Very mixed up phone
October 5, 2022 3:25 PM Subscribe
My phone does not receive calls or texts. Multiple calls to tech support; many hours trying various fixes on their part have not been successful. The department manager even went "off script" and said "this is weird, I do not know what else to do."
Incoming calls go straight to a a message that says my voice mail is not set up. It does not ring first, just that message. I DO have a voicemail set up, and provider verified that it is working. This has been going on 14 days now. Provider sent a new SIM. Same issue. Ported service back to older phone, same result. I want to keep my plan as it is not available to new customers, and is cheap, like me. How do I get this fixed? Provider is a reseller owned by one of the big wireless companies.
Incoming calls go straight to a a message that says my voice mail is not set up. It does not ring first, just that message. I DO have a voicemail set up, and provider verified that it is working. This has been going on 14 days now. Provider sent a new SIM. Same issue. Ported service back to older phone, same result. I want to keep my plan as it is not available to new customers, and is cheap, like me. How do I get this fixed? Provider is a reseller owned by one of the big wireless companies.
Is this a smartphone? If so... is it an android or an iphone?
posted by oceano at 4:55 PM on October 5, 2022
posted by oceano at 4:55 PM on October 5, 2022
What is the make and model of your phone? Who is your carrier? Where are you? Did your phone work previously? If so, did you do something unusual, or did something unusual happen at the same time it stopped working?
posted by fritley at 5:50 PM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by fritley at 5:50 PM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I have had Net10 with the same phone number and prepay plan on autopay, for10 or so years. The service has gotten better over the years, especially after a new tower was installed 3 or so years ago. The tower belongs to Verizon, I think. I am in Alaska on the major road system.
Yes, something did happen recently, but has been dismissed by Net10 as inconsequential. Here is the story: I purchased a new Android phone to replace the low end but free phone that Net10 provided when everyone had to get new phones when AT&T upgraded all service in Alaska from 2/3G service earlier this year. Low end phone worked perfectly, but I wanted a great camera. Purchased a pristine refurbished Galaxy S10+ manufactured in 2021 or the last year they made them.
I made a tragic mistake after receiving the new phone. Instead of just porting my number to the new phone, I was lazy and thought..."I will just go to the AT&T and get a plan with them, so I do not have to wait on hold forever with NET10." They hooked me up with a prepay plan so I could just try out the service in the valley where I live. All was well in the store.
When I got home I found that both my phones had partial service. I could text form the new one and receive a reply on the old one. I could call from the new phone, and receive calls on the old one. AT&T said that the transfer can take a couple of days, so I waited, and carried two phones.
When it did not resolve, I decided to return to NET10. I went in person to another store in Anchorage, where a very helpful person cancelled my service with AT&T, and my autopay. She even helped me put my old SIM back in my phone. I made and received a call in the store. I left satisfied. But an hour later, no calls in, no texts in. I have one phone that only half works, instead of two that together, at least gave me both in and out service.
NET10 tech support cant figure out what is going on. Waited 24hours for updates to take effect, which is just a way to dismiss an insistent customer. Waited 3 days for a new SIM. Switched it between the two phones. Ported the number back to the old phone, etc, etc. Escalated with much insistence to the department manager, who actually ad libed that he is befuddled, and said someone would call back in 30 minutes. No one called. Net10 can actually call and text me, but no one else can. NO, the numbers are not blocked!
posted by woman at 6:55 PM on October 5, 2022
Yes, something did happen recently, but has been dismissed by Net10 as inconsequential. Here is the story: I purchased a new Android phone to replace the low end but free phone that Net10 provided when everyone had to get new phones when AT&T upgraded all service in Alaska from 2/3G service earlier this year. Low end phone worked perfectly, but I wanted a great camera. Purchased a pristine refurbished Galaxy S10+ manufactured in 2021 or the last year they made them.
I made a tragic mistake after receiving the new phone. Instead of just porting my number to the new phone, I was lazy and thought..."I will just go to the AT&T and get a plan with them, so I do not have to wait on hold forever with NET10." They hooked me up with a prepay plan so I could just try out the service in the valley where I live. All was well in the store.
When I got home I found that both my phones had partial service. I could text form the new one and receive a reply on the old one. I could call from the new phone, and receive calls on the old one. AT&T said that the transfer can take a couple of days, so I waited, and carried two phones.
When it did not resolve, I decided to return to NET10. I went in person to another store in Anchorage, where a very helpful person cancelled my service with AT&T, and my autopay. She even helped me put my old SIM back in my phone. I made and received a call in the store. I left satisfied. But an hour later, no calls in, no texts in. I have one phone that only half works, instead of two that together, at least gave me both in and out service.
NET10 tech support cant figure out what is going on. Waited 24hours for updates to take effect, which is just a way to dismiss an insistent customer. Waited 3 days for a new SIM. Switched it between the two phones. Ported the number back to the old phone, etc, etc. Escalated with much insistence to the department manager, who actually ad libed that he is befuddled, and said someone would call back in 30 minutes. No one called. Net10 can actually call and text me, but no one else can. NO, the numbers are not blocked!
posted by woman at 6:55 PM on October 5, 2022
Your phone isn't randomly being kicked into airplane mode? I found in my android, a flashlight icon up in the pulldown menu, it is right by airplane mode, so I accidentally turned my phone off while trying to call my bank.
posted by Oyéah at 7:37 PM on October 5, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 7:37 PM on October 5, 2022
Best answer: Net10 probably needs to escalate this to someone at at&t. Their switch is not sending calls/texts to Net10 because at&t thinks it owns the number. It's also possible Net10 screwed up and didn't update your number's LRN entry when you came back. You can check where calls to your number are being routed using this LRN lookup tool. If you know someone else on Net10 you can compare to what it returns for their number. The OCN and other stuff should be the same.
The easiest way to fix this is to port to a different carrier for a month and then switch back, but if you have a grandfathered plan that is a better deal for you than anything that's currently available I can understand why you wouldn't want to do that. In that case, filing an informal complaint with the FCC is likely to get the necessary people on the case within a few days.
posted by wierdo at 7:44 PM on October 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
The easiest way to fix this is to port to a different carrier for a month and then switch back, but if you have a grandfathered plan that is a better deal for you than anything that's currently available I can understand why you wouldn't want to do that. In that case, filing an informal complaint with the FCC is likely to get the necessary people on the case within a few days.
posted by wierdo at 7:44 PM on October 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
This happened to me several times on my Android phone. I found two solutions that worked when this occurred. Number one, reset the phone to default and set it up again from factory settings. Number two, go into the Android settings and find the APN (Access Point Names). There is an APN profile that your phone is using now by default for your cell provider.
The APN is the connection configuration specific for your cell network. Your phone has to use that file to set up its data and cell connections in order to send and receive. If it's corrupted, things go awry.
There may be other APN's listed, but only one is active. You only need one that is set up correctly so any others can be deleted. The trick is to delete and recreate the APN for your provider, then make it the default and reboot your phone. My cell provider support walked me through this, or you can google the APN for your cell service and see the settings pretty easily.
It worked for me when nothing else did. YMMV.
posted by diode at 5:23 PM on October 6, 2022
The APN is the connection configuration specific for your cell network. Your phone has to use that file to set up its data and cell connections in order to send and receive. If it's corrupted, things go awry.
There may be other APN's listed, but only one is active. You only need one that is set up correctly so any others can be deleted. The trick is to delete and recreate the APN for your provider, then make it the default and reboot your phone. My cell provider support walked me through this, or you can google the APN for your cell service and see the settings pretty easily.
It worked for me when nothing else did. YMMV.
posted by diode at 5:23 PM on October 6, 2022
@diode is probably correct here, OP. Basically, when you tried AT&T with your new Samsung, the phone was "setup" with AT&T's APN, and when you got a Net10 SIM in there, it basically went cuckoo as that's not quite compatible with its settings.
You need to nuke the Samsung all the way to carrier reset and then let Net10 set it up from scratch as if they just opened the box and turned on the phone.
posted by kschang at 7:30 PM on October 6, 2022
You need to nuke the Samsung all the way to carrier reset and then let Net10 set it up from scratch as if they just opened the box and turned on the phone.
posted by kschang at 7:30 PM on October 6, 2022
Response by poster: Found a helpful person 50 miles from my home to fix the issue. The port to AT&T was still pending after two weeks. The port back to NET10 could not complete until the other port finished. It took a 19 year old to figure it out. We finished making the new phone work properly with AT&T. THen I can try out the service to see if it functions in the valley where I live. The old phone mysteriously also works. I turned it off, hoping the ghost will depart in the next 36 hours. Thanks for the input from all.
posted by woman at 9:15 PM on October 6, 2022
posted by woman at 9:15 PM on October 6, 2022
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posted by zadcat at 4:06 PM on October 5, 2022 [1 favorite]