Hi,

I had a problem with T-Mobile. Being from the other side of the pond,
I'd like to ask you how normal this is.

I bought in Spain, on Amazon, before traveling a prepaid T-Mobile SIM card.

Now I got this SMS from them:

+++................
T-Mobile: Reminder: please refill your plan by MM/DD to ensure wireless
service at t-mo.co/refill24 or call us at 611. Please disregard if
you've already paid for next month's service
.................++-

Now, the question was, do I have service on that MM/DD, or not? Being
the day I fly back, it is crucial.

At that provided web page, a link got me somewhere else, where to login
or create a login. I wanted to avoid creating a login.

So I asked google how to find that information?

Google said "call #999# (IIRC) and a text message will tell you the
prepaid account details.

Right... but it basically only said that my account had zero dollars. It
was a popup, not an SMS, so it is lost and getting a screenshot failed.

Another possibility Google said was some T-Mobile app, but I failed to
locate it by its name.

Ok, then, create an account. Give email, phone number, first and second
names, create a password, type the number you got just now in an SMS
sent to you, Ok, Done. The normal.

Then it asks for my PIN. WTF is that pin? I have no pin! Where is it
supposed to be? :-O

Last option: phone them on 611. I do not like phone calls in English
because I miss crucial words, I'm not that fluent verbally as in
writing. But there is no alternative... I phone. A robot offers to speak
in Spanish, but I say no: Often it is Spanish from another nation
possibly with a strong accent difficult to understand for me. Maybe that
was a mistake.

They pass me with somebody, who adds another person from prepaid
department, who finally understands I have a prepaid SIM bought in
Europe, that I do not have a ZIP code in the USA, sends an SMS with a
temporary pin that I have to read, tells me to invent a PIN so that they
record it... AH! THAT'S THE EFFING PIN the web was asking for! "Yes sir,
now you can register on the web page". The lady gives me back a lot of
information, and among it that the card will work till the MM/DD+1.
Finally! I have the simple information I wanted!

I do not have to buy more time for the SIM, unless my flight is
cancelled or something.

Don't this people have a code like #999# that will give back this simple
information for the current phone number without hassle? It was a 13
minutes call with two kind employees... surely more expensive than my
50$ SIM card.

Don't they have this information at hand, to give it to customers in the
first minute they ask for it? Of course, I might have worded the
question incorrectly. How would you have asked it?

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 16/09/2023 00:27, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> The lady gives me back a lot of information, and among it that the card will
> work till the MM/DD+1. Finally! I have the simple information I wanted!

That is what I would have expected - it works until 23:59 local time on MM/DD,
but I agree that it wasn't clear and as easy to discover as it should have been.
--
Cheers,
David
Web: https://www.satsignal.eu

"Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

| Now I got this SMS from them:
| | +++................
| T-Mobile: Reminder: please refill your plan by MM/DD to ensure wireless
| service at t-mo.co/refill24 or call us at 611. Please disregard if
| you've already paid for next month's service
| ................++-
| | Now, the question was, do I have service on that MM/DD, or not? Being
| the day I fly back, it is crucial.
| | At that provided web page, a link got me somewhere else, where to login
| or create a login. I wanted to avoid creating a login.

This is interesting. I have a Tracfone, now owned by
Verizon. First I just bought cards to add minutes. Then
I had to get an "app" to manage the process. Last week
I couldn't get the app to work. They wanted me to log in.
I never had an account, yet they think I do. So I
gave them an email to send my password to. They said
the email was sent. It never arrived... Very weird.
I've wondered whether this could be something being
required by US Homeland Security: Stop all anonymous
cellphones. But Tracfone was stopping my cellphone
altogether! Luckily for me, I rarely use it. But I do like to
have a cellphone for emergencies.

Finally I found an item in the app menu. (The app won't
work to manage my account but it does open and show
a menu.) The option said "Add minutes for a friend". Huh?
What the heck. I clicked it. It then invited me to enter
the new minutes serial number from the card, along with
my cellphone number. And it worked!

On 2023-09-16 09:05, Newyana2 wrote:
> "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote
>
> | Now I got this SMS from them:
> |
> | +++................
> | T-Mobile: Reminder: please refill your plan by MM/DD to ensure wireless
> | service at t-mo.co/refill24 or call us at 611. Please disregard if
> | you've already paid for next month's service
> | ................++-
> |
> | Now, the question was, do I have service on that MM/DD, or not? Being
> | the day I fly back, it is crucial.
> |
> | At that provided web page, a link got me somewhere else, where to login
> | or create a login. I wanted to avoid creating a login.
>
> This is interesting. I have a Tracfone, now owned by
> Verizon. First I just bought cards to add minutes. Then
> I had to get an "app" to manage the process. Last week
> I couldn't get the app to work. They wanted me to log in.
> I never had an account, yet they think I do. So I
> gave them an email to send my password to. They said
> the email was sent. It never arrived... Very weird.
> I've wondered whether this could be something being
> required by US Homeland Security: Stop all anonymous
> cellphones. But Tracfone was stopping my cellphone
> altogether! Luckily for me, I rarely use it. But I do like to
> have a cellphone for emergencies.
>
> Finally I found an item in the app menu. (The app won't
> work to manage my account but it does open and show
> a menu.) The option said "Add minutes for a friend". Huh?
> What the heck. I clicked it. It then invited me to enter
> the new minutes serial number from the card, along with
> my cellphone number. And it worked!

Wait a minute: serial number from the card? :-o

So you have to keep the card (that contained the SIM originally, before
detaching it) for ever? Wow.

Adding minutes or euros in Spain is as easy as:

- Buying a refill card at a supermarket, then entering those codes.
- choosing the refill option at an ATM from a collaborating entity
- entering a menu of the app or web site of your bank
- entering a menu of the provider site. Probably needs a login, but
they only ask for your phone number, verify it, then a password.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

"Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote

| Wait a minute: serial number from the card? :-o
| | So you have to keep the card (that contained the SIM originally, before
| detaching it) for ever? Wow.

No. I mean the number from the card I buy to add minutes.
There's a 15-digit number on the card. I buy the card
for $20 at the local drugstore, scratch off to get the number,
then enter that in the phone to add more minutes.

|
| Adding minutes or euros in Spain is as easy as:
| | - Buying a refill card at a supermarket, then entering those codes.

Yes, that's what I do. Since I didn't need to give them personal
info to get the phone I prefer to keep it anonymous by buying the
refill cards.

On 2023-09-15 19:27, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I had a problem with T-Mobile. Being from the other side of the pond,
> I'd like to ask you how normal this is.
>
> I bought in Spain, on Amazon, before traveling a prepaid T-Mobile SIM card.

It got worse.

I decided to stay one week more. I have to call my travel agent back in
Spain, but T-Mobile says I don't have enough in my card.

Ok, expand it. 60+ dollars, says the web page, but then says my credits
cards numbers are all invalid, and doesn't accept Spain as a country.

So phone them.

Getting to a human was terribly hard, 3 phone calls to two numbers. This
time I chose Spanish (on two calls the request was ignored and got
English). The agent says that it is true, they don't accept my card.
That I have to go to Walmart and buy an addition card, or to a t-mobile
shop, with a true POS machine that will accept my card. So I will go to
that shop, located one.

Gosh :-/

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 2023-09-16 12:12, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-09-15 19:27, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I had a problem with T-Mobile. Being from the other side of the pond,
>> I'd like to ask you how normal this is.
>>
>> I bought in Spain, on Amazon, before traveling a prepaid T-Mobile SIM
>> card.
>
> It got worse.
>
> I decided to stay one week more. I have to call my travel agent back in
> Spain, but T-Mobile says I don't have enough in my card.
>
> Ok, expand it. 60+ dollars, says the web page, but then says my credits
> cards numbers are all invalid, and doesn't accept Spain as a country.
>
> So phone them.
>
> Getting to a human was terribly hard, 3 phone calls to two numbers. This
> time I chose Spanish (on two calls the request was ignored and got
> English). The agent says that it is true, they don't accept my card.
> That I have to go to Walmart and buy an addition card, or to a t-mobile
> shop, with a true POS machine that will accept my card. So I will go to
> that shop, located one.
>
>
> Gosh :-/

Impossible. They gave me an address in Ottawa... Kansas!

So I ended up buying a prepaid card from Bell Canada. Very nice people.
Card worked instantly. Actually, Lucky mobile. No international calls,
however, seems nobody provides them this side of the pond. WHAT?!

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On 2023-09-16 12:12, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2023-09-15 19:27, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I had a problem with T-Mobile. Being from the other side of the pond,
>> I'd like to ask you how normal this is.
>>
>> I bought in Spain, on Amazon, before traveling a prepaid T-Mobile SIM
>> card.
>
> It got worse.
>
> I decided to stay one week more. I have to call my travel agent back in
> Spain, but T-Mobile says I don't have enough in my card.
>
> Ok, expand it. 60+ dollars, says the web page, but then says my credits
> cards numbers are all invalid, and doesn't accept Spain as a country.
>
> So phone them.
>
> Getting to a human was terribly hard, 3 phone calls to two numbers. This
> time I chose Spanish (on two calls the request was ignored and got
> English). The agent says that it is true, they don't accept my card.
> That I have to go to Walmart and buy an addition card, or to a t-mobile
> shop, with a true POS machine that will accept my card. So I will go to
> that shop, located one.
>
>
> Gosh :-/

I decided to buy a new SIM card from a local, Canadian provider. Turns
out, none I found give international phone calls, only Canada and USA.

WHAT? :-/

So I have service from BELL, ~20 GB for a month, CAN 56.50.
Unlimited national calls, international texting. Name says Luckymobile.

>

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.