Hey gang-

Just got back from my first trip to Europe with my United Mobile SIM card. I was in Venice, Italy, and the available networks were ITIM, Vodaphone, and IWIND. I tried all three, though the one the phone seemed to default to was ITIM.

My experience was that I got my callback from CBW about one try in three. I had no problem dialing the call to CBW. UM would callback as advertised, and I'd let it ring once as CBW advises, then I hung up. About one time in three, I would then get my callback from CBW.

I tried variations on how many rings I waited. I tried a half-ring, one full ring, one and a half, two rings, etc. Still, success rate about one-third.

Any thoughts on how to achieve a better success rate? I'm heading to Zurich tomorrow, so I'll post if my results are similar.

Thanks!

Dave

Make your trigger call from another phone?

Well sure- assuming there is one handy. ;) I could also trigger a callback from the Internet- if I had a computer nearby. I guess what I was asking is might there be something I'm doing wrong- or could do better- to trigger my callback from the UM phone?

Thanks!

Dave

Send an e mail to customer service at cbw and ask if they can delay the callback to its maximum amount...

I was in Europe during almost the entire month of June visiting Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and the UK and can tell you cbw worked about 85 to 90% of the time perfectly when I was on um. a couple of years ago early on I had the same problem you described but I did e mail them and they said they would increase the wait time for the callback from them and have had pretty good success with them since then.

On a recent caribbean cruise CBW + UM worked flawlessly for me 100% of the time.

I've been using the service daily for the last six months and haven't had a problem. During this time period, I've used it in at least six countries.

Thanks Matha- I just left a message with Barry at CBW asking to increase my Callback delay.

Dave

Well- I just walked in the door from Zurich, and unfortunately my experience with CBW was very similar to last week in Venice. Got my callback maybe one try in three. As before, tried with one ring as CBW advises, then experimented with one ring, half-ring, two rings, etc. No difference that I could tell. The two networks I tried were OrangeCH and Swisscom.

I had an email waiting from Barry at CBW, and he indicated that my callback delay was already set at the maximum. He says they do that now automatically for all new accounts with United Mobile numbers.

Anyhow, I found that if I just kept trying, I'd eventually get a callback, so for the most part I can live with this, but it is rather disappointing. I'll be in Rome next week, so I'll try it again there.

Dave

During some testing, I found out that I even get the call back without letting it ring at all. That is, I hit send, and after it shows "calling", I end the call before hearing any ring. I think the key is hanging up ASAP.

I did try that as well, and never got a callback that way. It seems to be a razor thin line between not ringing long enough and ringing too long. And not consistent either. Whereas one full ring might get me a callback on one try, the next callback only would come after two rings, or a half-ring, etc.

Also- It does seem like a long delay between when UM says "calling" and when I finally hear a ring on my end. I suspect that what I am hearing is not representative of what CBW is hearing. But as I said, I had no success if I hung up before I heard any rings.

Anyhow, I'll just keep trying. FWIW, has anyone had different or better or worse success with Enlinea?

Thanks!

Dave