Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.
:td: to 'The Team' on 789 who gave me incorrect and misleading information.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.:confused:

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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 +.:dunce:

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.....

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.:confused:

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. ;):cool::cleader:

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.:tu:

Jim.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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)

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

i think a text message does the +44 automatically

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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 +

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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.

Re: Using my virgin mobile overseas
 

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