US Roaming, no calls can be made. No text messages can be sent or recieved

[Ds1000]

I have us roaming as part of my package however i cannot make calls or send / recieve text messages. I have checked APN settings and they match the instructions on the ee website. I am unable to text 150 and i am unable to call EE. I am also unable to access my banking due to two factor authentication.  I can get intermittent data so I am not sure what is happening. I am stuck now. I purposely pay more to have US roaming included but what's the point. I am now stuck for the next weeks.  What should I do ? The only option I have is to try and write to EE or post something here as I cannot text or call using my mobile phone (I don't want to have to ask someone to borrow their mobile to make a long international call to try and fix this).  I also do not want to have to buy another phone when I pay £££'s for a phone that should work seamlessly in the US as per the Wider World roaming package. I just recently upgraded my phone so I am not happy with this.

[XRaySpeX]

Did you receive a Welcome text upon arrival?

As 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.

Often just rebooting the phone is the simple remedy. Also try selecting a network manually rather than auto.

Otherwise if you are on contract you need to call CS to get your roaming activated. Try calling CS on the Freephone no. in my sig. on Skype over WiFi. It should be free.

[Ds1000]

How many times have you copied and pasted this message over the years ? It's not very transparent of EE to sell a  rest of world package but not actually tell.you at point of sale that it won't work unless you activate it in a completely different way.  At no point have I ever been told this when I have purchased or upgraded my phone in person.  That's like buying a car and not being able to open the flap to fill it up with petrol until you unless you give the secret code to the salesman who didn't tell you that you needed to give a secret code.

[XRaySpeX]

That's right! It's a common roaming issue.

[bristolian]

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@Ds1000 wrote:

How many times have you copied and pasted this message over the years ?

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A copy & paste is an excellent response to people posting what is basically the same question.

Many regular contributors to this forum do the same, and the forum software allows for standard responses to be saved on a drop-down list for answering common queries.

Unfortunately, it's far too common for users to travel abroad with a billing add-on but no roaming facility enabled - result being you arrive abroad but have no coverage.

[Ds1000]

Well thank you for responding so quickly anyway. Not much can be done until I manage to speak to someone at EE.

[Ds1000]

I agree, it's a shame that the same issue is very common but this is how EE operate.  It doesn't do much for me as a long term customer though. It's typically a long time to get to speak to someone when you have to call to set up something which, in my opinion, should be active as you are effectively paying for it.

[bristolian]

I completely agree that roaming bundles shouldn't be sold without the free roaming facility being in-place. To be fair, once the free roaming facility is in-place, there is no benefit to be gained by it being removed and thus activation is a one-time process.

There's a combination of reasons as to how it's allowed to happen - but the natural consequence is a catch-22 scenario.

[XRaySpeX]

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & hope it soon gets sorted.