Ok I have been a loyal Tmobile customer for a long time now. I do a lot of roaming and use my phone instead of local phones too. Well I rarely look at my bill, but I did this last one... So I go down to Mexico for a day. I made a couple calls at 1.49 a call. I recieved about six or so calls which I did not answer as they were not important. I look at my bill, and foir every call incoming that I did not pick up I was billed a minute! Also I see on my bill calls to customer service while in Europe on tmobile network were billed 1$ a minute, I was told they were free. So over the last few months I have used my US number overseas I have been being billed for calls I did not pick up. I can recieve anywhere from 3-13 calls a day. I can imagine how that added up in Argentina where calls are $2.99 a minute etc. Customer service offers me no help at all. I owe another $300+ for my last month and I think I am due a big credit. I don't want bad credit for not paying. What should I do? They will not help me, and they do not believe that I did not pick up the calls. I have a witness from MEX who remembers me letting my phone keep ringing.

You are still paying the bill, right?

Pay the bill, MINUS the disputed amount. Write a letter to T-Mobile stating WHY you aren't paying it. State to them that you will continue to pay your bill, however you will not pay the disputed amount until it goes up the food chain.

BTW: The call useage in Mexico has been problematic for ATTWS users as well (dead inbound but billed calls, etc).


Also on cust service calls when roaming, EVERY GSM network seems to charge for this EXCEPT if you roam on the operator owned partner/network. ScottC may be able to better give his two cents as I NEVER roam on T-Mobile UK - I've always been billed for calling back cust service when roaming (the inverse is true of Europe or Asia users when they roam on any US network). Were you told cust service calls were free?


On the billed call issue for no answer; technically this IS billed as the call was routed to the other network. This is why you should have divert/forward ALL CALLS to voice mail turned on if you KNOW you won't take calls. It takes two seconds to turn on and off and will cause the voice mail divert to happen on T-Mobile US's side - even though your phone is on it will NOT even attempt to forward to the remote/roaming network. You will still get an alert that someone just left a vmail.

[This message has been edited by NickP 1K (edited Dec 08, 2003).]

Well I spoke with someone who knew what was going on, and understood me.. Looks like when my phone rings overseas the billing begins. Who would have thought? So I am out about $200+ on that. I cannot get a straight answer on the customer service thing. I was better off using foreign sim cards while overseas, so it looks like stick with that. Singtel, Orange, Vodaphone, OI etc Ahhh! Make note of this folks. I have to admit 90% of my calls are not important enough to warrant $1-3 a minute

This is very interesting. Sorry you had this happen but I will learn from your experience.

You can actually also get billed for incoming call diverts to voicemail if you just switched off your phone on a roaming network. I always divert all calls to voice mail prior to switching off the phone. This ensures that the home network doesn't try to route a call to a remote network. Even though the remote network won't find you as the phone is off it will still attempt to process the call, fail and divert back. The timeframe for how long your home network tries to find you is set by your home net.

Yep, you can get billed solely for ringback. They are setting up an international connection (probably through another operator) on your behalf, so why shouldn't they charge you? You know they are doing it since the people calling you when you are in the U.K., hear a U.K. ring, if you are in France, they hear a French ring, etc.