How to contact Fonic from the UK, I'm in a pickle

Hello,

I am moving to Germany next week.

My German bank account refused payment for the pre-paid SIM that I bought from Fonic, even though I thought there were funds in this account. I think maybe there was some miss-communication between myself, my agent and the bank manager when I opened the account. So Fonic sent me an arsey email, fined me 15 euros, which I now need to pay within 7 days. Anyway, I emailed the bank and assuming I understood their English correctly, they have now sorted the problem.

So, now I need to speak to Fonic to get them to take the money from my account. They gave me an account number and BLZ etc, but I cannot pay them from my German account as all my cards and Internet banking documents are at the bank in Germany. I think I need more numbers/information (IBAN/SWIFT CODE) from them in order to pay them from my English account. Unfortunately, the number Fonic gave is an 0900 number, which I guess isn't gonna work from the UK...? I filled out their online "contact us" form, but apparently that will take 3 days for them to act on. Does anyone have a contact email for Fonic, or English-friendly phone number for them?

Urgh, how did I get myself into such a pickle!?

The 900 number should work just fine if you use the correct dialing format... (0049-900-######)

Domain: fonic.de
Domain-Ace: fonic.de
Nserver: ns1.o2online.de
Nserver: ns2.o2online.de
Nserver: ns3.o2online.de
Status: connect
Changed: 2007-07-27T09:13:12+02:00

Type: ORG
Name: o2 (Germany) GmbH & Co. KG
Address: Georg-Brauchle-Ring 23-25
Pcode: 80992
City: M____nchen
Country: DE
Changed: 2007-07-26T11:54:35+02:00

Type: PERSON
Name: Stricharz Daniel
Organisation: o2 Germany GmbH und Co.OHG
Address: Georg Brauchle-Ring 23-25
Pcode: 80992
City: Muenchen
Country: DE
Changed: 2007-07-26T11:54:42+02:00

Type: PERSON
Name: Daniel Stricharz
Organisation: o2 Germany GmbH und Co.OHG
Address: Georg Brauchle-Ring 23-25
Pcode: 80992
City: Muenchen
Country: DE
Phone: +49.8924420
Fax: +49.8924420
Email: domain-de@o2.com
Changed: 2007-07-26T11:54:47+02:00

Type: PERSON
Name: Daniel Stricharz
Organisation: o2 Germany GmbH und Co.OHG
Address: Georg Brauchle-Ring 23-25
Pcode: 80992
City: Muenchen
Country: DE
Phone: +49.8924420
Fax: +49.8924420
Email: domain-de@o2.com
Changed: 2007-07-26T11:54:47+02:00

What?

what, what?

Muppetry is asking about calling Germany and bank transactions and you post something which seems irrelevant so I'm asking for an explanation of whatever you just posted. If it is relevant then I'm sure we'd like to know what it is.

That, is a "whois" lookup of the domain name Fonic.de

Perhaps it will give Mz. Muppetry some further information to work with? Perhaps a call to Herr. Daniel Stricharz could provide some further enlightenment? If Mz. Muppetry is unsucessful with dialling Phone: +49.89.24420 I suggest changing a number or two at the end to see if she lands on someone elses ext...

Perhaps give O2 a buzz... they seem to be the owner of the domain name. I had never heard of Fonic until now.

Regards,

Sam.

Heya,

I have emailed domain-de@o2.com to see if that can elucidates a response.
If not, then I will find someone German to call the 0900 number for me tomorrow.

Thanks for your help :-)

Which bank are you with? Most have online banking where you can use an Uerbweisung (bank transfer) to transfer the money yourself as you have the BLZ and bank details for Fonic. I'd prefer that to giving the company access to withdraw their own funds ;-)

Aren't they just the hosting company or somesuch?

Nope.. Fonic is a fully owned O2 Company, hince O2 is the registered Domain Owner.


As for calling the Whois contact for basic tech support, don't be surprised if you don't get a response to your email, or if you do they just tell you to piss off and contact the correct Tech support line. Whois contacts are usually highly trained Admins, who have better things to do than deal with the usual Customer tech support riff-raff.

Hahahahahahahaha! Aww, thanks for that DK, a great laugh to start the day.

Doesn't work from UK as these are German high-rate premium numbers and there is no way of charging back through the international system.

Argh. Yes. I have just discovered this. It doesn't work from the UK at all. Which basically means I am totally buggered. Oh joy!!

:-( :-( :-(

Found a Fonic 0800 number on the website to call. Held on the line and then got to speak to someone, who could speak English! Woo hoo!
She said email service@fonic.de and explain my problem. So, we'll see whether I get a response...

Calling an 0900 number cost over €1.50 per minute. Do you really want to deal with a company where the only way to contact them is through such a number.

That's not the point. Fonic is one of the cheapest suppliers of pre-paid phone services. How often would you normally need to contact your mobile provider (at least, how often is it so urgent that you MUST phone them and can't email them)? If you are saving €5 a month on your phone bills by using Fonic then you can afford the risk of a couple of 3 minute calls @€1.50/minute each year...

Apparently...
"FONIC Kundenbetreuung (Mo - Sa 8-20 Uhr) 49 Cent/Min aus dem Netz der Dt. Telekom"
Still expensive though, I realise.

P.S. Still no response from Fonic despite my emails. I just want to give them my money, dammit!

from the fonic website
http://www.fonic.de/html/impressum.html


easy peasey.
BTW, if the UK is the same as IRL you might encounter a fecker of an international transfer form with all sorts of fields for recipient addresses and whatnot. Its all pretty much irrelevant once the codes above are in order but you should just be prepared with that other crap when going to the bank to make the transfer.

Wow, thanks for that!
I actually gave up in the end and emailed my new head of department in Darmstadt, and he paid the 35 euros for me.
Saved myself the 9 quid HSBC would have charged me at least.