Using my virgin mobile overseas

[chickendippers]

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

Don't you mean that your friends were charged the standard mobile rate in the UK, and you would have been charged extra had you answered it?

That's what I thought, but my friend claimed the message cost him an arm and a leg. He might have just be saying that because he thought it cost him extra to call me whilst roaming anyway.

[aardvark]

Originally Posted by aardvark

I've just had a fascinating conversation with 3 different people on 'The Team' who've told me that, despite what it says on the virginmobile website, if I divert all my calls to voicemail (before I go) I will be charged every time someone leaves a message on my voicemail while I'm abroad.

I understand that calling my voicemail from overseas will incur a charge BUT surely what they've told me can't be correct.

Even if my phone is switched off while I'm out of the country 'the system will know where you are' and I'll be charged for every voicemail left.

Anyone got any experience of this?

Just returned from Africa and, as I expected, wasn't charged for callers leaving a message on my voicemail simply for making the call back to UK to access it -for which I used an African SIMcard (it's cheaper).

Well done Virginmobile web team for getting the facts right.
to 'The Team' on 789 who gave me incorrect and misleading information.

[iadom]

I couldn't make any calls with my VM mobile on a recent holiday. Checked with 789 and was told I didn't need to do anything, it would just work. I have had the contract for almost 2 years now.

I was on a Med cruise from Southampton.

As we left the English Channel I got a nice text from VM welcoming me to the USA ( it was an American ship) with all the tariff details. The same thing happened at Gibraltar, France, Italy, Sardinia, Portugal etc.

I did receive a couple of calls and could text perfectly but I could not make any outgoing calls. Tried altering the number prefix to +44 after ditching the 0 but it made no difference. I either got 'invalid number' or a voice message telling me that 'no connection could be made, contact your service provider'.

I had a maximum signal most of the time as well.

Contacted VM on my return and was advised to try adding 001144 instead of +44.

[m419]

Originally Posted by aardvark

I've just had a fascinating conversation with 3 different people on 'The Team' who've told me that, despite what it says on the virginmobile website, if I divert all my calls to voicemail (before I go) I will be charged every time someone leaves a message on my voicemail while I'm abroad.

I understand that calling my voicemail from overseas will incur a charge BUT surely what they've told me can't be correct.

Even if my phone is switched off while I'm out of the country 'the system will know where you are' and I'll be charged for every voicemail left.

Anyone got any experience of this?

Perhaps T-Mobile's network is set up to charge when you have your phone switched on but also have 'Call Divert all calls to voicemail' activated.

I switched my voicemail off specifically because of this.

Because once I went abroad using a T-Mobile sim card and when I diverted all calls to voicemail,I had £30 because i hadn't made any calls at that point and just an hour after, recieved a voicemail lasting approx a minute and a half and before i called voicemail, my balance showed £28.11

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by iadom

I couldn't make any calls with my VM mobile on a recent holiday. Checked with 789 and was told I didn't need to do anything, it would just work. I have had the contract for almost 2 years now.

I was on a Med cruise from Southampton.

As we left the English Channel I got a nice text from VM welcoming me to the USA ( it was an American ship) with all the tariff details. The same thing happened at Gibraltar, France, Italy, Sardinia, Portugal etc.

I did receive a couple of calls and could text perfectly but I could not make any outgoing calls. Tried altering the number prefix to +44 after ditching the 0 but it made no difference. I either got 'invalid number' or a voice message telling me that 'no connection could be made, contact your service provider'.

I had a maximum signal most of the time as well.

Contacted VM on my return and was advised to try adding 001144 instead of +44.

Maybe being an American ship and somehow they've set up their own mini-network they have it set up that you must use 011 - the USA code for making international calls and not 00 the European and many parts of the rest of the world access code. Could be the phone didn't realise that +44 needed to be converted into 011 and not 00 as I've heard this happen a few times with people in the USA.

[chickendippers]

The + should automatically be converted into the appropriate international dialling code for the region that you're in. I had no problems making calls in Greece at Easter.

[iadom]

Originally Posted by BexTech

Maybe being an American ship and somehow they've set up their own mini-network they have it set up that you must use 011 - the USA code for making international calls and not 00 the European and many parts of the rest of the world access code. Could be the phone didn't realise that +44 needed to be converted into 011 and not 00 as I've heard this happen a few times with people in the USA.

That doesn't explain why it didn't work on all of the European networks, I got the welcome text message every time I went into a different country, but could not dial out in any of them.

The only time I was on the American network was when we were at sea.
One of the calls I received was whilst at sea on the ships own network.

A bit of a bozo question here. Phone is a Nokia N73, when I enter a number direct from the keypad and press the */+ button it always enters a * so if I dial +44 it comes up on the screen as *44, could this be the cause of the problem, if so how do I get the keypad to enter a +.

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by chickendippers

The + should automatically be converted into the appropriate international dialling code for the region that you're in. I had no problems making calls in Greece at Easter.

It should be automatically converted, however in the USA for some reason it doesn't always work - why? I don't know, I just know it's a known issue.

Greece is in Europe which uses 00 and not in the USA where the problem arises from time to time. That's why when in Greece you didn't have a problem, because Greece hasn't suddenly become part of the USA and uses their system.

I've never had a problem and my numbers have always been entered in +44, +34 etc format ever since owning a mobile phone back in the dark ages, but then I've not bothered going to the USA.

---------- Post added at 23:34 ---------- Previous post was at 23:33 ----------

Originally Posted by iadom

That doesn't explain why it didn't work on all of the European networks, I got the welcome text message every time I went into a different country, but could not dial out in any of them.

The only time I was on the American network was when we were at sea.
One of the calls I received was whilst at sea on the ships own network.

A bit of a bozo question here. Phone is a Nokia N73, when I enter a number direct from the keypad and press the */+ button it always enters a * so if I dial +44 it comes up on the screen as *44, could this be the cause of the problem, if so how do I get the keypad to enter a +.

That could well be the reason.

Misread your post at first, thought it was just using the 'USA' ship where there was the issue.

You need to either press * twice quickly or hold the * down until the + symbol comes up.

You would have been dialling *44.... and not +44.....

[iadom]

Just tried, its press it twice quickly, strange thing is though, I didn't alter any of the numbers in my address book, just left them with the UK codes intact and was able to send texts to lots of different people.

It was my first ever cruise, it was awful, so bad in fact that I am going on the same ship in 7 weeks time for an 11 day cruise to the Canary Islands.

Tried to rep you for the */+ tip but IE has been playing up big time since the last update, will see if Safari lets me through, thanks anyway.

Jim.

[BenMcr]

Nokia phones can always be a bit strange with numbers.

Depending on how your phone book is set up, if you have someone with +44 at the start and the network just sends you 07, the name won't come up (and vice versa)

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Nokia phones can always be a bit strange with numbers.

Depending on how your phone book is set up, if you have someone with +44 at the start and the network just sends you 07, the name won't come up (and vice versa)

Luckily this has never been an issue with all my Nokia phones.

[piggy]

Originally Posted by iadom

Just tried, its press it twice quickly, strange thing is though, I didn't alter any of the numbers in my address book, just left them with the UK codes intact and was able to send texts to lots of different people.

It was my first ever cruise, it was awful, so bad in fact that I am going on the same ship in 7 weeks time for an 11 day cruise to the Canary Islands.

Tried to rep you for the */+ tip but IE has been playing up big time since the last update, will see if Safari lets me through, thanks anyway.

Jim.

i think a text message does the +44 automatically

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by BexTech

Maybe being an American ship and somehow they've set up their own mini-network they have it set up that you must use 011 - the USA code for making international calls and not 00 the European and many parts of the rest of the world access code. Could be the phone didn't realise that +44 needed to be converted into 011 and not 00 as I've heard this happen a few times with people in the USA.

Probably INMARSAT and you wouldn't want to make calls at that cost!

---------- Post added at 23:07 ---------- Previous post was at 23:06 ----------

Originally Posted by BexTech

It should be automatically converted, however in the USA for some reason it doesn't always work - why? I don't know, I just know it's a known issue.

Greece is in Europe which uses 00 and not in the USA where the problem arises from time to time. That's why when in Greece you didn't have a problem, because Greece hasn't suddenly become part of the USA and uses their system.

I've never had a problem and my numbers have always been entered in +44, +34 etc format ever since owning a mobile phone back in the dark ages, but then I've not bothered going to the USA.

---------- Post added at 23:34 ---------- Previous post was at 23:33 ----------



That could well be the reason.

Misread your post at first, thought it was just using the 'USA' ship where there was the issue.

You need to either press * twice quickly or hold the * down until the + symbol comes up.

You would have been dialling *44.... and not +44.....

I've always held down the zero button to get a +

[iadom]

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

Probably INMARSAT and you wouldn't want to make calls at that cost!

---------- Post added at 23:07 ---------- Previous post was at 23:06 ----------


I've always held down the zero button to get a +

On board cost was £1 per minute so I didn't bother, only 38p on all the European ones though.

Holding down the 0 button on my N73 fires up the browser and takes me to Virgin 'Bites'

Jim.

[BexTech]

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

Probably INMARSAT and you wouldn't want to make calls at that cost!

---------- Post added at 23:07 ---------- Previous post was at 23:06 ----------


I've always held down the zero button to get a +

On my phones it's either hold down the * until it changes into + or press * twice fairly quickly until it changes into a +.