Feedback - Roam Further £5 per day charges

[notreallyhappy]

Has anyone elese come across the problem of being charged for calls/texts via Serbia when actually in Montengero (well away from the border so no danger of accidentally picking up a Serbian provider)? This is a serious issue now that Roam Further destinations such as Serbia cost a mandatory £5 daily charge to send one text.

[donnyguy]

Hey there,

Just checked and Montenegro is supposed to be charged as 'Rest of world zone 1'

Also checked out Wikipedia and saw that M:Tel is majority owned by Telekom Serbia. Wonder if that's anything to do with it. Have you tried manually logging onto a different network? Telenor or Telekom seem your best bet here.

[notreallyhappy]

Thanks for such a well thought out answer. I was wondering the same thing myself as I do often pick up MTEL as the strongest signal but surely you couldn't be charged for a call via Serbia if you are in a dfferent country? Vodafone seemed very very hazy about this when I asked them so I have a horrible feeling that you might be right. I guess I can just force my phone to stay away from MTEL as you say but this is not really an acceptable long term solution. It's like Vodafone are saying that Montenegro is actually a part of Serbia....

[Annie_N]

Well, m:tel may be part-owned by Telekom Srbija, but if we are to be charged according to who owns the network to which we've connected, there's going to be the most almighty mess.

I'd think that someone has simply got the programming wrong, and that 191 or Live Chat should be able to sort it out for you. If they are insisting that Montenegro is in Roam-further, and that you've been charged correctly at £5 for your single text, please post back, so that one of the Vodafone Team can straighten things out.

[donnyguy]

I just remember calls I made in Tele2 Lithuania showing on my bill as being made via Tele2 Latvia. Didn't really bother me as it didn't impact the charging but I was told it was how Tele2 were billing Vodafone.

In your case it does impact the charging so you're right to question this.

I'm guessing you've had no "Welcome to Serbia" messages along the way?

[notreallyhappy]

I spent a long time on live chat asking if they thought that Montenegro was still part of Serbia and pointing out repeatedly that I was not anywhere near the border. They said that if the call was 'cached' via Serbia I could be charged for a call made in Serbia even though I was 150km away.  They were very hazy about if they thought the two were searate countries or not. I did not receve any message saying welcome to Serbia but only one saying welcome to Montenegro and that I woud pay 7p per text. That text cost me £5. As you say an almighty mess.....

[notreallyhappy]

I should say that they gave me back two of the three £5 charges on my last bill but Vodafone are still adamant that I have been billed correcrly at £5 per text even though Montengro is not a Roam Further destination. If someone in their customer service department wants to review this situation I would be very happy as it is an unresolved conflict of information. I know it is going to be an issue on my next bill as well and it is preventing me form using my phone to send a very occassional text from here. I am hopeful that the Roam Further mandatory £5 charge policy is removed anyway (it seems to be deeply deeply unpopular on here) but especially bad to be charged it when you are not even in a Roam further destination. If a provider can route and charge calls via their mother country and Vodafone bill on that basis then we are looking at a very chaotic situation. Hopeful of resolution or at least proper information on how this can happen.

[Annie_N]

@notreallyhappy Thanks for updating this thread. In view of the information which @donnyguy gave about his Latvia/Lithuania experience, I had already reported my concerns about the situation, and I believe that it has been referred on.

I personally feel that the mandatory aspect of the Roam-further charging is a very misguided policy in any case. This additional "wrinkle" makes it potentially farcical, certainly chaotic. I should perhaps add that I'm not directlly affected, being a PAYG customer, but it does occur to me that, if the policy isn't reversed, a number of PayM customers will end up carrying a PAYG phone as well when roaming.

[Tash]

Hi @notreallyhappy, we'd like to take a closer look into this for you.

So we can help, I've sent you a private message with details to get in touch with us directly.

We'll then be in touch to discuss this further.