Furious United-Mobile customers (or ICQ)?
 

Let's just say that I am *NOT* a happy camper lately with United-Mobile.

I travel extensively and the international prepaid service is a no brainer in my opinion. At first, in Europe I had nothing but good service.

But... lately, I have found that they no longer offer 24/7 support, when you call out of the standard EU business hours, tough luck, wait until their shift is back at work. A nice way of saying, we don't care if this means for you to call in the middle of the night from where you are now. Gee, I taught you were in the business to cater people traveling around the world pfff....

I understand they being an MVNO means getting the service from either FL1 or Jersey Telecom, but since they have their own HLR, can't they figure out when a call has been successfully placed or not? I am trying to get them to refund calls that never went through but that their billing system won't take out. be careful, check all you call logs if you use these guys, especially, if you're in a country not known for their good quality phone lines...service may be worst with United Mobile. I'm not considering using only local providers.

That, and on top of their ever changing fees. +44 vs +423 and if you had data or not, and when you subscribed to the data package (prior to Oct 2008 and after are charged differently!).

Data option... well, I paid the 3 euro to "upgrade" my service so I can attach in packet switch to the networks (get data service in other words), but to no avail. Every time I try, it says I'm not subscribed to the service. 2 months after I placed a call during their business hours, spoke with customer service, still not resolved! I am really pissed at this poor customer service who can't keep you updated an iota.

Anyone else having such a hard time?

-A disgrunted user warning the others (because I'm moving away from their service).

Incoming calls, 0.19 € fee
 

The new price plan is horrible for everyone: http://www.united-mobile.com/downloa...m_rates_44.pdf

• Zone 1 ROAMING FREE*
• Zone 2 ROAMING FREE*

*Call set up rate for all calls (one time) EUR 0.19

What is the definition of FREE?
 

Don't you EU-folks have "truth in advertising laws"? I suppose one could make the case the truth in advertising is an oxymoron (self-contradictory).

My suggestion would be to replace the word FREE with the "fine print".


Stan

Yes, but United Mobile is a swiss company* using numbers from Liechtenstein and Jersey.

Well, Switzerland, Jersey and Liechtenstein are not EU. :(

* United Mobile AG
Kloten Branch
Obstgartenstrasse 27
CH-8302 Kloten

I stand corrected on EU membership, but the PRINCIPLE is the same. They (UM) sell their goods & services to EU citizens. And don't CH or FL have similar laws?

I believe the EU filed (an won) a lawsuit or LAWSUITS against Micro$oft, a US-based company. TRUE, not for deceptive advertising.

If enough customers make enough noise, I would think the EU would have some jurisdiction with UM.

Admit I am not a lawyer.

Stan

Switzerland has this Authority -> Swiss Competition Commission

It's a interesting thing, but pay attention that the actual "EU international tarif" between Switzerland and most of european operators (3ITA is excluded, for example) is not really bilateral. In fact swiss operators and EU's ones have an agreement "sua sponte", not by law.

So I think that only a swiss citizen can contact the national Authority about the UM's prices.

Beside the increase of outgoing calls and the relocation of many countries, we have now this setup-fee for incoming calls, even in zone1&2, which should be the so-called "roaming-free" zones.

I don't know exactly what they mean at UM with "free", but surely I haven't bought an international sim to pay every received call. If so, I prefer my national number.

My UM+ will stay in its box and will pay just one sms every 9 months, until the credit is over, or until UM managers understand their awful mistakes...let's see which comes first!

Hope that Swiss Competition Commission can help us :rolleyes:

In the meantime, we can avoid using UM sims and maybe write some e-mail to express our disappointment...the best way would be a MNP, but with international numbers that's impossible! :p

Calls to other destinations are rated with 10€/min. — Note: f means fi xline. m means mobile (wireless. cellular) — *Call set up rate for all calls (one time)
EUR 0.19 — Billing increments are 60 seconds. Prices are subject to change without prior notice — All Information is subject to errors and tariff changes.

The incoming call charge does indeed apply, just checked it on my +44 number
Balance before call was 12,26 after making a 5 seconds call balance was 11,88
I received the call in belgium, cost 19 cent per minute, call setup 19 cents, total 38 cents. Balance after call 11,88

I also tried it using my +423 number which has a balance of just 45 cents. Made 2 short calls and balance remains the same. so it looks like only the +44 number has the incoming call cost.

This will surely cost UM lots of customers as 19 cents setup cost is a lot. Research has shown that many cellphone calls last only 1 or 2 minutes. 19 cents for setup cost will add a lot to you costprice.

I am only thinking what might be the reason for this.

I had a free incoming trial call [edit: on +423] a couple of days ago (after your thread about Betamax rates). I called UM about an hour ago to check; there will be an incoming connection fee, but it hasn't quite been implemented yet

Might be country dependant, I'm in belgium at the moment, tried both UM +44 and +423 and +44 did give the 19 cent incoming call charge and +423 did not or maybe not yet ?

So it looks like the +44 incoming call charge is allreay implemented, at least My account was deducted 2 x 19 cents for a 5 seconds call. 19 cents for the call 19 cent connection charge.

What a bunch of garbage.....this forum helped make UM, especially with its free incoming call policy which is something that one time they bragged about....

This leaves GT-sim right now as well as gymsim....O9 seems to be down completely...can't register (I'm in the USA currently) nor can I register my new yackie mobile card but at least I'm not getting the invariably fatal sim card registration failed notice.

So...

1. Why? Didn't they realize this might be the end of their business....it is now just as cheap to use one of the eu payg with eu tariffs, especially for short calls......(incidentally Andy might know this....the UK£ is nearing parity with the euro..have they increased the eurotariff charges listed in sterling to coincide with the drop of the £?). What unseen forces have caused this?

2. GT sim still seems to have free reception throughout most of Europe.

3. Gymsim too,.

Oh the pain.

Yes, sorry, that's what I meant about the call via JV, the +423 one not charged yet but soon.

Furious United-Mobile customers (or ICQ)?
 

So not many real working alternatives anymore (the rest of the post in a new thread -> http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inte...ed-mobile.html )

That said um +44 outside the eu might still be a lot cheaper than using your standard sim. But it's nices to have 1 sim for where you are going, not having to swtich card every country you visit.

I have ordered the easyroam card, will hopefully get it today and enjoy free roaming again. UM is really pricing themselves out of the market this way. But the biggest question is, why did they do this. Was it needed to cover increasing network cost ? were they making to little money ? Time will tell.

No, when the recent Eurotariff decreased, UK networks made no reduction, probably as they were already still slightly cheaper. But since the exchange has fallen some more, they haven't increased either.

Thus 3 UK's roaming rates of 25p outgoing 10p incoming are now about half the Eurotariff, and the rest are 35p (O2) to 39p outgoing, ~18p incoming. O2 has an add-on to make outgoing 25p incoming free for £10 a month (but added free to my contract)

I think Belgium must be slightly more expensive for roaming for some reason. I noticed a while back that those German Vistream SIMs with cheap roaming are 15c incoming there and 10c in many other European countries.

For outgoing calls, the connection fee doesn't make a difference of course, but it will be difficult to look at all the incoming connection fees adding up.

The Isle of Man SIMs, whether on Manx e.g. Easyroam ekit Geosim and GT, plus those half dozen on Wire9 that were listed recently, still have free incoming roaming. Let's hope they see this as a competitive advantage and don't have to move in this direction in the near future.

Roaming fees
 

All the networks have to pay roaming fees. Whether it is United mobile, 09 or isle of man sim cards. There is no such thing as "free roaming"
The way it works is the operator/network receives a small fee for inbound calls, this is then offset against the roaming charge that the operator has to pay for roaming in that country. I would say that U-M is being charged a higher fee and is loosing money every time there users are receiving calls in Belgium. Hence there is a charge for roaming in Belgium.

I don't really know why they are also changing a setup fee, They are billing in 60 seconds, so this should cover costs.

As for sim4travel charging fees. There giving away free or low price sim cards with £10 credit, Its there way of getting money back in to there pot.

As a guess, who will be the next one to charge ...?

Wow, mine would stay in for decades, I have 80$ on it... :-S

I have made a call to my +423 card and was charged the incoming fee of 0,19 euros....

Mine has less than 30€. By the way, they could last even longer without need of sms: probably now even the setup-fee for incoming calls is enough to delay their expire. 19€cents every 9 months... :evil:

Remember these are SUNK costs. Unlike in some countries (DE, for instance), UM will NOT pay out the remaining balance on your accounts. You have paid IN ADVANCE for the service and cannot recoup your investment other than by calling, being called or SMSing or possibly data use. If you are unhappy, use up your balance and let the SIMs expire.

My unhappiness could even be transitory: at this moment, we don't know how long will this bad situation last. Nobody can say there won't be any improvement: in the next months at UM they could even decide to delete the setup-fee for incoming calls, for example, because too many customers have moved away. Moreover, I will bring UM+ with me while abroad anyway: I will keep it in my pocket and use only in case of need (you never can tell!).

Of course we don't want to get old together with our UM sims! :D

When using the +423 sim to dial the balance hotline I was also charged 0,22 eurocents......All these in a 'roaming free' country.....

Has anyone of us called or written to complain? And what did you receive as an answer?

I (the family) only use(s) the SIM once a year and usually it is only to dial out from Europe. This year my wife is going and I am staying home, so I may be calling her on the UM SIM. It is a matter of nice-to-have for me -- to reach family while overseas or more rarely to be reached.

For many of you the UM SIM or equivalent is a MUST-USE item.

Stan

The idea is to bombard customer service with the complaints. I believe this particular forum helped them build their business as we all highly recommended their service for a while.....perhaps if they know just how unhappy we are and that we will take them down from our recommended carriers, they will delete this idiotic set up fee....

confirmed just tested it and of my remaining 45 cents, 19 cents was deducted. Seems like I can through away both the +44 and +423 number.

Just made a balance call and I got deducted another 19 cents for doing so, so just 5 cents left.

Looks like the inital ballance call deducted 19 cents and not the iincoming call but now with 5 cents left I cant call my number anymore, so that will go into the bin.

Mail them 2 days ago, no responce.

I really doubt they will change their mind and change rates. Changing rates like this will not be a decision they took in one afternoon. The reason for the change might be a financial reason as everyone know these 19 cent in the end do make them more money.

We don't even know how manu customers they have and if they are making money at all. They might loose some customers but to be honest there are not may options left to go to.

The iom card seems to be the only solutions at the moment at all other ones are not great of dead.

Iceland, dead, Estonia difficult to reach for some voip providers, do you really want to giveaway an estionian number to business customers ? GT-Sim, minium 100 per year. Maxroam, only calls through a did number no direct calls possible meaning you always pay for incoming.
So knowing whats left in the market I really doubt if UM will change the prices.

You were charged 0,22 eurocents for calling the balance enquiry.

You were deducted credit by making a balance call? :eek:
This sounds rather ironic...

I had a INCOMING call in the Netherlands on 2--01-09 17:57:43 (UM+)

NETHERLANDS
0,19
00:02:06
0,57-
24,61
That destination is "FREE" for Incoming calls. UM charged € 0,57!!!
I wrote customerservice but I dit not receive a answer till now.

@hcernl
Did they reply by now? My tickets all remain still unanswered. Calling them is no use either, they say it's with tech support. *sigh*

They did after a week:


Dear Mr.
Thank you for your request. Unfortunately, when switching to the new rate-plan there was an error. We have fixed it, and have made a refund of the erroneous charges.

Please note that now there is a connection fee (0,19 Euro) for incoming calls as well.


With best regards

Jakob Kirsch
United Mobile Customer Service

If you have a UM+ number this number is in the UE like Jersey but in all the cases their prices are cheaper than the EURO TARIF then nothing to tell.
My suggestion if you don't like try something else it's plenty of companies that you can use