Based on past, not very pleasant experiences, I felt it worth contacting my faceless mobile phone provider to ensure I was covered when calling overseas. For reasons uncertain, I chose to use their online chat support. The actual excerpt below (names changed to protect the innocent and me) left me less than reassured. Pardon the typos, my keyboard was acting up.
I will skip over when he sent me the wrong information [twice] and move ahead to the climactic interaction. I begin by restating the question at hand.
[Me]: What is the number I would dial from Turkey to make a call to the US?
[Bertie]: There is no country code needed to dial to the U.S. if you are a [faceless corporation] customer in the U.S.
[Me]: so you are telling me that when I am in Turkey — I just call the us as normal?
[Bertie]: That is correct. If you are dialing other countries while outside of the U.S., you will need to dial a their country code before dialing their number. […]
[Me]: Bertie, two questions: Have you ever been outside the us and made a mobile call to the us? And, are you willing to risk your reputation at your job with the answer you gave me? […] I ask because I usually get a bad answer when I have asked this question in the past. If you do not know, send me to some one who does
[Bertie]: I have never been outside of the U.S. and made a mobile call to the U.S., but I was instructed that this is the process by my supervisors.
[Me]: Just to be clear: you say when I am in Turkey, I turn on my phone and call the US as normal and my call will go through?
[Bertie]: That is correct!
[Me]: Bertie, I say, you seem like a decent person. Will your supervisor give me one year of free service if this does not work?
[Bertie]: We are not allowed to offer things like that. We are only allowed to advise on and help locate plans and features from the website.
[Me]: This should tell you something about what your supervisor knows 🙂 I believe your supervisor is incorrect, but I will try anyway. I will re-contact [faceless corporation] after my trip. Thank you
[Bertie]: I hope it all goes well for you [Me]! Is there anything else I can help you with today?
[Me]: nope. I will save this chat for later. thanks
Needless to say, I called the faceless corporation after chatting with Bertie and got a completely different answer – albeit one slightly more believeable.
Note: The person on the phone was also not willing to give me one year free service if their information was incorrect.
