ROAMING NOT WORKING IN USA!!!

[staffop]

I spoke to ee customer services before I left the UK to travel to USA to set up roaming on my phone, and my daughter's phone.

I paid the fee and we all received text messages stating it was enabled.

We both have iPhone 13s

Roaming is enabled on both phones

When we landed and restarted the phone it didn't connect to a local provider.

We are unable to use the phone and unable to contact ee to discuss as we have no connection.

Chat function also seems to be disabled (I have wifi on my laptop)

It is clear this is an ongoing issue by the number of posts in this forum, none of which seem to have been solved

This is very, very frustrating and I'm shocked by ee's customer service (or lack of)

[XRaySpeX]

Are you on contract or PAYG? Did you use 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 add-on doesn't of itself activate roaming on your a/c.

Often just rebooting the phone is the simple remedy. Also try selecting a network manually rather than auto. Otherwise login to your MyEE account online & go to Menu > Account Settings > Parental and Data Controls > Roaming Abroad and also Call Abroad and Premium Rate. They will show as ticked if roaming and calling abroad is activated. If not ticked, can you activate these settings?

If you can't enable the Roaming Abroad and the Call Abroad & Premium Rate settings of your online MyEE, you will need to call CS. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. via Skype over WiFi. It should be free.

PAYG is auto enabled for roaming. You won't see any of those settings & don't need to change anything. If outside EU, do you have enough credit for making calls & texts from abroad?

[staffop]

Thank you for  responding Grandmaster.

We are on a pay monthly contract.

I didn't text 'roaming' to 150 as I spoke to an operator (for 90mins!) who said everything was ready and nothing further needed to be done

The 'Menu > Account Settings > Parental and Data Controls > Roaming Abroad and also Call Abroad and Premium Rate' are enabled on one phone but I can't change them on the other. 

I explained this to the CS rep when I spoke to them but was told it would take 24 hours to be enabled by which time I was in the US

It still won't let me toggle it on one account, but is enabled on the other - neither phone works

I am unable to call ee as my phone doesn't work

[XRaySpeX]

So use Skype over WiFi.

[staffop]

OK, so sorted in the end - as suspected, the facility was not set up correctly by ee. This seems to be a repeated issue which suggests their teams may need more training - very frustrating and potentially dangerous if vulnerable and alone when abroad