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"Simply Tel" special deals on a mobile phone

Super cheap Nokia 1110i and pre-paid cards

Toytown Germany > Discussion forum > Germany-wide > Telecoms and TV

YorkshireLad6

Mar 18 2007, 10:31 pm

In collaboration with the German computer magazine "Computer Bild" Simplytel are currently running a special offer on Nokia 1110i Telephone and Prepaid card contract for €15, which includes shipping and €5 credit on the card, so essentially you get a new phone for €10.

The phone is nothing special (Specifications and opinions here) - manufacturers recommended price is €69.95 but it can be found for between €40 and €50 on internet deals, but what the hell - it is a new phone and the Simplytel Deal is pretty decent too, so for a second phone or for the kids it's a good deal.

The Simplytel service is based on the better T-mobile network, and charges 14cents per minute for calls to ALL networks, 24/7. NO monthly costs and no commitment. There are 5,000 units available, and as of today they are still on offer. Apply at www.simplytel.de/computerbild.

Offer expires at end of March.

pelirrojo

Mar 19 2007, 4:08 pm

Hmm, does it have a simlock I wonder? If not, would be great for my mother!

YorkshireLad6

Mar 19 2007, 6:28 pm

Good question. I suspect not, as there is nothing in the description or AGBs to suggest it, as would normally need to be the case (in fact they make a big thing of no contractual liability for both phone and service). I've ordered a handful, so should be able to confirm or dispel the suggestion within a couple of days.

pelirrojo

Mar 20 2007, 9:58 pm

Well at that price I'll risk the phone having a sim lock. Just ordered one!!

kumar_aqua

Mar 21 2007, 11:00 am

I was trying to buy this but, I don’t understand "Personalausweis Nr". Do foreigners have these numbers?

- Kumar

Oma Stelzbok

Mar 21 2007, 11:10 am

If I remember correctly, first answer for which country you are from and that will change. So for instance, change the country to US and it will ask for your passport number. Hope this helps!

planetmoni

Mar 21 2007, 11:54 am

it's the passport number. my id card number and my passport are the same.

Renia

Mar 21 2007, 12:35 pm

I have ordered one to use as a spare phone when family visit (for emergencies only!!)

Flowers

Mar 21 2007, 6:11 pm

I am shopping around for a new deal as my current telephone contract with Talkline is about to run out. I came upon this website with an offer that seems too good to be true. You supposedly get a free HP 510 Notebook or Playstation2 along with free phone/s. As I understand it you are required to make phone calls to the tune of a minimum of 9,95 euros per month with a contract running for 24 months.

Can anybody tell me if there is a catch that I am not picking up on?

Mariposa

Mar 21 2007, 6:41 pm

I can't help you with that site, but I got my last one with http://www.handys-mobile.de/
Your contract will be a direct contract with the service provider, but you can get the phone a lot cheaper than at a Vodafone or T-Mobile store. (That is, you actually get money along with the phone, depending on the phone.)

YorkshireLad6

Mar 22 2007, 12:13 am

QUOTE (Flowers @ Mar 21 2007, 6:11 pm)

I came upon this website with an offer that seems too good to be true. Can anybody tell me if there is a catch that I am not picking up on?

You also have to take their "multi-media" package for €1.50/month. If you make little use of your phone it seems a good deal, at least for the freebies you get. If you are a moderate to heavy user, then it's a rip-off (and where they earn their money) as you pay almost 4-times the going rate for mainstream calls and 50% more for SMS

YorkshireLad6

Mar 22 2007, 10:16 am

Update on the Simplytel deal:

I got my phones yesterday. They are NOT SIM-locked and can be used with any other SIM card.

When you sign up for the Simplytel deal (this or any others) you can also enter the phone number of another Simplytel customer who has referred you. If you do this, then both you as the new customer and the person whose number you used get a €5 "thank you credit" on their account amounting to over 35 minutes of free calls for each of you. If you later recommend additional customers to Simplytel then not only do you both get the €5 credit, but the person who originally recommended you gets €2 on top, forming a pyramid commission model. As I already had a Simply phone I was able to recommend myself, so for each new Phone I bought the cost for phone and card was only €5 and I got an extra €5 on my other phone. As this is the second time I'd recommended myself then my other phones all got €2 added to their credit too.

When you initially sign up for the deal you are allocated your new number directly, so can immediately go on to recommend others, or even yourself if you want additional phones.

Yorkshiremen? thrifty? nah...

maekelborger

Mar 22 2007, 10:29 am

Thanks for the info YL6 - I think I'll get myself one now!

fer97

Mar 22 2007, 5:49 pm

How does the offer compare to this one? http://www.discountfan.de/artikel/maerz-20...tation-1974.php
Even the monthly charge of 2x 9,95 per month (24 months - 477,60 EUR) is refunded. Unfortuantely the offer expired yesterday, but they promise a similar deal in a few months time...

YorkshireLad6

Mar 22 2007, 6:23 pm

The problem with offers like that (if we could see it) is that you do have a commitment to pay, no matter how little it is (so can't use it for 6 months then leave the country) and that the calls are disproportionally expensive (€0.39/minute to landlines (more than twice as expensive), €0.59 per minute to mobiles (more than 4 times more expensive))

pelirrojo

Apr 27 2007, 2:22 pm

Simplytel have an offer again with the Nokai 1110i for €19 with €5 call creit plus a few euros for postage. Not quite as attractive as the last offer but still not bad. Only question, where on the site can you order the phone??

http://www.teltarif.de/arch/2007/kw17/s25782.html

http://www.simplytel.de/index.php?page=pre...ssemitteilungen

2pines

Jul 24 2008, 3:29 pm

QUOTE (YorkshireLad6 @ Mar 18 2007, 11:31 pm)

NO monthly costs and no commitment.

Wrong.
Unless you cancel your contract and send your SIM card back to them, you'll be charged.

maekelborger

Jul 24 2008, 3:39 pm

source? reasoning? this isn't a contract phone, it's pre-pay.

when would you expect that they will charge me (other than the 15€ mentioned in the OP)? I've now had the phone (and the SIM card lying unused in a drawer somewhere) for ~15 months and have yet to be notified of it...

2pines

Jul 24 2008, 4:35 pm

QUOTE (maekelborger @ Jul 24 2008, 4:39 pm)

source?

emails from Simplytel.

In fact, they have already charged 30 Euros from my account.

I hardly used their SIM card and I am pretty sure that I haven't used for the last 6-8 months.
Here's a copy of the email I have received in April 2008. I have ignored their e-mails since then assuming that I don't need to worry about a prepaid connection. turned out to be a bad idea !

QUOTE

Sehr geehrter Herr xxxxx,

leider haben Sie im vergangenen Abrechnungsmonat Ihre simply-Karte nicht genutzt. Das ist schade, denn wir möchten Sie auch weiterhin von den vielen Vorteilen bei simply überzeugen. Nutzen Sie die Sparmöglichkeiten, die Ihnen Ihre simply Karte bietet!

Mit simply telefonieren Sie jetzt noch günstiger! Unsere Tarifhighlights: Mit simply easy telefonieren Sie für unglaublich günstige 8,5 Cent pro Minute rund um die Uhr in alle Netze oder mit dem Tarif simply partner innerhalb der simply Community sogar für nur 3 Cent pro Minute. Für einen Tarifwechsel finden Sie alle Information in unserer Servicewelt auf www.simplytel.de. Profitieren Sie von den einfachen und günstigen Tarifen bei simply!

Warum mehr bezahlen, wenn Sie mit simply sparen können? Entdecken Sie 'einfach mobil telefonieren' mit simply! Sollten Sie mit Ihrer simply Karte auch im laufenden Monat nicht telefonieren, müssten wir Ihnen ab der nächsten Rechnung ein monatliches Administrationsentgelt in Höhe von 1,79 Euro berechnen.

Falls Sie noch Fragen zu Ihrem Anschluss oder den simply Mobilfunkdiensten haben, nutzen Sie unsere bequeme Online-Hilfe und das Kontaktformular auf www.simplyTel.de unter 'Hilfe'. Gerne steht Ihnen unser Kundenservice Team auch telefonisch unter 0900 / 1 10 14 81* zur Verfügung.

Für den Fall, dass eine weitere Nutzung Ihrer simply Karte nicht gewünscht wird, bitten wir Sie, Ihren simply Anschluss zu kündigen und die SIM-Karte - um weitere monatliche Kosten zu vermeiden - an folgende Adresse zurückzusenden: simply Communication GmbH, Dießemer Bruch 61 in 47805 Krefeld.

Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Sie die vielen Vorteile von simply auch weiterhin nutzen und wir Sie als zufriedenen simply Kunden weiter begrüßen dürfen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ihr simply Team

And here's another email from Simplytel, received last week. They send me this one after charging 30 Euros from my account.

QUOTE

Sehr geehrter Herr xxxx,

bedauerlicherweise haben Sie, trotz der vorherigen Informationen per E-Mail, den Zahlungsrückstand für Ihre simply prepaid Karte mit der Rufnummer 0151xxxx nicht ausgeglichen.

Den offenen Saldo sowie den Betrag für das SIM-Kartenpfand werden wir gemäß vorliegender Einzugsermächtigung in den nächsten Tagen von Ihrem uns bekannten Bankkonto einziehen.

Das Kartenpfand wird Ihnen im Falle einer rechtzeitigen Rücksendung der Karte- innerhalb von drei Wochen nach Kündigung- zurückerstattet.

Wünschen Sie nach Ausgleich der Rechnung die Reaktivierung Ihrer Karte um weiter mit simply telefonieren zu können, laden Sie Ihr prepaid Guthaben bitte online über unsere Internetseite www.simplyTel.de nach dem Login in den Bereich 'Kundenservice' im Menü 'simply prepaid', 'Guthaben aufladen' unter 'Manuell Aufladen' auf. Anschließend setzen Sie sich bitte mit unserem Service Team telefonisch unter der Rufnummer 0900/110 1481* in Verbindung.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ihr simply Team

Anyone else has a similar experience ?

YorkshireLad6

Jul 24 2008, 7:06 pm

He's right. But I was right when I entered the post. Simply changed their terms and conditions, even for existing customers at the beginning of this year to allow them to charge a monthly fee if a phone was not used or topped up for a month. The SIM card always did belong to them and incurs a charge if not returned when you cease to use the phone. They presume six-months of none-usage means you are no longer going to use their service and if the SIM card has not been returned you are charged. If you are charged and subsequently do top up or use the phone then they refund the fee. Despite them still being one of the cheapest pre-pay providers these changes have meant they have been removed froma number of consumer "best provider" lists. Hoisted by their own petard presumably as their market introduction was aggressive and expensive (for them)

maekelborger

Jul 25 2008, 8:05 am

QUOTE (2pines @ Jul 24 2008, 5:35 pm)

emails from Simplytel.

ok, good call! I'd got the first e-mail as well but hadn't read it. I've not yet had the second one (or been charged) as I had never used the SIM and still had €10 on the card (down to €2,84 now there's been a few months "administration charges" taken off). Since it's not yet got to €0 then they've not had to take any more money from my account yet and I've not had anything like the second e-mail.

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll have to get the SIM-card sent off to them soon.

minga

Jul 25 2008, 8:15 am

QUOTE (maekelborger @ Jul 25 2008, 9:05 am)

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll have to get the SIM-card sent off to them soon.

Make sure you send it as registered post.

YorkshireLad6

Jul 25 2008, 10:44 am

QUOTE (maekelborger @ Jul 25 2008, 9:05 am)

You may find (as I did) that your credit dwindles to nothing on the basis of administration charges, then after 6 months of non-use they hit you for the (approx) €30 charge for non-return of the SIM card. Then you get a warning (Mahnung) that you actually owe them money which I imagine could become legally enforceable. This was no big problem to me as I wanted to start using the phone, so added €10 top-up and the €30 debit was removed automatically a day later.

maekelborger

Jul 25 2008, 11:17 am

I've already now cancelled the thing (to the end of August due to the usual German "two weeks to the end of the month" catch) via Simply's website and will quickly phone someone using the SIM tonight so that I don't have to pay the "admin charge" for this month or next month, so the account should stay in credit. I'll also be sending the SIM card off pronto so they can't try charging me the "Pfand" for that.

Still, for the original €15, the Nokia phone's still doing well, even if there is now a bit more hassle than expected!

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