hey guys, i finally landed a sincere woman with a good english level from ukraine who i am flying to meet this month for 5 days. so i say the heck with these expensive 8 dollar e-mails through agency , i will just go with the phone calls thru international calling plan only 44 cents a minute and have normal phone conversations
now the problem is, 95 percent of my calls will not connect to her home phone, and when they do connect it only lasts a short while and the phone disconnects. i am ready to commit myself. does anyone out there experience this problem at all? i can hit redial for days and hours on end with no connection and her agency experiences internet problems where e-mails will not send or receive at times. i need some feedback this is very frustating.
goin crazy/ jmoluv
"Ukraine style !!!" "FSU style !!!"
And in fact "Uzbekistan style" too !!!
Its sadly the only answer I can give you.
It is typical of their systems I'm afraid to say.
You may find if you use a direct dial (not the discounted one you are trying to use) it will go through fine.
I have a cheap phone calls deal for international calls from the UK through a company called GKC, I can call my friend Olya in Ukraine no problem at all from my normal phone with no prefixes, but I have Never been able to get through using my GKC discount prefix. I had exactly the same problem with calling Uzbekistan and the FSU !!!
I have to say I strongly suspect that the FSU phone company`s block these particular incoming calls much of the time.
I don't say this offhand, I do have an idea why.
They are aware that these calls are very cheap for us, which means they get almost nothing for routing them through their system, ( a system which at best is 10% as good as the UK or USA, and if you have ever used a phone in either the FSU, Ukraine or Uzbekistan you will know exactly what I mean !! With the pops, and crackles and getting cut off every 10 seconds !! The phone systems are a total mess !!! (mobile to mobile or international to an FSU mobile is mostly fine) They don't want the log jam of calls blocking people who are paying full price as they want the money they will earn from these other direct full cost calls.
Tim
NB, GKC also give me an excellent rate to the USA, 2.8 pence per minute !!! Thats cheaper than I can call my next door neighbour in the daytime, at usual BT rates !! Absurd isn't it ??
hey tim,
got distracted, but here i am. i am using ATT long distance international calling plan for 2 bucks a month not a private calling card. do you think if i dial direct for 5 bucks a minute it will make a difference? i must say that the costly e-mail for 8 bucks a pop is less costly than 5 bucks a minute. later/ jmoluv
jmoluv:
I have a slighty different theory. I think you're way overpaying, already, especially for cruddy service from ATT.
I buy an inexpensive telephone card from either Green Card or Noble Card. For $20 I can call from Wisconsin to the tiny republic of Moldova and talk for 4 hours twenty minutes (not bad for twenty bucks).
The caveat is that it works best during nonpeak hours. Better on Saturday than on Sunday. And better at 3:00 am my time - which is 10:00 am their time.
During peak hours like holidays I occasionally have to try a few times and sometimes get a message - "All circuits to the country you are calling are busy. Please try your call again later."
Interesting to note that when I don't get that message - but can't get through anyway (comes with the territory whenever calling an FSU country) the phone rings a short second at my ladies house. The phone system then tells me to redial the call. This may happen a few times during peak hours. (And my girl reports that every few minutes the phone rang in a short burst. Which let her know I was trying.)
Since I am able to actually get the call through to her house - even so briefly enough to make it ring - my theory is rotten telephone service locally in her community. (That's my theory regarding your situation too - a local phone system glitch that the delicate international system cannot handle.)
thanks for the input i am definitly going to give that a try. to change the subject i am flying to kiev end of this month. i cant take the suspense anymore from e-mailing. i got a good ticket from pittsburgh via frankfurt to kiev roundtrip for only 780 bucks. its a steal. she is a university teacher with an english level of ten. so you see why i prefer telephone. she says she has a clean 2 room apartment reserved with all amenities for only 60 bucks a night close to all points of interest and will be waiting at my arrival gate for me. shes blond and beautiful and educated. my friends think i am nuts but i think it could be an experience i will never forget. who knows , she could be the one, and then it may not . all this e-mail and wondering is gone with the purchase of that ticket. shes taking off work to be with me for six days and me for her.
wish me luck guys/ i would appreciate it
jmoluv
jmoluv. I'm from Michigan and call Russia and Ukraine all the time. I have tried the phone cards but have found they don't offer the best connections. Lossed calls and static. I discovered 10-10-345 to be the best by far. Calls are clear as at home and never got cut off yet. Go to Luckydog.com and check out thier rates. Moscow, St.Pete and Kiev are all about 0.09 a minute and other cities to 0.19 a minute. The charge will just show up on your normal monthly phone bill on a seperate page.
Tim, GKC is the following, right?
http://www.loweryourphonebills.com - Russia @ 20p min???
I have been using Tele Discount; www.telediscount.co.uk - Russia @ 4p min!!!
(URL not working at time of post)
and have no disconnection problems although the occasional static line.
I am surprised how big known brand companies continue to swindle the average phone user with over-pricing or am I?
I'll be using that number this weekend (just after 6pm lol) as opposed to the 4p/min I have been using (still, very good). It's a terrific deal considering local charges can be more expensive let alone another country. I also use OneTel for unlimited day/night UK calls for about £15 month and only touch BT for a broadband connection. I used to waste soooo much money on phone bills (4 figures a month 3 years ago) that it pays to find the best deal.
I didn't know that fact but it doesn't surprise me.
It also pays to check your accounts for direct debits, I found that BT 'OWED ME' about £600 the christmas before last as they were debiting at a rate greater than my actual usage and you would think they would have it in their system to notify clients of over-payments or just hang onto their money month after month in their bank account? They quickly remind you when you owe them money but not the other way around. Strange that.
Not at all mate, thats their biggest scam of all !!!!
One day, when its too late they may realise that they lost the monopoly many years ago, but by then I hope it will be too late for them to get out of the spiral, and they will have gone to the wall !!
BT is a dinosaur !!!
I haven't any choice but pay BT line rental at the mo' because I am in a village, but all calls are routed through NTL, as is my internet dial up, so all BT get is the absolute minimum, and the phones at work are with another company !! As soon as I move I'm getting shot of BT totally.
British Gas have a similar problem Del', they treat their customers like sh*t, still in the belief that they own the market !!!
I think its time for another Ice Age to kill of these corporate dinosaurs !!
Luckydog varies depending on the phone company of the country. Romania and Moldova dont have a good rate with Luckydog. But as you can see on their website they have great rates for Russia and Ukraine.
Wow there is much to be learned from you 'elders' (haha) on this forum. Just teasing, but I am only about two weeks into discovering the joys of FSU ladies after I stumbled upon the Fiance.Com website. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks again
And the next best is read as much of the past posts as you have time to read, make notes if need be, but at least take in the relevant info between me, Glad and Del' playing silly buggers :o)))