Quote:
Originally Posted by snaimon
Thread seems to have disappeared.... I tried to add this to that thread.
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Several weeks ago I sent UM customer support a message about the increased rates to call UM phones from US. I asked if they could recommend any US carriers.
Here is their answer.
Dear Mr. Naimon,
thank you for your inquiry. We are an international company based in Switzerland. Since we provide service in almost every country, unfortunately we cannot know the local telephone carriers of each country and therefore cannot give any suggestions.
We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
United Mobile Customer Service
You can now contact United Mobile around the clock. Our Customer Service Team is now available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
United Mobile Liechtenstein AG
Schaffhauserstrasse 121
CH-8302 Kloten, Zurich Airport
Phone +423 663 099 911
Fax +41 43 204 28 99
www.united-mobile.com
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I am heading to Europe shortly and will be trying to burn up my remaining UM balance before they go out of business. I have $60+ euro balance.
In view of the ever growing competition, with EU roaming rates coming down and the expense and difficulties in reaching UM phones from many places like US, I don't see how they can survive in the long run WITH THEIR CURRENT business model & practices.
Stan |
I don't think they're on the verge of going out of business but the difference between this year and last year is almost incomprehensible.
Last year I used to have my calls forwarded to them via my AT&T account from my landline. Price was 11¢/minute. Now the cost is up to 42¢/minute.
Of course we know what happened with CBW...it went from 14¢/minute to 29¢/minute in April and now is well over 50¢/minute. I just don't understand how these termination fees are determined. Is UM jacking up the rates so people will use them for the convenience of the free incoming which does no good if people have to pay an arm and a leg to reach them? Do they think this will cause people to use their naitive ld service? I went for about three years and my credit dropped from the original €10 to €7,20 being careful to use them once every 9 months to keep it active. But over 50¢/minute with CBW...absurd.
I used O9 this past trip to Europe (Germany, Netherlands, France, UK)...Somehow my O9 credit disappeared despite the fact in theory no calls were completed. I ended up with 47 calls in voicemail from the call backs...didn't bother to clear them out. Wonder if this is causing the rebound affect T Mobile US is famous for when calls bounce to voicemail. My credit went from €12 to €0,37. At that point I was unable to call out for the triggering call (used both enlinea and CBW) but was able to use my local sims to trigger calls...in one case though using the French mobile on cbw, after two rings I wasn't quick enough to hang up and the call was answered and sure enough my French mobile debited for one minute call to USA. This had never happened before. Enlinea of course uses a busy signal which is much safter. Also it became non functional the last couple of days in France (Saturday and Sunda 23 and 24 June); the usual problems please enter phone number etc. and after entering the phone number followed by the # sign, it said invalid. Mostly I use the phone to call back to an info number in the USA (1-800-555-8355) to get baseball scores, local weather, call airlines besides calling friends. When I got to the UK, I said the hell with it, converted my Orange UK prepaid to Orange call abroad and voila calls to the USA with no problems were 5p/minute. Didn't need O9 any longer.
Then there are the Estonian sims which also have very very high rates on almost any ld carrier in the USA. But I have never been able to get CBW to work with it (have never gotten a callback) and enlinea rates are too high.
Which leaves the Isle of Man mobiles....but cbw and enlinea charge 45 to 50 cents/minute to UK mobiles so not much better than UM. Naitive use of Isle of Man phones is a bit cheaper than UM and O9 to call the USA but of course nowhere near as good as we once had last year.
CBW recently announced a lowering of rates to French mobiles and I believe German mobiles. But even if I have both a French and German sim, unfortunately EU was not able to get the free reception of calls throughout the EU they originally had pushed for so it's 0,24€ to receive on a German sim say in Italy and then CBW well we seem to be right back to UM rates.
What is for sure, unfortunately, is a good thing with CBW seems to be history. Being able to forward calls from my home line to UM is history (although I suppose the new rate AT&T is charging which is 42¢/minute isn't too bad but certainly not as good as 11¢/minute which I had till this past April).
Does anybody know of any cheap callback services which will provide the same type service cbw and enlinea once provided (no I don't intend to bring my lap top to Europe and use voip, the carry on regs are a royal pain in the butt).
Or has a good thing passed into history?
And who the hell is responsible for these absurd termination fees charged on Liechtenstein, Icelandic and Estonian mobiles as well as the UK mobiles (obviously aimed at Isle of Man numbers). Basically, it stinks.