US Roaming- No service

[nellium]

I added the us roaming plan ($20) confirmed last night and I see it in my add-ons. I can't connect to any of the services either T-Mobile or AT&T. Both say forbidden. I have switched from preffered network type from LTE to 3G and even 2G (in the very least I can make calls) to no avail. I have cycled through my phone, confirmed the APN settings and still nothing. Any possible tricks that may work? other than buying a US roaming card...

[doctorbe]

I believe this is a network issue as I recently had the same problem with 4 separate PM phones. It was beyond frustrating, and at one point I was stranded on the side of the I5 a broken down car, 2 kids and no service.  PM refunded me after I complained. Incidentally I had decided to complain privately but with yesterday's price increases, I'm now happy to voice "publicly" my disappointment with this company. Here is my PM:

Sent: ‎07-09-2017 09:39 PM
problems with US roaming on 4 accounts
Hi Shazia / Mods,
I gotta say, I love Public Mobile, but my recent experience roaming in the US was really frustrating. I placed 4 roaming add-ons on the following numbers (and confirmed that they went through) and met my parents in Idaho. We all have iPhone 5 and 5s's, and the AT&T connection would drop constantly, despite strong signal strength and an LTE connection. Often it would work for 5 minutes or so and then cut out, despite having a strong (4-5 bar) LTE signal and being in an urban centre. I tried *everything* to get the phones to work reliably--switching to T-Mobile, updating APN settings, restarting phones, etc. The fact that it was happening on 4 different phones in mutiple cities and towns, and with fully updated and properly configured iOS settings etc., and that the problem persisted despite the usual troubleshooting leads me to believe that the problem was due to Public Mobile/AT&T issues. It was really frustrating, not being able to rely on our phones to co-ordinate meeting up with my parents who are seniors in the 36 degree heat, with kids in tow etc.

At one point, it was a safety issue for us as we broke down on the Interstate 5 (large freeway, with kids and smoking car) and my phone wouldn't connect to call a repair shop and tow truck.

To be honest, I'm feeling like I want my $80 in roaming charges back. I'd be grateful for your feedback.

[AquinoNguyen]

They said there's something wrong with my SIM card so I guess I'm SOL. Refund is done. Luckily this is a short trip or I'd be very disappointed.

[Acekiller]

they should definitely give you a refund back!

[Joel21]

Hi Aquino

I suggest you request a refund for the Add-on since you were not able to use it for half your trip already.  In my case PM credited back the $20 to my account because of the issues I went through.  

In your next reply to PM Tech Support, make sure they understand this is same issue I had and it was resolved after change on back end to roaming settings of the account.  

[AquinoNguyen]

Thanks Joel for the help.

I'm still trying to get @CS_Agent to resolve this but it's frustratingly slow and they try to get me to redo phone settings even though I've told them my friend's PM SIM card works in my phone with no problems.

Hopefully they fix this soon as I'm almost half done my trip.

[Joel21]

Hi Aquino

The only way this will get resolved is if the PM Tech support resolves the Roaming setup issues on the backend of your account.  You have to email them directly or get one of the moderators to open the ticket with Tech support.  Try emailing support@publicmobile.ca

[AquinoNguyen]

@Mary_M and @CS_Agent

I'm having this exact issue while in the states right now. Please help.

Not my phone setup since my friends public mobile SIM card works in my phone. Same addons in my account as his.

[Mary_M]

Hey @Joel21,

thank you for sharing your feedback !

I'm glad to hear that it was resolved 🙂

As mentioned in my previous message, this was a small provisioning error that is rare, but does occur. Most of our customers do not have issues activating and using the US roaming add-on, but glitches can sometimes occur. To answer your question, I cannot view the exact details of the troubleshooting done in the back-end.

Thank you for your understanding,

Mary

[Joel21]

An update on this issue

In my case after sending private messages to a few moderators, Simon_O one of the moderators was able to raise a ticket and contact the PM technical support department who "made technical adjustments" to my account. I was able to connect on the last day of my trip.  There was some setting in my account that would not allow my phone to roam at all initially - maybe related to "roaming class"? 

I would like PM tech support or Simon_O to post the details of what technical adjustments were made so that this issue is resolved before someone purchases the US roaming add-on.  This was a serious inconvenience when you are expecting to use your phone while travelling.

[computergeek541]

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@Joel21 wrote:
I am in the US currently and have a similar problem. Not able to roam at all. Does not manually connect and I have confirmed $20 add on is present in my account. No calls text or data working. I called T-Mobile and at&t and they don't recognise my phone number as roaming partner. One rep said APN settings might need to be modified to roam. I've searched the community and can't find anything related to us roaming APN settings. Only 2 days left. I have LG G3. Please let me know if you can help. Thanks





You were told a bunch of baloney by T-Mobile and AT&T customer service.  Roaming ability is based on your home carrier, not your phone number.  Also, if you start playing around with your APN settings, I promise that your data won't work.  Your APN settings don't change just because you are roaming.  There is a data roaming setting that can be enabled or disabled.  That setting setting needs to be enabled, but even if were disabled, it wouldn't prevent you from placing or receiving phone calls.

Also, let's keep in mind that you don't even need the APN settings to be correctly set to connect to a roaming network.  APN settings only allow data usage.  Since you can't connect to the networks at all, your issue has nothing to do with APN settings.

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[Joel21]

I am in the US currently and have a similar problem. Not able to roam at all. Does not manually connect and I have confirmed $20 add on is present in my account. No calls text or data working. I called T-Mobile and at&t and they don't recognise my phone number as roaming partner. One rep said APN settings might need to be modified to roam. I've searched the community and can't find anything related to us roaming APN settings. Only 2 days left. I have LG G3. Please let me know if you can help. Thanks

[nellium]

Its YMMV as far as I can tell. PM is claiming device compatibility issues (even though I can see and try to connect to an AT&T subsidiary). There should be no compatibility issues if I can use PM here without a hitch as far as I'm concerned. So your mileage may vary when it comes to Roaming. Either on 3G/4G/LTE or all

I suspect PM may have struck a deal on LTE forgoing 3g and 4g. Which could be the cause of the connectivity issues. This probably could be avoided if the roaming bands required for US roaming to confirm compatibility were listed. T-Mo runs on AWS so I knew going in I'd be on 2g in the very least, but not even AT&T was a selectable option (though it was shown on the manual network selection)

The mods did credit me back the $20. So that's nice. Just doesn't help the fact that I was in an unfamiliar part of the states with no connection except over wifi and zero ability to make/receive calls.

.

[SusanC]

@Vanterax - as a note, I was in Vegas this past weekend, I bought the $15 data add on only (before I left) and everything worked fine, no issues at all.  I was online as soon as I turned off airplane mode when the plane landed in Vegas.

Hopefully we hear the resolution to this issue so we know what the issue was for future reference.

[Vanterax]

Any resolution to this?  I'm going to the US in 2 weeks and this sort of story is of concern.  I don't want to buy an addon for nothing.

[Shutdown]

Maybe the mods will reimburse you with $20 credit, since you couldn't get any service.

[nellium]

Thanks, I'm messaging back and forth, but the delay is a bother. With being away from the hotel and not having cell service. I can't stay connected to keep a steady Convo before the mod I'm talking to goes offline. I'm going to be back in Canada tomorrow evening so at this point the response or fix will probably be too late. $20 down the drain...

[srlawren]

@nellium for your reference, the moderators work 9am to 9pm Monday to Thursday and 9am to 5:30pm Friday to Sunday, with all times listed in EST (Toronto/Montreal time). Hopefully someone can resolve this for you today.

[nellium]

I received a message from Saray. But I guess it was too late to get a response back?

I have now tried going through each and every mode in my *#*#4636#*#* menu and none of them let me connect. There has to be something at the ATT/TMO side that isn't recognizing that I'm a roaming partner. Again, the manual selection does not let me select either ATT/TMO. It's greyed out, not solid black. I see criket at 311870 4g. But I can't register to their network.

I'm nearing the halfway point through my trip and haven't been able to make a call or text.

[Shutdown]

Try dif mod @Mary_M

[Vanterax]

I'm going to Houston in two weeks and plan on getting a US roaming addon.  Playing close attention to this thread...

[srlawren]

@Shazia_K are you still on shift?  If so, could you please assist @nellium?  It's fairly urgent since they are in the US and unable to use their roaming add-ons currently.

[nellium]

I can't select AT&T unfortunately. It's greyed out and says forbidden. 

Is there some sort of term or condition that requires me to have LTE or something? That seems to be the only possible issue. My phone supports 4G/3G but no LTE. I can't imagine that PM would only make a deal on the LTE bands. 

I have PM'd the mods, Mary and Shazia but no word back yet =/ VERY frustrating being on vacation and not being able to use a service that has been paid for, I probably should have stuck with roam mobile =(

[SusanC]

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@Shutdown wrote:

Try manually selecting AT&T in your network settings? Assuming you have an android phone. If that doesn't work try tagging a mod for help? Also I think they only have a deal with AT&T no t-mobile.

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I think they must have a deal with t-mobile too.  I was in Vegas on the weekend, only purchased the data add on, and most times I was on t-mobile.  I noticed a couple of times that it went to AT&T.

To the original poster, I'm sorry to hear about your issues, hopefully a moderator can help.

To others, I have an iPhone 6, bought the data add on (only data) before I left, confirmed it showed in add ons.  Turned on data roaming, and when we landed and I turned my phone back on it automatically connected to t-mobile and I was up and running.  No issues at all.  Service was good everywhere we went in vegas.  No issue with data or imessage at all.

[Luddite]

Pretty sure, you will need moderator assistance. Send any one of them a private message ( @Shazia_K for example) with your phone number and an explanation. Coverage is currently: Mon-Thursday 9am(EST) to 9pm(EST) and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9am(EST) to 5:30pm(EST).

[Shutdown]

Try manually selecting AT&T in your network settings? Assuming you have an android phone. If that doesn't work try tagging a mod for help? Also I think they only have a deal with AT&T no t-mobile.