"calls to this number are barred from your phone" / EU roaming or tech problem?

[aurv]

The calls to my EE phone appear to be barred. I am on a cheap monthly plan (since September 2021) that until recently allowed  use of the plan in the UK and EU alike. I took the phone to EU just before the new EU roaming system kicked in and I have not been using roaming since the change of roaming regime. However, my understanding is that incoming calls (which is the only one I would need) should still be free, so why don't the incoming calls pass? Each time family rings me (from UK or EU numbers), the message coming is that "calls to this number are barred from your phone".

I have looked to turning 'call barring' off but the option of on/off does not even appear on my Samsung and I was told that this is an option dependent on the service provider (EE).

What can be the problem? Any suggestion much appreciated.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @aurv 

Was it before 7th July 2021 that you took your plan out? If not, the cost to use your plan abroad is £2.29 per day. You can choose a roam abroad pass instead though. 

Do you have an active spend cap? That could be stopping the plan from kicking in.

Roaming Costs | Help | EE

Chris

[aurv]

Hi @Christopher_G 

Thank you very much for your reply.

My monthly plan started in September 2021.

I understand that using the plan within EU now costs £2.29 per day, however receiving calls appears in the EE tarifs document to be free of charge (see page 12, Roaming, here: https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/help-pdfs/ee-pay-monthly-standard-and-non-standard-price-guide-... ). Surely, paying £2.29 per day to receive 'free' calls does not make those free. So, I am hopping that the problem is somewhere else.

I checked and I don't appear to have a spend cap associated to my account. (I guess the spend is defined by my monthly plan allowance the boundaries of which I never reached to push).

What am I missing in this 'free' calls receiving while abroad? Each time UK or EU numbers ring me, the call does not get through and the caller gets a message that says 'calls to this number are barred'.

A few days ago I got an EE message telling me that my monthly plan has been just renewed. Another EE message, welcoming me to EU, informs me that there is now a charge to access my pack allowance etc. of £2.50/day (not £2.29) then it goes on to say "If you don't have an active pack, or choose not to pay the daily/weekly charges, you'll be charged 70p/min, 30p per text and need a EU data add on...". So, we can still be roaming in EU without paying the daily charge, at a cost, of course. If I can call while in the EU without having paid the daily fee, why I cannot receive the mentioned 'free' calls?... 

Thanks in advance for any directions. I hope my issues are clearer now.

[Christopher_G]

Seems like it could be something else that is causing the problem, @aurv 

Have you tried manually connecting to a different available network to see if the same thing happens?
Chris

[XRaySpeX]

You're not on a contract but PAYG for which roaming rules were changed on 6 June. You’ll now be charged to use your minutes, texts and data allowances in our EE Europe zone.

Please see our Pay As You Go charges for roaming in the EU, Help page for more details.

[aurv]

Thank you, @Christopher_G. Much appreciated your time.

I tried your suggestion and there was no change, unfortunately. I could not find a free way of getting EE advice while abroad either; so it seems EE leaves it to the community to do its job of making sense of a rather obscure and intricate setup... 

Best wishes - 

[Leanne_T]

Hi @aurv 

It does seem like you have a pay as you go account for the text you received from us. 

Did you get a message advising you would need to purchase one of the below add-ons to use your pack allowance in the EU, and how to add this? 

Roam like Home for 7 days (£10 for 7 days) or a Roam like Home for 24 hours (£2.50 a day) add-on. 

Leanne. 

[violin]

I've found that if I keep trying a number that isn't being answered, I sometimes get this message, I also get other ones as well as though the algorithms are just running through their library of excuses. when I searched my samsung/ee phone a lower case "call barring" option was displayed.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @violin 

Thanks for coming here. 

Did turning off this feature stop these messages when you call certain numbers? 

Leanne.

[EECommunity55]

Have similar problem and sped cap was the problem  take out zero to say 5pou