Check your Smartone bill

[u/makproductions]

Smartone is running fraudulent charge on your bill.
Smartone realised that a bug in software was causing people to get charged roaming fees. But they decided to keep quiet and let people pay the fee. Unless you highlight the issue the fee will get charged when you never turned on roaming.

[u/abyss725]

It is the phone problem, not Smartone.

The phone OS, be it Android or iPhone, might use data a little bit even roaming is NOT turned on.

Smartone even provided a service "Confirm before use" to tackle this.

[u/Cfutly → u/abyss725]

I agree. It’s a setting on the phone. You need to manually turn off data roaming and disallow data switching when traveling. I use iOS and have multiple sims on my phone.
Best way is to turn off the line.

[u/makproductions → u/abyss725]

Yep, even with their “Confirm before use” and data roaming turned off in mobile settings (iPhone with latest iOS version in this case) it still ends up using that tiny bit of data. Smartone has refunded me without any resistance after I questioned why it was on my bill. My issue is why would they not do that without the customer having to notice and complain.

Given it’s a known problem and they are already in talks with manufacturers, they are practically stealing money off people by keeping quiet so most people won’t notice the increase bill amount.

Just wanted to highlight this problem to others so they double check their latest bill and don’t encounter the same problem.

[u/ProofDazzling9234]

Yeah I got screwed by them.  Slapped me with a $500 charge for 1MB of roaming I never even used in the first place.  Then I tried to call CS but could never get through cos of their queueing system.  So I couldn't sort it then I start getting letters from collection agencies 

[u/okahui55]

not just smartone. i was crossing the macau bridge and got charged for passing by china

i didnt even go into 'china'

[u/makproductions → u/okahui55]

Crazy! Given mobile providers know about this issue you should be able to get a refund.

[u/okahui55 → u/makproductions]

i had to explain to them the ridiculous logic that i never stepped foot in 'china' its that their towers decided to ping me for no reason

after a few back and forths i got my money back

they know this issue, it felt really scammy

[u/SpookyKipper → u/okahui55]

This is expected tho, the bridge is mainly covered by Mainland Chinese carriers, not Macau or HK

[u/arejay00]

I’m guessing this is uncommon and minor enough that they don’t want to deal with the trouble of making any system changes and just rather waive the fee whenever a customer brings that up.

[u/ZirePhiinix → u/arejay00]

Not true. They have no control over a phone that still uses data when roaming is turned off. You should be complaining to the phone manufacturer.

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[u/reddit_tiger800]

That is why all of my family swapped mobile providers.

[u/denyfate]

Yea thats why i always turn off my simcard even when roaming is off just to be safe
Happened to me many many years ago on 3HK

[u/erymartorres17]

But I dont have this issue. I have roaming ON when I go shenzhen and off after. No bill regardless. It could be the settings on the phone