Incoming numbers appear as international numbers

jorfanakos wrote:
With the iPhone (and I assume other brands) - if there person calling you is in your contacts, then that contact name and contact number is displayed. If the person is not in your contacts, then the carrier caller id name will display. The reason this is relevant is because I called my wife twice yesterday back to back. The first call of those two calls displayed the name she has for me in her contacts. The second time I called, the number / name displayed +61 Australia. What this indicates is that the incorrect caller id info is being passed the second time, and hence the phone does not recognize the number in the address book, so my name did not pop up, nor did the caller id info associated with my number pop up. There is not reason for my number to show +61 Australia.
The same thing happened to me. A person called me twice the other day. The first time it showed +40 Romania, and the second time it pulled the name from my address book and displayed the contact name and contact number correctly. I am on T-Mobile, the other person was not.
All of the family is on T-Mobile. The problem happens regardless if someone is calling me or I am calling my wife on T-Mobile. I have iPhone 7, my wife and daughter have iPhone XR, my son has iPhone 6 ... all running iOS 12.1.4 but this problem has been happening for several months even on lower versions of iOS on all phones.
This behavior is random and is inconsistent. There is no detectable pattern regardless of physical location or roaming in Canada, or the location or number or carrier of the person calling me or if I am calling them ... US to US, US to Canada, Canada to US, or Canada to Canada. The only commonality is the person experiencing the problem is a T-Mobile user. The originating caller carrier seems to be irrelevant. As mentioned above,it happens with T-Mobile to T-Mobile calls, and non T-Mobile to T-Mobile calls.
Because we travel internationally so much - we almost always enter the numbers with "+" and the country code. This does not seem to make a difference in the behavior as this affects outbound calling, and the way the number is displayed when the contact name and number is displayed on incoming calls.
I have opened two tickets with T-Mobile support. One for my work T-Mobile number, and the other for the home T-Mobile family plan. They are two separate plans with different numbers.
I posted to see if anyone is having this problem. I saw older threads from last year with people reporting the same thing - but nothing current - so I started a new thread.

So, why I say it's irrelevant because not having your name on your wife's phone is normal, there is a difference between :

a: (610) 111-1234

b: +1 (610) 111-1234 [or 1 (610) 111-1234]

c: +61 (0) 1111234

Case "a" and "b", your phone will recognize it. In case "c", it's a total different number.

Showing these different cases is what you need to show. Talking about how the name from your contact is shown will only confuse these technologically uneducated people at team of expert... Understanding how the system works is the primary step! Just as a test, try to ask any T-Mobile member at the phone how it works, you will receive exotic answers or just none.

The fact that you add the "+" for international will change nothing. You are going back to what I just explain above.

This just shows that you don't understand how it works. And no, it has nothing to do with your iPhone... Have you ever tried to spend 1 full day with for example an Android phone and your SIM card in it, to see if the problem is there ?

You will see that you will have the same issue...

The real problem is how the number is transferred. The carrier itself can badly forward it, but it forwards also what they receive.

Why do you think you receive phone calls from non-existent numbers that you can't call back, because the emitter decided to have that number shown.

Then, yes, T-Mobile can decide to reformat the number, there can be rules applied. And this is what they are doing with their option CallerID, that shows the name of the caller instead of his number.

In your case, it's probably what's happening. T-Mobile reformatting badly the way the number is sent to your phone.

This is pretty annoying, for sure, and also, after opening ticket, you should ask for a reference number for when you call back.

You should also ask for a rebate on your bill for this inconvenience that has a bad impact on your business, because you can't identify customers. This is a good reason for compensation.

Good luck with your problem. I wish to read about the way it has been solved. But you may never hear how they solve it.