Fancy Having To Buy A Phone Just To Use A Phonecard

Yes, this happened to me. I have found a phonecard that costs about 2.5 cents/min to ring Korea. It has been working well enough over the last month and a half. Up until a week ago there was no cause for complaint. Since then I haven't been able to connect but have still been charged for attempted calls. A call to their service centre, followed by a 34 minute wait to talk to somebody, resulted in a refund for the non-connected calls. Didn't cover my dial-in fee but you get that. They did mention that my cordless phone may be causing the problem but as it was fully charged there probably wasn't an issue with it. Like I said, it had been working fine for a month and a half.

Tried calling again the other night and encountered the same problem. Got the company to refund my money and the person I spoke to this time said that the phonecard was incompatible with cordless phones. That's a new one on me. Just before asking for all of my credit to be refunded I rang from work yesterday, using the phonecard of course. No problem to connect. So last night I went and purchased a phone.

There were plenty of phone shops at Carousel Shopping Centre but I saw only two or three different corded phones. Even AllPhones didn't have a corded phone for sale. I think that their name is misleading and constitutes false advertising. Got my phone, from the Telstra Shop would you believe, and had a chance to use it last night. I even purchased an extension cord to go with it so that I could sit in the lounge whilst making a call. That's why I bought a cordless phone in the first place. I didn't wish to be stuck next to the base unit.

Worked fine. Can't believe I had to buy a phone to enable me to use a phonecard. Mind you, the $30 I spent for phone and extension lead will almost pay for themselves within a month so as not to rely a more expensive phonecard.

It's a case of spending money to save money in the long term. Still nice and frugal.