SaudiMac Saudi Apple Macintosh Users
I am subscribed to the iPhone 3G 8GB Postpaid 99 bundle. I paid 2,255SR for the iPhone 3G and 99SR for the first month, even though it’s a postpaid plan I PREPAID. That’s the first oddity.
Now I got a bill for 146SR which includes what’s called “package rental monthly fee” of 123.75SR and 31.88MB internet usage for 65.4SR?! Haven’t I paid for 200MB in this plan? What’s going on? And what is this “package rental monthly fee”? Apparently it means “قيمة الأشتراك الشهري” which is the monthly fee? I thought 99SR WAS THE MONTHLY FEE?
That bill was for the time between 22nd Feb 09 to 28th Feb 09. The 22nd was the launch date of the iPhone 3G in Saudi Arabia. On the 22nd I paid Mobily 2,255SR for the iPhone 3G and 99SR “prepaid” for the first month: 2,354SR. So 123.75SR monthly fee, additional service fee? of 2,310SR and data usage for 66.34SR. Amount due is 146.09SR. I got the bill on 22nd March and due date is also 22nd March. So my iPhone 3G would be disconnected by now.
This does not make sense. I have signed up for what they call a postpaid 99 plan which is clearly a prepaid plan. I did not go over the limit. This is a major screw up on Mobily’s part, they calculated the first month as 6 days only for some strange reason and charge me more than their 99SR. I am going to call Mobily’s support number (1100) to find out more information.
Update: It appears that Mobily calculate a full month no matter how short this month is. I am getting asked to pay about 170SR for 6 days while a month should cost me 99SR. I have escalated the issue with Mobily’s support. Did you have a similar issue? Please share your first month experience.
Update 2: Mobily support said that they calculate whatever left of the month as a full month so you better buy your iPhone 3G on the 1st day of the month! Also the free 75 minutes/75 SMS messages can be made to any of the carriers (STC, Zain).
Update 3: After I received the paper bill, it included a piece of detail that the phone operator did not tell me about which was 50SR for a replacement SIM card. It explained a lot but the phone operator should know that information as well. It was not on the online site, only on the paper bill.
Is it better to buy PREPAID than POSTPAID iPhones?
It’s true that prepaid plan is the best for acquiring a iPhone.I got 16gb prepaid and I am using Sawa on it.I have reformated the iPhone using iTunes and at the end of reseting the iPhone process I got a message” Congratulations! you have sucsessfully unlocked your iPhone”. Thogh the price is high but it’s worth it.
Salaam…
Going Prepaid is good than Postpaid and especially in KSA Mobily which will have some hidden rates and at the end it will be a very big problem for customers which they will not think about…
I got a iPod Touch and its same as iPhone but without a camera and a phone…I unlocked it and having huge apps…good to go online…
mobily sucks
the same exact thing happened to me…. and even more than that i never received my paper bill, which i did complain about but nothing happened… and i just hate the fact that 99% of the time when i call customer service i get “due to the quality of the line we cant hear you clearly” and they hang up!!!! I’m Definitely going to try and cancel my contract…
unfortunately Oddy it is best that you actually go to a Mobily branch to get things sorted. For me the problem is that the site and phone operator didn’t have the information that I needed.