Cellular Data Off but Continuing to Report Usage

Pissed off at iPhone AND AT&T today. Lauren's phone has very suddenly started going over the monthly data limit. This month (the second in a row) she turned cellular data off when she got the 90% usage email. Over the next two days, another 20MB of data was reported.

So I called AT&T. The customer service girl couldn't have been sweeter, but she had absolutely no idea how data could be used when the cellular data was turned off. NO. IDEA. She suggested that it accidentally got turned back on. Umm... you have to do some cartwheels to change the setting. It just doesn't turn itself on and off.

I asked if perhaps there are apps or other activities (AT&T maintenance processes?) that override your settings and use 3G even if you have it turned off.

She said, "Ummm.... I don't know."

Mmmmkay.

After a long conversation, she ended up refunding the overage fee. Super. Now what happens next month? Before she ended the call, she had the nerve and/or complete lack of sense to ask me, "If you were to take a survey after this call, asking if I helped you to your satisfaction today, would you say I have?"

I said, "You were really nice, but you didn't ever answer any of my questions."

She laughed and said, "OK. Thanks for calling AT&T. Have a nice day!" I guess that's how they do it at AT&T now- ask you what your rating will be before they allow you to take a customer satisfaction survey. Smart.

It is not to AT&T or Apple's advantage to tell me anything about what is using my data or why it continues to use it when I have it turned off. AT&T is trying desperately to get me to use as much data as possible so they can charge me for it. They can play stupid (was she playing? not sure) all day long, but it is doubtful they have "no idea" what is using my data. It would also be an important customer metric to know how many of us have turned cellular data off, so I'm betting they know when we do that as well, although they say they do not.

Apple doesn't want anyone to think it's their fault, so they just ignore it, too. You turned data off and your carrier is still reporting data usage? Hmm! Good luck with that! My question for them is- if I turn data off, is it really off, or are some things in error being allowed to use 3G?

So I did research online. TONS of people are having these issues and neither Apple nor AT&T is dealing with them. The only things I have learned are:

1) the timestamps of the data usage are not accurate. Frequently, AT&T waits to charge data until the middle of the night. It's within hours, but you don't ever have an accurate picture of exactly when the data was used.

2) If you are using wifi and your iPhone goes to sleep, it will switch to cellular data to save battery life, so close everything in the background (yeesh I hate that!), especially anything using location services, every time you go to bed at the very least, if you're using too much data.

Other than that, people are just guessing the causes of high data usage problems and commiserating on message boards. My questions-

What is using up all Lauren's data all of a sudden? We have a few guesses, but it would be lovely if we could see apps that might be at fault.

Why or under what circumstances does the iPhone continue to use cellular data when cellular data is turned off?

I know one thing- we will leave AT&T if it doesn't stop.

Maybe I do need to create a "rant" tag for my blog posts. :-)

On a happier note, I hope everyone is having a fabulous Friday! Ready for the weekend?