Roaming Not working at all

[#1]

I've just come back from Gran Canaria. I was there two weeks and was unable to use my phone at all.

I contacted Plusnet customer services 3 times whilst i was out there (on my friends phone, because he had no issues streaming netflix on EE). (plusnet CS in purple, me in blue)

• Call 1
  
  • "I can see that internation roaming is not available on your sim, I'll get that enabled for you, it should be done in 2 hours, but more than likely a bit more. Try restarting the phone again tomorrow"

I restarted the phone several times, checked the available networks by doing a manual rescan, and nothing.

• Call 2 -
  • "I can see from your previous call you  that the Sim has roaming available now"
  • "I wouldn't be calling if it was working, all networks are still showing as forbidden on the mobile network selector",
  • "well its enabled it should be fine. I can see there is some data usage on there.
  • "That's interesting considering I havent connected to a mobile network"
  • I can escalate your call but it may take up to 5 working days to get a resolve on this"
  • "Fine, But I'm not particularly happy about this"

• Call 3 - wednesday of week 2 - still not working
  • "I can see that your call has been escalated"
  • "Thats all well and good, but nothing has been done on it and my phone still isnt working, is there any notes on the call from the escalation?"
  • "No, there doesnt seem to be, but I can escalate this call if you'd like"
  • "Is that going to be another 5 working days?"
  • "Yes, there's nothing else we can do"
  • "It seems pointless as I'm leaving the country shortly"

Subsequently, After day 3 of having no data/voice i had to buy a local SIM which was an additional expense that i shouldn't have had to pay. I know from the initial call that i made, I may not be able to use my phone for 2/3days but 2 weeks is not acceptable.

I'd also like to note, sending password resets to a mobile via SMS is counter productive. Especially when your phone doesn't connect to the Cellular network.

I'd like something done about this please - I was a previous life mobile customer and never had a problem with this, and I travel a fair bit.

[#2]

Hi kg87!

Thanks for getting in touch with us!

I'm sorry to hear that you've been experiencing loss of service whilst abroad and although we work hard to provide a continuous high standard of service within the UK, I'm afraid there's no guarantee of service availability overseas. When roaming abroad, It depends entirely on the signal strength, functionality with the masts and local network in that particular area and I'm afraid this isn't something we have control of. 

Without looking into your account, I'll be unable to see exactly what has been happening with this. If you would like to send me a Private Message with your details, I can access your account and gain more clarification on this.

- Rebeka 

[#3]

A tad trite response @RebekaPreston  In para 2 of the post a friend also on EE, but not Plusnet, was getting good service?

[#4]

Hi MauriceC!

Thanks for getting in touch with us! 

I completely understand where you're coming from however, this is something that we may need to look into and possibly investigate further.

- Rebeka 

[#5]

It depends entirely on the signal strength, functionality with the masts and local network in that particular area and I'm afraid this isn't something we have control of.

@RebekaPreston as I've pointed out in other threads , that is not entirely true. I think it's safe to say that In the cases reported on the forums of roaming not working, people have good signal strength but are getting access denied or forbidden. AFAIK This IS something that PlusNet have control of. My understanding is that when a phone is roaming , the visited network will request authorisation from the home network ( there's a pretty good explanation here http://what-when-how.com/roaming-in-wireless-networks/communication-between-a-vplmn-vlr-and-an-hplmn... ).

Now I'm no expert, but to me, these cases of roaming forbidden look like the visited network is not getting authorisation from the home network i.e PlusNet. I would suggest that your Operations people need to investigate these roaming not permitted situations with some urgency!.