Virgin Mobile has in-continent data roaming problems – peeved customers

Virgin Mobile customers enjoying their summer hols have been perturbed to discover their data roaming isn't working on the continent. A number of UK customers took to Virgin's forum pages to complain they couldn't use their roaming while elsewhere in Europe. One complained: "I've been abroad since Monday, in Spain, and one of …

[Anonymous Coward]

O2 Problems Too

We've had problems on our business account with O2. Since the implementation of the new roaming tariffs, our staff are getting cut off after just 24 hours of roaming.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, the old "wait 24 hours" trick ..

because when you realise it hasn't worked, I'll be far, far away ....

[Simon Rockman]

Fantastic headline

That is all

[adamtemp64]

o2 as well

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Pay-Monthly-and-Pay-Go/O2-EU-Roaming-versus-Vodafone-Three-Asda-BT-and-Tesco-Dublin/td-p/1060568 well documented issues

[anthonyhegedus]

I hate the way customer service staff tell customers to "wait 24 hours and try again". We all know it's just a way of getting rid of the customer, in the hope that they die or something in the meantime. For the customer, it makes the feel really un-special and annoyed. Customer service at these places have to learn to stop doing that. The majority of the time it's unnecessary.

[AMBxx]

Sounds like a cunning plan

How much has this saved Virgin?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing to do with free roaming then? Use your texts and call abroad they said..

[Anonymous Coward]

They managed to turn on roaming for my kids - which was switched off, then charge me £20 for roaming data. And the one phone that should be roaming doesn't work.

That takes some effort.

[TheElder]

Look up you say?

Smartphone Syndrome

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11532428/Why-smartphones-are-making-you-ill.html

[BrashJerk]

Complete Shambles

I've been bitching about the incompetent management for months. This roaming problem has been going on for YEARS and not one manager has thought to investigate why their procedure to enable roaming often fails. People on holiday often get back home by the time a Virgin staff member gets to look at the post. Their live chat is never available because they are too busy dealing with this problem over and over again. Hopefully more people write stories about it and Virgin management buck up their ideas.

[Cubemaster]

Thank for the article Kat,

This has certainly made VM sit up and take notice! Posts for roaming help are now being answered much quicker, and that's a result!

Sadly, however, VM are being very uneconomical with the truth in their statement.

“We are aware of an issue affecting a very small number of pay monthly customers who are required to activate their data roaming services. We are working hard to resolve this issue“ And further down they still seem to be blaming the customer for not activating roaming on their account. This may be true for a very 'small minority' of those with issues. The truth is that the majority of users with roaming issues had everything set correctly, some weeks before going abroad.

Oh and another thing that doesn't add up.. “ We are working hard to resolve this issue“ If the issue is with the customer then what the heck!

Anyone else smell a rat?

[MrRimmerSIR!]

Hidden setting

Even though I had checked roaming and international calls on both Virgin Mobile accounts whilst in the UK, roaming wouldn't work on my most recent holiday to the Canaries. Turns out there is an account setting which isn't visible from the customer portal. Once turned on data roaming bust into life almost immediately.

[BrashJerk]

@Cubemaster Yeah the Virgin PR guy carefully worded his statement to imply it was down to their customers own stupidity and that didn't know they needed to enable roaming. The reality is it's down to their incompetent management. People have their phones and accounts set up properly but apparently there is a hidden switch that @MrRimmerSIR! mentions on the EE side of things as the actual provider of the services. This is why I have always said the problem is in their procedure on their end because it's beyond customers control. Virgin incompetent management need to figure out why that hidden switch at EE fails so often in their own process and fix the damn thing. Never in my life have I experienced this kind of incompetence and victim blaming from such a major brand. Richard Branson should be ashamed to have his brand tarnished by these incompetent clowns.

I also want to agree with Cubemaster that the forum help has been better than normal since this article was written. It's very much appreciated by pissed off customers who have been dealing with this shambles for a long time.

[Foz]

Problem solved!

I discovered after numerous calls and resulting issues, that the problem is APN as the access point network settings need to be set for virgin (or whoever you use). SIM free phone was in fact set as ee there so virgin mobile sent through the settings for my phone, I restarted and sorted! That's only half my holiday gone...

[aandrewdixon]

Still happening...

Came across this article trying to find an answer as to why data roaming was not working on my Virgin Mobile iPhone. So this issue is still happening today and from the posts on the Virgin Media forum, it is clearly a big big issue that they are not addressing and isn't affecting only a "small number of customers".

They are clearly blocking data roaming wholesale to save money and then switching it back on for select customers as an when they are able to get hold of someone at VM to do that for them, As yet I've not been able to do that.

What a damn disgrace they are.

[D3CK4RD]

Roaming settings.

If you bought your phone outside of VM (ie Amazon), then you need to check your APN settings as they'll likely be generic.

These settings will work fine in your home region, but will not work whilst roaming.

APN should start :

goto.virginmobile.uk

Note it is not .co.uk

User name is user