I'm leaving out the specific locations of the Apple Store and AT&T stores that gave me conflicting and wrong advice, but am very, very disapointed and shocked at the poor service, and how little the people know about international service!
I support a mostly U.S. Based Ipad, with 3G coverage. The user was traveling to South Africa and needed coverage. I went to an Apple Store and inquired about getting coverage. The representative told me that he had no idea how to obtain the coverage and suggested I visit a local AT&T Store. I visited a local AT&T Store who assured me that AT&T offered coverage in South Africa. The user needed to use the menu on the Ipad to order the international service, and choose the data plan. Before doing so, I called AT&T who also reassured me that an international Data Plan would work in South Africa with an Ipad. I had the user use the interface and order the service. Unfortunately, when the user arrived in South Africa, the Ipad had no service. The user went to a local wireless shop and purchased a sim (I think Vodacom) and service. This worked and his Ipad had coverage.
The user came back to the U.S. and I put back the Original sim card to get local coverage. I then went back to the Apple store and complained about the situation. A representative directed me to this web page, (The forum policy does not allow me to post links - The AT&T Page is
Roam Zone for discounted rate plans) which DOES NOT include South Africa. The representative apologized for the way that AT&T treated me and suggested I get a full refund for the user. I then returned to the AT&T store that gave me the original bad advice. A different representative informed me that the AT&T 3G sim card that was in the Ipad, WOULD NOT WORK outside the country and the only way that I could obtain international coverage would be to purchase a different local sim card and service in each Country that I visited. He couldn't explain why the Ipad offered the international plan. I then went to a different AT&T store and asked about international coverage for the ipad. The representative had no idea how to obtain coverage and sugested calling AT&T.
Does anybody have any idea how this works? The user that I support frequently travels outside the country. Is it possible to get 1 plan or 1 sim card that will work everywhere, or does he have to get a different sim in every country.
I mostly support PC's. My Mac user friends are always telling me how great the Mac support community is. In this instance, I have found the support to be terrible with parties from the Mac store and AT&T to have no idea what they are talking about. Due to the bad advice, I need to have the user take his time to get the billing reversed for the non-working international plan!
Can somebody here please give me a definite answer for how to obtain international coverage.
Thank you
I support a mostly U.S. Based Ipad, with 3G coverage. The user was traveling to South Africa and needed coverage. I went to an Apple Store and inquired about getting coverage. The representative told me that he had no idea how to obtain the coverage and suggested I visit a local AT&T Store. I visited a local AT&T Store who assured me that AT&T offered coverage in South Africa. The user needed to use the menu on the Ipad to order the international service, and choose the data plan. Before doing so, I called AT&T who also reassured me that an international Data Plan would work in South Africa with an Ipad. I had the user use the interface and order the service. Unfortunately, when the user arrived in South Africa, the Ipad had no service. The user went to a local wireless shop and purchased a sim (I think Vodacom) and service. This worked and his Ipad had coverage.
The user came back to the U.S. and I put back the Original sim card to get local coverage. I then went back to the Apple store and complained about the situation. A representative directed me to this web page, (The forum policy does not allow me to post links - The AT&T Page is
Roam Zone for discounted rate plans) which DOES NOT include South Africa. The representative apologized for the way that AT&T treated me and suggested I get a full refund for the user. I then returned to the AT&T store that gave me the original bad advice. A different representative informed me that the AT&T 3G sim card that was in the Ipad, WOULD NOT WORK outside the country and the only way that I could obtain international coverage would be to purchase a different local sim card and service in each Country that I visited. He couldn't explain why the Ipad offered the international plan. I then went to a different AT&T store and asked about international coverage for the ipad. The representative had no idea how to obtain coverage and sugested calling AT&T.
Does anybody have any idea how this works? The user that I support frequently travels outside the country. Is it possible to get 1 plan or 1 sim card that will work everywhere, or does he have to get a different sim in every country.
I mostly support PC's. My Mac user friends are always telling me how great the Mac support community is. In this instance, I have found the support to be terrible with parties from the Mac store and AT&T to have no idea what they are talking about. Due to the bad advice, I need to have the user take his time to get the billing reversed for the non-working international plan!
Can somebody here please give me a definite answer for how to obtain international coverage.
Thank you