thanks Robert2533.

xyz123, i see some of your points but you read into my post. i NEVER said it was economical for people to roam out of spain with our phones.

and to answer the question, our phones are set to vodafone's "passport" service so when people take them outside of spain...

- incoming calls cost 99 cent connection fee and THEY CAN TALK AS LONG AS THEY WANT FOR FREE.
- outgoing in europe and back to u.s.a. cost 99 cent connection fee + 28 cents per minute.

so, still not that bad.

all in all, we are the best in spain but i know our limitations so when future customers enquire about multiple country rentals, i usually recommend a multi-country service like the one at http://www.cellularabroad.com/internatRcell.html .

saludos,
jer...

Hey Jer...

Thanks for the clarification..incidentally if you want to do your customers a favour, don't direct them to cellular abroad; it is one of those American inernet sim card providers who give you no choice of which network they sell for a particular country and trip or quadruple the price of a local sim card for the "convenience" of sometimes, but not always, knowing your number in advance.

I would recommend them to www.united-mobile.com plus callbackworld.com for the most economic roaming rates throughout all of Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe west of Russia, Australia, South Africa, China among others.

Just thought I would check this forum one more time before our trip tomorrow and came across this post I started a while ago.

Jer, I am the one who is renting from you and I am glad to hear my phone will be waiting for me in Barcelona. We have given the number to all our family and friends with explicit instructions for our elderly parents of what exactly they have to dial to reach us anytime during the 2 weeks we are Spain. For me, this is worth a lot. In a couple of weeks when I am back I hope I can report how happy I was with the service. Looking forward to meeting you in Madrid.

Just got back yesterday from our great trip to Spain and thought I would post my experience with the cell phone. It was waiting for us in Barcelona at our hotel just as Jeremy said it would be. It had coverage every where we went. I made and received many calls with it (several to and from the US and several to hotels, restaurants, train info, our friends in Madrid etc. within Spain)and never had to buy more minutes. Jeremy met us the last night outside our friend's apartment to pick it up and I have already been notified my deposit has been refunded. It could not have been better for us. I would recommend this for anyone who is in our situation and needs a cell phone in Spain.

Since I already have an unlocked quad band cell phone, for a recent trip to Spain I bought a 24 euro Vodafone sim card on Ebay for $29.99 USD plus $4 shipping. Seems to be cheaper than Onspanishtime.

Jack,
Your 'bargain" sim card amounted to an exchange rate of 1.416 USD/1.00 euro. Don't forget that there is a 16% IVA (tax) on the 24 Euro card (3.84€), leaving you a total of 20.16€ worth of outgoing calling time. The outgoing per minute rate will depend on what calling plan the sim card is covered by.

To each his own.

Jack,
Your 'bargain" sim card amounted to an exchange rate of 1.416 USD/1.00 euro. Don't forget that there is a 16% IVA (tax) on the 24 Euro card (3.84€), leaving you a total of 20.16€ worth of outgoing calling time. The outgoing per minute rate will depend on what calling plan the sim card is covered by.

I guess it's to each his own.

To each his own.

Robert,
Not sure what point you are trying to make. My only point was that the same 24 Euro Vodafone sim card I purchased on Ebay costs approximately $44 plus $10 for shipping at the onspanishtime web site.

Jack,
I'm interested in finding out exactly how much time was included in the 24€ sim card. Did it include a coupon from Vodafone, or was it a full 24 euros worth of time? From what I see on eBay, they are offering the standard Vodafone sim with 12€ (less the 16% VAT) + an additional 12€ of calling time once you register the coupon with Vodafone.

Also, I couldn't find any reference to the same sim card you purchased. What service did you purchase it from on eBay? I can always use another sim when traveling.

Yes, the one sold on Ebay and the one sold at onspanishtime are both 12 euros on the card and 12 euros additional time added when you send in the coupon.

The seller I purchased it from on ebay was:
http://stores.ebay.com/Premium-Travel-Gadgets

hey john183, glad to see you back posting here. it was a PLEASURE doing business with you. perhaps your post here will make a few "phone rental skeptics" see the light :) i appreciate the feeback and the fact that you posted it here as you had promised to do.

Jack. our SIM card sales are geared towards americans and canadians who need to call back to the u.s.a., canada australia or europe while in spain.

we offer a service where the client can drastically reduce their call rates back home. if you buy a SIM elsewhere and start to call back to the states, you will go broke and will find yourself topping up (adding credit to) the SIM card on a daily basis, hence the "bargain" SIM just became the "shoot me, this is SO expensive to call with SIM".

i will not argue with you that ebay has good deals on spain SIMs but that is the case with most consumer items. we offer a professional service with customer support while you are in spain. try and get support from an ebay seller if you should have a problem with that SIM when you are here, good luck :o

also, you are confusing the onspanishtime services (cell phone rentals) with the SIM sales which are actually at http://www.spainsim.com/home.htm . the former is for those who want to rent a cell for their trip to spain (like john183 above) and the latter for those who already have a phone that will work here (like you).

you will see that on the spainSIM.com "terms of service" (conditions), we have a lowest price guaranteed statement which reads as follows...

"5) Our Guarantee. Our lowest price guarantee applies to prices on exact same SIM cards that you see on other webshops online. These must be legitimate businesses selling new SIm cards foro less than we do in order for our 10 Euro and free shipping discount to apply. Excluded from this guarantee are...

a) Auction sites: cheaper is not always better as the SIM cards you see on auction sites may be used, defective, etc... and hence may be listed at a lower price.

b) Individuals: the competing SIM card must be offered by a legitimate BUSINESS, not an individual who has listed the SIM card on a website.

c) Second-hand webshops: as the SIMs must be new to qualify for our guarantee discount, SIMs listed on websites dedicated to selling second-hand merchandise only are excluded from our guarantee."

yes, you will find SIMs on ebay and my cousin vinny also has a used SIM that he bought for his trip to spain last year and he is gonna give it to me for my trip, so that too is cheaper than buying a new one. i am sure you get my point.

i have personally bought many items on ebay and have had good and bad experiences. you always take a chance when buying on ebay while buying from us is 100% satisfaction guaranteed.

also, note that at the spainSIM.com website, we offer SIMs with more initial propaid call credit in them than the basic SIM. in fact, the biggest SIM we offer actually has 178 euros call credit in it and sells for 149.95 euros so you not only get the SIM for free but make over 28 euros on the deal, FIND THAT ON ebay!!!

as well as DUAL and GROUP linked SIMs which are very good products if a couple, family or group needs more than 1 SIM.

clarification complete ;)

saludos,
jer...