G1 owner gets hit with $102.85 in roaming charges
T-Mobile G1
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Android Guys has a story today from a T-Mobile G1 owner who got charged for $102.85 in roaming charges--even after he turned off data roaming on his phone. The story goes that he was visiting the U.K., and knowing that he would rack up high data-roaming charges while abroad, he turned off data roaming, data sync, and 3G on the phone (Though he did still use it for calls and texts under an international calling plan).
Turns out, of course, that it didn't work so well. When asked about it, T-Mobile customer service told him that the G1 will always access the Internet when it's on, even when the data roaming features are off (I'm presuming this is because of how closely the phone is integrated with your Google account), and that he should have left the phone at home to avoid the charges.
This seems bizarre; that the phone would continue to ping even when all data capabilities have been turned off. Has anyone else encountered something like this with the G1? Let us know.
Nicole Lee is an associate editor for CNET, covering cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, and all things mobile. She's also pretty geeky--she likes World of Warcraft, comic books, and shiny gadgets. E-mail Nicole.
I also dont think that the T-Mobile employee responded to the issue incorrectly. Telling the man to leave his phone at home was not the best idea.
1. Use Anycut to create a shortcut to "Testing"
2. Click on Testing.
3. Click on Phone Information
4. Hit Menu button
5. Click on More
6. Click on Disable data connection
This turns off the network access. Note that GPRS service now switches to "disconnected".
Now you should have a phone that does voice calls, but no data access.
Turning off Data Roaming doesn't work because sometimes your G1 thinks it is on your T-mo home network when it is not (i.e., it thinks it's not roaming, but it is).
If that is really the response of T-Mobile, shame on them.
Glad this showed up on DSLreports.com as a headline and hope it gets more exposure in other venues.
And one more reason I will pick and choose what services I use from Google. I think it is dangerous to put all of ones eggs in one basket. And then not know how they may be used or misused.
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by Sam8rown
June 13, 2009 4:20 AM PDT
- I'm having a similar problem with my brand-new G1. I just bought it in Berlin on a Pay-As-You-Go plan, starting with the minimal 10 Euros loaded onto the sim card. It's less than 2 hours later and I've already spent 3+ euros without ever having placed a call or done more than sent a single one line eMail. The credit on the account just seems to be leaking away. At the current rate, it would cost $5,000/yr just to keep the phone powered on.
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