All-rounder contract, with EU roaming, suddenly stopped working in Cyprus

[Stubsy]

I have been in Cyprus for a few weeks, using my EE phone to call UK numbers. I visit Cyprus regularly and never had a roaming problem since joining EE 3 years ago. I have an All-Rounder contract, with unlimited everything, including EU roaming. Roaming suddenly stopped working a few days ago. I've made 8 (eight) support calls to EE, and I've tried everything suggested (roaming on/off; phone on/off; local provider auto/manual; spend-cap none/zero/30). Finally, on the 8th help call, EE said they have an internal memo reporting some local network problems in Cyprus, and just to keep trying. It's now been 5 days, but no solution. Is anyone else having the same problem? To make matters worse, EE sent me a text yesterday saying my request has been resolved, but it's still not working !!! Maybe I should just switch from EE? 

[Stubsy]

Hmmm, interesting. If you scroll back to the start of this thread, you will see that CS tried changing my spend-cap, but it made no difference. At first they insisted this was my problem, so they changed it to 30, but it still didn't work, so they set it back to zero. I have a feeling there's a lot of trial-and-error problem solving going on, and that it just needs "something" on the system to change to nudge a customer's connection back to life. As a technical person myself, these kind of problems are the worst kind, because I'm never satisifed without a logical reason for things to stop/start working. Which also begs the question (in your case), if you have free EU roaming, why do you need to set a spend cap anyway? Glad it worked out for you.   

[pwalk]

I'm similar in that I also like to know what it is that caused it. I actually had a feeling it was to do with the spend cap before CS suggested it, as before I left the UK I texted ROAM to 150 and after answering where I'm going, I got a text saying 'Great, you're all set..', etc. But then after arriving at my destination, I texted ROAM again and this time got a text detailing roaming charges! So it seemed as if the system was confused somewhere. But yeah, I don't know why I should have to increase the spend cap if it's free roaming. Also, it wasn't too bad as my data and incoming calls were working fine straight away, it was just the outgoing calls that greeted me with a rather blunt 'calls to this number are barred from this phone, goodbye' message.

[Stubsy]

Your last sentence describes my experience exactly !!! Indeed, rather blunt, and totally uninformative or helpful. EE should take note. I think there's also something inconsistent about these Spend Caps, which someone at CS ought to look into. I've just checked mine, and it says "You must set at least a £20 cap to use your phone abroad. This is because daily roaming charges count towards your Spend Cap." However, when I look at my account it says, "Your Spend Cap is: £0.00". Thankfully, everything is currently working, so I'm not going to mess with any settings, but in my case it is notable that I had already been in Cyprus for a couple of weeks when my roaming suddenly stopped working, for no obvious reason. In fact, I had just used my phone for another UK call a few hours before that "rather blunt" voice message started. Oh well, I'll probably never know what happened, but as you say, it probably has something to do with spend caps, and I think EE would be well advised to standardise and simplify those. Signing off now. Thanks for the chat.   

[pwalk]

Well, my joy at sorting the issue turned out to be short lived. Just now, tried to make calls to UK number and same 'call is barred' happened again. My spend cap is 10. I've been sold free roaming add on as part of a deal to renew my contract. It's up in 4 months and I'll be leaving EE. I'm totally fed up with this. 

[Christopher_G]

Hi @pwalk 

Have you tried manually connecting to a different available network to see if you get the same issue?

Chris

[pwalk]

@Christopher_G Yes, tried manually on 2 different networks, same issue. I've been told by CS they are aware of the issue and are working on a dix but were unable to say any more than that🤷🏽‍

[Stubsy]

It's still working for me, but I know exactly how you feel. It's soooo frustrating when the CS people keep going back over all the same basic checks, seemingly as if they have no record of the previous dozen attempts !!! FYI, I am still on 0 spend cap, so I am not convinced these shenanigens have anything to do with that setting. I was told that it's a general problem that EE is working on, but in my case they told me they "flipped a switch" that is not visible to customers, and it seems to have worked .... for now. Rest assured, if the problem comes back, I will definitely switch to another provider too. It's wrong that free roaming is offered as part of the deal, but cannot be 100% guaranteed. Good luck. 

[Bootoo]

I had this problem lat year. After years of being able to call in the EU and still on the same deal, I suddenly couldn’t. They tried loads of things while I was abroad but didn’t solve it. I after I got back to the UK I found out I needed my spend cap set to £20. Not £5 or £10 but £20!! I still haven’t had a straight answer as to why £20, when everything is covered in my plan and nothing has changed. I’ve always had a £0 spend cap in the past to ensure I don’t inadvertently use a charged service. It feels like it’s a way for EE to set you up to making an error and being charged while abroad! I don’t need a £20 spend cap while at home and just change it back to £0. 
long story short, if you’re abroad your spend cap has to be £20 and no one can tell you why or what has changed to necessitate this!! Good luck! 

[Stubsy · Accepted solution]

I think you're spot on the money !!! As you imply, that can only be to catch any "accidental" charges. I had my spend cap set on zero for years too, then this issue suddently came out of nowhere. I don't know what they actually did behind the scenes in my case, because mine is still zero, but it was definitely something to do with the spend cap while roaming.