My Initial Impressions Of U-m And Cbw

[Steverino3006]

I just returned from a three week trip to Italy and Malta.

My thoughts:

U-M seemed to work just fine. But:

you cannot add a recharge by using the recharge speed dial. It asks for some code or account number, and nothing is accepted. You must recharge through a live operator at customer service.

when I got home, and my companion was still in Malta, I wanted to monitor my U-M account and add a recharge if needed. But on line, you cannot see your U-M balance, so you are shooting in the dark.

When in Malta, incoming calls are not free. Ok, part of the deal. But when she ran out of credits and was cut off in mid call, she could not call U-M customer service to recharge. (she called me with her calling card for help; I recharged on line).



CBW seemd spotty:

maybe 50% of the time we received a call back. Some times we had to try numerous times.

a number of times one party could not hear the other, and the call had to be made again.

a number of times there was bad static heard by one party, so the call had to be made again.

a number of times, persons calling using the 800 number could not get through, and had to try again (sometimes several times, or giving up for the day).

most of the time, there was a considerable delay in the transmission. Are they using satellites?

CBW is now (once again) having "computer problems". My credit limit of $50.00 has been reached, and we can no longer access CBW. Unlike the two times prior, a charge to my credit card was not made and the credit limit "reset". I have sent an e-mail, filled out their on line form, and called their 800 number, but no response. I finally called 402-272-7351 (a number listed on my on line activity log as "customer service") and got a guy who gave some other company name and seemed never to have heard of Callback World, but found my account when I gave him my customer number. (is there a wholesaler running the show, and CBW and others are the retailers?) He said there were computer problems, and I should call back during normal business hours (what are they? Omaha Nebraska time zone . . .)

The upshot: have one or more back up plans! U-M is a good back up for CBW, and a calling card was a good back up for the both of them.

I have made suggestions and given feedback, hopefully both will improve. We did save a bunch of money, though.

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by Steverino3006

I just returned from a three week trip to Italy and Malta.

My thoughts:

U-M seemed to work just fine. But:

you cannot add a recharge by using the recharge speed dial. It asks for some code or account number, and nothing is accepted. You must recharge through a live operator at customer service.

when I got home, and my companion was still in Malta, I wanted to monitor my U-M account and add a recharge if needed. But on line, you cannot see your U-M balance, so you are shooting in the dark.

When in Malta, incoming calls are not free. Ok, part of the deal. But when she ran out of credits and was cut off in mid call, she could not call U-M customer service to recharge. (she called me with her calling card for help; I recharged on line).



CBW seemd spotty:

maybe 50% of the time we received a call back. Some times we had to try numerous times.

a number of times one party could not hear the other, and the call had to be made again.

a number of times there was bad static heard by one party, so the call had to be made again.

a number of times, persons calling using the 800 number could not get through, and had to try again (sometimes several times, or giving up for the day).

most of the time, there was a considerable delay in the transmission. Are they using satellites?

CBW is now (once again) having "computer problems". My credit limit of $50.00 has been reached, and we can no longer access CBW. Unlike the two times prior, a charge to my credit card was not made and the credit limit "reset". I have sent an e-mail, filled out their on line form, and called their 800 number, but no response. I finally called 402-272-7351 (a number listed on my on line activity log as "customer service") and got a guy who gave some other company name and seemed never to have heard of Callback World, but found my account when I gave him my customer number. (is there a wholesaler running the show, and CBW and others are the retailers?) He said there were computer problems, and I should call back during normal business hours (what are they? Omaha Nebraska time zone . . .)

The upshot: have one or more back up plans! U-M is a good back up for CBW, and a calling card was a good back up for the both of them.

I have made suggestions and given feedback, hopefully both will improve. We did save a bunch of money, though.

Thanks for your report.

Some time ago I was able to add money with the short code. No proof it can be done today, however, I agree.

See my post -- apparently you can do that now. I am not yet able to verify this, but I saw a post on one of the German sites I monitor and sure enough, there now is a MY ACCOUNT feature.

TRUE. Malta does not have free inbound. We were there for 2 weeks Jul-early Aug. Magnificent landscape, friendly people, but traffic was quite another story. Am wondering what calling card was used? AFAIK, neither ATT nor MCI will work (no access #s).

I did not use CBW much last time I was to Europe. I wanted to run down my prepaid balances, including UM. My experience has been a bit better than yours. Spotty is IMO a bit too negative. I do not doubt your experience and it may reflect the current state of CBW. My experiences were not as bad, but they were not perfect either.

I would also agree that one should have at least ONE good backup plan and possibly more. See my posts on Amerikans going to Europe.

Stan

[tivoboy]

not sure if you have noticed, but in the past week or so, UM has added online balance check, call lookup, etc. Works NICE!