Can't get help on bill

ATT does not do customer support via email. It is also impossible to get roaming charges if you don’t turn cellular on. If you really have roaming charges, then you connected to a foreign carrier. Are you using WiFi calling? If so and you made any calls to international numbers, that is charged international long distance. In any event, the only way to reach customer support is to call the international support number. It is a free call from your mobile phone.

Thank you for the response.  The other way to reach them is chat, why does it redirect?

We turned off both roaming and cellular in LAX before we got in the plane.  That is why I am trying to figure out the huge charge.  We shouldn't have been charged.  We have not made any calls or connected to anything but wifi.  We have made some calls in Line app and Whatsapp, but those count as wifi. 

I understand the call is supposedly free, but if I turn on roaming and cellular then they can say I haven't had it off the whole time and can charge me for data usage or something, which I have.  I don't trust it.  If those are off 100% of the time, and we only do wifi, there is zero reason for me to get charged. 

This whole chat experience has really made me skeptical.  It seems to be set up to purposefully make it so you never talk to a person since it redirects you to start over as soon as it says it is connecting you to a person.  There has to be a way for them to fix chat or one of their CS agents to email with me about these charges I shouldn't have.  This isn't rocket science.  I just need to talk to someone and AT&T is a global communication company.  Why do they have chat to chat with a CS agent if it doesn;t let you talk to one?  

Is the chat issue an issue with chrome?  Would brave or edge work?  Also, why would they require text only verification when I can't get texts to log into a different browser?  

So if you’ve had cellular off, how do you know about any international charges? I have no idea why chat support redirects, I can only presume it’s because you are outside of the US. Since you mention WhatsApp, that is likely the culprit. WhatsApp has a well known bug where calls are placed over cellular but that also would mean you were on cellular. Again, it is not possible to get roaming charges unless you are roaming. ATT only charges when the foreign carrier reports the usage. 

Before we left LAX we turned off roaming and cellular.  I am 100% sure of this.  Not one iota of doubt.  Why we got international roaming charges is the exact reason I am trying to contact support.

The chat redirecting has nothing to do with location (I don't think).  It works fine, I wait in line, and as soon as it starts connecting with a person, it says redirecting and the page refreshes and I lose chat, have to go down, wait for the chat button to reload, and start over.

I know about international charges because I just got the bill.  We have wifi so I have internet access.  I'm on a chromebook on the wifi internet of our quarantine hotel.  

Anyone know if it is some sort of setting on chrome that is making the whole page refresh when it tries to connect me to a person (after waiting in line for 15 minutes every single time)?  Anything I can turn off or on in chrome?  I'm looking through settings now but nothing is jumping out.  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Before we left LAX we turned off roaming and cellular.  I am 100% sure of this.

So how exactly did you do that? What phone and what settings? The only way to turn cellular off on any phone I’ve ever had is airplane mode. Turning off roaming is irrelevant if in airplane mode. In fact, the only roaming setting I have is data roaming. Once again, it it physically not possible to get roaming charges unless you were roaming. Do you know where your international charges are from? Any chance the charges are from whatever airlines you were on? We’ve seen many complaints about international charges from airlines.

In my phone, in settings, under mobile networks, it says "mobile networks, International data roaming, disable 2g, access point names, and network operators."  We have everything off.  Hers is a S20 galaxy.  I don't know the name of mine.  We both also have airplane mode on, blue tooth turned off, etc.  

We were very, very careful because I left only enough money in my account to cover auto paid bills and she assured me my phone bill wouldn't go up if we turned everything off.  Now it is double and I can't even figure out why or talk to anyone at AT&T.  And that bill only covered the first two days of our travel.  

I don;t know what I can tell you to prove to you that we turned everything off.  Only wifi works on our phones.  We looked into this before leaving so our bill wouldn't increase.  And they still did.

Great, now I can't even log in on chrome anymore as their main site requires a text verification now.  This is really nuts.  This is just unacceptable.  The poorness of service and my absolute complete lack of any options is ridiculous.  I even tried contacting them through facebook and no response.  This company is ruining a vacation I saved years for, and doing their (Edited per community guidelines)edest to ensure I can't even contact them to have a shot at resolving this.  

Have you used Wi-Fi calling? Wi-Fi calling is only free if you are calling the United States. Otherwise any Wi-Fi calling is billed as long distance charges.

AT&T has no way of knowing where in the world you are unless you are connecting to a foreign Network and incurring charges on that Network. That form carrier bills AT&T for your usage and AT&T passes that usage on to you.

 ➡️ Receiving a text notification from AT&T is free.    You should make sure your data roaming is off on the phone before you turn airplane mode off. Receiving the text is free but your phone will immediately connect to data unless roaming is off.  

I have no suggestions for you. Despite your belief and insistence you never turned cellular on, the evidence suggests otherwise. Once again, it is physically impossible to get roaming charges without roaming. As for your other thread, ATTHelp will respond in 2-3 days if no one else responds, otherwise they rarely chime in.  Even if they do respond, they will likely just tell you to call the international support number and no, there is no email option. Again, I bet the culprit is WhatsApp. It may have turned cellular on. It sure would help if you knew what the charges were for, calls or data.