No Ringy-Dingy

by Gwen McCauley
(Ottawa, ON, Canada)

A few years back I was traveling with a couple friends from Australia to Singapore to London and then back to Canada. We had been very busy on business in Australia and I hadn't gotten around to calling my hubbie on my last day there. Figured that since Singapore was such an advanced Asian centre it wouldn't be an issue.

Well! That was certainly an erroneous assumption. It took me forever to get a pile of coins and locate a public telephone in a place quiet enough to hear myself think. I love Singapore, but the noise levels were amazing. Finally found a working phone and then discovered all instructions were in languages other than English. And these were like no phones I'd ever seen. Couldn't figure out whether to put the money in first, or dial first and then put money in when I got a dial tone. Had no clue how much money was required. And couldn't find anyone who spoke English and was willing to take 2 minutes to show me how it worked.

One day went by, two days went by. Finally I broke down and had the hotel operator place a call for me. She demanded my calling card number, including PIN. Duh? What should have been my first clue that trouble was coming?

Anyhow, finally connected with a not very happy spouse who hadn't heard from me in 4 days at a time when he knew I was changing countries.

After returning home I got a phone call from the local telco about my huge unpaid long distance bill and the fact that my phone was about to be disconnected unless I paid the $2,500 in outstanding charges. Fortunately I had worked for the company for years and knew how to get a security investigation done, have the charges reversed, etc., etc. Took about 4 months to resolve and the final amount of revenue involved was just under $5,000.

Fortunately these days I travel with laptop and iPhone so don't expect a situation like that again. And hubbie has now learned that when I'm traveling in foreign lands it isn't always easy to stay in touch. He cuts me some slack!

And I've learned that just because you think you know doesn't mean you have a clue! Oh wait, I think I hear the phone ringing ...

Gwen McCauley
http://www.gwenmccauley.ca
Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/gwenmccauley

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No Ringy-Dingy

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Singapore phones
by: SKC

Hello. I am from Singapore and was surprised to read about Gwen's problems with the public phones here. I wonder how long ago that was and where. English is widely spoken in Singapore and public facilities including public phones do have information and instructions in English. You can also use credit cards to make calls from public phones nowadays. There are also calling cards you can buy that give discounted rates on overseas calls. And if you have skype on your mobile and/or laptop, go to any public area eg. cafes where they'll have wireless for free, and chat away. Gwen, I hope you'll come back again and give Singapore phones another try.

Phones in France
by: Scribetrotter

I laughed when I read this - I went through something similar with phones in France of all places... Some years ago French phones were diabolical - you put in your money, dialed, and once the person answered at the other end, you pressed a button so they could hear you. Otherwise you'd just talk and wonder why the other person couldn't hear you on the line...

Nowhere did they have instructions about pressing that little button. I was fortunate that I spoke French so I was able to ask (though taken for a lunatic for not knowing how a simple thing like a phone works!) I must have tried calling a dozen times first, though - and I did feel slightly incompetent. :-)