topic Re: Phone calls in Australia in Roaming

Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 03:22:58 GMT

If you are an EE customer and going to Australia BEWARE.
Despite signing up to a new pay monthly account, signing up to roaming before I left and paying the extortionate roaming pass fee of £26 for 7 days I now find I cannot make calls in Australia.
I have been to Apple Store and Optus store as EE use Optus here in Brisbane.
neither of them could get the calls to work.
when I try to sort it out I am advised to call EE but I cannot make calls. EE help is the worst I have ever tried to work with. It’s designed to make you give up.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

bristolian — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 07:00:19 GMT

Regardless of any billing add-on, your ability to get coverage abroad (which calls, texts & mobile data rely on) is dependent on roaming being activated - which allows your phone to connect to foreign networks.

Have you used your phone abroad previously, did you receive a welcome text message on first arrival abroad? These are good evidence of roaming being enabled if so. In these cases, manually cycling through all available local networks often resolves issues - toggling flight mode can have the same effect.

If not...On PAYG, roaming is auto-enabled once your phone is used in the UK first. On pay-monthly, this needs to be enabled manually - usually by texting ROAMING to 150 before leaving the UK. Did you do this?

If you are on pay-monthly and now find yourself abroad without having enabled roaming, your only recourse will be to contact CS to request it activated. You can either contact +44 7953 966150 from another working phone, or +44 800 9566000 using a web-calling app such as Skype over WiFi.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:11:55 GMT

Hi. Yes phone has worked in Europe previously.
Yes I received a welcome text.
Replied to it and bought a 7 day roaming pass for £26.
Received a text saying the roaming pass was activated.
Yes I advised EE we were going to Australia and required roaming before we left UK.
Phone is set up for roaming and has valid 7 day roaming pass.
This was verified by both an Apple advisor and an Optus advisor here in Brisbane.
Texts and internet both working on mobile signal but phone calls do not work.
Harold

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Phone calls in Australia

bristolian — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:08:49 GMT

Some pertinent points are in your second post, that you didn't mention originally - hence my advice did not allow for them.

Neither Apple or Optus personnel are in any position to advise on whether your phone is setup for roaming - they can check phone settings which will include "data roaming" menu options, but they have no access to your EE account to check for overall roaming permissions.

You didn't mention that texts & mobile data are working, these prove the roaming ability. If calls are not working, that lends to either a spend cap issue or - more likely - an international call bar active.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

ukms — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 16:32:56 GMT

@bristolian ….. I’m just sitting on the sidelines of this …. I’m sure what you say is most likely correct, however don’t you think it would make sense that if EE sell a customer a roaming pass allowing use of their plan minutes, texts and data then they should be able to use it without having to get a crystal ball out to second guess what other hurdles may lay in the way. If a customer has something preventing the pass being used then the EE system should tell them this before the customer pays for the pass, rather than take the money and leave a customer struggling to find a solution from abroad.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 02:27:55 GMT

Hi
Interestingly enough there is another EE customer here in Brisbane posting that he has exactly the same problem with his roaming pass.

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Phone calls in Australia

bristolian — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 07:14:48 GMT

@ukms wrote:

If a customer has something preventing the pass being used then the EE system should tell them this before the customer pays for the pass

I completely agree! The roaming facility & international call bar slips through the net far too often.

There's good reasons why some users may still want a spend cap inplace.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 00:32:55 GMT

Hi.
That’s me into the second week in Australia and have just paid another £25 to EE for coverage on roaming but still no calls. I need to keep this phone alive as all my verification stuff for banks etc come to this phone number on texts. Not a happy bunny.
Harold

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Phone calls in Australia

Alex_H — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 10:44:16 GMT

Hi @h_shewan,

I am sorry you are still having issues with calls in Australia I understand that will be frustrating. Just checking have you tried to connect to all other available roaming networks as suggested earlier and were they all the same?

What happens when you try and make a call to +44 (0)7953 966 150? Do you get a recorded message or anything like that?

There may be something account based that is preventing the calls as mentioned, but we have no account access through these forums to check I am sorry, it is something only one of our guides would be able to confirm.

Alex

Re: Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 21:51:56 GMT

Hi
We still have the same no call problem. I have had to borrow a phone to make calls in Australia but I have had to keep paying the £25 roaming fee as I need to keep my EE phone active as that is the number used by various verification messages. Think I’ll be ditching EE when I get home.

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Phone calls in Australia

bpauna — Tue, 06 May 2025 11:22:24 GMT

I’m having the same problem.
I have the full works plan and have always had the international roaming add-on. They recently changed it to two options - EU and ROW.
The old version worked absolutely fine the last time I visited Australia. This time, I can’t make any calls or send any texts, apart from the 150 number.

Data is working fine, and luckily I can call on WhatsApp or messenger. But for other people not on those services, I cannot reach them.

And I am having the same problem, I can not call the 150 number the overseas contact number to get help.

It’s very disappointing from EE. The customer service has really let us down here. There should be a live chat service for this. I can’t even call the help line from my family members phone! Please sort this out EE.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

bpauna — Tue, 06 May 2025 11:27:27 GMT

I’m having the same problem.

When I make a call to +44 (0)7953 966 150, there is no dial tone and ends as a call failure. Left with no other option. I’m in Australia for a month and cannot make any calls.

Very disappointing.

Re: Phone calls in Australia

h_shewan — Tue, 06 May 2025 12:08:03 GMT

Hi. We arrived home last weekend and miracle happened 3 days before we left Australia. I received a scam call from UK and I was able to make calls. A bit late. The day after we arrived home I received a text from EE asking me if I was satisfied with the service we had in Australia. I filled in the questionaire and wrote about how I was most dissatisfied with the service and asked them to refund the £106we had paid in roaming charges. I expected a reply from them but 5 days on not a cheep from them.

Sent from my iPhone

Re: Phone calls in Australia

Lesley_W — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:40:46 GMT

Hi @bpauna

Welcome to our community.

Can I check, which network are you connecting to while in Australia?

Lesley

Re: Phone calls in Australia

Lesley_W — Wed, 07 May 2025 12:47:26 GMT

Hi @h_shewan

The questionnaire is for general feedback and you wouldn't be contacted off the back of it. If you are wanting to speak to someone about your experience, you can see how to make a complaint here Make a Complaint | Contact Us | EE.

Lesley