ajGoes

I've been promoting Toggle Mobile here recently but I must now withdraw the recommendation because of their inadequate customer service. I'm disappointed because the company really has a technically ingenious system. Unfortunately they have not matched their technical skills with business skills. They prefer to blame the customer for a shortcoming in their own instructions.

I won't bore the forum with the very dull details, but I must suggest that users look elsewhere for international SIM cards.

Xyzzy

We don't need the full set of details, but you have provided none of them. Without hearing something about what the issue was it's rather hard to follow this sort of recommendation. I just acquired one of their SIMs and was planning to use it next week. They were quite respnsive when dealing with customer service to have it sent to me in the US.

ajGoes

Good point. Actually the service worked pretty well. I'm extremely peeved that their system charged me almost $11.50 for a call which should have cost $0.29. I registered for a US number on their system on Sept. 10th. The number was shown as active on my account on Sept. 11th, so I made a six-minute call to a UK mobile at what should have been £0.03/min. Instead it was billed at £1.23/min.

That didn't upset me overmuch as I assumed they would correct the error. This morning I received a call from a Toggle rep who explained that his technical department had determined my phone was "roaming" during that call. I had already deduced that.

The Toggle User Guide says "On the My toggle section of our website ... register for the countries you plan to visit and we will automatically give you a 'local' number for each of these countries. When you visit that country your toggle will automatically use this 'local' number for calls...." (My emphasis.)

I now know that I should have run the Toggle settings applet from the SIM card to manually select my USA profile, a process they call "latching". This process is described in the "How do I latch SIM when I don't have signal?" section of their web site, without defining their use of the verb "latch". It wasn't necessary in France where the process worked as advertised. The site does not explain how to tell whether or not your phone is roaming. In my case, the phone displayed this when it was roaming:


When latched to Toggle it displays this:


I don't feel particularly foolish for failing to know which condition meant I'd pay $0.05/min and which meant $1.95/min.


OK, thanks for letting me rant. Honestly I'll probably keep the Toggle card alive and use it the next time I travel in a Toggle country. I just really hate having a company offer an explanation instead of an apology, much less a refund. Their system promises to be completely automatic. They say not a word about how to verify that your phone is using the correct network. They just aren't an easy company to deal with.

Whew, there, much better now. If anyone needs detailed tips about how to use their Toggle cards, feel free to PM me.

Xyzzy

Well, thanks for letting us all knw about setting the SIM up when switching countries!

ElmhurstNick

I found when traveling in Germany and Switzerland that I had to wait about 10 minutes for the latching process to be completed. Fortunately I didn't have to make any calls in either country right away.

I'm excited about the USA service... 5c/minute with no minimum is an solid rate for occasional per-minute use. I can use it with an old dumb phone when I want to sell something on craigslist and have it as a backup phone in my bag in case my regular phone runs out of juice at an inconvenient moment.

ajGoes

You'll need an unlocked phone but yes, that will work great. Incoming calls are free. You'd just have to make sure you kept the SIM card alive by using it at least once every 120 days. I think I was told that simply connecting it to the network would be enough to keep it alive, but I'm not certain of that.

Xyzzy

When getting a local number in a country utside the UK, how long is that number active? I get the impression it isn't assigned permanently.

EDITED TO ADD:

Never mind -- I just saw the following when trying to register for a local number:This service seems to solve a number of problems for me including having a local prepaid SIM for friends from out of the US who visit me.

Roger

I just obtained a US local number (area code 201 - New Jersey) and look forward to using it in the US shortly. I called the number from the UK and my cellphone rang, so it's just about up and running.

For £5 a year, I'll probably retain the number permanently. No need to bother with contracts.

Given the flexibility with up to 10 local numbers, this looks a good prospect for international roaming. Just one problem for me, they offer no service from South Africa, probably the only SIM card provider without such service.

ajGoes

Toggle has been adding countries, so you should keep an eye on their site.

I'd be interested to know whether you can make a successful credit card payment on Toggle's site and, if not, through customer service. Every one of my attempts has been declined -- not by my card issuer but by Toggle's site's "random" security process.

If this happens to you, you should be able to make a payment through PayPal.

Phudnik

Do you have a US-based credit card? In my limited experience, Toggle only accepts UK-based cards to top up.

Xyzzy

They wouldn't accept my US card. so I used PayPal. That wrked fine.

ajGoes

Yes, it's US based. On two occasions a customer service rep told me that was fine when taking the number. Then their system rejected the attempted charge both times and the rep told me it was a "random security" event. My CC issuer told me they never received an attempted charge from Toggle.

redburgundy

The Toggle rate for mobile data seems expensive.
Or am I misunderstanding their rates?

ajGoes

It is relatively expensive except in the UK: £0.15/mb. I used it carefully during six days in Paris and spent only £2.70. I looked up bus itineraries with the RATP app and did a little very constrained Googling, keeping my data turned off most of the time. (I installed a handy little Android widget to manage my data).

-Andy

Xyzzy

Compared to the $15/mb that some US carriers charge it's quite reasonable. Hwever, they also have plans available for 500mb, 1gb or 2gb within 30 days. Those are £5, £7.50 and £10.