New mobile phones

One of the big joys of being parent these days is to ensure that the next generation is constantly online.  Those of you who are bringing up teenagers know what I am talking about. I therefore tried to be as proactif as possible and already looked four weeks before we left France into the acquisition of new SIM cards for my kids.

(translation: my son does not smoke, nor drinks,

 nor takes drugs .. he is on the phone)

Big mistake, but please bear with me, it was all meant to be the right strategy ...

And funnily enough, reality catches up (as ever so often). Xavier Niel (Free) is trying to purchase T-Mobile, the forth operator of mobile phones in the US.
But let's take it from the start:  So the mother (me) is enquiring from France which would be the best operator. Having read different blogs I know that this needed either a credit score or a big deposit. So I was quickly seduced by T-Mobile's offer (on top of it, T-Mobile has currently a German mother company, so my German origins were flattered).  T-Mobile pretends that they don't do credit checks.  Good, let's go.  I could subscribe online four phone lines with a family plan.  You will see what a dedicated mother I am, as I have set these four up for the three teenagers and my husband.  Priority first. (This is the moment to clap your hands ! Thank you.)

So, I order the four Sim cards, checking which size for which phone and ensure that they will be received at the rental villa. I check a few times (yes, I am paranoid) and deblock the French Sim cards.  I cancel the French contracts for the day we travel.  We arrive a Friday evening at 8 pm after a 24 hour trip, tired and happy, get our luggage in, look at the house and .... find the T-Mobile envelop in the office.  We open it, the Sim cards are inside, they had been well received the day after my order.  Ah yes, we have to hurry to activate them, there was only one day left. So, tired as we were, we install them in the phones. And there, big surprise, they work ... badly, not a good reception.  Yes, my friends, the US are a big country and the coverage is not everywhere ideal. And the famous map that the operators put on their websites, showing that all of Santa Barbara has 4G coverage is ... a joke!  Ahhh, I am still laughing ....

Well, let's reassure everyone. We promised that we would do nothing else on Saturday than look into this.  As everyone was tired, the kids slept, for one night deconnected from the "real world".  The next morning, we go downtown (our rental home is three miles up the hills of Santa Barbara) and surprise, the 4G is working well downtown. I start thinking that it may not be such a bad idea to have working phones downtown but not at home ...  Quickly denied by the teenagers. We go back home to ensure that the coverage is still as bad. I call T-Mobile, they initially didn't want to believe me, do some tests and after a good half hour tell me to do to the downtown T-Mobile shop.  I check with the owner of the rental villa which operator works best at the house, he tells me AT&T.

So back downtown, exactly the way I imagined my first day in Santa Barbara...  I re-explain to the shop assistant in the T-Mobile shop, she replies that she can't do anything for me (but hey, are we back in France or what?). I insist that she has to call her company and finally she takes back the four cards.  She tells me that I will have to pay for the first month of subscription and that I will receive the bill at home.  Too tired to discuss this with her, I tell myself that they don't know my credit card number and that I will look into this when the bill arrives (for your information, we have not received anything yet, now two weeks later).

Just next door is the AT&T shop. We go in and I expect the worst. 4 subscriptions without credit score .... the deposit is going to be enormous.  But no, excellent surprise. The crew onsite was just perfect. Very patient and efficient. I will name them, they deserve it: Anthony (the boss), Anyie (the shop assistant in charge of us), Drew, Andre and Chris. As everything was going well, I went for all seven subscriptions (also mine, the tablet and Marie who will soon start her Masters in San Francisco). And, a true miracle, no deposit was needed.  The rates are more competitive than T-Mobiles, the coverage in Santa Barbara is just perfect and the contact with the shop crew was excellent.

Proudly I carry the new cards home, the kids take a deep breath when they see the four columns working everywhere, they agree that 30 Go per month between the four of them will be sufficient (they will check on each other, more to come). I reactivate my tablet, which has been my good companion over the past twelve months, allowing me to be online at night to read the posts of so many other expats (which makes BHE go crazy, as "the night is made to sleep". Probably to ensure that I understand, he "invented" the German phrase "Fertig Tablette" and "Fliegende Tablette" (meaning "finished for the tablet" and "flying tablet"), which has no other reaction than making me laugh out loud, therefore being again well awake ... to read some more.

So, you see, all is good and you can reach us easily again !