Wind Topup abroad (problems again)

[ticex]

Hi,

I'm still using my WIND sim everyday for roaming data but I made a mistake and missed the deadline to topup in Germany before the renewal of the monthly Mega-15000 pack by a matter of hours. Now my account is in negative and I cannot make calls to the 4242 line to use the German O2 scratchcard via any means. I've tried making topups on Mondowind with 4 different UK credit cards (amex, visa, mastercard & visa debit) several times but everytime within a few hours the transaction is declined.

I know it's been asked before but short of coming to Italy just to topup this card what can I do? Is there a number I can call to topup from a landline maybe? If this is possible I can maybe get somebody in Italy to buy a proper Italian scratchcard. It's a real pain as I really was relying on this sim on Thursday for a trip in Germany and I have no backup with me at all...

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance.
Michael

[ticex]

Well, I don't know if I'm getting somewhere but I've been trying mondowind over and over again. The usual email I get about 2 hours later seems to have changed because last time I received: "Carta non accettata dai nostri sistemi." instead of the usual:

Gentile Michael,

l ordine che hai effettuato presso mondowind on line h stato annullato in quanto la carta di credito che ci hai fornito non appartiene all intestatario dell ordine

Ti aspettiamo ancora su www.mondowind.it

Cordiali saluti,

Servizio clienti mondowind on line

I'll keep trying and maybe somebody will notice!!

[AndreA]

The last email is speaking about a different name between the credit card and your account... I think that's the usual crappy MondoWind.it

Anyway do you have a negative balance or simply 0,00? If you want I can refill your simcard with 3 € and then you can use a 02 UK scratch card.

[ticex]

Hi Andrea,

I've just tried 1 final time to topup on mondowind with the Visa & Amex. I expect it will fail within an hour or so as usual I noticed you're allowed to have an address in commune "Estero" now on mondowind so I updated all this info from the previous Italian one but it doesn't seem to make any difference. One strange thing is my orders do change in status from "Ordine in corso di verifica" to "Ordine in corso di evizione" but then go to "Ordine annullato" an hour or 2 later - they used to go straight to "annulato" before I changed the address. I have even called AMEX and they told me there hasn't been even a single authorisation attempt made by anybody in the past 36 hours on my account so I guess mondowind doesn't even bother trying!!!

It's particularly annoying because I was in Germany within 30 mins of the renewal and bought a 30 euro German o2 scratchcard but couldn't load it into the phone because of this. It's really a mad system Wind have that they completely block clients when they run out of credit abroad! I'm now back in Belgium but will be in Germany again on Friday - not that it matters as I couldn't use this scratch card I have even if I was there now!

Anyway, I think my account is actually at EUR -22,10 because the EUR 30 Mega-15000 renewal was taken when my balance was about 8 euro. Here's a copy of the last entries from 155.it:

Bonus Mega 15000 09/01/2007 07.37.40 09/01/2007 07.44.47 7.500,00 € 7.500,00 € 0,00 € 0,00 €

Canone Mega 15000 09/01/2007 07.36.50 09/01/2007 07:44:47 -30,00 € -7,90 € 0,00 € -22,10 €

Bonus Mega 15000 25/12/2006 07.34.50 25/12/2006 07.41.27 7.500,00 € 7.500,00 € 8,50 € 0,00 €

Thanks so so much for the offer to put in a 3 euro credit but as I'm in need of at least 25 euro it's probably too much to ask. Perhaps I could send you some money by Paypal, bank transfer or however you suggest and you could load enough into my account to get it active again? I'm super desperate to get this up and running as I absolutely must have my emails when travelling in the Benelux and Germany this week and as I was expecting it to work the Wind is my only solution. I'll send you a PM with my phone number etc.. once I get the latest "ordine annulato" message for my final mondowind attempt just in case you can somehow help me out. I still feel bad asking such a thing and totally understand if it's not possible. Thanks again so so so much for the help thus far!! Just let me know anytime if there's anything I can help you with in return

Greetings,
Michael

PS: for amusement value here is a copy of my "ordine" list on mondowind:
Ricarica Rewind on line da 45 euro (40 euro traffico telefonico e 5 euro costo di attivazione) 12/08/2006 Consegnato al Cliente
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 17/10/2006 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 80 euro 17/10/2006 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 03/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 07/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 08/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 09/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 09/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine annullato
Ricarica ReWind on line da 50 euro 10/01/2007 Ordine in corso di verifica

[ticex]

Well, as expected the last attempt was "annulato" too

It seems my rather large amount of attempts on mondowind has actually resulted in a more definitive reply though - maybe even from a human being. The rejection email said just this: "non accettiamo carte di credito emesse all`estero"

I guess this means they now confirm there's no way to get a foreign credit card accepted so I might as well give up.

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by ticex

It's really a mad system Wind have that they completely block clients when they run out of credit abroad!

Yes, you're right... MondoWind.it (that's the same of Shop3 ) is terrible and this deny to foreigner credit cards is without any logical sense.

PS: I'm writing you a PM.

[drjhf]

The "no non-Italian credit card" issue seems to be something that Wind really believes in. I had the same problem a month or more back, wrote to 155, wrote to Wind, received no replies of any kind, then finally had a call from a Wind telephonic agent who told me that I should get an Italian credit card if I wanted to use Wind. Period the end. I asked if they cared about non-Italian business, and she just repeated that I should get an Italian bank and Italian credit card.

What I will do is finish up what little is left on the Wind SIM and get a TIM SIM. If everyone did that, perhaps Wind would understand that having a successful business depends on having repeat business.

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by drjhf

What I will do is finish up what little is left on the Wind SIM and get a TIM SIM.

Well, pay attention. Tim has the same trouble. Directly from their online shop http://www.tim.it/consumer/l6152/libera.do: "Il contratto si considera concluso nel momento in cui l'accettazione del Cliente, mediante invio dell' "ordine digitale", giunge all'indirizzo elettronico di Telecom Italia S.p.A.; il Cliente riceverÃ*, tramite e-mail, la conferma della conclusione del contratto. Si considererÃ* senza effetto l'ordine effettuato da chi non sia residente o domiciliato in Italia, non abbia compiuto 18 anni e non sia in possesso di codice fiscale e/o Partita Iva. Il Cliente dichiara di conoscere ed accettare i limiti di acquisto in vigore al momento della conclusione del contratto e riportati nel form "Info"; qualora tali limiti siano superati l'accettazione sarÃ* considerata priva di effetto. Gli importi indicati nel catalogo sono espressi in Euro e comprensivi di IVA. "

Fast resume. If you are a not italian you will be not able to use their online shop Maybe in the first weeks they will 'pass' every requests as MondoWindOnLine, but I suppose that they will have the same end very soon...

What a crappy service we have in Italy...

[drjhf]

Good point you make about TIM...but if I do have a codice fiscale and reside part-time in Italy but do not have an Italian-bank-issued credit card, will I end up in the same hole with TIM as with Wind, which refuses to recognize an non-Italian-bank-issued card as valid?

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by drjhf

will I end up in the same hole with TIM as with Wind, which refuses to recognize an non-Italian-bank-issued card as valid?

Yes, I think that the end will be the same

With Wind same thing... all the people here has a 'codice fiscale' (everyone has one! ) and a 'residence' in Italy... the problem is the credit card, good luck (on Tim shop online i can't use mine too - an italian one! - so i can't imagine what kind of troubles for foreigners...)