Stuck with no service and unhelpful support on 1st trip abroad with Three - please help

[mia123]

Dear community,

I am abroad (Netherlands), stuck without data services and unable to make calls or send texts. Really need help with getting this resolved.

This is my first trip abroad after joining 3 in June and going through a nightmare number port that left me without service for 8 days. I am on a pay-monthly plan, iPhone 13.

Spent almost 2 hours with Three support earlier today. They had me do lots of "turn it off and back on" cycles, set a spending cap on my account, and "refreshed the roaming services". To no avail.

That last bit seemed to make things worse. Whereas initially I had no data, but could at least receive texts and could see "4G" next to the signal strength indicator bars, now I only see the signal strength bars, no 4G or any other data service on any of the networks.

I was eventually abruptly told by the support person that they are upgrading the systems and to come back later - basically fobbed off. I can see that he then closed the case, even though nothing was resolved.

Super exasperated at this point, unable to get around as planned and have a voicemail about an important medical update that I cannot access.

Any help or guidance on how to get this sorted would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

[Anonymous]

We’re going abroad shortly for literally a few days and in view of the issues detailed in this post I’ve just come off the phone from c/s asking is there ANYTHING on my account as of now that will stop me using my phone abroad. The answer was no I’m good to go. I would suggest if you’re using your phone abroad for the first time to do this. Perhaps you could say we shouldn’t have to. Correct but it might save a whole lot of hassle.

Just a suggestion!

[Chris1566]

I've just spoken to someone on live chat finally and in the US you need to manually set your network provider to T-Mobile. Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else has the same problem where everything else looks like it should work. Hasn't really helped me as i can't find a T-Mobile signal though...

[mia123 · Accepted solution]

After an evening chat with Sohel from Support, my roaming is fully working - data, calls and SMS.

In case it helps someone, there were 3 problems with my account:

1. Spending cap was not set or set to zero (unclear); this was set to an amount to cover monthly bill plus expected roaming charges, with headroom to spare

This is where the first support rep left it, as explained.

2. Credit limit (different to spending cap) was set to £1. Because of this, the £2 daily roaming charge could not be applied, so there were no roaming services. This was instead set to about twice the spending cap.

This restored the ability to make calls and send SMS, but data still didn't work, no 4G next to signal strength bars etc. Until...

3. It was discovered that an international data roaming bar had been applied to my account! Once removed, data started working too.

I have no idea why the above settings were as they were on my account. I never changed any myself. It's been really disappointing to have had so many issues since joining Three, and to have experienced extreme inconsistencies and delays in the quality of support both times I really needed some.

That said - I am very grateful to Sohel, who persevered with troubleshooting multiple issues, and believed me whenever I said that things still weren't working and I'd checked various "obvious" settings multiple times. Totally different attitude and level of professionalism compared to what I'd experienced previously.

And thank you @MZone and @Anonymous for your suggestions too!

[JonathanB]

Hi @mia123,

I'm glad to hear this has been resolved by Sohel, it sounds like this has been a really distressing time for you. I'm really sorry to hear that it took several chats to get your roaming working.

Thanks @Anonymous and @MZone you gave really good suggestions, it's unfortunate that the root issue was with the account rather than phone settings.

Thanks for setting out all the steps and solutions so clearly everyone, I hope this thread goes onto help others in the future.

JonathanB

[Anonymous]

So very pleased you’re sorted!

[mia123]

Have tried Support again, 24 hours after first contacting them.

Connected to the same agent as yesterday, who keeps repeating that "the system is getting updated, we don't have access to your account, request you to chat back with us in sometime". Same as 24 hours ago. Can't / won't say when the "update" will be done. Just keeps ignoring my requests to escalate or connect me to complaints, just so someone actually tracks my case (he closed the case without resolution). Just keeps politely telling me to go away and come back later. When pushed, says complaints have the same system update issue and so won't connect me.

Does any of this sound credible? A system update that takes 24h+ and knocks account access for everyone? Having gone through many issues with my number port a few months back, not sure what to believe.

Still stuck, feeling I'm on my own + have to plead with them just to have someone try and help  😞

[sc1999]

The last time 3 were updating, a couple of weeks ago, they posted on some Web pages that some services may not be available.  Those messages are not there this week. So are they doing a system upgrade or this just a convenient excuse.

[mia123]

Thanks for your response MZone.

Yes, tried manual network selection, various networks. Mobile data is on, roaming is on etc. I'm actually with husband and son, both Three customers with roaming working fine, so we've cross-checked phone settings.

I'm unable to make calls or send texts (can receive them though), so it seems to go beyond just data services...

[MZone]

Sent you a PM with another route to try