Cassini blog#86 Broadsword, this is Danny Boy
Cassini's blog
Simon and Sally, Nigel and Catherine
Sat 13 Jan 2024 21:41
| Broadsword, this is Danny Boy... One of the key requirements when you are abroad is to be able to communicate, not only with each other, but also back home. On our way down from the UK to the Canaries we had no problem because we all have O2 packages which allow free roaming when in Europe. On arrival in Cape Verde the Europe roaming was not available but we took advantage of wi-fi in the marina bar and the occasional use of the O2 £6 per day offer but that soon mounts up. As we were part of the ARC rally, one of their rules was that we had a satellite system that could be used while mid-Atlantic and so we purchased an Iridium Certus 100 system from MailaSail and a satellite connection package. These are not cheap and were only used for a quick daily update for friends and families and downloading weather forecasts for the journey. Our monthly limit was 25mb which is very little by modern standards. On arrival in Grenada all the advice was to purchase a local SIM card and top up as required. In Grenada this involved a fun bus ride to a shopping mall where Simon and I both bought a Digicel SIM card and all appeared well. We explained that we were travelling the length and breadth of the Caribbean and so it had to work in all islands, not just Grenada. Absolutely no problem we were told. On arrival in Barbados the Digicel SIM cards did not work! After some discussion with Ask Ruby, their online chat programme, we were advised to buy a different plan which would work everywhere. We used our Europe roaming plan in Martinique and Guadeloupe because surprisingly, they are treated as part of France and not separate countries. Our Digicel worked in Dominica which we visited between Martinique and Guadeloupe. All looked good until we arrived in Antigua and of course the Digicel SIMs did not work. Enter David the Flow man in his little shack by the marina. He assured us that we had been mis-sold and that Digicel did not work in Antigua. So Simon and Catherine bought Flow SIM cards from him and Sally and I hot spotted to their phones And a working solution was achieved. On leaving Antigua we arrived in Nevis and Simon's phone worked OK, Catherine's did not! As they both had the same system and package, that appeared odd. I set off with Catherine to find the Flow shop. Inside a very surley young man stated that Catherine had no credit which we knew was not correct but he insisted. OK can we top up then please? Our system is down today! Would you believe it! I knew there was a Digicel shop as well so we went hunting for that. It is tucked away in an inside courtyard of a building and not obvious but we did eventually find it. The two young ladies in the shop could not have been more helpful. They identified that I needed a Caribbean roaming package and helped me to set it all up. That was 48 hours ago and so far so good - even though we have moved to St. Kitts. The saga continues - yesterday Simon's phone stopped working (at the end of another Flow seven day roaming package) so off to the Flow shop again. They were useless! Not interested, no idea what the problem was, agreed he should have a refund but they couldn't do it and suggested he tried on-line. The chance would be a fine thing! I suggested we try Digicel as they were so helpful to me the day before. I obviously had the A team when I went in; when we went in for Simon, I think we got the D team! They had no idea what we were talking about and the only reason we achieved the same for Simon was because I told them how to do it! To add insult to injury I have just had a message from O2 stating that free roaming in Europe is meant for short breaks (I.e. your two week holiday) and not for 6 months. I am in danger of breaking their fair use policy and incurring further charges! So if you don't hear from us every day and wonder what we are up to, it is because we are touring the mobile phone shops of the Caribbean and dealing with uninterested and incompetent youths who don't care about our problems! P.S. we have just learnt that our next stop being Dutch uses two totally different systems so none of our phones will work! Back to the satellite! P.P.S. Does anybody have any spare carrier pigeons? Nigel the Navigator |
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