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Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

fatbellybinky
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Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

My son is currently on holiday in Tenerife and takes his THREE PAYG mobile with him. He tried to call our Plusnet landline twice but each time our phone rang but when we tried to take the call, we just got dialing tone. The first time, CallerID showed the call type as INTERNATIONAL with his mobile number and the second time as Three Payg (our phone book entry for his number). He then called my EE mobile (on 1pMobile PAYG) and got through just fine.  We have Call Protect activated on our home line but no bars on anything like International numbers so I don't understand why his calls got through but were instantly cut off when we tried to answer them. Any suggestions? 

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MatthewWheeler
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

Hi there.

It may be that call protect thought it was a scam international call rather than a genuine one

Unfortunately when calls are made from abroad the number is not always shown which is what I suspect has caused this

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 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
198kHz
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@MatthewWheeler wrote:

 

It may be that call protect thought it was a scam international call rather than a genuine one

If Call Protect intercepts a call, surely the customer's phone wouldn't ring.

 


@MatthewWheeler wrote:

 

Unfortunately when calls are made from abroad the number is not always shown which is what I suspect has caused this


But the number was shown, on both calls.

Murphy was an optimist
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Townman
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

Is this ONLY happening when your son calls? If you phone your own number from your mobile, is the call “there” when you pick up?

What does your son “see” when you pickup? Does his call just end? Is there a message - user busy - call failed ... ?

The two different CLI display scenarios you described - do these occur when you son is in the exact same location? The issue could be mobile cell related

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

All other inbound calls are fine, whether from mobiles or landlines - it's just the two attempts that my son made to call me last evening from Tenerife that dropped and gave me dialing tone immediately I answered them. They were within 6 minutes of each other but he was on the coach transfer from the airport to his hotel so it's possible that he picked up two different cells.  If it was Call Protect kicking in I'd have expected it to divert the call to voicemail and not ring our landline at all but I've added his mobile number to my VIP list anyway. In both cases his number was displayed correctly and on our cordless phones it displayed the phone book entry for his number for both calls but two corded phones displayed INTERNATIONAL for one call and the normal phone book name for the other. When I tried to answer his calls I used a cordless handset in both cases. It's not a big deal as he can call my own mobile perfectly OK, and when he's in the UK he can call our landline from the same THREE PAYG phone just fine. Next time he calls I'll ask him to tell me what happens his end when his call gets dropped.    

198kHz
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@fatbellybinky wrote:

All other inbound calls are fine, whether from mobiles or landlines - it's just the two attempts that my son made to call me last evening from Tenerife...

Two dropped calls from a moving coach abroad. An everyday occurrence then, with dozens of possible causes.

With the best will in the world, I'm not sure what you expect Plusnet to do, given that there appears to be no problem with your line.

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fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@198kHz wrote:

Two dropped calls from a moving coach abroad. An everyday occurrence then, with dozens of possible causes.

With the best will in the world, I'm not sure what you expect Plusnet to do, given that there appears to be no problem with your line.


I don't expect Plusnet to do anything! I was just curious to know if Call Protect was somehow preventing me from answering his calls since he got through to my mobile just fine. It's not as if the calls were dropped part way through a conversation, they couldn't even be answered. I was only asking a question, not making a complaint 🙂

198kHz
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

@fatbellybinky  OK, sorry if I misinterpreted your question.

Re the problem calls - if Call Protect had intercepted them, your phone would not have rung.

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fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@198kHz wrote:

@fatbellybinky  OK, sorry if I misinterpreted your question.

Re the problem calls - if Call Protect had intercepted them, your phone would not have rung.


That's my interpretation of the way Call Protect should work too.  He tried calling our landline again today (from his hotel but using his mobile so definitely not on the move) but our phones just rang once and then nothing. As before, he then called my mobile and that was fine so it still seems like his call is being dropped this end before we even answer it. Not a huge problem but annoying nevertheless. 

198kHz
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

Hmmm, that does alter the perspective somewhat if it's happened again.  Undecided

Have you had any successful incoming calls from anywhere since the first two failures, or subsequent to the last failure?

If not, have you tried a call from your mobile?

I'm just trying to rule in or rule out the possibility of a coincidental line fault developing.

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fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@198kHz wrote:

Hmmm, that does alter the perspective somewhat if it's happened again.  Undecided

Have you had any successful incoming calls from anywhere since the first two failures, or subsequent to the last failure?

If not, have you tried a call from your mobile?

I'm just trying to rule in or rule out the possibility of a coincidental line fault developing.


Yes, several inbound calls, mostly from mobiles including mine and they were all fine. I just called our landline from our own THREE PAYG mobile and that was OK too so it's definitely something to do with the way the call from my son is detected as INTERNATIONAL because he's roaming and it gets dropped before we can answer it.  He used the same phone to call us last year when he was on holiday in Kavos and it worked fine then so clearly something has changed and the only call feature I've added is Call Protect but his call doesn't get directed to Voicemail and I added his number to my VIP list anyway. I've just  disabled the Call Protect diverting options just to see if it makes any difference although in theory it shouldn't Wink

 

Townman
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

In all of my experiences of being overseas Tenerife is the only place in the EU from which I could not phone home.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad


@Townman wrote:
In all of my experiences of being overseas Tenerife is the only place in the EU from which I could not phone home.

My son tried to call his sister's landline yesterday (their home phone is with Sky) and had the same problem with the call being immediately disconnected so had to call her mobile instead. This would suggest that the problem is indeed at the Tenerife end as you say.   Something to do with the local network that he is connected to while roaming. At least it proves that it isn't an issue with our landline.

198kHz
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

Result! Well, kind of. Thanks for the info @fatbellybinky

At least we now know what we're dealing with. Nothing more to add really - I don't know how one would go about taking this any further when it's a Three mobile roaming abroad.  Undecided

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fatbellybinky
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Re: Unable to pick up incoming calls from son's UK PAYG Mobile when he's abroad

Probably not worth the trouble trying to track down the cause when he can get us on our mobiles OK. I might have a look over on the THREE forum to see if there's any mention of a similar problem but life's too short to spend much more time on it 😆