buy a phone privately. We buy our iPhones from Apple, and then they are simply unlocked, which can be handy. We have to wait for shipping, and the SIM card used to cost only $10, available at any Rogers store. What Rogers, and I suspect everyone else, doesn't tell you is that the "no-tab" monthly rate (and why do they use such an incomprehensible term?), is less than the with-a-phone rate, so that even though they say they selling you the phone at a discount, over a three-year term, it used to work out absolutely even.

Sheesh!

[Lexthedestroyer]

Roam like home

 My wife and I are planning a trip to Texas next month, and I'm trying to figure out what our cellular usage options are. We'll be stateside for 10 days, and I'm wondering if we both use our phones, do we get separate roam like home charges ($7 a day for mine, and $7 a day for hers)? Her cell# is the second line on our share everything plan...

[Gdkitty]

Yes, even though the data itself, etc is shared..  each device its used, is charged the $7
(as each one may be using the OTHER stuff separately, voice, texting, etc)

[Lexthedestroyer]

It certainly makes sense, so I'm not surprised, I just wanted to make certain. So I guess I can turn my device into a wireless hot spot, and as long as my wife doesn't text/call, we SHOULD be good...

[fgfgf]

In this thread, there are two posters with the exact same issue as mine, so I'll add a third. 8 Roam Like Home daily charges triggered despite no phone use and Data Roaming turned off the entire time. Home network data may have been off too, but I don't recall.  Any actual phone usage occurred on only one of these days.

Called in, and the usual headaches, poor service and over 2 hours of getting passed around ensued. Same old story as anywhere else.

Here's the new information: I pressed the reps and was told there were several days with charges for varying numbers of kilobytes, with one day of charges being billed for 11kb of use, and with none of the days showing over 100kb of use. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems too small for data usage prompted by any purposeful user action. They also noted several days with "1 minute calls", none of which appear in my phone call log.

This was escalated by tech support and dismissed without any notice or explanation.  It was finally "resolved" on my follow up by the rep removing the charges as a "one-time exception" for me. Should I feel grateful? They way I see it, they wasted hours of my time over charges I was not supposed to pay anyway.

@gdkitty -- your suggestion to cut off from the network entirely is not a feasible one in some cases. I'm sure others in are in the same boat and need to be available to be contacted when traveling. The Roam Like Home program rules are clear, and should not preclude this. The real issue is that Rogers is charging people incorrectly.

The phone I use is from Rogers so end-to-end, Rogers is responsible for any errors that occur in billing. If the problem is with the phone software, that's on them. If they or their roaming affiliates in other countries are playing games, that's on them too.

[schwabea]

Text messages that are sent (not that are received) are considered data and turn on the Roam like Home charge for the day.  Under the old rules a text would cost 25 cents, now under the Roam like home plan it costs $7 in the USA $12 elsewhere to send a text if you are roaming.   

[Lillianlingies]

Can I call 800 numbers into Canada from USA free?

[57]

I believe that 1-800 numbers are charged like "local calls", so whatever your plan would charge for a local call at your phone's location, when making the call, would be how much you'd be charged.  Someone else may correct me on this.

[OLDYELLR]

---

@Lillianlingies wrote:
Can I call 800 numbers into Canada from USA free?

---

Some 800 numbers are good in both Canada and the U.S.A., others are not. If they're subscribed for both countries it's a "local" call.

[Lillianlingies]

Re: calling 800 numbers into Canada or the USA from the USA. How do I know which 800 numbers are not covered.

[57]

Most apply to both countries (and Mexico and other countries sometimes) but the only way to know for sure is probably to try it.  Perhaps a web-search for the number in question (or the company) will turn up applicability to which country...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll-free_telephone_numbers_in_the_North_American_Numbering_Plan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toll-free_telephone_number

Note that there are specific paragraphs for US and Canada with more information.

[Jasvirgrewal201]

I am in India I didn’t text or call back to canada please help me and how I can solve this problem

[RogersTony]

Hello, @Jasvirgrewal201

Welcome to the Rogers Community Forums!

I can imagine how frustrating it is to be billed for a service you have not used. 😞

The Roam Like Home charge will apply if you are travelling outside of Canada to an applicable destination and you use any data, make an outgoing SMS or if you initiate or answer a phone call. 

Do you recall using any data on your device? Many apps use push notifications which will use data in the background even if you aren't directly using the device. Feel free to contact us via any of the options listed here: rogers.com/contactus. You can utilize the Live Chat or Social Media Support options if you are unable to call while overseas.

I hope this helps!

RogersTony