Mobile Phones

[PanBiker]

I assume it's Android, if so, go to Settings then look for Mobile Networks. Make sure Data Roaming is toggled off. It may say "connect to data services when roaming" make sure this is off. This will will not affect your WiFi connectivity.

I can call round if you wish.

[Stanley]

I've checked that Ian and it's off. I shall have to investigate further.... I'd be grateful if you had a look at it....

[PanBiker]

I'll call round after you have been for your jab, about 11.30.

[Stanley]

Lovely!

[plaques]

My latest 'Chat' with Vodafone was that if the 'Data' option was switched on there would be an automatic charge of £2 per day. This has now been switched 'off' via the settings option. I also requested a 'bar' to be placed on this option so that it couldn't be used again. That's one headache out of the way but there are more hurdles to contend with. Bloody smart phones. I was quite happy with the old 'Statue' phone system.

[Pluggy]

Some of the old school network PAYG tariffs have exorbitant data charges. Old school Orange are 65p / MB, it will run up 8 quid in no time flat (12MB ?) if it even sniffs a data connection. I'm a big fan of Delight Mobile where 12MB of data costs 12p. It makes a fairly well used mobile phone economic without the grief of contracts or plugins / bundles. It uses the same network as Orange too. Porting your number is relatively painless these days. I generally spend a couple of quid a month PAYG and the phone is used pretty much every day.

https://www.delightmobile.co.uk/

On the downside should you need to call customer services is usually a wait to connect to an Indian call centre who do the services for a whole myriad of little providers and they frequently answer with the wrong one.

[Stanley]

Ian called round and we had a good furtle. He is of the opinion that the problem is that I am on the modern equivalent of the old Orange PAYG contract which charges you £10 per moth even if you don't make any calls. He said I could change to the later £1 a month and that should be all it costs. We got logged in at EE but for some reason when I tried to access the accounts management it kept telling me to 'try again'. I have bookmarked the page and will keep popping in to try it until I get through. First thing in the morning could be a good ploy! If I don't get anywhere I will shout for help again.....
Big thank you to Ian for the time, we had a good crack about all sorts of subjects.....

[PanBiker]

The package is the £1 a week one Stanley when you eventually get in to change it.

For anyone else that is interested they no longer allow you to carry unused allocations from one month (or week) over to the next one. In effect the modern PAYG accounts are actually no different to the contract ones apart from you are not on contract. I jigged mine onto the EE £1 a week rather than the £10 per month PAYG, you still get allowances for calls, texts and data which are plenty for my usage and certainly would be for Stanley as he is only using the phone as a means to an end on WiFi. His roaming and Mobile Data settings are turned off but it's just the way the packages work which are using up his credit.

I think I will move all these phone related posts into the Mobile Phone thread.

[Pluggy]

The Delight PAYG is just plain PAYG nothing expires or doesn't carry over, when I get low on credit I get a fivers worth., they do 'bundles' to get you onto a semi contract with calls/text/data deals that expire after 30 days but they aren't really worthwile because the plain PAYG is so cheap. A quid a week is way better than 65p a MB and 40p a minute, but when its 1p a MB and 3p a minute?

[PanBiker]

Before Orange became EE that's how the packages used to work. Orange then introduced a rider that said that if you didn't use the phone they would suspend the account. EE took over and it has now morphed into the current packages which give you allowances each week or month but are non transferable. I maintain that they really should not call it PAYG as it isn't any longer. The £1 a week is the easiest for Stanley without having to change providers and get into the number porting loop. I know that should be easy but when I got my new phone and had to swap to a new micro sim it took EE over 5 days to port my number. A number change for Stanley might be a bit problematic under his current circumstance and the easier option may just be to rejig onto the cheapest tariff.

[Pluggy]

Don't they default to the stupid money data and calls if you don't do the bundle/contract thing ? That would probably account for the 8 quid down thing.

You're right, expiring calls/text/data isn't PAYG, its a backdoor contract. But there is still real PAYG out there.

Delight ported my number in less than 2 days. But I can't pretend it was seamless.

[Tizer]

This all sounds so familiar. If you look back at this topic for February posts there's the tale of Mrs Tiz getting a smartphone with the help and advice of Ian and Pluggy. We went through all these problems and now Stanley's having the same trouble (and solved by the same people!). I've had a bee in my bonnet for ages about the so-called PAYG offerings which are not really PAYG as we knew it in the past. One big Cunning Wheeze!
Our first problem was in February when we got the phone: LINK 1
An then again in May: LINK 2

[PanBiker]

Don't they default to the stupid money data and calls if you don't do the bundle/contract thing ? That would probably account for the 8 quid down thing.

You're right, expiring calls/text/data isn't PAYG, its a backdoor contract. But there is still real PAYG out there.

Delight ported my number in less than 2 days. But I can't pretend it was seamless.

I'm not sure exactly what package Stanley has ended up on as we could not get on the website to check it. The new packages will eventually jig onto the silly rates when your allowances are used up but they do send you notification if you are about to run out of data, calls or texts. You have the option to top up any of the services if you need to before the new package kicks in. Never been a problem for me, the £1 a week deal gives you 25minutes of free calls, 50 texts and 10Mb of data every week. I currently have a free data boost of an additional 100mb that I have earned from topping up. It's irrelevant as I never touch the data and just send a few texts and calls. I use my phone more for its GPS facilities than anything else.

Does WhatsApp just use the WiFi connection or is there a call charge involved as well? Not really used it in anger but I know it needs the mobile connectivity when using it via computer. It works off a combination of Facebook and Mobile contacts list but via WiFi doesn't it?

[Big Kev]

Mrs P's smart phone is giving similar trouble, I know nothing about phones so I'm not allowed to touch it but a Vodafone computer support 'Chat' session gave the impression that they would sort it all out. Something to do with 'Data' and the internet connection giving us weather reports, horoscopes and Data purchases. Money is still draining away at roughly £2 a day. Another Chat will be made later this morning. The bottom line is if they don't sort it out this phone will go in the bin along with their reputation for customer relations. Any suggestions how to get rid of these charges will be welcome.

Go into Settings and turn off Background Apps, this will disable the weather, news, horoscopes and other tat that runs as soon as you turn your data connection on.

[Stanley]

Have attacked EE again. Password is working but still shut out of managing account. Have found the 450 number which is only 25p a call. Rang it and it works Mon to Fri starting at 8AM so I'll call tomorrow. Looked in settings Kev and can't find background apps.....

[Big Kev]

Have attacked EE again. Password is working but still shut out of managing account. Have found the 450 number which is only 25p a call. Rang it and it works Mon to Fri starting at 8AM so I'll call tomorrow. Looked in settings Kev and can't find background apps.....

Apologies, I should have been more specific. In Settings go to Apps, find the offending App (News and Weather) click into it and in the Modify section uncheck the Autostart option then reboot the phone.

[Stanley]

Thanks, I think I found it eventually. It was an option to 'restrict background data' so I have enabled it! It warned that some applications might not work on mobile data.... If everything has gone pear shaped I shall be back!!

[Big Kev]

Thanks, I think I found it eventually. It was an option to 'restrict background data' so I have enabled it! It warned that some applications might not work on mobile data.... If everything has gone pear shaped I shall be back!!

As long as WhatsApp is OK all should be good...

[Stanley]

All is well I think Kev. Whatsapp is sending outgoing calls. I shall be perfectly secure when it accepts incoming. I shall report.....
Ten minutes later.... All is well Kev, I am getting incoming on Whatsapp. Thanks for the help.....

[plaques]

Go into Settings and turn off Background Apps

It would appear that these smart phones are configured with slight differences in terminology and graphic display. What you have said is basically what we have done but the 'Background Apps' is under data usage with a sliding on/off button above the graph of 'usage'. All very confusing for thicky's like me. In our 'Support Chat' with Vodafone I got them to switch off the data access altogether. Also I was reimbursed for the money spent during this cock up. The real annoying thing is that nowhere in any official instructions can you see anything about these options. Enough of my local difficulties just get Stanley up and running again.

[Tizer]

All very confusing for thicky's like me.

Don't be so modest, Plaques. The problem is not due to you but to the thickys who design the infernal gadgets. It's partly because they don't know how to make things work easily and logically and partly down to cunning wheezes the companies use to prevent us doing things they don't want us to do.

[Big Kev]

All is well I think Kev. Whatsapp is sending outgoing calls. I shall be perfectly secure when it accepts incoming. I shall report.....
Ten minutes later.... All is well Kev, I am getting incoming on Whatsapp. Thanks for the help.....

No worries, glad it's doing what it should.

[Stanley]

I can call them after 8AM this morning as I still can't get in to manage my account on the EE site even though it accepts my password and has verified my new email address. Cunning buggers! Only good bit is that the call only costs 25p.

[Stanley]

Update.... The 450 number (at 25p a call) refused to work even though it worked over the weekend. So I rang the expensive 0793 number and guess what, it worked like a charm! Cunning what? It transpired that even though my phone had mobile data disabled it was showing up with EE as enabled. We dealt with that. Then I broached the question of the £1 a month option. This is not available on the Orange SIM card but the lady is sending me a new EE SIM which will have that monthly charge. I will also get an EE top up card as well. One thing that concerns me is that she said that the new SIM would have a temporary EE number on it but within about 24 hours that will automatically revert to my present number. She said that as I was using Wi Fi for Whatsapp, the new number would not affect it. I hope not! I may shout for help when that SIM gets here so all of you are on stand by! I will need my support team! (I am very old.....)

[PanBiker]

Aha the aged SIM card trap, a bit like the gumption tree, sounds like you are getting sorted Stanley. Has she sorted your account access?