Unauthorised SMS while abroad

[Anonymous]

I'm hoping that someone can assist with this. I have an iPhone6S and a monthly contract with O2 in the UK. I am currently living and working abroad but have kept my phone as I travel back to the UK frequently and will be returning permanently in 18 months, so want to keep my number. Although I had international roaming enabled on my O2 account, I kept it permanently disabled on my phone, only using wifi. I had sent the occasional SMS, but noticed that I was being charged a lot of international roaming charges (£4.99) per day and when I queried this with O2 in early October, I was told that even sending just 1 SMS would trigger the £4.99 daily charge. I was horrified, but despite the fact that this is daylight robbery, I accepted that I should have understood the Ts&Cs in this regard. From that point on I never sent another SMS, the last having been sent on 30 September 2017. Despite this I am repeatedly being charged for SMS's that I haven't sent. This has happened around 3 times per month for the last 3 months. I have been back to O2 and they have investigated and their answer is simply that I have sent these. They have offered to refund some money - reluctantly after I threatened to move my account - but only as a customer service gesture if I basically admit that I sent the SMS's, but am objecting to the amount of the charge (rather than disputing I sent them). They won't budge on this position and I won't lie just to get a refund - primarily because that doesn't get to the root cause of the issue, hence I have no way of knowing it won't happen again. They have given me details of SMS's sent on 3 days in December. Two of these were sent on the same day at the same time to 2 different UK mobile numbers, a further 2 were sent also on the same day and the same time to a number 9011 and the last just has a number (no number) of HN Delivery (who sent me SMSs on the day in question, but I definitely did not text them back). 

I have spoken to O2 Customer Services at length on the phone twice now and they tell me that they have investigated and there is nothing more they can do, but I am not going to be fobbed off that easily, particuarly given this could conitnue happening at random and I have no control over it.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any insights into what the issue is?

[beenhereawhile]

I've got a google pixel 3, not sure if there are any quirks with this phone?

[beenhereawhile]

Thanks Martin, I can see my current billing period is also showing the same charges... 😞 I can assure you I have sent nothing. I went into store this week and was told to contact CS as they couldnt do anything. I will reply to your PM

[gmarkj]

Not that I know of.
Does Google Messaging register in the same way as iMessaging @MI5?

[MI5]

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@gmarkj wrote:
Not that I know of.
Does Google Messaging register in the same way as iMessaging @MI5?

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No @gmarkj 

That's unique to iMessage.

[Jamesh77]

@beenhereawhile  Hi there, just came across your post as I have the same issue as you. The similarities are uncanny. My bill is showing multiple texts a day to number 09017. I only noticed this because I was in Australia during the first 2 weeks of January and received a much larger bill. However, the bill suggests this was happening before I went. I also have a Google Pixel 3.

Did you find anything else? O2 have no idea about mine either!

[erikam84]

I have just come across this post after googling my experience.

I too have a Google Pixel 3, and am currently in Canada dealing with this exact issue of being told that I have sent SMS text messages which has triggered O2 Travel on many days. I can see the text messages on my account which also go to the 09017 number.

Clearly there is an issue here. I haven't jumped too far into dealing with it with O2 as I'm still abroad but an online chat with a customer service rep has led to nothing but them claiming that the charges are still valid. 

[MI5]

@erikam84 

As the Pixel 3 now supports visual voicemail, it's likely that service pinging servers.

Turn your voicemail off and see if it stops.

[erikam84]

Thanks for reply. I've put my phone on airplane mode for the rest of my trip anyways as I can't afford to rack up anymore charges abroad.

I haven't had any voicemails though, nor had to access my voicemail at all since coming to Canada? I don't really understand how it would create text messages in the O2 server (feel free to enlighten me because I'm super annoyed by all this!)

Thanks again!

[MI5]

@erikam84 VVM will ping the voicemail serverto say "I'm here if you need me"

Thi is done via an sms by the phone automatically.

It happens at home too but you never see it as the text isn't chargeable, except when abroad and it will trigger the daily travel charge or bill you if not using Travel.

It's one of the reasons that we always advise, when asked, to turn off voicemail if travelling outside of the EU.

[erikam84]

Thanks for explaining this - I had no idea how visual voicemail worked and didn't realise it had anything to do with my SMS.

So it seems that I could potentially have been charged almost £100 pounds for an actual O2 service that triggers SMS without my knowledge? That seems like something a customer service rep should be aware of instead of accusing customers of sending text messages themselves. I would never have thought that my voicemail would have anything to do with this and have never had an issue before with previous phones - this is the first time I've been to Canada with the 3a.

Thanks again.