We just had a large bill with the same Roaming charge issue.
As we were overseas, we had the phone turned off most of the time, but we were charged with the Roaming charges (in our case $1.99/min.) for calls made to this number.
I just finished speaking with TIM (ID# 0732775) of T-Mobile's call center, and he stated that we definitely made all the 23 calls.
He lectured me that I should remove the International Roaming service, if I do not want the calls to show up anymore.
The bill shows the calls as an outgoing call, but that was proof enough that T-Mobile is doing this on purpose.
As another post stated, even if you have the phone turned off, if you get a call it automatically goes into the Voice Mail service box. Since we were in the International Roaming zone, T-Mobile charges us for the call transfer to the Voice Mail box. T-Mobile still needs to pay the local phone company for using their network.
Needless to say, we cancelled T-Mobile.
I would advise anyone that uses T-Mobile to do the same.
Tim (ID# 0732775) would not even discuss about the possibility that they were wrong, since T-Mobile will not pick-up any International Roaming charges (whatever it may be).
I guess a German company like T-Mobile doesn't understand what customer service is all about.
Trouble is, all (GSM) networks are the same, it's how GSM works.
If your phone is on, and you are busy or don't pickup, YOUR PHONE will call voicemail in the states and connects the caller to it.
If your phone is off, but still registered to an overseas cell recently, it's possible that the same thing will occur, as the overseas network may connect you back. Same thing.
I can configure my G1 to not forward calls to VM when I'm roaming (call forwarding under settings). T-Mo can assist you in disabling VM while you're on vacation if you like on other phones. However, if you need voicemail it's just the way it works.
The biggest problem are the CS agents who can't explain this and then you all feel ripped off. Global roaming is a fantastic technical feat, and a slightly expensive one.
I'm in France and the voice mails incur both international rates and roaming rates if you DON'T answer your phone and it did ring. The best solution for a smart phone is to use the wifi at a local cafe and force the connection to go over the UMA (voice and texts). You do this by turing off your cell transmitter, for data services (email and web) to go over wifi only. The bad part is that you may be unreachable in between cafes. "Main screen, Options, Connection Preference = Wi-Fi Only" Fortunately they haven't tracked one's IP address to the country they are in yet, not sure why, they could. I check my cell phone (t-mobile) voice mails and return phone calls from my computer using a VOIP client like skype or callcentric. it's 100 times cheeper, same quality, but you need a netbook or rent a computer in a cafe.
On a Cruise to Nassau. Didn't open the phone the whole time... but I was charged $23.45 for 6
separate calls......(Before I got to to this site I was e-chatting with a T-Mobile rep who said I called
another T-Mobile customer--- She didn't say it was T-Mobile itself.) What a crock of CRAP...........This is as bad as the Wall Street crooks selling securities to many unsuspecting clients while 'shorting' them for
their own accounts.. No one has any ethics anymore.....As Gordon Gekko says "Greed rules in this
short-sighted capitalistic society.