PBH / Colombia / Forums (active) Travelguide Cheap hostels Pictures

Good problems with Movistar prepaid...

I am wondering if I am alone here or if some of you have experienced something similar. I have had Movistar for about a year now. My SIM is registered to my sister in law (she didn't need it so she gave it to me) and my phone is a TMobil phone that I had unlocked. Well, in no means am I complaining about the porblems I am having but I am getting more and more curious about how this can happen.

Often (not always) when I recharge my phone the system doesn't start docking me for the talked time untill a few days later r like yesterday....it wa for about 15 hours. So it seems I can talk and talk and not get any deduction. Finally, on one call it will start deducting again but all this previous calls remain free.

The other thing that happens often is when I go to recharge my phone, I typically place 10,000 on it, on a triple day. This way I will have 30,000 to use. However, when I call to check the balance, I have 50,000!!!

Sometimes, like yesterday, they both happen together. :)

So, I am wondering what could cause this. Is it really normal and everyone gets this happening to them? Is it because my phone is "gringo" or is it somehow linked to the SIM card? I am thinking to get a new phone but with these "benifits", I am not sure if I should change anything. Whatcha think?

By adrienne79 on Sep 16, 2008, 07:44 in Friendly Talkzone.

JGD (☼Travelguide writer) says on Sep 16, 2008, 08:00:

"So, I am wondering what could cause this." ... LUCK ? ... it would be an excellent guess...

You are worried the US is going to invade and take the Venezuelan oil?... you are selling everything to them !!Peruvian Pres. Alan Garcia to Chavez

0 funny, 0 helpful.

pedro (☼Travelguide writer) says on Sep 16, 2008, 08:09:

Movistar uses two or three separate categories of minutes. You have a balance for regular calls, a balance for bonus minutes, and a balance for minutes that only work to another Movistar number.

The Movistar minutes only get used last. So if you have 20k Movistar "promociones de voz" minutes, they are never in play until you've used up your regular minutes and you get in a situation where you don't have minutes to call other operators.

This would explain why you reach a situation where you run out of minutes to make calls to other operators (on your regular balance), recharge, but you still have extra minutes beyond your recharge.

You can check your different balances using *611 and then choose the saldo option.

"this may seem a strange post but it is not...when in colombia men need to be aware that colombia women may try to be seductive and entice a travelling gringo to have sex with them..to be forewarned is to be forearmed..." -- pow wow

0 funny, 1 helpful.

pedro (☼Travelguide writer) says on Sep 21, 2008, 17:51:

And yes, now that you mention it... I have noticed some calls not getting counted just recently.

I talk on the call for a while, and when I go to hang up, I notice the screen on my phone still says "calling (number)..." Not the call timer like it usually shows while the call is in progress.

After I hang up, I go to Call Logs and have a look at the duration of call, and it's as if that call never happened.

0 funny, 0 helpful.