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Hello SIM = Ripoff
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CrankyCarrot
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24th March, 2010
Location Thailand
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I bought a Hello SIM card to use in Cambodia, since the deal I was offered seemed pretty good.
$8 for the SIM, with $10 credit. Well, it turns out that it was $8 for a SIM, $3 credit and $7 of near-useless "bonus credit," which as it turns out you can only use to call other Hello SIM users.
The girl selling the card presented it as $10 worth of credit you can use to call anyone, anywhere. Although being $5 out isn't the end of the world, it really sticks in my craw when I get a raw deal like this.
Just letting people know what to expect if they give their hard earned to Hello.
#1 Posted: 12/2/2012 - 04:05
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sayadian
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I use HELLO in Cambodia and overall I find it the best of the lot.
Saying that I have to agree with you Cranky Carrot I've had some less than 'honest' deals from them.
I use a dongle modem and I pay for the $5 for 1.2G a month plan.
Last month I put the $5 in and the next day it ran out!! Went to the office and the girl told me that I had (without my knowledge) started paying for a ringtone at 50 cents a month.So when I put the $5 in it immediately took out the 50 cents leaving me with a balance of $4.50 which wasn't enough to pay for the monthly plan so they started charging me the hourly rate.This ran out in one day.
Firstly I didn't ask for a ringtone but was told that I'd received some message and I had to decline the offer or had the ringtone by default.
Secondly, there was no message telling me I was short by 50 cents they just ate up all my credit on their expensive hourly plan.(They didn't even put me on the daily plan at 50 cents a day or notify me, just charged me by the hour.
Trying to explain that I was aggrieved was like talking to a brick wall.
Customer service is pretty dismal in Cambodia.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, just wanted to say you're not the only one.
These companies have a lot to learn about business and keeping the customer happy.
#2 Posted: 12/2/2012 - 21:08
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eastwest
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I use Hello for phone calls and never have a real problem. Must admit that I never bother with the bonuses and such.
For internet I use Metfone and that works great. $5 keeps me going for a month of surfing or so. Skype, videos and other heavy data transfers will cost dear though and I never use it for that
#3 Posted: 12/2/2012 - 23:14
CrankyCarrot
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I just took major umbrage at the fact that the whole "Seven bonus dollars!" was used as a big selling point, and then it turns out I can't actually use it at all.
The only other advantage to buying a Hello SIM was that you don't need to provide ID (eg passport) in order to get it, whereas with the others you do. The OS rates seemed ok, but by no means any better than the ones I see you can get with other SIMs.
Oh well.
I did go back and ask the girl to explain herself, but you can imagine how much use that was.
Hmmmph!
#4 Posted: 13/2/2012 - 06:47
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