Roaming Charges

[Westbound]

I have been looking cloesly at my Vodafone bill for the past few months and have noticed a pattern in the charges I pay for roaming, espcially when I make a point of not answering my calls when in the North, but llet it ring off and wait for the voice mail etc., as advised by Vodafone to minimise the costs.

However, my bill showed that I was charged twice or three times on a series of occasions at exactly the same time for same call recieved, so I rang and enquired.

It transpires that, even if your phone is switched off, you get charged for someone calling you, then you get charged for the little message telling you had a missed call and then you get charged for accessing voice mail, which is the only charge I thought I was paying. Therefore 3 to 25 seconds of calls can cost you almost €1.50 before VAT. I think that once your voicemail clicks on, as it will when someone tries to call and gets no answer, you get charged, even if it is just that one second between the moment when some realises they aren't going to get you, the phone rings out and goes to voice mail. I have been charged 48.5c for this 1 second!

Vodafone's response - turn off your voicemail everytime you cross the border! You need to remember this elabortate process of ##* this that and the other.

I think this is ludicrous - you get hit for charges even if your phone is switched off to try and avoid the roaming charges?

Why does Vodafone do this, are they not a Europe wide company that has it's own network.Once you access this network, surely a vodafone customer you should not be paying these kind of charges?

 

[sunnyday]

Were you switching off your phone before or after you moved onto the other network?? If you switch it off while still on Vodafone Ireland, then you should not incur any charges. I suspect you are waiting until you see your phone go to a UK network and then killing it.

 

[beldin]

The best thing to do if you are roaming and don't want any charges is to divert all calls to voice mail. You can set this up on the phone. It avoids any of these charges but also means you cannot be contacted except by leaving a voicemail or by SMS.

 

[rory]

The best thing to do if you are roaming and don't want any charges is to divert all calls to voice mail. You can set this up on the phone.

You also need to set up your voicemail so that you are alerted to a new message by SMS only, otherwise you will be charged for an additional call.

 

[ThomasJ]

My Advice,

Use Text...
Free to receive
10-15c to send..<depending on network>

 

[Mrfrags]

Its all a shame if you ask me. They are getting away with the charges as people pay them. Was in Italy for the weekend and it was 38cent per text message (supposedly a special rate) and €1 a minute to make and recieve calls so my €80 call credit didnt go very far. I use to work for an American telecom carrier and we charged them (VODAPHONE AND 02) 0.879 cent a minute to carrier they UK traffic so I havent a clue where they come with their 40-90cent a minute call charge. No wonder they are making a million Euro a day profit.

 

[ronandjohnson]

Firstly, if you are diverting all calls, make sure you do it before you leave the country - not once you get away to your destination.

Secondly, 10-15c for text messages when roaming is probably not the case. All operators charge more for sending texts when roaming.

Thirdly, one thing to be aware of, if you are using your phone abroad, when you come home, make sure you switch it on straight away when you get back.

If you arrive back, and don't, but your friends/family/etc call expecting you back in the country, and your phone is still off (even though you're in Ireland), your phone will be directed to wherever you were abroad, and then bounced back to your voice mail, costing you a chunk of money.

And this isn't a ripoff. It's just a technicality. When you turn off your phone in Spain or wherever, as far as your network knows, you're still there until you turn on your phone back in Ireland.

So, if you have jetlag, and need to recover without having your phone one, turn it on, register on your Irish network, and then switch it off again.

 

[sunnyday]

If you have diverted all calls before leaving Ireland, how can it cost you a chunk by not switching on as soon as you get back to Ireland? Just because the network still thinks you are in Spain or wherever, how is it going to cost more than when you were actually there? Wasn't that the idea of diverting before leaving Ireland in the first place??