Phone didn’t work abroad, missed important work calls and considering leaving EE

[Raphael737]

I have recently switched from Three to EE over Three’s outage issues last month. I can’t afford to be uncontactable for a number of professional and personal reasons. Decided on the highest package with roaming as I spend a lot of time abroad (Pilot/businessman). I have been waiting on an important call and as I was away on a work trip to Africa, my phone simply did not work, couldn’t make or receive calls or access my voicemail. Not everywhere I had access to wifi so I was uncontactable to important businesses and my family. Got back to the UK and I have missed the aforementioned calls, which resulted in a large financial loss. I am beyond **bleep**ed off, I have activated roaming, followed the steps, ensured the mobila data was on, restarted the phone etc. nothing worked. Spoke to customer services via chat, kept repeating myself as they would only answer after 40m-1hr after I messaged. Kept asking the same questions, simply weren’t paying attention. I told EE that I demanded a chat with a manager as this is a very poor service, I am now shopping for another contract elsewhere and will cancel this one. Has anyone else experienced issues with roaming and is this the usual customer service you are getting? Been with them for one month only and I am not impressed.

[XRaySpeX]

@Raphael737 : Are you on contract or PAYG? Had you used that SIM for making calls or texts in UK before you left to go abroad?

If you are on contract, did you activate roaming on your EE a/c before you left UK by texting ROAMING to 150? Having a roaming billing add-on doesn't of itself activate roaming on your a/c. Having roaming activated on your EE a/c, not just on your device, is crucial to using your contract SIM abroad.

[bristolian]

You've alluded to a couple of popular misconceptions here

1: Billing add-ons and "the highest package" are immaterial, these merely reduce the cost of roaming. As mentioned, the crucial thing is that roaming is enabled on your account - this unlocks access to foreign networks, which is crucial to having mobile coverage abroad.

2: Phone settings. Many users confuse the "data roaming" & "mobile data" options on their phone, these merely enable access to mobile data whilst already roaming. If roaming is not enabled on your SIM/account, these options are futile.

Your symptoms are consistent with the correct steps not having been followed.

[Raphael737]

I hear you. That said, once I got hold the online chat team(window open for hours and several different people later) the steps were all followed . 
It did not work. I have raised a complaint and about to sign with Vodafone, I don’t like to have to chase and when I do issues are not resolved. 

[Raphael737]

It’s pay monthly and I used in the UK before. I was given the guidelines and everything was followed to the letter.