Talk:United Kingdom/@comment-31409948-20170227210326

So, I just came back from a week in London, and BOY do I have a story to tell.

I elected to get Vodafone's prepaid bundle, specifically the £20 Big Value Bundle, which included 4GB of data and (ostensibly) unlimited national texts and 500 UK minutes. I should clarify that I pretty much ONLY needed this for data. I paid the £20 only, just to get the pack activated, I didn't need anything else, leaving my account balance at zero. I use Google Maps a lot while travelling, and most of my friends and colleagues, not to mention both my wife and kid, have iPhones. This, you would think,  meant that I could use iMessage to text anyone with an iPhone back in Brazil using just the data included with the plan.

So, I purchase the plan after much delay and many issues with their computer system- they said they update the system on Sunday morning, which is when I purchased the SIM and plan. Stupid, but whatever, they finally got it up and running. Then the guy could neither remove the child-lock from the account, nor activate 4G. Fine, I said, I'd come back the next day to get all that done, I just wanted to get out of there. A 20-minute process extended into a 1.5 hour ordeal.

I leave the shop with the data working, and head to my hotel. Later in the day, I notice that iMessage was still in the "waiting for activation" state, and restarted the phone. When iOS came back up, it popped up a notification that said "Your carrier may charge you for SMS messages used to activate iMessage and Facetime." WTF?! But OK, I have unlimited texts with this bundle. Later I got a notification that iMessage failed to activate and there was "!" on the Messages icon on the home screen. I went back to the store and got 4 different stories from the incompetent staff at the Oxford Street location. First, iMessage doesn't work on prepaid. Second, my phone is locked to my provider in Brazil (WTF!!). On and on and on. It was all blamed on me and my phone and the fact that I was on prepaid. I'm sorry, I've travelled to at least 12 countries in the past couple of years, including Russia, Iceland, Serbia, and Indonesia, and NEVER have I encountered a provider that charges for the texts to activate iMessage. Also of note, the two people I dealt with at that store were THE RUDEST and most insulting couple of ragamuffins I've ever had the displeasure of doling out money to. Sean, the "assistant manager" and Otavio the shop trash that first signed me up were insulting, dismissive, and obstructive in my efforts to get this solved.

I eventually went to the Apple store, which was THRONGED with people, and finally grabbed a guy and told him my desperate story. He laughed and said it was something pretty common that they dealt with. Evidently, Vodafone, unlike ALL OTHER CARRIERS in the UK, considers the texts to activate iMessage a "Premium Service" and charges 24p to send and receive them. I went back to the shop and told the two idiots that first "helped" me about this. I asked to put £1 on the phone and they laughed at me and told me it was a £10 minimum top, but assured me that I could use the remaining £9.76 to "call home and say hi to friends, family, or whoever you'd like to contact back in Brazil." I don't need that, I have data and Skype, and any number of other ways to call people that aren't charged at extortionate carrier rates.

After seriously losing it, and causing a huge scene inside the store, another manager who was previously "out of the office" when I asked to speak to management came out and GRACIOUSLY credited my account 30p to get the messages thru. I attempted to explain what the Apple Store assistant had told me, just for their reference and future knowledge (I mean, I can't be the only foreigner just wanting a plan to use iMessage and data), but they didn't seem interested and literally walked away from me, mid-sentence.

Afterwards, everything worked, but Vodafone's service is not the best and is seriously slow in London. The 4G was literally the exact same speed as the 3G, which averaged around 1.5 megabits down, and 1 megabit up. Pathetic. I also had a problem where, all of a sudden, the phone would lose network and go to "No Network" for about 30 seconds before regaining the connection. Employees at my hotel said that was pretty common with Vodafone. Everyone said I should have purchased EE- the more you know!

In essence, F*#K Vodafone and their sh@&tty employees. Would never spend money with them or their subsidiaries ever again.