International calls - my autoroam nightmare

How do I make/receive international calls when travelling? Use my autoroam! Yes, no call back service, discount international call cards or anything else. Just the autoroaming on my mobile phone.



I have almost forgotten about the unhappiness I had about the autoroaming service from my service provider, until their customer service officer irked me again today.

I hate to call service hotlines, not even when I am slapped with an unbelievable amount of autoroaming charges. I just got to rant here after being rudely cut off by their customer service officer.

Incident 1- which I had actually forgotten
You was in Bangkok for a holiday with my friend, and I fell really sick there. My phone was on autoroaming, with calls diverted to my hubby's phone just in case some impt clients called.

When the bill came, I had a heart attack. There were so many calls, some of them less than 1 minute apart, and usually lasts about 1 minute. I even had 5 calls within a few minutes! The bills also did not state clearly whether it it outgoing or incoming calls. I was really suprised when I saw the bill, as my handphone did not register those missed calls, and so did my husband's handphone.


It was not possible for me to make those calls, cos I was sleeping like a log and having high fever. International calls on autoroam is expensive, who on earth will be stupid to call every minute? Where did the calls come from ? Was there a ghost in my hotel room making and receiving those calls? It added to what I heard on the grapevine regarding mysterious autoroam calls,
just that mine is a tad to many. However, I was really busy then, and like most goody goody people living in this place, just paid up my bills without kicking a fuss.

I forgot about the incident and happily renewed my contract a few days ago.

Incident 2 This is it!
Today I regretted renewing my contract. They had offered me ''free'' voice mail as a promotion when I signed up another line. The promotion period was one year, and ended last month. Typical to their style, they started charging you for these ''value added'' services without informing you about these charges.

I know their style well, and being the typical ''tame'' customer, called their hotline and requested them to stop the service. Stopping their service requires one day, and yes, as of this time, I am still being charged for my voicemail. I thought being a super loyal customer with multiple lines would give me a chance to ''feedback''.


I asked the lady over the phone nicely:
Me: Can I provide some feedback about this? This is not the second time I am encountering this, and I am sure many customers also feel the same. You might want to note this down ...
xxxCustomer service officer: Sure, go ahead.
Me: Can xxx give inform us B4 the charges start or ask us whether we want to continue before charging because....
xxxCustomer service officer(She CUTS in abruptly!!): Ok. Thank your for calling......
Me (I actually got angry!): Excuse me I have not finished yet!!!!

Darn!!!
I was thinking of asking them to consider sending us an sms to remind us.... just like how efficiently they remind me whenever I am late in paying the bills. Now come to think of it, I am sure the smart people up there have thought of how convenient this is for customers, but they just do not want to do it. The smart aleks through that it is possible for them to earn some extra dollars because many people will give up cancelling it (they will be lost in their hotline, which require you to push many right buttons before a CSO appears). Perhaps that is why they are not supportive of true number portability.

But I tell you what, when number protability comes I will be the first customer to run. Even without number portability, we (family) will change all our lines, one by one, to some other more decent service provider. No more feedback. We just take our bussiness (albeit small) to somewhere else.


And as for my travels? I am going to check out those call back cards and stop being the 'autoroam queen'. Although I usually will not use public phones outside hotels, especially when I am alone in an unfamiliar place (I believe that is a sitting duck for robbery and other crimes), I will reconsider. Phonecards, prepaid mobile card, call back cards, whatever. I am going to find an alternative.