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Old 09-27-2007, 02:09 PM   #1
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Unhappy TMO BlackBerry Unlimited International E-mail - IT'S NOT THE QUESTION YOU THINK :-)

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Trying to keep this post short


Short Version of my Question: If I POP in to a *.sbcglobal.net email address, is that covered under T-Mobile's "BlackBerry Unlimited International E-mail" plan (while I am overseas)?


Long Version: My inlaws went to Turkey with their 7290. On August 5th, I called TMO and added the $20 per month plan. I just happened to glance at their bills online, and they got charged $200 per month in GPRS roaming charges.

I was very calm with the first line representative "Brian" and then his supervisor "Nakita".

They both insisted that:

* My inlaws were using the browser to check their SBCGlobal email account (I set it up for them before they left - and they don't even know *how* to use the browser.)

* (This is interesting and goes to show what the reps know) The indicated that the *only* email covered under this plan was email sent to the *.TMO.Blackberry.net address.

I was in Turkey with them for a portion of their August bill - So I know they were not reading anything on the browser nor clicking through on any links provided them in email. I had warned them about that before leaving the USA.

After I got off the phone with TMO, I analyzed their bills some more. It turns out that their phone was incurring "GPRS Roaming" charges while popping in to get email rather than "RIM Blackberry".

See the attachment for a copy of the August bill.

My personal BB bill (along with The Wife's) indeed has "RIM Blackberry" on it while we were in Turkey - and we were not charged - as expected.

We owe them $200 for the August bill and I've yet to see September.

Ideas? Do I try to escalate this with TMO? RIM? I think the root cause is their email was coded incorrectly as GPRS traffic?

Edit: Change image from URL to attachment
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Last edited by Jumpin_Joe; 10-05-2007 at 04:41 PM..
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Old 09-27-2007, 02:28 PM   #2
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They get you for each time that your BB tries to poll your push email accts too. What I did was disabled all data while I was overseas because roaming can be costly as you can see.
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Old 09-27-2007, 02:31 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BBFreak View Post
They get you for each time that your BB tries to poll your push email accts too. What I did was disabled all data while I was overseas because roaming can be costly as you can see.
But then I'm not sure why I didn't get charged for my 5 email accounts? And then what's the point of having this $20 per month plan?
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Old 09-27-2007, 02:58 PM   #4
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Was the extra $20 for international roaming or something? I don't travel outside the States much so I am not familiar.
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Old 09-27-2007, 03:02 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BBFreak View Post
Was the extra $20 for international roaming or something? I don't travel outside the States much so I am not familiar.
Oh absolutely! If you search the forums for that plan name, you will see plenty of posts.

The purpose of that plan is to allow you to get email for one flat rate while overseas. I sent tons of pictures via email to the USA (on my Pearl at the time) and didn't get charged a penny.

We travel overseas twice a year - and this is the first time we've had a problem.
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Old 09-27-2007, 03:55 PM   #6
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Good stuff to know. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful here.
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Old 09-27-2007, 09:44 PM   #7
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If this hasnt been resolved, I would suggest writing a nice, informative, proper email to Tmo's CEO - Dotson...his email is somewhere, try consumerist.com - They usually have all the CEOs' info...

I had sort of the same problem before and did that and got a call from a tmo executive customer service rep a day or two later refunding me the amount I got charged. However, in my instance, I had two tmo reps telling me that the international plan included both DATA and EMAIL which kinda screwed me when I got back.

Just make sure youre email is nice and explains what happened, has all your info, and what youd like done. Also CC the email to the BBB and the FCC. Companies hate getting complaints to them.
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Old 09-27-2007, 10:07 PM   #8
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Wishdemon: Thanks for the advice....Good ideas.

Since my original posting, I have made some headway. I will post a full summary - once the credit has been applied.

Unfortunately I fear that the people after me who might experience the same problem (i.e. data being coded incorrectly as GPRS Roaming) might not be so lucky.

Next time I travel overseas, after a day or two of being there, I know that I'll call back to the USA and call TMO to verify the data shows up on the bill correctly.
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Old 10-05-2007, 04:53 PM   #9
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Update to my story. It has a quasi happy ending.

The friendly CSR Theresa credited my account for all GPRS traffic after August 5th for $118.

I received the September bill. Here's where the story gets interesting:

1) The August bill ended on August 23rd. It has all "GPRS Roaming". Starting on August 24th, the first day of the September bill, all charges came through as "RIM Blackberry". What happened between August 23 and August 24th that suddenly the type of charge changed?

2) If you compare the megabytes used on the September bill labeled "RIM Blackberry" - the sizes are "tiny" (e.g. .04, .05, .06, etc). All of the August data amounts are much higher.

The September bill was 100% correct! In any case, I'm happy to have gotten some money credited back to my account.

See the attachments for images explaining the above.

MORAL of the story: Before going overseas, remove the $20 BB plan (T-Mobile) and downgrade to $10 (i.e. no data).
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Old 10-05-2007, 06:37 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jumpin_Joe View Post
MORAL of the story: Before going overseas, remove the $20 BB plan (T-Mobile) and downgrade to $10 (i.e. no data).
Not sure I understand. I went to UK this May and added the TM $20 international plan. I didn't use my web browser or IM (cause I know neither is covered) but used the email plenty and never got charged any extra.

Maybe the roaming is different in UK than in Turkey but TM (being part of the German/Euro company Deutsch Telecom) has pretty large coverage worldwide.

Last edited by VickyPaz; 10-05-2007 at 06:39 PM..
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Old 10-05-2007, 06:53 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VickyPaz View Post
Not sure I understand. I went to UK this May and added the TM $20 international plan. I didn't use my web browser or IM (cause I know neither is covered) but used the email plenty and never got charged any extra.
You did the right thing and it worked as expected. I visited in Germany in March/April and did the same thing you did - without any extra charges. In fact, one day, just for fun, I *did* surf to cnn.com - just to see if I'd get any extra charges. I did not.

Quote:
Originally Posted by VickyPaz View Post
Maybe the roaming is different in UK than in Turkey but TM (being part of the German/Euro company Deutsch Telecom) has pretty large coverage worldwide.
I don't think that Turkey is any different than UK or any other country. I truly believe this was a bill error on T-Mobile's part. How else can one explain that for 4 weeks all email data shows up as GPRS Roaming when starting the next day (and for another four weeks) the email data charges show up as "RIM Blackberry"?
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Old 10-05-2007, 07:08 PM   #12
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Sounds like T-Mobile messed up and didn't provision your account right away for the $20 Blackberry Unlimited International Email plan you signed up for. After you complained, they realized they goofed and re-calculated your bill properly. Good for you not knuckling under and just accepting it. It looks like their error, but they would have no problem charging you for it. I love happy endings!
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Old 10-05-2007, 07:43 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo47 View Post
Sounds like T-Mobile messed up and didn't provision your account right away for the $20 Blackberry Unlimited International Email plan you signed up for.
No they did sign me up right away (05-Aug) when I called. The underlying problem is that all email data from July through 22-Aug was coded as GPRS Roaming instead of RIM BlackBerry.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo47 View Post
After you complained, they realized they goofed and re-calculated your bill properly.
I only got a credit because I was calm, educated the CSR very slowly, and I got luck by getting a nice rep. The first rep (a male) was a total jerk-know-it-all. If I really wanted to push it, I could argue that, "Yeah, I messed up on not putting the international plan on before 05-Aug, but look at those data amounts! .5 MB per day? I'd like a credit for that too as the September bill was only .05". I know this might be confusing if you simply read my text, but if you study the posted bill, it'll make more sense (I'm not saying you didn't - just trying to make myself as clear as possible).

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo47 View Post
Good for you not knuckling under and just accepting it. It looks like their error, but they would have no problem charging you for it. I love happy endings!
Thanks for the thoughts. I really wish I could have educated them so that the next poor sap who comes along (in Turkey?) might not have the same problem.
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Old 10-05-2007, 08:17 PM   #14
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There are some other threads about this, but from what most of can gather about the plan is that some countries will report all of your data and email as just "EMAIL" while some other countries will differentiate between data and email and report two different things to tmo...

From what I've read and seen, I think England, Ireland, and some of the western european places just report as EMAIL and not DATA and EMAIL.

Hope that helps!
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Old 10-05-2007, 08:37 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wishdemon View Post
There are some other threads about this, but from what most of can gather about the plan is that some countries will report all of your data and email as just "EMAIL" while some other countries will differentiate between data and email and report two different things to tmo...
Yeah...'cept my wife and I were in Turkey, in the same house, with our BB's also. Three TMO BB's, in the same house, and we didn't get charged extra
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Old 10-06-2007, 07:33 AM   #16
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Thats really weird! Tmo has had a lot of these kinds of problems...where one will get charged and one will not...
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Old 10-06-2007, 09:00 AM   #17
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8700/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

It comes down to if the acct was provisioned properly and with international provisioning it ia a bit tedious one mistype and bam overages and billing issues
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