Oh, no not another cell phone question!

I signed up with Telestial...bought a quad-band phone and a 'passport sim' card with a UK #.
I have a question and the 24/7 800# hasn't returned my calls.

So, if anyone has an answer to my question...I'll be your friend forever!
When I'm in Italy and I receive a call from the US what is my per minute charge? I thought that my incoming calls were free, but when I double-checked the chart....I think that I will be charged $1.29 a minute.
If anyone has experience with the Telestial Passport Sim card I be grateful for your help!

Fixed company name spelling in title - Marta

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marta,

Incoming calls are free with some of the Telestial Passport SIM cards, but not with all. The details are on the Telestial site.

Passport SIM:
http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=MSIM-PP01
Free incoming calls.

Passport Plus SIM:
http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=MSIM-PPPL
Incoming calls in Italy are $0.29/min

Passport Lite SIM:
http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=MSIM-PPLT
Free incoming calls in France, Italy, Spain, UK

The world of European SIM cards is confusing. If you are going to only one country, it is best to purchase a SIM card for only that country. Then incoming calls are free and outgoing are a good rate. If you are going to several countries, these PASSPORT SIM cards are good because they can be used in all the countries, but you pay more for outgoing calls and sometimes you pay for incoming.

Read more on our Roaming with Cell Phones in Europe page.

Telestial customer support should be calling you back - I don't like this.

I am going to copy this to the Technology on the Go forum where we talk about cell phones.

Pauline, Thanks for the response!!

I found en e-mail address on the Telestial site and just got an e-mail. They responded to the e-mail within 5 hours.
I called twice...once yesterday and then this morning...no response.
Not good if I were needing an immediate response.

I have the Passport Sim...Free incoming calls from US as long as they call me DIRECT. Then the charge is on the caller's home phone.

I was chart-confused....thought that I may be charged $1.29 a minute for calls from US.

My # is a UK phone number...so when my husbands calls me on the cell our home # will be charged for a call to the UK...which is slightly less expensive than a call to Italy. I may purchase an Sim card.....but only after I memorize the UK number! LOL

Thanks again!!!

Correction of my last line...
I may purchase an ITALIAN Sim card....

Pauline - as an aside - i had very poor customer service from Telestial when I tried to cancel my service after our last trip - I finally gave up in disgust, and decided I would use another company next time I needed a SIM card.

Judy

quote:

when my husbands calls me on the cell our home # will be charged for a call to the UK...which is slightly less expensive than a call to Italy. I may purchase an Italian Sim card.....but only after I memorize the UK number! LOL

if you purchase an Italian SIM and your husband calls you, your home phone will be charged for a call to Italy intead of the UK like with your Telestial SIM. Is thewre a big differnce in that cost?

Unlike with other Alternatives that I have tried (AT&T international roaming, prebuying a TIM SIM on ebay), the Telestial SIM worked like advertized when it came. I haven't tried to call customer service, but like Bailey they answered my email inquirey within 4 hours.

DragonPat....It's about .5 per minute difference.
I may get an Iatlian Sim so that I won't have to pay .84 per minute to talk to my Venetian friends on their cell phones.
I feel like a detective...so many loops and dips to consider.

I bought a Passport SIM from Telestial about a year and a half ago, and my partner and I used it on trips to Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, and Canada with no problems. (Incoming calls were free, and outgoing rates were fine, given the convenience of not having to buy a new card in each country and having a consistent number to give to family and friends.)

Then, in late September, about four days before we were scheduled to leave on another trip to Italy, I discovered that the card had stopped working. I called the "24/7" support number repeatedly and didn't get a call back until two days later. E-mail response was faster, but still took about 24 hours.

It turned out that some of the Passport cards had been recalled, but I had never received any notification of that fact. I ended up having to buy a TIM SIM card in Italy. Telestial has promised to replace my Passport card and transfer the remaining airtime from the old card to the new one, but given my very frustrating recent experiences, I intend to stop using their services once that airtime has run out. I don't know whether these technical and customer-service problems are temporary or indicative of longer-term issues, but I would advise others considering signing up with Telestial to proceed with caution.

quote:

DragonPat....It's about .5 per minute difference.
I may get an Iatlian Sim so that I won't have to pay .84 per minute to talk to my Venetian friends on their cell phones.
I feel like a detective...so many loops and dips to consider.

I am not sure where you are getting the .5 cent difference in the Telestial charges. When you are in Italy calling your Venetian friends is $0.49/min.