Failed registration of phone

[Bubskar]

Back in March I happily reported here that I had successfully and smoothly registered my English mobile phone at the only Turkcell shop that carries this out in Fethiye.

I did this on the 27th March but a few days ago my phone showed that there was no signal and it told me that the sim card registration had failed.

When I went back to the Turkcell shop the girl in there looked on her computer and confirmed that registration had been completed. She then telephoned someone, I can only guess that it was Turkcell HQ, and announced to me that I would have to re-register again. When I asked why it had failed, she didn't seem to know and could only suggest that the paperwork had got lost in Ankara! When I said that I did not have my Resident's Visa at the moment, she shrugged her shoulders and silently dismissed me by carrying on with some paperwork on her desk. I was not amused.

When I asked again what had gone wrong she could not explain. I then made a point of telling her that I would refuse to pay again.

I mentioned this to a friend that evening and she told me that the same thing had happened to her. She was convinced that it was a scam rather than bad admin. She had heard that this had happened before to others. Also she said that she had to pay the fee again when she re-registered.

As my Resident's visa is with the police for renewal I am left without a phone to use until I get it back.

Has anyone had this experience or heard of the same?? :41:

 

[susanbiker]

I did not know you needed res permit to register UK phone.

 

[KKOB]

I've only got a Tourist Visa and had no problems registering a phone last month at the Turkcell Extra shop in Fethiye. It took about 15 minutes, I paid the 5 TL fee, put the Turkcell SIM in, and it was up and running in less than 30 minutes.

 

[michael14101981]

ıf you do not have a resıdnce permıt you must regıster the phone wıthın a month of comın ın to the country wıth a tourıst vısa and also u can only do 2 phones a year so 1 guess every 6 months ı summıse

 

[teresa]

As I recently said I had to produce residency and a stamp in my passport showing I had been out of the country in the last month. I went to 2 Turkcell Extra shops in Fethiye and got the same answer and I suspect I saw the same girl in the first one - very rude to be honest.

This was in May and could have changed - as usual!

 

[Istanbul_expat]

I bought my phones here in Turkey since I don't trust them to register it even though I have an Ikamet. Also I have an iPhone I bought here, despite it being twice the price it is in the UK since I use Turkcell and they are I think the only provider who sell the iPhone and I didn't want the possibility of not being able to use a Sim-free iPhone I'd purchased in the UK.

 

[gren]

Same happened to me..I registered it then it stopped due to being 'unregistered'.
Crap service...of course...
Just buy a Turkish phone in Turkey...saves a lot of pissing about.

 

[Firebrand]

I recently had the same unhelpful service in a Turkcell shop in Marmaris. The woman told us that she wasn't sure if it was registered permanently or just for 6 months. My husband (who is from Turkey) asked her why she didn't know, and if she could check. She told us to go back in a couple of days, which we did twice. And they still couldn't tell us the answer, but I couldn't actually see anyone doing anything that looked like they were checking.

 

[chatty cathy]

We also had problems with our phones last week. First my husband's phone came up with "unregistered sim" then a couple of days later my phone did the same. We couldn't see any reason why this should happen and didn't know what to do. So we turned off the phones,removed the sim cards, waited about 15mins.,put the sim cards back in, turned the phones back on and they worked. So far so good, touch wood. We think it's a con to get you to go back into the shop and re-register so they make money. So maybe you should try what we did before going to the shop. It may work for others too.

 

[Istanbul_expat]

I agree with Gren. Get your phone in Turkey even if it's dearer it saves a lot of hassle. I also got my iPhone serviced at Turkcell for free as it was still under guarantee and I have found Turkcell here in Istanbul very helpful so it depends which one you go to. I had a new phone in Germany which I sold before coming to Turkey because I knew it wouldn't work here.