Toggle Sim....nothing but problems!!

[talon4x4]

This has been my first experience buying a sim to use internationally and it has been horrible!

For starters when I tried purchasing the card from the Toggle website every single credit card I tried to use to make the purchase was rejected. They forwarded my issues to tech support but they were of no help so they just ended up sending me a card and I used Paypal to put money on the card.

After receiving the sim I was able to get it setup rather painlessly. I was however charged .48 for each of the 5 confirmation messages Toggle sent the phone when setting up the different phone numbers. I have yet to get a credit for any of them (I brought this to their attention and asked for a credit almost 2 weeks ago)

My wife is currently in Germany and the problems continue. I setup a USA number and a German number on the sim. When I call the USA number to talk to my wife I have to call the number at least 10 times before it actually goes through. It tells me I have reached a non-working number, the number can't be completed as dialed or it just puts me into some voicemail system. It has never worked straight away. I know its not because she doesn't have a signal either because she will call me first and let it ring once and then I call her back. And looking at the billing I see that on one occasion they actually charged the account for one of the times she called me and hung up. My voicemail doesn't answer until 5 or 6 rings so I know it wasn't because she got my voicemail. I made sure she knows to hang up after one ring.

Next problem is with text messages. On the first day I sent her 5 messages, she didn't get a single one of them. Since that day she has received about half of the messages I have sent her. Also most of the messages she has sent out, never reach their destination. She didn't even know people weren't getting them until I told her that everyone was wondering why she isn't replying to their messages.

The customer service is subpar. You can always get in touch with someone quite quickly and the answer emails within a day, which is impressive. Problem is they just reiterate a scripted answer, which is never the solution to my problem. Their favorite response to my problems has been that either the sim isn't compatible with the phone or the phone isn't latched to the USA network. Both responses don't really make sense because phone calls and text messages do go through, just not that frequently.

My advice would be to stay far away from Toggle. Unfortunately my wife is in Germany until Friday so she still has 5 more days of dealing with this nonsense.

[snidely]

Have used Truphone in the past - but their rates seem to be a lot higher than Piranha.

In the future, you won't have to get a foreign or intl SIM. Since you are in the U.S., simply make T-Mobile your carrier and intl roaming is included. See thread running on this.

[HappyCamp]

Overall I like Toggle mobile.

Same issue trying to purchase a card, they sent me one for free. I use Paypal to top-up card.

But there have been issues for sure. Frankly the US # doesn't work reliably enough to be a valid option. As the OP says it can take multiple calls for a call to connect. I had initially got a Denmark # as US #s were not available when I first set it up. Using the Denmark # and Localphone.com to forward to the Denmark # has worked for me with fairly good reliability, though text messages don't get passed through Localphone.com it seems.

I can't comment on the text messages much, but I seemed to get text messages from people here in Europe and they received my messages from what I can tell. I haven't been exchanging text messages with people in the States directly though as I use Google Voice.

My setup is a cheap $28 Quad Band Dual SIM Samsung GT-E1182L (purchased on Amazon.com) which has both a Truphone and Piranha Mobile SIM cards in it. Then a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with the Toggle Mobile card in it. Also an LG Nexus 4 which I use if I decide to purchase a local SIM card.

Then use Google Voice to forward calls and text messages to all three SIM cards. Truphone and Piranha-Mobile both provide US #s. For Toggle Mobile I forward calls (not texts) to Localphone.com. With Google Voice I can see and reply to texts with Google Voice app on phone or use the website. If I buy a local SIM in the country then I will have Google Voice forward calls to Toggle Mobile US # and Localphone.com forward to my local SIM phone #. Complicated I know!

At the moment I am in the Czech Republic which is NOT a Toggle Mobile country. So I have moved the Toggle Mobile SIM card to the Samsung Dual SIM phone and the Piranha-Mobile SIM to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android) phone. I also bought a local SIM card for my LG Nexus 4.

Making calls to the US on Toggle Mobile has worked well when I am in a Toggle Mobile "local country" and the cost is pretty cheap at 3 pence/minute.

There are issues for sure with Toggle Mobile, but I am willing to live with those issues so far.

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by snidely

Have used Truphone in the past - but their rates seem to be a lot higher than Piranha.

In the future, you won't have to get a foreign or intl SIM. Since you are in the U.S., simply make T-Mobile your carrier and intl roaming is included. See thread running on this.

I was using Truephone and Piranha, but now i have changed to Piranha and Toggle, using Toggle in Toggle countries is great deal, unfortunately outside of Toggle countries its rather expensive, so i use my Piranha Sim and will do even more so, now they have introduced very aggressive Data rates inside and outside of the EU.

[dg7feq]

Within Toggle countries the card works reliable enough to be in our business travellers phones when they go between germany and france - the only issue we have is (as you described) that sometimes you have to call a few times until a inbound call goes trough. We had months with several hundert minutes inside france and so far it worked great.
For international destinations we mostly use the XXSIM now as their numbers are included in the monthly allowance of our T-Mobile germany business contracts...

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

Within Toggle countries the card works reliable enough to be in our business travellers phones when they go between germany and france - the only issue we have is (as you described) that sometimes you have to call a few times until a inbound call goes trough. We had months with several hundert minutes inside france and so far it worked great.
For international destinations we mostly use the XXSIM now as their numbers are included in the monthly allowance of our T-Mobile germany business contracts...

Thats a good contract with T-Mobile, it costs £1.00 per minute to ring either XXSIM or GYMSIM numbers from T-Mobile UK.

[HappyCamp]

Originally Posted by HappyCamp

.... though text messages don't get passed through Localphone.com it seems.

This made me decide to file a support ticket with Localphone.com and they said that I needed a New York number to have SMS. Which is odd because when I did choose the number it said:

* indicates that you can also send SMS messages to numbers in this location.

Which made me think it could receive SMS messages. I'm asking them what does that wording mean.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

Thats a good contract with T-Mobile, it costs £1.00 per minute to ring either XXSIM or GYMSIM numbers from T-Mobile UK.

these are business contracts, not private. There is a EU option that gives you 4 hours of international calls and/or roaming within EU for a fixed rate. regular by minute rate is 0.24 to 0.78ct/min depending on the type of contract...