Endless hassle with Vodacom re WiFi Calling/VoLTE

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fragtion

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Hi

A couple weeks ago my account was mistakenly suspended by Vodacom due to unusual billing activity - I was racking up a larger than average bill as my wife was voting for my daughter for a pay-per-SMS competition

When I called the 135 helpdesk, the agents pointed me to billing, who confirmed that there was a mistake and my lines were immediately re-activated and "re-synchronized", after which I could make normal calls again

Ever since that event, I have been unable to use WiFi calling or VoLTE. The services do not appear on my phone, as if they are were never provisioned.

My wife and daughter both have iPhones, and I have a Galaxy Note 8. All three devices are provisioned for VoLTE / WiFi calling, and all three are not currently working. They are all under the same master account, under my number.

I have called the helpdesk several times regarding this matter. They have escalated it twice, and eventually told me to go to a Vodacom store so that the store could confirm that I am activating the service on my handsets correctly, which they confirmed that I am. On the iPhones, the "WiFi Calling" switch is on/enabled, and on my Note 8, I have the WiFi Calling toggle active. The store created a technical service reference 1-34327587009685, where they CLEARLY stated that they had checked the handsets and found no faults. This reference was escalated to one of Vodacom's "Solution Experts", only to be dismissed the following morning with the same reason: "Please be advised that the LTE service is currently active on your mobile number to allow WiFi Calling to function. Kindly reboot and test the service accordingly. You may visit the nearest Vodacom outlet for further assistance". Obviously, this made no sense as the support ticket was created AT MY NEAREST VODACOM OUTLET, where the service technician on duty was able to explicitly rule out my handsets being at fault.

So the call center tells me that the WiFi Calling & VoLTE service is enabled for our numbers, yet no matter what we do, we can not get it to work on our handsets like it would work before without any hassle whatsoever. They argue that WiFi calling only works when reception is bad, but I know for a fact that it can be invoked by putting the phone into Aeroplane mode and then explicitly enabling Wi-Fi access. Needless to say that even without aeroplane mode, my WiFi calling does not work in areas of poor or nonexistent GSM reception

Clearly there is a technical glitch on our account which is precluding the service from working, despite it being visibly active on the active VAS/service lists for the numbers in question.

Has anyone here been through a similar experience? Who can I contact to investigate this further? I am naturally now at my wits end with this, and am considering changing providers.

Thanks for any advice or assistance anyone can offer whatsoever, as I am going in circles to no avail with the official customer support channels
 
Hey cavedog ! I was hoping not to bother Jannie if that could be avoided.. but I've already wasted many hours on this problem when the issue is clearly not on my side and I cannot seem to get the message through to the right persons via conventional support channels (I also work with IT/Telecoms, so I'm not exactly clueless with this stuff either). Would I need to DM him or will he receive an alert from you tagging him? Thanks a lot. It seems to me like I'd need to speak to someone directly involved in the WiFi-Calling/VoLTE configuration division, for troubleshooting. Something very strange is going on with our account here
 
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fragtion said:
Hi

A couple weeks ago my account was mistakenly suspended by Vodacom due to unusual billing activity - I was racking up a larger than average bill as my wife was voting for my daughter for a pay-per-SMS competition

When I called the 135 helpdesk, the agents pointed me to billing, who confirmed that there was a mistake and my lines were immediately re-activated and "re-synchronized", after which I could make normal calls again

Ever since that event, I have been unable to use WiFi calling or VoLTE. The services do not appear on my phone, as if they are were never provisioned.

My wife and daughter both have iPhones, and I have a Galaxy Note 8. All three devices are provisioned for VoLTE / WiFi calling, and all three are not currently working. They are all under the same master account, under my number.

I have called the helpdesk several times regarding this matter. They have escalated it twice, and eventually told me to go to a Vodacom store so that the store could confirm that I am activating the service on my handsets correctly, which they confirmed that I am. On the iPhones, the "WiFi Calling" switch is on/enabled, and on my Note 8, I have the WiFi Calling toggle active. The store created a technical service reference 1-34327587009685, where they CLEARLY stated that they had checked the handsets and found no faults. This reference was escalated to one of Vodacom's "Solution Experts", only to be dismissed the following morning with the same reason: "Please be advised that the LTE service is currently active on your mobile number to allow WiFi Calling to function. Kindly reboot and test the service accordingly. You may visit the nearest Vodacom outlet for further assistance". Obviously, this made no sense as the support ticket was created AT MY NEAREST VODACOM OUTLET, where the service technician on duty was able to explicitly rule out my handsets being at fault.

So the call center tells me that the WiFi Calling & VoLTE service is enabled for our numbers, yet no matter what we do, we can not get it to work on our handsets like it would work before without any hassle whatsoever. They argue that WiFi calling only works when reception is bad, but I know for a fact that it can be invoked by putting the phone into Aeroplane mode and then explicitly enabling Wi-Fi access. Needless to say that even without aeroplane mode, my WiFi calling does not work in areas of poor or nonexistent GSM reception

Clearly there is a technical glitch on our account which is precluding the service from working, despite it being visibly active on the active VAS/service lists for the numbers in question.

Has anyone here been through a similar experience? Who can I contact to investigate this further? I am naturally now at my wits end with this, and am considering changing providers.

Thanks for any advice or assistance anyone can offer whatsoever, as I am going in circles to no avail with the official customer support channels
Click to expand...
Sounds like they did a manual override to re-enable services. System should restart fully once your payment reflects probably.
 
@jannievanzyl much appreciated. Could a mod maybe help me zap/delete & hide this thread? Confident that jannie is going to help me sort this out so I'd prefer to get rid of the public complaint. Tnx
 
Problem finally resolved!! Took some intense troubleshooting but success in the end is what counts. Massive thanks for your help @jannievanzyl and his team Fabian and Ashwin who managed to isolate the issue. not sure how else I would have sorted out this little gremlin without you guys! Have a great weekend
 
@jannievanzyl any idea when one would be able to send an international SMS while on wifi calling? This is blocking things like iMessage getting activated while one is overseas on a Vodacom prepaid sim. I'm also in a countries where SMS roamer doesn't work, so Wifi calling is really the only thing I have to get Vodacom signal.
 
whatwhat said:
@jannievanzyl any idea when one would be able to send an international SMS while on wifi calling? This is blocking things like iMessage getting activated while one is overseas on a Vodacom prepaid sim. I'm also in a countries where SMS roamer doesn't work, so Wifi calling is really the only thing I have to get Vodacom signal.
Click to expand...

What really surprises me is how poor Vodacom's Vowifi is. Once you send a sms or dial as USSD code then it uses the network. With Cellc wifi calling you can do everything over wifi.
 
cavedog said:
What really surprises me is how poor Vodacom's Vowifi is. Once you send a sms or dial as USSD code then it uses the network. With Cellc wifi calling you can do everything over wifi.
Click to expand...

I ported to Vodacom since I had a lot of issues with Cell C reception when I am in SA. Will have to port back when I visit SA again later in the year, on the Vodacom forums when this came out in August 2018 they said that they will be deploying a network patch shortly to sort out the international SMS issues.

At least we know Vodacom and shortly is measured in years.
 
jannievanzyl said:
Let me ask.
Click to expand...
Hi @jannievanzyl I'm Sorry To Bother You But Could You Please Assist With VoLTE Provisioning For My Vodacom Prepaid Sim Card? Called Customer Multiple Times For Hours On End But They Struggling With This, Most Had To Google What VoLTE Is. Thanks In Advance, Any Help Highly Appreciated
 
Msanical said:
Hi @jannievanzyl I'm Sorry To Bother You But Could You Please Assist With VoLTE Provisioning For My Vodacom Prepaid Sim Card? Called Customer Multiple Times For Hours On End But They Struggling With This, Most Had To Google What VoLTE Is. Thanks In Advance, Any Help Highly Appreciated
Click to expand...
Dropped you a DM
 
If you cannot get VoLTE working on your phone, there are a few things you can do;

1. The 'duh' ones - have to add them :)
1.1 Check you're in 4G coverage
1.2 Check if your phone is a VoLTE capable model
1.3 Check if '4G Calling' or any other VoLTE setting is active

2. Check that you don't have an old Twin-SIM service active. This is a very old service that allowed you to have two phones on the same number. Many people had it and forgot.

3. Ask customer care to deactivate and then reactivate the VoLTE service for you.

4. Burn some meat with a pleasing smell..........

If the above still does not work, ping me. Sometimes the profile is just broken and must be fixed in the backend. The guys looked at Msanical's profile this morning and it all looks good, so we've still not fixed his problem, though.....
 
BTW, if you have VoWiFi calling enabled on your phone, you can test it by putting your phone in airplane mode and then turning only WiFi on. Your phone should give some kind of indicator that WiFi-calling is on and clearly you'll still be able to make and receive calls on your cell number.

I typically do this when travelling abroad or when in a poor 4G coverage area and - obviously - there is WiFi reception.
 
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jannievanzyl said:
BTW, if you have VoWiFi calling enabled on your phone, you can test it by putting your phone in airplane mode and then turning only WiFi on. Your phone should give some kind of indicator that WiFi-calling is on and clearly you'll still be able to make and receive calls on your cell number.

I typically do this when travelling abroad or when in a poor 4G coverage area and - obviously - there is WiFi reception.
Click to expand...
Hi jannie, WiFi calling used to work on my Samsung s21 until I updated to android 12 now it's stopped working. I'm not sure if it's a vodacom problem or Samsung. Do you have any advice? Much appreciated
 
Luski said:
Hi jannie, WiFi calling used to work on my Samsung s21 until I updated to android 12 now it's stopped working. I'm not sure if it's a vodacom problem or Samsung. Do you have any advice? Much appreciated
Click to expand...
I'm not jannie, but that sounds like a question even front-line support should be able to help you resolve ... Did you try contacting support yet? Did you try another handset with < Android 12? I reached out to the CEO as a last resort, we don't want to be bombarding them with simple debugging issues otherwise they can't help us with more advanced issues. Maybe detail some of the steps you've taken to try tackle the issue already, if you believe my response is mistaken. Good luck

Edit: Did you flash a custom ROM ? It could be the CSC that has changed. make sure you're using Vodacom CSC ... That's XFV/XFV for Samsung. This can be confirmed in the settings->about under the android version.
 
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