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Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Are there any Plusnet users in the Isle of Man at the moment who are able to make calls back to UK? I have not been able to call UK for about two weeks and am struggling to get a fix from Plusnet in UK after repeated calls to customer services.

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MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,575
Thanks: 5,411
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

I fear this is a long standing problem. It was reported last year https://community.plus.net/t5/Mobile/Isle-of-Man-Roaming-Issues-with-outward-calls-Only-able-to-ring... and was not resolved

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.

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi MisterW, Thanks for the reply. I fear you are correct. I had the same problem back in June, but it did get sorted after a couple of weeks of calls to customer services although I never found out how, or even whether it was anything they actually did to fix it. The fundamental problem is that my SIM will not register on Manx Telecom network, (Plenty of signal so that's not the issue). Exactly the same fault as last time.

MisterW
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 14,575
Thanks: 5,411
Fixes: 385
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

The fundamental problem is that my SIM will not register on Manx Telecom network

That seems to be a different problem than last year. They could register and receive incoming calls but no outgoing.

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.

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

That could actually be the same problem. If I register my phone on Sure, then I can receive calls and send and recieve texts. But not call out. I believe that is because the roaming agreement is with Manx Telecom and not Sure. So if people were automatically finding a network, that will happen also. Do we know they coukd actually register with Manx Telecom?

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

We are on the island at the moment, my wife is on Plusnet and has the same problem.  Currently she can connect to the Sure Network though not to Manx Telecom, but could connect to MT a few weeks ago.  Now when connected to Sure she has data (so can whatsapp, etc.), can send and receive texts and can receive calls.  A few weeks ago she could sometimes make calls with MT (when connected to MT Network) but for some reason had to put +44 in front of the number.  With Sure, she can't make any calls EXCEPT to Sure mobiles (possibly to Sure landlines too but we haven't tested that), all other calls to MT or UK numbers won't connect. 

From the above, my guess is that Sure use MT hardware for connection to the UK and the problem is between MT and Plusnet.  Sure were helpful trying to sort the problem, MT showed no interest and Plusnet have been absolutely useless their customer service is appalling.  No interest is sorting the problem and threats of cancellation charges if we find a different provider, my wife unfortunately took out a 12 month comtract with Plusnet.

We are intending to try again to get someone at Plusnet to take an interest in sorting his out later this week but not hopeful.  If you have any success, we would be interested to hear.

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Interesting to hear this. I currently have a call in to Plusnet that they are supposedly investigating. Will call tomorrow to hear how they are getting on and let you know. My wife and I both had the same problem when we were here in June. I had Plusnet working on it then. It took a while but it did get fixed although I could never be sure whether it was as a result of any action taken by them. The problem is that you don't get to speak to the tech team that actually work the problem. It was just one day we found that we could register on MT whereas we hadn't been able to. As soon as we registered on MT, everything was fine. But now again we can't, since when we arrived on 20/12.

I believe that there is a roaming agreement is between Plusnet (which uses the EE network) and Manx Telecom, so for full functionality you have to be on the Manx Telecom network. We can also register on Sure as you can, but functionality is limited for us in just the same way as you say. I have spoken to Manx Telecom who say they need contact from the UK side to ask them to investigate. This is what I hope to hear about tomorrow.

As for Sure, I am interested to hear you say that they were helpful. Did they ever actually tell you that you should expect to roam with Plusnet/EE on their network, as this would imply that there is a roaming agreement with Sure and I didn't think there was?

Also if you have a helpful contact at Sure, I would be interested to have it.

Regards, Brendan

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Plusnet were absolutely useless when we rang them, no interest in sorting the problem out or referring it to the tech team at all.  They said they would "reset the settings for roaming" and that my wife should use Whatsapp.  Not very useful to call landlines or companies.  What really annoyed us was to then get an email from them saying "thanks for contacting customer service and we are glad that we have resolved your problem" when they had done absolutely nothing to resolve it.

We rang MT and all they said was take the phone into the MT shop in Douglas, we tried that but the tech team there showed no interest at all, the guy didn't even look at or touch the phone.  He just said "talk to Plusnet". 

We then tried the Sure shop and they were helpful, he checked settings and it was him who found that we could call a Sure mobile.  That proved that the phone was connecting properly and working with the Sure network so there wasn't a lot else he could do. 

We did ask in the MT shop if they had an agreement with Plusnet which had ended and if this was the reason that we could no longer connect to their network, but he couldn't be bothered to check.  We never thought to ask in the Sure shop if they had an agreement, as we could connect, use data, etc. I assumed that they must have for us to connect.

 

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi Brendan,

Did you get any joy from Plusnet's investigation?  We have been holding off ringing back to see how you got on.  Is it time for us to put some pressure on too?  If we do, should we quote a reference number for your query so they can link the problems?

Regards

Paul

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi  paulyarm.

Yes I have finally been told the reason for the problem. This morning Plusnet customer services have told me that they have had a response from the EE team to say that Manx Telecom are currently BARRED from the roaming agreement for "commercial reasons". (Plusnet sits on the EE network in the UK.) Full details are not available as to what the reasons are but presumably negotiations over charges/payment have not been going smoothly! The guy I spoke to was Sean and was very apologetic and as helpful as he could be. He also said that because they now recognise that it is a problem (he said that we were not the first and wouldn't be the last to report a problem), they are actively working on an agreement with the Sure network instead.

So it's not a fix yet, but at least it does suggest that they are owning the problem. As the (lack of) roaming agreement is between EE and Manx Telecom, it may well be that EE users roaming in the Isle of Man are also logging calls with EE customer services and this has made the difference.

I will ring them again on Monday.

Regards,

Brendan

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Thanks for that Brendan, you are absolutely correct, EE have the same issue.  See:

Re: No signal Isle of Man - The EE Community

If you think me or my wife putting more pressure on them will help, let me know.

 

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi paulyarm, I would say a call in to Plusnet customer services can only help. The more users that report issues the higher the priority generally given.

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi Brendan,

Latest from Plusnet is that as of today there is no movement and no expected date to resolve the contractual problems with MT or set up a new agreement with Sure.  On the positive side, as you said, at least they now appear to be aware of and accept what the problem is.  Also they have agreed to waive any cancellation charges if my wife wants to get out of her Plusnet contract. 

Brendan
Hooked
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎31-12-2020

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

Hi  paulyarm, Do you have an open issue raised with Plusnet?

paulyarm
Dabbler
Posts: 10
Registered: ‎02-01-2021

Re: Roaming failure in Isle of Man

We don't have a reference number for an open issue if that is what you have, you have done well.  We weren't offered the option of any further investigation.  We had won when we got the offer of being able to leave Plusnet without penalty.  They were offering a reasonable price and free roaming in the IOM, so (unfortunately) we signed up for a 12 month contract (I see they have now reverted back to 1 month contracts now).

Our plan is to wait for a couple of weeks (while both the UK and the island is in lockdown it is difficult to do anything) and then, if the Plusnet situation isn't resolved, either get a Sure SIM on the island or a 3 SIM back in the UK depending on where we are (3 won;t send a new SIM to anywhere other than the billing address). 

Normally when you threaten to leave, mobile companies are keen to keep you but Plusnet don't seem bothered about losing customers or it could be that they believe that they are unable to resolve the issue so it is not worth trying.  We got the impression that Plusnet aren't in the driving seat here and are just waiting for EE.