Ring. Neuer Anbieter?

Hallo,

auch heute 15.3 ist der Vodafone Bug noch nicht beseitigt und es ist nach wie vor kein Einzelfall,wie ich anhand verschiedener 01575 Nummer testen konnte.

Die Hotline unter 0800 war sofort dran, sehr freundlich und versprach es an die Technik weiter zu leiten. Auf meinen Einwand, daß das der Kollege neulich auch gesagt habe, versprach sie mir eine Info per e-mail, wenn das Problem gefixt sei.

Fehlerhafte Portierungen, die aus dem Vodafone Netz nicht erreichbar sind, hatte ich schon öfters gehört, auch bei E-Plus-Original (BASE) Kunden mit Festnetznummer gibts/gabs da nette Effekte, die erst auf hartnäckiges Nachfragen gefixt wurden.

Sehr schön ist auch die FUnktion Ansage der Rufnummer des Anrufers auf der Ring-Mailbox. Das Feature würde zu früheren E-Plus-Karten (inkl. Discountern) auch gut passen.

Hi all,

My apologies for the English but I came in Germany recently and I will be staying for the next 6 months. When I arrived in Germany a colleague recommended me to get the Minutel Plus SIM since I was mainly interested on making calls/texts to my homeland.

Last month, I got an SMS from Ring, telling me to upgrade the SIM. I did that and they have changed my tariff from the old Minutel Plus to the new Minutel Ring. Now I have noticed that the prices for calling abroad are outrageously increased. Some examples:

-Calling a mobile abroad was increased from 0.289€/min to 0.49€/min (price increase 170%)
-An SMS abroad was 0.129€ and now is 0.24€ (price increase 190%)
-Calling a landline abroad was 0.089€/min and now is 0.49€/min (price increase 550%!!!)

I've already sent an email to Ring 10 days ago but I haven't received any answer, so I would very much appreciate if you could tell me:

1. I noticed that Ring has two more tariffs, the Ring Seven and Ring Global, which are closer to the old Minutel Plus tariff I had. Is it possible to change my plan from the Ring Minutel to Ring Seven/Global?

2. If Ring refuses to change my plan to any of the other 2 tariffs, is it possible to dispute the price increases? Or just, write a letter to the German Commission for Telecommunications? Could you tell me the website/email address of that Commission? I much doubt if those those sharp price increases are justifiable under the German law for telecommunications/commerce.

Thank you very much in advance, and again, my apologies for the English post.

Hello,

Zitat

Original geschrieben von AlexR12
When I arrived in Germany a colleague recommended me to get the Minutel Plus SIM since I was mainly interested on making calls/texts to my homeland.

No good idea. Blauworld (http://www.blauworld.de) would be better. (Using E-Plus-Network too, but service and performance is better.)

There is a tendency with Ethno-SIM-Cards ("Ethno" stands for target groups calling much to their foreign countries) to make tariffs, nobody understands and only the company wins...

Zitat

they have changed my tariff from the old Minutel Plus to the new Minutel Ring. Now I have noticed that the prices for calling abroad are outrageously increased. Some examples:

-Calling a mobile abroad was increased from 0.289€/min to 0.49€/min (price increase 170%)
-An SMS abroad was 0.129€ and now is 0.24€ (price increase 190%)
-Calling a landline abroad was 0.089€/min and now is 0.49€/min (price increase 550%!!!)

ouch. The english speaking world says "rip off", der Deutsche sagt "abzocken" ...

Zitat

2. If Ring refuses to change my plan to any of the other 2 tariffs, is it possible to dispute the price increases? Or just, write a letter to the German Commission for Telecommunications? Could you tell me the website/email address of that Commission? I much doubt if those those sharp price increases are justifiable under the German law for telecommunications/commerce.

The authority is called Bundesnetzagentur (Federal agency for telecommunications, networks, posts, energy etc.) see http://www.bundesnetzagentur.de (some pages in english available)

You could write an email to verbraucherservice (at) bnetza (dot) de

Please keep us informed, what will happen.

Have fun.

Seit gestern ruft mich im 3 Stunden-Takt die Rufnummer 0157*-2702702 auf einer meiner Ring Karten an und legt nach 2x klingeln wieder auf. Nimmt man zuvor ab, legt der Anrufer auch auf ohne dass man auch nur ein Geräusch hört. Ruft man auf der Nummer an, kommt die Ansage dass die Nummer nicht vergeben ist.

Ist das ein nur mir passierender Einzelfall?

Zitat

Original geschrieben von AlexR12
Hi all,

Last month, I got an SMS from Ring, telling me to upgrade the SIM. I did that and they have changed my tariff from the old Minutel Plus to the new Minutel Ring.

I guess, in detail, they sent you a new sim card. To change the tariff without changing the card was not possible, as it was already written here in this thread (but unfortunately in German )

Zitat

Now I have noticed that the prices for calling abroad are outrageously increased. Some examples:

-Calling a mobile abroad was increased from 0.289€/min to 0.49€/min (price increase 170%)
-An SMS abroad was 0.129€ and now is 0.24€ (price increase 190%)
-Calling a landline abroad was 0.089€/min and now is 0.49€/min (price increase 550%!!!)

Yes, that the prices in roaming etc. have been increased up to the known Eplus prepaid tariff for roaming and calls abroad as it had also been written here.
Your way out is to use the old sim card if you have balance. As it was written, the old simcard will stay active until the end of March and here the old tariff Minutel Plus applies .
I would not say that Ethno prepaids are not usable. Some providers in Germany like Lycamobile offer prepaid sim cards for calls to the UK for 0.01 Euro/min with only a single connection fee of 0.15 Euro per call (and 0.09 Euro per Sms). Although by using callthrough or callback solutions you could pay for much less than 9 cent/min for calls to your home country. You see, there are a lot of possibilities...

Zitat

Original geschrieben von hrgajek
No good idea. Blauworld (http://www.blauworld.de) would be better. (Using E-Plus-Network too, but service and performance is better.)

Thanks a lot for the info hrgajek. Before I arrived in Germany, I was advised to get the Minutel Plus instead of the Blauworld because it was far cheaper, especially on short calls. For example, the price to call a mobile in Finland where I come from, is for both the same, 29 Cent/min. However, Minutel Plus was charging per second (Taktung 1/1) while Blauword is charging per minute + 15cents a connection fee per call. So when you make a 10 second short call (and I had a lot of those, like "Hi, call me back on my landline), with Blauworld I would pay 29c+15c=44cents, while with Minutel Plus I was paying 29c x 10sec/60sec=4.8cents. Almost 10 times cheaper than Blauworld.

Thank you also for the information about the web address and the email of Bundesnetzagentur. I sent a second mail to Ring yesterday, and I will wait for their reply to my request to change my plan tariff from ring Minutel to ring Seven/Global. If they don't answer, I will contact the Bundesnetzagentur, in order to clarify the issue.

Zitat

Original geschrieben von qwqw
I guess, in detail, they sent you a new sim card. To change the tariff without changing the card was not possible, as it was already written here in this thread (but unfortunately in German )
Yes, that the prices in roaming etc. have been increased up to the known Eplus prepaid tariff for roaming and calls abroad as it had also been written here.

Thank you for the info qwqw. I've read this forum before (with the help of my limited German knowledge and Google translate) and I was aware of the changes about the New Ring SIM cards and price changes.

The main issue with the change to New Generation Ring, is that only the people who had the old "Minutel Plus" tariff plan were affected. Not the people who had the normal Minutel tariff or the customers of the old Ring tariffs (Seven, Global, Classic etc).

Given the prices of old "Minutel Plus" to EU countries (9cents to landlines, 29c to mobiles, 13c SMS), it would actually make sense for Ring, not to move the Minutel Plus customers to the new "Ring Minutel" tariff (49cents to landlines, 49c to mobiles, 24c SMS) but to move them onto "ring Seven" (29cents to landlines, 7c to mobiles, 14c SMS) or to "ring Global" tariff (20cents to landlines, 7c to mobiles, 13c SMS).

Therefore, I sent an email to Ring, requesting to change my tariff to Ring Seven or Global (instead of ring Minutel) because those tariff plans have closer prices to my old Minutel Plus tariff.

Do you know if it's possible to change from my current "ring Minutel" plan to "ring Seven" or "ring Global" tariff plans?

Hello again,

in comparison to Suomi (Finland) the mobile tariffs in Germany could still be extreme (to high).
As I know in former times (some years ago) no subsidies were paid in Finland, while in Germany everybody "learnt" to get a mobile phone for 1 Mark (later 1 Euro) only, if signing a (expensive) contract.

BTT: Do you have a finnish SIM-Card, which works in Germany?

Due to the EU regulation it could be cheaper to use this card for a trigger call or for a short SMS Textmessage to trigger a kind of call back from home to you landline?

AlexR12 with a Fonic simcard, calls to finnish landline numbers cost you only 9ct/min, calls to finnish mobile numbers 29ct/min.

rmol  AlexR12

Yes, if you have a postal adress within germany Fonic (network o2) could be an alternative.

Or You look at simyo.de or blau.de (not blauworld.de, both in the E-Plus-Network) they charge 12 Cent /Minute to european landline or 29 Cent ro european mobile , but check their websites for details, before ordering.

If you prefer Network of Deutsche Telekom D1 have look at congstar (but foreign mobile phones are tremendous expensive to be called, 149 Cent/Minute !!) if Vodafone D2 look at http://www.otelo.de (can be obtained at gasoline stations like Agip, Aral and others)

Thanks a lot for the additional info guys.

hrgajek: Unfortunately I canceled my Finnish mobile contract when I left because I would be staying in Germany for 12 months.

rmol & hrgajek: Yes, Fonic, Netzclub, Otelo, Blau and the old Minutel Plus, they all charge around 9c/min for calls to EU landlines and 29c/min for calls to mobiles. But also, the other two Ring tariff plans (Ring Seven/Global), charge the same or even less.

So because I still have a lot of credit on my Minutel card (40 euro normal credit + 50 euro from the teltarif, total around 90 euro), I requested from ring to change my new Ring Minutel tariff to the any of the other two tariffs they offer.

And since I will be staying in Germany for only the next 6 months, and I still have 90EUR credit, it won't make sense to get another SIM card from another provider while Ring does have similar tariff plans with them (Ring Seven or Global).

Hopefully, Ring will get my mail and change my plan to any of the two alternative plans they offer. If they refuse to do that, then I'll contact the Bundesnetzagentur and let them sort it out (which I very much doubt).