Unable to make or receive calls from Jersey, The Channel Islands

[Philz4]

For the third time when visiting Jersey, The Channel Islands I have been unable to receive or make mobile phone calls. Also my phone showed no 4G connection to obtain any data.

For this privilege I find on returning to the UK I have been billed £17.48 for using the internet outside the EU. How I could be billed for something I could not use I don't know!!!

I Have tried to contact virgin Mobile today by telephone using various numbers and failed to do so. It seems its impossible to talk to someone about the problem. To say the least I am not pleased and I now think my only option is to change suppler. My wife uses Vodafone and has very good service from their local shop and her phone works in Jersey!!

[AnnSw]

I had the same problem on Jersey. Bizarrely my husband didn't! We both have Samsung Galaxy phones, his is an A8 and mine is a newer A 52. As far as I could see we both had the same settings for roaming but his SIM card is newer than mine. I tried swapping the cards between the phones but that didn't work either! Finally bought a local card for £5 with £3.00 credit on it just to get mobile data and text my son if needed while we were getting lost trying to meet up on the island! I did get charged on the local card for this as it only had free texts to CI networks.

Incidentally I did roam onto French networks occasionally while on Jersey, very confusing to suddenly lose an hour on my smart watch!

[Martin_N]

Hi AnnSw,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to hear about the issues you had while in Jersey.

When you swapped the SIM cards did your work in the other handset? 

Did the other SIM card work in your handset?

^Martin

[AnnSw]

TBH I can't remember now as I got so confused, but I don't think it did! We had wi-fi in our accommodation so it would have meant logging in to all my accounts on my husband's phone to use it in the cottage so I just gave up! 

He doesn't use his much so I don't know if  it also switched to French networks at times! But my separate camera changed time zones too!

[Martin_N]

Thank you for that information. Did you setup the roaming setting on the SIM card before you left?

^Martin

[AnnSw]

Given that it went on to a French network on both outward and return ferry trips and I had used the same SIM card in 2019 for European travel and not changed it since then yes it must have been set up!

I had checked re possible roaming charges before going and all seemed to be well. Jersey has the UK International code and calls to from Jersey are via the British telephone network. My family on another network had no problems. I just feel that Virgin Mobile need to be aware of the issue.

[Martin_N]

Thank you for that information. Are you travelling to Jersey at any point again soon?

^Martin

[AnnSw]

Very unlikely. Just want to make others aware of the problems!

[Martin_N]

Okay, thank you for that information. If you do travel again and have issues. Please do let us know. 

^Martin

[AnnSw]

Just for further reference. I have now had my mobile bill for last month and was surprised to see that it was a few pence more than usual. It appears that I was actually charged for my attempts to connect to the internet while outdoors on Jersey even though I was unable to access anything! The charges are shown as " Using the internet outside the EU, in the United Kingdom". At a point when I was sufficiently near to the French coast there was no charge for "Using the internet in the EU in France". I am not going to quibble with Virgin over a few pence but there really does seem to be something wrong with the relationship between Virgin and the Jersey companies for this to happen!