Wireless carrier charged customers for data roaming they didn’t use

MobileSyrup alerts us to an odd story. Fido Solutions is a Canadian cellular telephone service provider owned by Rogers Communications. Last week, a number of Fido customers were charged for data that they didn’t use.

Specifically, some customers had their data roaming automatically activated despite turning off the “Data Roaming” option on their phones. These customers then saw multiple charges of $7.99 every month.

But the phones had the “Data Roaming” option turned off so why was Rogers charging them? When customers contacted Rogers about this issue, they were not given an actual explanation.

But we do have a theory:

Rogers likely placed the phone(s) in the United States using its regular roaming mechanism, and incorrectly billed for data coverage when there was none. That’s pretty bad. – MobileSyrup

To Rogers credit, they have released a statement claiming that customers would not be charged for data that they didn’t use and that they are “proactively crediting customers who were wrongly charged for U.S. roaming when data roaming was turned off while they were in the U.S.”

Essentially, if you are a Rogers customer who travels or lives near the US, you should check your bills often.