Those of us who have family and friends overseas know we can call them for free via WhatsApp, but recently a South Florida resident said her cell phone company started charging her. the calls she had made using the popular app.

She thought she was making a free international call through the popular app used by millions of people, but her mobile company billed and billed her.

Like more than two billion people around the world, Ana María Perez uses the WhatsApp app to call Cuba for free without having to subscribe to a long-distance phone plan.

“After 50 or more years that I’ve been here, I’ve started to reconnect with a family and with a cousin. And that’s the only call I make that I don’t need to have that plan,” says Ana María Pérez, who used the Whatsapp application.

But recently, his cellular service company charged him for two of those calls to Cuba that he made through the WhatsApp app.

“I received a text message from my cell phone from T-mobile telling me that I had a long distance and that my services were going to be cut,” said Pérez, whose bill included two charges for international calls totaling $96. , for the same calls she had made on WhatsApp.

The woman says that when she contacted the company, they told her the charges were due to her being connected to T-mobile’s Wi-Fi, not her home Wi-Fi when she made whatsapp calls.

Ana María Pérez says that they told her that “WhatsApp then took the T-mobile Wi-Fi, he was the one who made the call and that’s why they were charging me”.

She asked for the charges to be dropped because she was unaware of this policy and says they refused, telling her to put her phone on airplane mode next time to avoid accidentally using Wi- Fi from T-mobile.

“For me it was abusive because they told me then it was my problem,” the woman explains and claims that although she found it unfair, Ana Maria says she was going to pay the costs but first contacted Telemundo 51 to alert others.

“I believe the community needs to know because a lot of people may not even realize it and don’t pay,” Pérez warns.

As soon as we contacted T-mobile, Ana Maria Pérez says a representative called her, dropped the charges, apologized for the inconvenience and put something on her account to avoid being again charged for using WhatsApp.

“A kind of blockade, as the lady explained to me, so that it doesn’t happen to me,” says Pérez.

T-mobile did not say why they charged Ana Maria for the calls. On its page, WhatsApp confirms that it does not charge for calls, video calls or messages sent from its app, but warns that your mobile provider may apply data charges.

Ana Maria says that from now on she will put her phone on airplane mode before making a Whatsapp call and hopes her experience will serve as a warning for everyone to check their account statements.

“You have to let the community know because maybe they’re paying more and they don’t know why.”

We repeatedly requested a response from T-Mobile but received none. If you have a complaint that you were unable to resolve on your own, you can call us at 305-888-6842 or write to us via telemundo51.com/responde/quejas.

Categorized in: