No mobile service all day today, no help from Smarty

[ZahidAz_1892899]

Both myself and my wife have Smarty SIMs in our phones. Since this morning we have had no mobile service, even though the mobile signal symbol is on. When either of us make a call to anyone, the screen remains at "calling ..." and eventually gives up.

At 9.00 am I had an online chat with Smarty. The agent asked me to take my Sim out and put it back in. I said: How can this resolve the problem when both of us are experiencing it? Anyhow, I did this and it made no difference. Then he asked: Do you get this problem wherever you are, even at another postcode? I said: Are you asking me drive out of my postcode area just to check this? He was. So, stupidly, I drove half a mile in the car, and retried. Of course, it didn't work.

Then he asked me for my postcode, and checked and said that there was some work being done on a mast near us, and the service would be back by the end of the day. It's still not back. I also have a third, little used phone with a Smarty SIM. I have tried that phone as well and it gives the same problem.

I have tried contacting Smarty by their chat again just now and am still waiting for any response after the message "Speak to a person" after 20 minutes.

Zahid.

[ZahidAz_1892899]

This is totally unacceptable behaviour by Smarty. Their agent this morning gave me quite stupid replies. Our mobile service is still cut off and Smarty are not replying in their chat.

[JJP2RidesAgain]

This is the Smarty Community forum, we are customers just like you.

Webchat is available from 08.00 - 20.00 each day

Try again tomorrow, but raise a complaint 

Are you new to Smarty ? Have you moved home recently ? What phone(s) are you using ?

[MSF]

@ZahidAz_1892899 Did you try a Network Status check? That would give the answer without so much frustration.

As forum members like you, we have no information on when an issue will be resolved.

[Decembersangel]

Hi @ZahidAz_1892899 👋
I have the exact same problem as you (in Derby)!
Sometime between 17/04/24 (the last time I received a call on my phone) and 01/05/24 when my Mum tried to call me, and she couldn't get through, this happened to me.  I noticed something was wrong only when she informed me that she couldn't call me on my mobile (she called my landline after not being able to connect) and that was when I found that I also couldn't make outgoing calls and got the 'calling....' with no dialling noise when I tried to use my phone. I tried calling 'home' when I was 4 miles away and still had the same thing happening, just in case it was engineering works on the mast closest to my home.
I contacted the web chat today and spent over 3 hours going through one thing after another (after waiting over 40mins for someone to help) from taking out the sim, trying another phone, checking my APN details, 4G enabled etc, etc, etc and nothing changed.
I was also initially told that there was 'engineering work in my area', even though the network status checker stated there wasn't, and this was then ignored as a reason when I questioned it.
I also asked about the 'SIM Card Status' details (on my phone) that state:-
Mobile Network State - Disconnected
IMS Registration Status - Not Registered
and again, this was talked around and I wasn't given an answer as to what this meant, what could cause it and if this was something wrong at their end 😤
I am reclusive so my phone only ever 'moves' when I answer a call or it needs charging so no 'rattling around in a handbag', no 'dropping it', no 'poor reception' etc, also there has been no change in the 'Settings' as it has worked fine for a long time now 'as it is' so there was no need to even look to change them and so I really don't understand HOW my phone has stopped working!
In the end I was advised to request a replacement SIM, which I have done, but I didn't realise it suspended my account as it is only set up for 'stolen phones' rather than a 'SIM no longer working' replacement (I could still text and use the internet on the 'broken' SIM) and you still have to pay for NOT being able to use the services 🙄 
It is impossible to find out where on the website you can order a replacement SIM (I did a search here on the Community page and found a post with a link to it) and you then have to activate the new SIM, when received, and again there is no easy way to find out how to do this on the website 😠
I have had nothing to grumble about before now with regards to SMARTY in the 7+yrs of using their services and always thought they were value for money but knowing this is not just a 'me' problem now makes me question as to whether it really is the SIM that is broken or if it is a wider issue that SMARTY doesn't want to own up to (3G switch off 🤔)?!?!?!? If it is a SMARTY things I will be 😠😠😠😠😠

[ZahidAz_1892899]

I am in Nottingham, so it might be our area.

We encountered this problem early in the morning of 1st May. When nothing was resolved by the evening. I tried a few things on my Motorola Moto G8 phone and my wife's G6. I managed to get them both working and at least on mine I can reproduce the fault.  Under Settings > Network > Mobile network, there is on option "4G calling" which says "Use 4G services to improve voice ..." and it is marked as "recommended". It was off. I turned it on, re-booted and the problem was resolved. If I turn it off, the problem comes back.

On my wife's Moto G 6, this option was already on! I fiddled about with APN settings, re-booted, and it too started working.

I also have an old Motorola Moto G4 with a Smarty SIM. It is encountering the same problem, even though the option "Preferred network type" is set to 4G. Calls aren't working but SMS is working.

Customer service, as I mentioned, is appalling.