Warning for people with USA T-Mobile SIMS

[DisFanJen]

Grrrr!!! Rassin' frassin' T-Mobile!!!!

Ok, now that's out of my system...

Like some other people, I kept a T-Mobile SIM live which I topped up and used in the states.

It was fairly simple, go on to the web site to keep it topped up and then use it when we hit the states.

Well, we were informed last year that the rules about keeping phone numbers had changed. Even though you loose your remaining balance after 90 days if you don't top up, you keep your number for a year before it is cancelled and re-allocated.

Great we thought, we'll not top up when we leave the states, let the balance lapse (it was only like $2) then make sure to start topping up again by September so that we don't lose the number.

So today I decided to go on to look about getting a micro sim (Got an iPhone 4S now) and it wouldn't let me log in.

Strange I thought, so using the awesome power of skype to phone freephone USA numbers I called T-Mobile Customer Support.

Long story short (too late!) our sims have been deactivated and the numbers re-allocated. No reason as to why, the customer support person even said that the rules mean we should still have them, and they can't look up why it happened because the account is linked to the number, so when it was deactivated it was wiped.



Anyhoo, they kept saying sorry but that doesn't help the fact that I've lost my number and I'll have to re-activate a new sim from scratch when I hit the states in Jan.

So, check your accounts and make sure they're still live, just in case...

 

[dixonsontour]

Thanks for heads up will tell DH

 

[~Piglet~]

that doesn't help the fact that I've lost my number and I'll have to re-activate a new sim from scratch when I hit the states in Jan.

How annoying!

Could you take advantage of free Wi-Fi and use Whatsapp / Viber for keeping in touch rather than topping up a sim card? This worked well for my friend and I last month

 

[DisFanJen]

How annoying!

Could you take advantage of free Wi-Fi and use Whatsapp / Viber for keeping in touch rather than topping up a sim card? This worked well for my friend and I last month

It'd work between my partner and I but we need to keep in touch with home while we're away as I run my own comapny and my partner is a manager and an academy and sometimes needs to deal with safeguarding issues.

So we both need to be contactable but neither of us want to cover the costs of international roaming, so she hands her international number around at work to the people who might need to call her and mine goes on the virtual answer machine while I'm away.

Also thinking about it, we do spend a good bit of time off property as well, so need to contact each other then.