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International Wifi calls via data being charged

akoehler2018

I learned the hard way that Verizon is charging for a Facetime Wifi International Data call the same as for a normal cellular call. Let me break this down. I am having 5 lines with "unlimited data" which cost me already some money. Now from home, I am making a DATA call to Germany via Facetime. I learned that Verizon will charge me the normal International Roaming Fees as I would make the call via cellular? If you make a data call you don't roam, there is no hand over from telco to telco and so on. Honestly it doesn't matter if I download a picture from one phone to another in my house or make a call to Germany. I think that is a scandal and a just the worst customer service ever. Verizon is not the cheapest out of the gate, but happy to pay for quality, but this is stealing. Nowhere do they clearly state that, there is no warning before the call, nor can you lock it. I am now trying to figure out how to switch providers and will start a social media effort to make sure this is known.

Comments

Verizon_Support

Akoehler2018,

Hearing that you would want to leave us is the last thing that we would want to happen. We take your concerns very seriously. I can understand your confusion with wifi calling and LTE Data calls. Even when in the home, the device will select whichever signal strength is the best to process the call.

This is what may have happened during the Facetime Call you had.

-Roni

ConsumerRights2019

This is not true. I have a iphone for my sister (2019 Iphone SE 64GB) on our unlimited plan and the last 2 times she called to Switzerland from New York, as she has many times before, we were charged for a total of 179 dollars for those two calls. I checked her phone and cellular data was disabled for FaceTime - also cell coverage at her house is rather poor and she was connected to WIFI. Why would VZW route an IP App via their network in the first place? This is not what Facetime is designed for. After contacting VZW I was told that yes, that's what Verizon does, they re-route your international called via their network even if the call originates within the FaceTime APP even from a laptop if the accounts are linked via iCloud!! - at a minimum there should be a pop up warning that you are using the VZW network and not VOIP for this call, especially since I am using an app designed especially for that purpose. It's almost as if they backdoor the app so that they can overcharge you for these calls on purpose. I also wonder why Apple allows this, if my cellular data is off, I shouldn't be able to make this call from the FaceTime app without a warning. or get re-routed without my knowledge. There shouldn't be any routing in the background that is not transparent to the user especially with a 3 dollar per minute charge for these calls, which is another subject of discussion all together. Why this is happening now is also a mystery to me, since my sister has called her cousin in Switzerland for the last 2 years via FT without a hitch. It seems to me that this change was part of a recent software update. If VZW doesn't nix those charges I will definitely cancel my plan with them. I've been a customer for 15 years but after my last conversation with customer support I'm not so sure, since they were not even able to look at their own call logs a couple a days after the call was placed and I have to wait till it actually shows up on my bill. Makes me wonder .....

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