Fossils Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Having switched off Roaming and Data on by mobile before I got to the UK in the same way in which I had done for the last few years, I was more than surprised to receive a text message stating, "Your 25MB roaming data has been activated for the next 24 hours and £3 charged." I double-checked my settings and assumed that this was a one-off error. However the "error" was repeated for several days before I messaged them and was told that I had to text the word "stop" if I wanted the roaming to stop, and "resume" if I wanted roaming back on again. Eventually, after receiving a bill for the unwanted roaming for a few days and emailing them to object (because their phone lines were always busy and/or out of order) someone from MT phoned me. He claimed that the problem was not MT's, but the problem was because smart phones can now use data and roaming when it is switched off. It's remarkable that my phone, which is over a year old, can suddenly decide to ignore my settings and act independently to provide MT with extra income. When I said that I would be expecting a refund of the overcharges he said he could not authorise it but I was very lucky as there have been many £thousands in similar overcharges recently. I have since heard of someone who has been overcharged £hundreds via the same MT "problem" which I see as a major fault in the MT system or simply a failure by their staff to know what they are doing. Be careful out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2112 Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Having switched off Roaming and Data on by mobile before I got to the UK in the same way in which I had done for the last few years, I was more than surprised to receive a text message stating, "Your 25MB roaming data has been activated for the next 24 hours and £3 charged." I double-checked my settings and assumed that this was a one-off error. However the "error" was repeated for several days before I messaged them and was told that I had to text the word "stop" if I wanted the roaming to stop, and "resume" if I wanted roaming back on again. Eventually, after receiving a bill for the unwanted roaming for a few days and emailing them to object (because their phone lines were always busy and/or out of order) someone from MT phoned me. He claimed that the problem was not MT's, but the problem was because smart phones can now use data and roaming when it is switched off. It's remarkable that my phone, which is over a year old, can suddenly decide to ignore my settings and act independently to provide MT with extra income. When I said that I would be expecting a refund of the overcharges he said he could not authorise it but I was very lucky as there have been many £thousands in similar overcharges recently. I have since heard of someone who has been overcharged £hundreds via the same MT "problem" which I see as a major fault in the MT system or simply a failure by their staff to know what they are doing. Be careful out there! Have you complained to the Office of Fair Trading? What about your MHK or other Tynpotwald member, what's their view or opinion? I'm sure they use MT's service. Personally I have 3 mobile SIM card with all I can eat data, plenty of texts and mins and it's cheap, and it can be used here as a feel at home destination. I use a Sure rolling contract SIM - was thinking of MT but if this is the case I will keep to Sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 It's not MT, it's your settings. You have to separately switch off background data use such as oS and app updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad_manx Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Was it an IPhone?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 It can happen with iOS or Android. iPhone switch off WiFI assist. Android switch off app by app. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notwell Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 It's not MT, it's your settings. You have to separately switch off background data use such as oS and app updates But how can anything update if your data is actually switched off though? Where on an android phone are you saying you would Nedd to look additionally? I'm with Sure. Been off island several times recently. No issues with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ans Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 You say you've been turning it off this way for years. I assume in those years you've been applying software updates and upgrades? My money is on it being an iPhone, they're notorious for enabling background tasks that ignore roaming preferences. I've never seen it once on Android, having owned probably close to ten different devices throughout all the various version, so disabling data on an app-by-app basis seems like overkill. Doesn't matter though. Your device, your responsibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossils Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 It's a Nokia, updated regularly and only started to "perform in this way" recently. The MT person who phoned me thought I must have an iPhone as they do this too. I turned off data and roaming as usual. There is another setting which I must now change, apparently, or take the phone into the MT shop to have it adjusted. The other "victim" that I know of received a refund when he complained to MT so I am expecting the same. As for OFT? Forget that waste of taxpayers' money. I have experience of their hands-tied attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Manx Telecom must owe me at least £5 for excessive problems with my mobile phone email system, constantly connecting to the server and being bombarded with hundreds of emails each time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 To switch off data on android app by app Disable specific Android apps from using background mobile data. ... Open Settings and tap Data usage. Scroll down to view a list of your Android apps sorted by data usage. ... Tap the app(s) you don't want to connect to mobile data and select Restrict app background data. If you are running Nougat (?) you can switch them all off and then whitelist any you do want to access. Just do a google search. Or follow here and scroll down. https://www.howtogeek.com/140261/how-to-minimize-your-android-data-usage-and-avoid-overage-charges/ This is not an MT issue ( other than the issue of MT's extortionate data roaming charges ). It's an issue with the designers of the OS ( Apple or Android ) hiding these things and not realising the effect on those of us with subscriptions to mini state operators. I have a Vodafone sim for off Island in UK and in Europe however I get caught with roaming if I'm near Andorra or in south west Bulgaria where the FYROM border is only 5km away and neither are in vodafones eu package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
immortalpuppet Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 If data was fully off and you received a message about data, that should have been the warning that the settings on the phone were wrong as you were still able to access data. If you didnt do anything after the initial warning surely thats down to you. The first warning I got off island last week was that I had used £5 of data. I had forgotton to disable data usage so I switched it off. I wouldnt expect the mobile company to stump up if I ignored that and assumed my settings were correctly applied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llap Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Why should I switch off data? I do switch it off except when using it anyway but as a matter of principle I shouldn't have to do that to stop data intensive apps. Manx Telecom's email server fiasco is what kept using up data in the past few weeks. Normally I have no problem with data usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellefield Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 who sold you the phone? was it MT, in which case they should owe you a duty of care about what your phone can and cannot do. if you bought it yourself then maybe you want to take it up with the makers of the phone? Small claims court is probably easiest if they ignore you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 This is nothing to do with MT mail server issues, or MT. it's the OS. A recent operating system update seems to have opened this backdoor. It happened to iPhone users about 18 months ago. MT don't schedule OS or app updates, the developers do that. MS just delivers the data when the data is pushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillip Dearden Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 It's a Nokia, updated regularly and only started to "perform in this way" recently. The MT person who phoned me thought I must have an iPhone as they do this too. I turned off data and roaming as usual. There is another setting which I must now change, apparently, or take the phone into the MT shop to have it adjusted. The other "victim" that I know of received a refund when he complained to MT so I am expecting the same. As for OFT? Forget that waste of taxpayers' money. I have experience of their hands-tied attitude. This happened to my wife and on investigation we could see it was quite a big issue in the US - some groups are considering class actions against Apple (but I expect that won't happen). Although annoying - I can't see that it is MT's fault. Your phone downloaded stuff and they charged you, why wouldn't they? I'm an Android fan and this has not happened to me yet but I do think it is something to watch out for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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