topic Re: USA data in Roaming

USA data

Myallo007 — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:13:50 GMT

I’ve just landed in the USA and as per usual EE have sent a text saying

“To access your UK plan allowances you can choose either a £5 24-hour or £25 7-day Zone 1 Pass. Visit http://add-on.ee.co.uk for free to purchase.”

however when I click the link there is no option to purchase just a message to say I have no data. I was briefly able to get into the app at the airport and I’ve loads of data.

I’m at a loss as to how to add this 7 day zone one pass and the international help number won’t connect.

help admins?

Re: USA data

Northerner — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 17:50:58 GMT

Hi @Myallo007

Is roaming activated on your account.

Thanks

Re: USA data

Christopher_G — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 18:57:30 GMT

Hi @Myallo007

Welcome to the community.

Are you able to call our Customer Support team from another phone or using a VoIP service, such as Skype?

They'll be able to make sure everything is set up from our end.

Chris

Re: USA data

bristolian — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:32:35 GMT

@Northerner wrote:

Is roaming activated on your account.

By virtue of them receiving a text whilst abroad, it must be.

Re: USA data

Profile closed — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:16:41 GMT

Can you manually add a roaming pass in the app? The URL EE sends has never worked here on multiple trips to the US; the app seems more reliable.

If you have Wi-Fi, I'd highly recommend downloading offline maps for where ever you are going in the US. You can't rely on EE's roaming to always provide data when you are abroad (it seems sensitive to which network your phone joins).

Be prepared to waste a lot of time if you end up calling EE. They'll have you reset your phone and disconnect you, and you have to start again when their advice does not work. EE also does not respect your time zone, they'll happily call you at 3am in the US to continue the conversation. You can try chat in the app as well, the chat line seems to have longer hours than the telephone lines and you don't have to wait on hold.

Re: USA data

Lesley_W — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:36:16 GMT

Hi @Profile closed.

Once you arrive in the States you will receive a text message with a link to purchase a pass. Our customer care team can also add these on if you have trouble.

Lesley

Re: USA data

Profile closed — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:17:52 GMT

Hi @Lesley_W

Practically this does not work so well for the US. Depending on where you arrive in the US there is a 5 hour+ time difference and 8-hours+ spent in travel.

When you arrive in the US, or get to your accommodation, there is a good chance that the customer care team has gone home for the night, or are about to. Even if they are still there, you can sit on hold for an hour, and then find your call is unanswered before they turn in. And should you try to call EE customer care anytime around an iPhone launch, hold times are off the charts.

EE customer care team are very helpful when you speak to them, but they will do a settings reset and your call will be disconnected. They say something like "I'll call you back when it's done and send you a contact email address too", but that has not worked in a timely manner on either time that I've contacted EE by call / Skype in the past year. On one of those occasions, they called back at 3am local time.

Orionator

Re: USA data

Lesley_W — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 14:43:42 GMT

I understand the time difference will make contacting the team more tricky @Profile closed

We have recently changed the add-ons for roaming, is it the new ones that you have been having trouble with?

Lesley

Re: USA data

Profile closed — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 16:01:17 GMT

Hi @Lesley_W

The new system has added significant friction to setup and renewal. The same types of problems crop up with the actual service, but the inability to manage your use of roaming makes it hard to commend. Yesterday, it packed up whilst driving using data and the dance to extend it is quite something (and the confirmation text arrived >7 hours after the renewal).

I can believe there are benefits to the new system, but I don't know what they would be. Have calls gone down? Fewer issues on forums? It'd be interesting to understand how we got to the new system.

Thanks

ws are shaped by

Re: USA data

Lesley_W — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 17:25:40 GMT

Thanks for the extra info @Profile closed

I'll pass the feedback from your experiences onto our roaming team.

Lesley

Re: USA data

Profile closed — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:22:37 GMT

Hi @Lesley_W , one ask would be that you can renew a roaming plan proactively.

EE sends a text 24 hours before the 7-day plan is about to expire. That would be a great time to offer someone to renew the roaming plan without the pain that comes with loss of service.

Thank you

Re: USA data

farrellcsun — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 15:00:34 GMT

I was in US last week of July and same thing happened to me: I got the welcome text message but when I clicked on https://add-on.ee.co.uk the iphone browser just said no connection. I ended up connecting to free airport Wifi and was able to buy the data pass via the EE app. I have a separate thread/ticket open with support as they told me that the add-on link should work fine without any data (not sure how that works - if you need data to access the internet but not this website??) anyway, will see what they say. Won't be visiting USA until next summer again, hopefully will be a better experience then.