Phone problems

I like phoning my mum on a regular basis. I have an international phoning app, which is cheaper than just normal phoning. But it started playing up. First it wouldn't let me phone my dad, but at least there is a workaround as I can FaceTime his wife. Then it wouldn't let me phone my mum anymore either. I have no idea why.

One night I decided to just phone my mum anyway, but the direct way. Yes it is more expensive, but it is important that I manage! It worked once. But then just phoning her resulted in the same refusal from the phone. And she doesn’t do WhatsApp or FaceTime or email or any of that, so if I can’t phone her, I can’t let her know I can’t phone her, except by snail mail. 

I was wondering if it was my phone. By phone standards, it is old. It does more quirky things. Neil didn't believe it. He thought it might be something with the SIM card or with the provider. 

When I couldn't phone my mum at all, I did some more fanatical googling. Why couldn't I do this? I got nowhere with the international phone app. I tried some phone settings and rattled the SIM card. I googled if maybe there are alternative apps I could use. When I couldn't phone my dad anymore I had already googled that, with little result, but maybe I hadn't looked hard enough. I got nowhere.

The next day I did log into my account on the website of my provider, and I noticed that it seems to have merged. It used to be O2, and now it is Virgin Media O2. Might that have something to do with it? Did something change with the conditions?

To be on the safe side, I sorted an international calling bolt-on, and raised my spending limit. Even though I think that if this was a money problem my provider is an idiot. If someone is trying to make a phone call and they ran out of budget, surely the thing to do is disconnect the call and then display a message that says “you ran out of budget; go here to top up or change your allowance”. I mean, I want to make a call and they want to earn money; why not enable both? 

Either way; I hope I have sorted it. But if not; I asked my future killer AI for advice regarding useful apps. It found things I hadn’t, and they looked useful. I still have my old phone but I may be in business again!