Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com

[SteveM]

Hey Folks,

Thought I would post a warning about recent bad experiences with Nobelcom.com.  We have been using them for more than 6 months, and the rates are great (9 cents/min.), but the service no longer works.  We have not been able to get a connection for nearly a month, and have an unused balance of nearly $48.  Their customer service has been totally unresponsive, offering only store credit or an exchange.  

If you are going to use this service, I would recommend buying only the minimum ($20) each time to protect yourself against these types of service discontinuations.

We are now 100% 10-10-335 (15 cents/min.) and 10-10-220 (18 cents/min.), but are always interested in something cheaper...

Steve M.

[tfcrew]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

Texas Russkie weekly ad (new) ....$0.11 min
to Moscow ...Odessa

[Drew]

... in response to From ~OUR TEXAS~...10-10-719, posted by tfcrew on Mar 14, 2002

Do you have to sign up for this ? or just dial the 10 10 719 prior to dialing the phone number ? ( like you do with 10 10 220)

Thanks

[tfcrew]

... in response to ~OUR TEXAS~...10-10-719  ??, posted by Drew on Mar 15, 2002

We use phone cards. Svetlana blew my 10-10 credit to blazes.
It's $0.089 to Moscow 10-10-719

[Rags]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

$0.10/minute to Ukraine... Good sound quality but tough to get through on weekends and holidays. 1-888-635-0154

[apk]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

We have been using WDT for the past 5 months without any real problems, except for the usual busy signal on the big holidays. WDT is 9 cents per minute calling Moscow, I am not sure but I think it may be 15 cents /minute calling Ukraine. This program requires an informal questionaire and a short waiting period before you are hooked up, they do not charge to your credit card but send you a monthly billing by mail.

try calling: 1-888-353-0808 (free call)

[John K]

... in response to Re: Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by apk on Mar 14, 2002

'

[apk]

... in response to What was the sound quality and connectio..., posted by John K on Mar 14, 2002

The sound quality is the same as direct calling through ATT,
but as I said before...sometimes you get busy signals.
My wife calls Moscow every weekend, spends 2 hours on each call and my bill is never over $15.00 per month. I wish I had known about it when I was calling her every day! Back then I was using ATT international access service which added $7.00 per month to my phone bill, 30 cents /minute but I had her on speed dial and never had busy signals except when she was trying to call me!

[juio99]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

Last year I used worldxchange.com and it was excellent.  Now it appears to be out of business.  Anyone know the scoop on them?

Now I am using linqtel.com which is OK except my voice echos back to me.  When there is this echo, does that indicate they are routing via computer lines?

Do some of the other calling cards also have these echos?

JR

[tim360z]

... in response to Echo on the line???, posted by juio99 on Mar 14, 2002

had echo connections sometimes on ATT and MCI and Net2phone. I recently had the worse echos ever on a local call and when I called my local phone company...it was fixed in 3 minutes.  The phone person told me it was a line problem corrected in-house.

[RickM]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

nt

[BrianN]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

I guess, it's a matter of economics.  Ever since I've been reading this board, nobel has always seemed to rank tops as the one and only.  But, yet... to call novosibirsk, or any other city/wherever outside of the majors as st pete, moscow.. etc, you still pay, one way or another.

I've NEVER had a bad connection using 1010-220, at .16 per minute.  (Somebody make a liar out of me.. ok ok... well, nobody's perfect).

Why bother with this crap if you don't have a good, clean phone line?  This ain't a boy scout camp-out for God's sakes.

The only problem that I've had to deal with using 1010-220, (in the last six months) is that after an hour, the line just dies, dead in it's tracks.

Happened tonight again after talking for about an hour.  Phone just "quit".  Just called back, and resumed the conversation.  If I've ever had a problem with telephone svc to Russia, it's always been at L's work telephone, on which, her extension phone is a piece of crap; (ie, she breaths or moves and it generates noise, but the agency phones, her aunts and brothers place, it's always perfect).  

Why not pay a few bux extra and just get the good stuff and enjoy the conversation that much more?

This phone card thing, (and every other CHEAP service) crappy connections that everyone talks about on other LD plans, is for the birds.

jmho.

[SteveM]

... in response to lol..., posted by BrianN on Mar 14, 2002

Brian,

I was never suggesting using low quality services to save a few dollars, but for people who call a lot (me then, my wife now), saving $50/month is important.

We too have had good luck with 10-10-220.  Our only problem is that they have a higher rate (at least for us) for the first 10 minutes, so it clips us for more when the person we are calling isn't home.

We use cards only when they do sound decent, but it was nice when nobelcom.com's 9 cents/min. worked.  Now, all I am getting from them is a letter saying that their "terms and conditions" do not include providing services that they sell.

Oh, for the days when I had Econophone cards (the company is now out of business).  They were less than 3 cents/minute to Moscow (and my wife's city 3 hours away from Moscow still counted).  We had hour and a half long conversations every other night, for less than $4 a call including the connect fee.  

[Ramblin]

... in response to Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by SteveM on Mar 13, 2002

I bought $40 worth of cards from Nobel in December of 2000 and they never did work!

[Ramblin]

... in response to Re: Phone Card Warning-Nobelcom.com, posted by Ramblin on Mar 14, 2002

Nobel's access telephone number 1-800-833-4058 now has a recording changing it to a 900 number.  Aren't 900 numbers those $3 a minute services?  Anyone know a toll free access number for Nobel that currently works?