What do you mean by "the update" - does it work in Poland? If so, browse this thread and check my previous posts :-).

BTW, I've bought my first smartphone Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox T830 (Windows Mobile 5.0 on board) and checked UM+. It's almost a complete disaster :-P. It works the "explicit" USSD *137* code only - no "direct dial" and the SIM menu application and can't be closed :-(.

I did check :)
but you have some problems before on and off with Era. Just wondering if you still have any problems

Yes, outgoing calls work with *137* USSD code only (though the balance can be checked b dialling 089 directly). But, as I understand, you need a SIM mainly to receive calls from a forwarded US number - in such case no problem with Era either.

any good call back system thats cheap and works? Call back world is 40cents/min to USA :eek:

Activating The New SIM
 

Anyone have any idea how to activate the UM+ card? I got mine some time ago when it was a free upgrade, and it's "registered" (because it won't allow me to register the number, saying it's already registered). However there is no link anywhere on their site that I've found to activate the card using the PUK as stated in their letter. Therefore, I can't transfer over any of my credit on the old card. Of course, I've sent them an email but don't expect to get anything back anytime soon, based on what I've read here. Oy

Thanks in advance... Cheers

Well never mind... I went through and clicked on every single link on every page under "My Account" and finally found the link to activate. They really don't make this easy, do they?

I had the same problem and they didn't answer my e-mail regarding that matter either :-P.
What I did (in the beginning of August, thing may have changed by now) is the following.
1) I logged in with my old +423 number and password (but the new +44 number with old passowrd should be OK as well)
2) I clicked "MY ORDERS" on left
3) I clicked the link described "SIM cards + Balance" on the order list
4) The activation form displayed and I activated the SIM.

I checked
Vonage forward is 34 USA cents/min
Voicestick is 31 USA cents/min
Skype is 25.3 USA cents/min (29.2 incl VAT)

Is there a way with justvoip to get a USA number that I can call that forwards to the UM+?

Also, I had problems receiving on all 3 (Orange, Era, and Plus) sometimes it rings just fine, other times it says number does not exist (in polish, so its the network).

I wonder if United Mobile choose Jersey Telecom because they knew Isle Of Man SIMs were about to run into trouble

Or maybe they just wanted to miss the middle man ie. CallKey

Hi everyone,
I'm new here and I'm hoping to hear if anyone received a SIM from UM recently.

I'm in New York city and I ordered a UM+ SIM on 13 September.
After waiting for 16 days, I still didn't recieve it so I e-mailed UM customer service. They replied to me on 3 October and said "Thank you for your inquiry. The average shipping time is 10 working days, not counting a possible delay at customs.
So we are still in good hopes that the shipment should soon arrive. "

I waited but still haven't received. :(

In my invoice posted in my account on the web, I noticed my Zip code (postal code) was placed before the name of city and state so I thought it might be the
reason for the postal service doesn't deliver it to me. (The postal service should figure it out, but we never know...)
The invoice shows the date I ordered, but the customer service didn't answer
my question asking when the SIM was shipped to me.

I e-mailed UM+ customer service again on 10 October and explained the situation, pointed out the address issue, and asked for a replacement as I'm leaving for Europe within two weeks and I desparetely need a SIM.

Sadly no reply as of today. Still no package from them in today's mail.

I paid US$45.90 and they don't even reply to my e-mail. :(

Did anyone receive the SIM lately?

Usually letter/package from Europe arrives within a week and I haven't experienced lost package. Geez, did my order get lost?

How come they don't reply my e-mail? :(

Thank you for listening.

Not saying that your sim will never arrive. But, it has taken way longer than normal. That's a whole month already! Their system does ot format US addresses correctly. So, most of us received a few days later than normal because of that. As long as your address in their system or on the invoice is correct, even though it may not be formatted correctly, you will probably still receive it. If I were you I would order a backup sim like yackie or so. Since they ship from the US, you will get it quicker.

Thank you for your reply.
Yeah, I'm still hoping it arrives here but after a month, my hope is getting smaller.
I have another prepaid SIM for France, but not receiving the item I purchased and not hearing from the customer service is disappointing.

I ordered my SIM in August, and it took about a week to arrive to Canada. It was in a standard business-sized envelope (well, European standard, but close enough).

funny
 

funny thing,

my +44 card arrived about two weeks ago, maybe more, but I only just yesterday activated it, and transferred money from my +423 card.

Everything went prefectly, took about five minute, card was active and on the network in five minutes.

I am currently in the USA so not using this card, but the FUNNY thing is that here in CA, it is on the VoiceStream network. Voicestream hasn't been around for about oh, five + years? This was the original GSM network in NA, mostly in the West, and was purchased by T-mobile, has to be more than seven years ago. I know the network may be some of the same, but I haven't seen a phone SEE the t-mobile network as VOICESTREAM in five+ years!!

I LIKE the fact that the 089 call is now an SMS which gives balance AND expiry information, not that EXPIRY is any problem anymore, no?

I'm not a techie but I think it has something to do with the phone and whether it's firmware has been upgraded recently...all sorts of weird things happen depending on the phone's firmware rather than the sim card...for example when I'm in the UK with a virgin mobile card on some phone models it comes up at TMobile not Virgin....try the sim card in a different phone and it might well say TMobile. (At least it didn't come up as Omnipoint).....

PhotoJim and tivoboy, thank you for letting me know.

Still no UM+ SIM and no reply from the customer service.
I just received a business letter from Germany (this is nothing with UM+). Postmarked October 17 and it's regular airmail. It took only two days
to get here in NYC. Amazingly fast.
So anyway, after waiting for a month, I guess my UM+ SIM got lost somewhere. :(

Have you called them (there is a phone number on the web site for customer service)...

Essentially I would call them, see their reaction and if not satisfied, simply call your credit card company and institute billing error dispute against them indicating non receipt.

Thank you for your tip.
I haven't called them because I prefer written communication with them regarding this matter.
But I will call them this weekend.
Unfortunately I used PayPal without a credit card for this order.

The reason I originally posted here was I wanted to know if someone had the same experience.

Anyway, thanks again.

...while I don't know your personal circumstances and forgive me for this let this be a lesson......never order anything without using a credit card....using a credit card gives you a great deal of leverage if something untoward happens.

But let me stress that in my dealings with United Mobile, I have found them to be very very much above board, there have been few complaints on this board about them, they have provided an excellent service to many of us here and the only problem has been the asininely high termination fees that have been piled on +423 calls by many telcoms that was obviously, at least to me who believes in conspiracy theories, an attempt to drive them out of business (much like what's going on with the Isle of Man sim cards is very very suspicious).

But like I said, do call them and I would almost wager you'll get complete satisfaction from them (the most it can cost them is a second shipping charge as it is easy to de-activate a sim card if it was activated by somebody but most likely it's simply been lost in the mail. Incidentally, when I ordered mine which was an upgrade, it only took 3 or 4 days to reach me in New York.

Yes, you're right. I called them yesterday and the woman who assisted me was very nice. She said she will send an inquiry to their HQ and check if the package was returned to them and will e-mail me and refund the money.
I didn't receive e-mail from them but PayPal notified me that I received the refund.
So I'm going to order a UM+ SIM again. Perhaps I have to select FedEx as I'm leaving for Europe next week and need to receive it for sure this time.
Not willing to pay extra $, but maybe worth it for the peace of mind.
Will use PayPal with my credit card account this time.

I got T-Mobile De for Germany to be reached by local friends there but want to use UM+ to call the U.S.
I read a couple of posts saying UM+ didn't work in Paris so I got Orange France prepaid.

Anyway, this forum is great and I do appreciate everyone who gave me advice.
Thanks again guys!!!

odd
 

the ODD thing is, that my +423 card from UM, shows t-mobile as the carrier.
My ATT card, and my t-mobile card, on the same phone, shows t-mobile. As does the GERMAN t-mobile card I have and use.

Just THIS card, shows voicestream?

anyone?

well voicestream is the old tmobile, so it could be a branded voicestream card.

Still cant find a good call forwarding for a usa number to UM+

huh?
 

you mean, the brand new +44 area code United-Mobile card I received could be a branded Voicestream card?

Now THAT would be odd.

What happened with Globe7?

I assume you have tried kall8.com or voicestick.com? Voicestick's "next2nothing" service would be cheaper.

...mike

Voicestick isn't free anymore if you want an inbound number. It costs a couple of dollars a month plus 1 and change cents US per minute.

Doesnt work right. Theres a issue with the ringing.

I have United Mobile UM+

In the last 2 weeks it has NOT worked in:
New Zealand
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Slovakia
Romania
Bulgaria
Serbia
Croatia
Slovania

It has worked in:
USA
Canada
Aruba
Sweden
Hungary(?)
Poland
Italy
France
Spain

I have not read the 30+ pages of this thread :) Does this list match others experience?

Also I am having sporadic luck with www.callbackworld in combination with United Mobile

Does anyone know if a transfer of some of the balance from one UM card to the other counts as activity for computing card expiration? If so, I know when the next time is that I need to generate some more "activity". If not, I probably need to send an SMS or something to keep them alve.

I'm kind of at the point that I have too many SIMs. I've had some cards die on me because I couldn't keep track of the occasional activity requirements.

Interesting question. My immediate answer would be that it doesn't count.

I think the English wording of the FAQ is misleading, since it states: "SIM card and credit will become invalid if the credit has not changed for nine months." Credit does change if you make a transfer!

However, the French FAQ is more consistent with my immediate answer:"La carte SIM et le crédit deviennent caducs au bout de neuf mois à compter de la dernière utilisation." (and I wouldn't say that recharging is an "utilisation").

Italian FAQ further confirms this, as it states, after having used the same wording ("from the last use of the sim"): "this applies both to the initial credit and to the subsequent recharges").
I would say, therefore, that the transfer doesn't count, but it's my own interpretation...

I doubt if transfer of credit counts as Activity. Think about this rationally.

UM, like any provider wants you to use the call credit and not use them as a "bank account".

A business is about offering a service for the consumer which the consumer pays for in return, thus earning the business revenue/profit.

One factor in the business model used by a particular provider will be the typical rate at which call credit is used up. Customers that do not use up their call credit within a "reasonable time" are not contributing to the business model by not making calls, hence the clause to loose call credit if not used after a pre determined time. If too many customers do not use their credit, then this can imbalance the model and cause problems.

Additionally, If there is no life span on the call credit, those customers that do not use call credit are a "liability" in accounting terms. Hence the need for UM and others to impose a life span on call credit. If no time limit were set, then how can a provider account for an unknown quantity of funds over an infinite period of time?

From a pragmatic point of view, why would you want a lot of your money sat in someone elses pocket for months/years, when it could be put to the use either as it was intended (making phone calls) or better spent else where?

A service provider/business is providing you with a service. If you have paid for that service but choose not to use it for a long time, then it's not unreasonable that the service provider consider you a "dead" customer an impose the terms to which you have agreed to at the time of purchase and cancel your call credit.

My advise would be to only top up any Prepaid SIM by the amount you expect to use in the short term/immediate future. Think "Use it or loose it" and you wont go far wrong or loose out.

Well the German FAQ is kind of vague:
OK, so what's "letzter Nutzung" (last use)? Last time I turned the phone on? Received a SMS? Received a free incoming call?

The way I understand it is the last <b>chargeable</b> use (ie outbound calls, SMS sent, incoming calls in non-free countries).

Purely and simply, as far as I am concerned, it is highway robbery. The worst, of course, are the French carriers which in some cases steal your credit after as little as 15 days.

I think this is one area where the eu can come to the aide of consumers throughout the eu and outlaw the practice of allowing carriers to steal your credit. (didn't some sort of German court outlaw the practice in Germany?)

FWIW I upgraded from +423 to +44 back in early August. My Balance messages now read: "Account type Personal, Balance $xx.xx - <b>No expiry</b>"

It's possible that was a one-off thing for those who switched over early. I haven't recharged the phone since so I don't know if the expiration date would get set to a specific date if I did.

As for the value of credits to the MNVO, of course they'd like to "encourage" people to use up their airtime so that they can sell them more, however, as long as the cost of providing service keeps dropping then ISTM having use of our money, even if it shows as a liability on their books, is essentially an interest-free loan. That's a lot less than what they'd have to pay to borrow money for on the open market ;)

I'm playing "Devils Advocate" here, but how can it be robbery if the customer has decided to make the purchase and agreed to the terms?

Surely the purpose of call credit is to use it, if not, why add it to an account. Using your call credit means there is "cash flow", which is key to any business and ultimately benefits the customer by funding innovation, products and services.

Don't forget that not all costs go down and that when calls are made, they have to be paid for by the provider, so the cash is not a loan, but allocated funds, or what could be possibly view as short term working capital.

I’m using the Jersey service and am in Ireland at present. Until this morning I roamed on “Meteor” but this morning I got an SMS welcoming me to “Vodafone” and now the display tells me that I’m on “IRL United Mobile”.

Is this new? Is UM now a MMVO (or what ever they are called).

Hong Kong and UM+
 

Doesn't work. Locked on to CSL briefly but not even long enough to make a call. I've switched over to TravelSim, which works everywhere and quite well. I only transfered over a remaining balance and I guess I'll use it up and toss it now. Ah well....

In which country?