Report on using Orange Mobicarte in France

[scirocco]

Search on Ebay France for "orange prepaid 15". The seller ibiza2004 has nearly 2700 feedback.

Originally Posted by randomelemental

I am still in the UK at the moment. So.....when I try and ring another phone to get my number, nothing happens, it dials then drops the call, no tone, nothing. I have a good signal, so it's not that.

On my Mobicarte (when used outside France) I can get the number as follows:

Dial #123#
Reply with 3 for "suivi conso"
This should bring up some text and among it all will be a number like 06 xx xx xx xx. This is the phone number excluding the 33 for France.

[randomelemental]

Originally Posted by scirocco

Search on Ebay France for "orange prepaid 15". The seller ibiza2004 has nearly 2700 feedback.



On my Mobicarte (when used outside France) I can get the number as follows:

Dial #123#
Reply with 3 for "suivi conso"
This should bring up some text and among it all will be a number like 06 xx xx xx xx. This is the phone number excluding the 33 for France.

Thanks for that. Didn't work though, just got some text back saying I had 3.32 euro and 33 sms left, but no number.

I contacted ibiza2004 via ebay, a couple of days ago to ask how I can get my number, I am still waiting for a reply, the standard reply of 'call another phone' doesn't really cut it.

[randomelemental]

Thought I would try a different tactic.....send an sms to another phone!

Ok, that worked and a number appeared...was it mine or just a random number thrown out by orange's sms servers? It did begin with +33 though....so, I called this +3368958xxxx number to see if my mobile rang...it didn't. The tone I got was the tone you hear when a phone number does not exist. I also sent an sms back to the french sim phone...it didn't receive it.

Looking through the phone settings its roaming, in service and on the orange network and I have a strong signal, however, it says its mobile network state is 'disconnected'.

The puzzle deepens.

[woody1]

It seems very odd if you could send an SMS from an unregistered phone. I'm wondering if you're having some problem with your APN setup on the phone that keeps you from getting the correct network connection.

[sbrian]

Originally Posted by randomelemental

Thanks for that. Didn't work though, just got some text back saying I had 3.32 euro and 33 sms left, but no number.

I contacted ibiza2004 via ebay, a couple of days ago to ask how I can get my number, I am still waiting for a reply, the standard reply of 'call another phone' doesn't really cut it.

I am in same boat as randomelemental, except I do at least have my phone number. I turned off all cell data, inserted the SIM, and activated it with no problems. Once I got a signal (via T-Mobile) the French number appeared in my phone. (It's an iPhone 4S with the GSM Sim Unlocked for Foreign Carriers).

My problem is that I only have an available balance of 3.31 EUR, but I purchased the SIM + 25.00 EUR credit. I have managed to get my password and set up an account online with Orange : téléphones, forfaits, Internet, actualité, sport, video, and as near as I can tell, the only activity on the account was two charges on 07/03/2012 at 14:39...one is for an outgoing call for 0.220 EUR and one for "communication" for 1.472 EUR. That tells me that the original credit on the SIM was only 5.00 EUR. I'm assuming that this was part of the activation/registration process, but if the SIM had 25.00 EUR on it, then the remaining balance should be 23.31, non?

I've also contacted the ebay seller ibiza2004 and am waiting on a response, but that was two days ago. I just wonder if I'm overlooking something obvious. There was no scratch off card included with the sim. Also, while I have been able to access the #123# menu and can dial 224 (for which my French is way to insufficient), I am unable to dial 225 with any success.

Any suggestions, hints or solutions (beyond escalating to ebay complaints?)

I'm attaching a screenshot of my account activity (I hope...)

[TraceyJ]

Originally Posted by sbrian

My problem is that I only have an available balance of 3.31 EUR, but I purchased the SIM + 25.00 EUR credit. I have managed to get my password and set up an account online with Orange : téléphones, forfaits, Internet, actualité, sport, video, and as near as I can tell, the only activity on the account was two charges on 07/03/2012 at 14:39...one is for an outgoing call for 0.220 EUR and one for "communication" for 1.472 EUR. That tells me that the original credit on the SIM was only 5.00 EUR. I'm assuming that this was part of the activation/registration process, but if the SIM had 25.00 EUR on it, then the remaining balance should be 23.31

Just wondering if you ever resolved this? My card arrived this week but there is only 5 EUR credit on it rather than 15.

Also, I have been able to create an account on the orange portail but I can't access some parts of the account as I need to provide the required ID? I purchased the sim via the ebay seller referred to in this thread so I was wondering what other people's experiences were on this?

Thanks for all the very useful info in here

[gundesen]

Hi, I bought a mobicarte through 2004ibiza. There was a handwritten 4 digit PIN # with the card. What is that for please?

[scirocco]

Originally Posted by gundesen

Hi, I bought a mobicarte through 2004ibiza. There was a handwritten 4 digit PIN # with the card. What is that for please?

That's the PUK code for the SIM (Personal Unlocking Code). If you have the PUK code option turned on in your phone the phone will ask you to enter the password each time you turn it on.

Your phone probably has a setting where you can turn this off if you don't want it to bug you every time.

[jb9]

Thanks again to all the knowledgeable contributors to this thread. I just returned home from my trip to France and the phone/mobicarte worked flawlessly throughout the trip. I may be planning a return trip in September and I am curious to hear what one might do to keep the mobicarte/telephone number active in the next 3 months. I have a friend who is going to France on a trip in August, could I additionally loan the phone to him to keep things going? Any economical suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

[jsteinhu]

I purchased an activated card from the ebay.fr seller discussed on this thread. When the sim arrived I was able to SMS another local phone using it and create an orange.fr account. However, several days later when I log in I get the following message whenever I try to do anything useful like add Internet Max. Suggestions?

Vous ne pouvez pas accéder à l'espace clients car France Telecom n'a pas reçu votre déclaration d'identité.

Comme indiqué dans les conditions générales de vente mobicarte, votre ligne sera prochainement suspendue. Pour vous éviter ce désagrément, nous vous invitons à retourner dans votre point de vente mobicarte pour vous identifier. Pensez à vous munir de votre pièce d'identité et de votre mobicarte.
Si vous n'êtes pas en mesure de retourner sur votre point de vente d'origine, rendez-vous dans un point de vente de même enseigne ou dans l'agence France Telecom la plus proche de chez vous.

Une fois cette déclaration effectuée, vous pourrez accéder à votre espace clients sous 48 h.

Thanks for your help!