Calling the US from Japan

[joizy]

I’m not really sure where to put this issue but I’m hoping you don’t mind if I ask here and maybe others can benefit from the answers though I don’t think this is only a Japan issue.

I need to call my insurance company to tell them not to ship medication while I’m away. I forgot I had an automatic refill set up.

I tried calling yesterday but it wasn’t during normal business hours because of time differences, so I got a message to call back during certain hours.

When I tried again later, during their normal business hours, I am unable to make a call. Not just to them, but to anyone.

I have an iPhone with an eSIM. My phone is set up for WiFi calling. 

I’ve turned it on and off, tried with WiFi on and off, tried turning the VPN on and off, nothing works.

I was able to call my sister a few days ago and we spoke for about an hour, and like I said, when I called earlier in the day, the call was completed and I got a message telling me to call back during normal business hours.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on and how I can fix this? Google, Apple Support and Chat GPT were unhelpful.

[Travelingguy]

If you have WiFi access, you can put your phone in airplane mode with WiFi on and make calls from a US numbered phone to a US phone number in the US with WiFi calling on. This would eliminate any problems if they are coming from the eSIM

[joizy]

4 hours ago, Travelingguy said:

If you have WiFi access, you can put your phone in airplane mode with WiFi on and make calls from a US numbered phone to a US phone number in the US with WiFi calling on. This would eliminate any problems if they are coming from the eSIM

I tried that, but it didn’t work. Chat GPT thinks the issue is with my carrier, which could be the case, but I can’t contact them since I can’t call, and I can’t get into my account because I can’t receive the code they are trying to send by SMS. At this point it’s too late to stop the prescription from being sent. I was able to put my mail on hold, so if it is delivered by the post office, they will hold it, and my neighbor said he’d look out for it.

Thanks though. It’s a total mystery since it was working in the afternoon and then didn’t work in the evening.

[thaiophilus]

Could it be something really obvious, like the eSIM has run out of minutes, or you've reached its expiry date?

[joizy]

12 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

Could it be something really obvious, like the eSIM has run out of minutes, or you've reached its expiry date?

Nope. Esim is still valid and I have data and an Internet connection while outside. I have cheapo Metro as my carrier so it’s either them or something with the WiFi in my Airbnb. I think it’s Metro because I was also able to make a call with WiFi calling from the street last month.

Problem is I can’t call Metro because I can’t make calls and I can’t get into my account because I can’t receive the code they send to verify it’s me.