With the absolutely myriad number of features and applications that are available for the modern smartphone, it’s sometimes easy to forget their namesake: phones are supposed to make and receive calls, and though more and more people find themselves doing less and less of just that, when things don’t work properly, it’s a major problem.

Unfortunately for owners of the HTC One M7 and M8, there seems to be a major glitch going down at the moment that is all but crippling the phone’s ability to place and receive calls.

The issue was first brought to the forefront of mainstream attention back on November 2nd, when XDA user PondaRox mentioned having trouble hearing callers and vice-versa, though some users report having the problem since October. The problem is all but rendering cellular calling useless, though allegedly Wi-Fi calling is not affected.

While nothing has been confirmed, many are pointing fingers at a recent HTC update on Google Play, and that by disabling Google Play services, or resetting the app entirely may provide a solution to the problem, albeit temporary. Others affected claim that flashing a ROM that doesn’t make use of HTC Sense will solve the problem.

One commented over at Phandroid had the following comment to offer which, assuming it’s true, might offer some hope in the future:

Finally talked to someone at HTC who knew what they were talking about. They are well aware of the problem and taking full responsibility they are currently gathering data on who all was affected in order push a permanent solution to customers ASAP. Temporally you can disable google services framework and restart the phone and it should work after a few hours turn re-enable google services framework. This of course is only a temporary solution and does not work for everyone. Also Wi-Fi calling is not affected

The issue surrounding the HTC One M7 and M8 seem extremely troubling. There is no clear explanation as to what’s causing it, nor is there a solid solution. HTC has yet to issue an official response to clarify this situation.

While we wait for some official word (or fix) from HTC, we’d like to ask our readers if anyone has experienced this problem, and if so, what you’re currently doing about it.