Nope... No reply from the eBay-er yet.

Of course you can join. Nothing is finalised yet. We haven't yet concluded whether we go via the guy on eBay or get a French payment card and forwarding service.

He has prematurely closed the sale, having sold only 3 out of 10 available. Let's hope he decides to offer his services directly to us here instead of via eBay, which would save himself fees. If he sets a reasonable price such as €8, he'll get more business from this forum anyway.

No reply yet...

I e-mailed French Office and there appears to be one problem. Each mailbox can be used by only five people in total. They said "D'autre part, cette boite est familiale. Vous pouvez ajouter le nom de 4 personnes en plus du votre. Vous aurez tous le même numéro de réception. Après, il faudra prendre d'autres abonnements". So either we need another service or persuade French Office to waive this restriction on condition that we receive only one item per name.

As for the solution with the Carte Cadeau - from what I read we will first need somebody to go to France. It costs €12 to make this card in a Post office (€10 is if you fill in the form and order it to your French address).

But if we have a French address where we receive the SIM cards, we can also use it to receive the Carte Cadeau beforehand.

I think I've been covered by a friend in France. Sorry I can't extend her kindness onwards, but she's from the US and her boyfriend is French. So it's complicated already.

But I'll still try being in touch with the eBay-er to see if I can help get something for all of you.

Still no reply... So I think it's a lost case with the eBay-er...

I am wondering, though, when we already get the SIMs, how do we top them up from abroad to keep their validity? As I understand it, initially the SIM is only valid for 2 months. :confused:

You don't need to top up to maintain validity. You only need a chargeable communication once per year, even an incoming roaming call of one second.

The initial €1.50 credit is valid for one month. Subsequent top-ups are valid indefinitely provided that you top up once per year.