How does Meteor do this ?

J-537

Hi all,

I got a leaflet in the door the other day from meteor offering me an upgrade because I'm with them a year now (I have a pay as you go sim by the way). Anyway they gave me an option of 4 phones - Siemens C62, Nokia 3200, Motorola C450 & the Siemens MC60.

So the offer is €10 off the phone you want plus €70 credit, I taught wow this sounds to good to be true !

So I rang them ...............................................................................................................................20 mins later I got trough :rolleyes: , and I told them I wanted to go for the Nokia 3200 (€199 - €10) and give the phone to my girlfriend and keep the credit for my self !

He said no you can't do that !

I said why not ?

He said the €70 credit would be registered with the phone (the 3200) - ie the IMEI number, and the sim won't work in any other phone until all the €70 credit has been used on the 3200.

So I was just wondering how meteor do that and does o2 and Vodafone do this and is there anyway around it ?

90s

It’s an upgrade pack so the credit gets put on to you account (your number) when you buy it vodafone and o2 do this 2.
As far as I know once the credit is put into your account you can just put your sim into any phone and use it and give your new phone to your girlfriend. Meteor customer care is not the best there are a couple of other threads discussing this.

J-537

I dunno :dunno: ?

But I was talking to guy this morning about it and he said that he bought a Nokia 3100 from meteor to sell on and just keep the credit him self, and he said when he put the sim in his own phone he had signal and reception problems and basicly it just didn't work.

So he got on to meteor and told them the story and it seems the credit been registered with the phone (IMEI) is right.

So you can't get an upgrade or buy a meteor phone and use the sim in another phone when you put the credit on to it - you must have to just use the sim with the new phone !

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by J-537
I dunno :dunno: ?

But I was talking to guy this morning about it and he said that he bought a Nokia 3100 from meteor to sell on and just keep the credit him self, and he said when he put the sim in his own phone he had signal and reception problems and basicly it just didn't work.

So he got on to meteor and told them the story and it seems the credit been registered with the phone (IMEI) is right.

So you can't get an upgrade or buy a meteor phone and use the sim in another phone when you put the credit on to it - you must have to just use the sim with the new phone !

Where was the guy that he was getting bad reception? I'm in Dublin 95% of the time I was hoping I wouldn't find the reception too big an issue. I have friends with O2 and they seem to have poor reception a lot of the time. I don't find Vodafone great signal wise, but I need to chnage from vodafone as its costing me fortune.

J-537

He's from Dublin like my self and to honest I've NEVER had a problem with the signal on the meteor network.

But anyway the problem he had with his signal has nothing to do with him having a bad connection - Its a tech thing with meteor !

ie -

I was talking to guy this morning about it and he said that he bought a Nokia 3100 from meteor to sell on and just keep the credit him self, and he said when he put the sim in his own phone he had signal and reception problems and basicly it just didn't work.

So he got on to meteor and told them the story and it seems the credit been registered with the phone (IMEI) is right.

So you can't get an upgrade or buy a meteor phone and use the sim in another phone when you put the credit on to it - you must have to just use the sim with the new phone !

And I had vodafone as a bill phone and it cost me a fortune (€150+ a month) but with a bill phone its just to easy to run up your bill. I have a PAYG now with meteor and it cost me about €50 a month MAX somtimes only €30 !

skipn_easy

I'm not very knowledgeable about mobile phones etc. but this sounds crazy to me. I don't think they could stop you putting your sim into another phone. Fair enough they put the credit into your account so you have to use it but how would they stop your sim card working in other phones? What would happen if after a month you decided to buy a better phone and still hadn't used up the credit? And why would they care if you used up the credit anyway?
And I had a meteor phone as do a good few of my friends here in Dublin and the reception is crap.

J-537

They stop you using your sim in other phones because they lock the credit on your sim to the IMEI number on the phone. And I'm sure if you wanted to buy a new phone a month later once it was with meteor they would just transfer it over.

And they want to lock to the credit to the IMEI number so ppl can't just go in to the meteor store and buy a hand set, sell the phone on and just keep the credit for them self's.

And on the reception problem on meteor I can honest say I've NEVER had a problem - I've never even dropped a call !

J-537

I just want to make something clear - I'm not talking about sim packs just when you buy an upgrade ie a phone.

The locking of the credit to the IMEI is only when you buy a RTG phone pack on meteor !

thesteve

I got a meteor phone a few years ago, simply for the credit they were offering and the deal it was going with through xtravision, i planned to use the credit annd then sell the phone.... one night the battery goes dead and i put my sim in another phone to make a call... made the call, put the sim bacjk in my origional meteor phone, charged it the next day and when i turned it on, i had no signal

went to the metoer shop and the guy asked me if i put it in another phone, when i said ya, he told me that the sim was locked to the phone and when i put it in another phone and a different imei was registered to my sim, meteor blocked it

they used to do this just as PAYG operators lock their phones to their network, metoer used to lock them to the sim. They stopped it because of too many situations like i experienced.... when they offer you the upgrade, they must kind of run the same scenario, checking the imei with your sim when you switch the phone on....... b@stards

J-537

Ok, so is there anyway around this ?

We all know how to unlock Nokia's so that they can be sim free - there must be a way around this !

Ste.phen

nope, other than calling them and begging.
It's all in the Terms and Conditions, as i recall.

J-537

Oh !

Well I just had a quick look through there Terms and Conditions on the site and I couldn't see anything about it ?

http://www.meteor.ie/about/terms.html

Ste.phen

Originally posted by J-537
Oh !

Well I just had a quick look through there Terms and Conditions on the site and I couldn't see anything about it ?

http://www.meteor.ie/about/terms.html

I love the "find" function in my browser

13. Suspension of Services

We may terminate or suspend the Services wholly or partially at any time at our option and particularly

[...]
* If you use your Call Credit on any phone other than that purchased when you became a customer.
[...]

"Call Credit" isnt defined there, but i think the most recent printed copy i have of the Meteor T&Cs has a definition for it which says it refers to the free credit you're awareded when you purchase a phone.

J-537

Cheers Igy, I see it know section 13, 3rd one down !

If you use your Call Credit on any phone other than that purchased when you became a customer

Remind me to bring you when I'm getting my next car - .........

RicardoSmith

What happens if you get one of their sims and no phone?

J-537

No thats ok its just when you get a credit upgrade phone !

They will lock the credit to that phone.

Ste.phen

heh, no problem, i just know its in there because they used it against me once, same issue

savemejebus

i recently went through this rigmarole with Meteor when i bought a new handset (3510i) as the battery in my old siemens was dying. I asked them to put my old sim in the new handset and register the new sim to the old handset (as an emergency fone) they said this was impossibl yadda yadda and that i could switch sims but i would lose the free credit (didn't qualify for a bonus upgrade) and why didn't i just use the new sim till the credit was gone, I said ok but had no patience and switched sims. sure enough the new sim stopped working in my old phone but i really didn't care, still ever the chancer i sent an email to customer service saying that i had no reception and i didn't know what happened and what was going on.

they kindly sent me an email saying that i shouldn't move sims till all my free credit was gone and then they reactivated the new sim in my old handset - nice one.

problem solved:D