"Bad reception" mobile phone bug

[SendMeLies]

Ok, I searched and didn't find a topic about this bug so I'm posting this. Every now and then the cell phone of my sims start to malfunction. It rings and I have no options but to ignore call or put it on mute. After that I cannot use the cell phone inside the house, it only shows the "put on mute" option. It drives me crazy. Took me a while to realize that leaving the house to the garden/sidewalk/street/anywhere else the options show up again.
The most annoying is I cannot tell exactly what ticks this bug. What makes it start? Once the sim was pregnant, the other time at the kitchen cooking a meal, by the death bed of a relative or else.
It happened more often before the patch, about 4 or 5 times. After the patch it happened the first time yesterday right after coming from work. Before the awesomemod it happened twice, after installing it, two or three times (no patch) and once patched.  At the garden the phone works fine but inside the house is a no go. It's just annoying at a shed or a small house but at a 5 bedroom manor it is PITA.
Oh and the worst thing: saving and reloading doesn't seem to fix it at all. The several tries were "restarting"the town with new Sims. After I got the patch I "fix"it by applying it again.
Anyone else experienced it? Is there a solution/workaround in game, besides applying the patch again and again?

[MissKitty]

Does sound annoying, but I've never heard about this particular bug before...

If it were me, I'd just place some normal phones in the house and use those instead. As far as I can tell, there's no downside to that.

[SendMeLies]

I just did that, but I keep missing opportunities since I cannot get them using the land line. If I click the cell phone it shows "Ignore call" and "Mute phone", and when I click the sim itself to answer the call it misses. I have to drag the puppet out of the building to get the call.
And the normal phone doesn't ring - only time it rings is to tell someone is about to die in the neighborhood. When I get an opportunity call if I select the normal phone on the house it shows the original menu - call sim, call service, etc. The two lines are not connected, unlike TS2 where I could answer a mobile call on the normal phone. Now I cannot.

[Spaz]

but I keep missing opportunities

You don't miss opportunities for not answering the phone. You should still receive them once the phone stops ringing.

[TripleM]

but I keep missing opportunities

You don't miss opportunities for not answering the phone. You should still receive them once the phone stops ringing.

i can second this.

i have the same problem with one of my sims. never missed an opportunity though.

for me it looks like the problem is connected to space, you have to roam. often, if not always, my sims tries to look for rather large free space before he answer the phone.

probably he does so to not block some other sims way, even if there isn't one.

so leaving the "crowded" place is most of the time a solution, although not a satisfying one.

[ForkInToaster]

I'm getting this but slightly worse. No phones in the game work at all for the character.  They can't call anyone or use any services.

Edited: They seem to be able to click on their friends and invite them over/chat. But no parties, no services.. the phone doesn't ever ring..