T-Mob Voicemail Costs Abroad Even if Call Rejected

[Guest dgcorp]

Not sure if this is really Modaco topic stuff but didn't know where else to turn :D

I've just bought a nice shiny new MDA Vario :) with a T-Mobile U-Fix 15 contract (so far so good... At least thats what I thought :?: )

I was speaking to their customer services to get my voicemail working before I start travelling in Europe for work, when they mentioned that I will get charged if people leave me messages!

I'm used to Orange Voicemail where (like all the other mobile companies I thought) you only get charged for making/receiving calls/txts.

There solution was to disable the voicemail while abroad. This is unacceptable to me (at least in part due to the fact that you have to phone Customer Services to do this [it can't be done through the interactive voicemail menus] and that you can't enable a message to be left saying you are out of the country but then not accept messages [again a la Oragne])

What I really don't understand, is how they can charge you for a call which is not under your direct control??? If someone chose to make malicious calls to my mobile voicemail while I was abroad they could rack up huge bills that I wouldn't be aware of :evil:

- Is this legal??

Anyway, much as I like my new HTC Wizard, I have contacted the supplier to ask for a refund under the the Distance Selling Regulations.

I've told T-Mobile of this and they said that I would not be able to have a refund of the £20 Credit that I placed on their system yesterday ;)

Oh well, I am not sure what this teaches me, apart from the difficulty in finding one UK Mobile company who provides a good and reasonably priced service!

Dez :x

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[Guest Pondrew]

I was simarly astonished when my father told me T-Mobile had charged him for a voicemail being left for him while he was abroad even when HIS PHONE HAD BEEN TURNED OFF THE WHOLE TIME! How could they even know he was abroad if the phone never even connected to a network?! It was an SPV C500 (obviously unlocked to T-Mobile) and I'm finding it impossible to understand how this could happen unless at some stage he did connect to the foreign network. It ended ok as they agreed to waive the cost that one time...

[Guest Jay3gsm]

Networks will charge you for the diverted leg of the call to answerphone if you are abroad when the call comes in. If you set all diverts to answerphone *Whilst in the UK* then leave a message on which number to contact you on (if you are using a local sim abroad) or asking people to text you instead, you will not incur any charges.

It's always been this way, the networks are charged by the roaming partner for the diverted leg of the call, they pass that on to the customer.

[Guest Pondrew]

That bit I can understand Jay3gsm, it was my fathers claim the mobile had never been turned on while abroad that didn't make any sense. He MUST have been mistaken as a turned off phone can't connect... :?:

[Guest chucky.egg]

I thought (with Orange at least) you DO get charged something for receiving texts whilst roaming?

The whole roaming thing is a huge rip-off

Get yourself a local SIM when you travel, if nothing else the extra costs stop people bothering you unnecessarily when you're on holiday