My regular mobile phone has stopped working with any Talk Talk SIM

[DarrenM1972]

I’ve had a Talk Talk mobile contract for many years and yet now may to have end it, as for the past month I’ve been unable to make or receive any calls. (All I can do is send and receive text messages).

I’ve owned my current phone, a Samsung S10E, since last April and have had no problems with it until January this year, when I was suddenly no longer able to make or receive any calls. Talk Talk mobile support have advised a few times now that this is probably due to the 4G upgrade in my local area having some teething troubles, however I have now travelled to visit family at different parts of the UK (who happen to be both Talk Talk and non Talk Talk users in the same household). In each case I’ve found that when I insert their own Talk Talk SIM in my phone for testing purposes, I still cannot make or receive calls, but when I insert a non Talk Talk SIM owned by one of the family members - I’ve tried both GiffGaff and Penny Mobile, my phone works absolutely fine. 

Furthermore when testing my own SIM in one of their phones, it works absolutely fine.

So to summarise, it’s just as if my phone refuses to accept any Talk Talk SIM, but is happy to work with the other SIMs I have tried (Giff Gaff and Penny Mobile). This makes no sense to me, but perhaps someone could think of an explanation. I would be very grateful if they can.

I should mention, I have tried factory reset, network settings reset, phone app data and cache clearing, ensuring not using airplane mode, etc… Nothing has helped. Furthermore my phone has never been subject to any drop or incident that might have caused any internal damage,

[DarrenM1972]

Hello WJanet1

For me it was both incoming and outgoing calls - neither worked. Nor could I access any mobile data. All I could do was send and receive texts. To be fair sometimes when I contacted support I was advised that it’s a known issue (they blamed vodaphone), but they wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me how many people were affected when I asked, what was being done to fix it, or how long it was going to take,  Other times when I contacted support they suspected my phone and talked about the completely obvious settings to check and things to try, which I knew was an absolute waste of time, as the fault was their end.

[wJanet1]

Hi,

Are you having problems with just incoming calls? or is it happening out going as well? as you can see there's quite a few of us with the same problem, and calling customer services just results in no help whatsoever. I cannot understand why they think it's our fault, so there's definitely a problem on their end but getting them to admit it is another thing, I did complain but to no use so I'm going straight to the top the CEO to see if they can sort this out. 

wJanet1

[wJanet1]

Hi,

I'm still having the same problem, so I wrote a letter of complaint, which quite frankly was a waste of a stamp! the rep I spoke to made sure everything will be done, I thought me of little faith. She said she'd send me a special email which turned up and guess what the same email they sent me 2 weeks ago about settings, they really are taking the P. so now I'm going straight to the top the CEO to see if I can shame them into sorting this out once and for all. It's a shame that you're having to go elsewhere, mind you I have been using another provider now and then. I will tell the story that other people are having the same problem without naming names. 

wjanet1

[SimonG2]

I share your pain!  I still cannot make or receive calls, after about 3 weeks.  The Talktalk system wont let me enable WiFi Calling.  I have now voted with my feet and I am just waiting for my old Talktalk number to be moved to my new provider.  As soon as the SIM card arrived from the new provider, I put it in the phone and, not surprisingly, it now makes and receives calls, proving that the issue is with Talktalk.

One of the calls I had from Talktalk asked me to update a load of settings in the Mobile Data Network .  I pointed out that this would only affect using the internet online, but the Talktalk person assured me that this might solve the problem.  Naturally it didnt!!

[Chattysoo]

Since the beginning of this week my mobile with TalkTalk sim has not been receiving incoming calls.

I have spent hours on end talking to different representatives about this problem all to no avail, they keep asking me the same questions it is really frustrating. g I have a really important telephone consultation coming up soon and people can't get through to me. When I get sent a text it is taking hours before I receive it.

The really weird thing about the whole situation is when somebody rings me they here the dial tone but my mobile phone doesn't ring, if they hang up and then call me back immediately my phone does ring on the second attempt!

What's that all about? 

Just to say I have checked absolutely every setting to make sure I'm not barring or muting calls  they have even sent me a brand new SIM card and it still the same fault no incoming calls! 

[SimonG2]

I phoned them again yesterday and this time they blamed Vodafone for the problem, saying that Vodafone are downgrading their 3G signal to 2G.  The fact that my phone was showing 4G at the time appears to have been irrelevant!  They still couldn’t give a timescale for fixing the issue, so I asked to speak to a manager.  Not surprisingly, no manager was available to speak to me, so I raised a formal complaint, to which I am supposed to get a reply within 24 to 48 hours.  I also asked for my PAC code to move my number elsewhere.  After 28 hours, no call yet about the complaint.

It seems that Talktalk are in a financial mess, and the mobile arm of their business is now so small that it is not worth them bothering about as  long as the monthly payments keep coming in.

[wJanet1]

Hi,

I'm still having the same problem, I rang them again, but they just keep trying to put the blame on me, which is really bad, I bought another sim card from Giff gaff, and it works fine, I told them this but they chose to ignore it. so, I'm going to complain perhaps I might get somewhere hopefully.

[SimonG2]

I am having the same problem.  My Talktalk SIM doesnt now receive calls or make them using my iphone 8.  I called Talktalk a few days ago, and they sent a replacement SIM card, which arrived yesterday.  However, that hasnt solved the issue.  In order to try to work out where the problem was, I swapped the Talktalk SIM with an O2 one that I have on another iphone.  The 02 SIM still worked, and the Talktalk one still didnt work, thus ruling out any issue with the iphone.  Another call to Talktalk followed, to be told that they have a network problem and that the technicians are working on it.  They have no anticipated date for a resolution.  

As in my experience, the Talktalk Helpline operatives are economical with the truth, I checked on the Talktalk website to see if they have mentioned anything, but there isnt.  This thread appears to be the only mention of current Talktalk mobile problems.  As a mobile service which cant make or receive calls is useless, I will be changing to another service provider if Talktalk dont get this sorted very quickly.

[PhilipMcDowell]

I am having similar problems. I have a dual SIM phone, and the O2 sim works just fine, phone calls, text and data. The TalkTalk SIM usually says "No Service", but just occasionally I receive a text that has been sent hours or days before. Last  Wednesday I received 4 texts all at once, telling me TalkTalk would phone me about the problem on 11th, 13th and 15th March. They didn't phone. I phoned them and was told a 'manager' would phone today, 18th March, between 10 and 12. It is now 1:30, and no phone call. At one point in an online chat I was told my phone was faulty, so I took it to a phone repair shop who could find nothing wrong. I think TalkTalk are shedding their mobile phone customers - we are not profitable enough.

[wJanet1]

Just an extra, I have 4g on my phone and still cannot make calls, so I can't see that's the problem if you have 4g anyway, I I'm thinking its def a sim problem. Janet.

[wJanet1]

Hi

I got another providers sim, and now can make and receive calls. thanks Janet.

[DarrenM1972]

An update on this issue.

I was advised by the Mobile Support team that there are many other Talk Talk users affected by this issue since the 4G switchover and that there is currently no solution to resolving this for all affected users, nor do they know when there is likely to be a solution (I would be very interested knowing just how many users are affected).

As I had been unable to use my phone to make or receive calls since early January I chose to switch mobile provider and am now happily using a PAYG SIM from another company with perfect 4G reception, as I knew that there was nothing wrong with my mobile phone nor its LTE capabilities, having already tested it with other non Talk Talk SIMs from other family members. 

[wJanet1]

Hi DarrenM1972,

Looks like I've got the same problem as you, even upgraded to a new phone, still can't make calls, but can send and receive texts, when I last contacted them, they said it was a speaker problem, had it looked at, was told nothing wrong, he thought they were responsible. I'm going to try another sim see what happens, hope you get it sorted.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi DarrenM1972

Since your post has the situation changed?  

We don't have access to the mobile systems on the community so I can't check if there anything on the account.