Telefonkort.net

Are you in Norway and need a phone card? Not too many options available for you. The best one is to go to a store run by and catering to imigrants. If you can't do that, there's telefonkort.net.

Since I have a considerable number of foreign calls during a year, and several of these go from the college where I can't call abroad unless the switchboard is open (between 8 am and 4 pm Norwegian time), I go through a few phone cards (phone cards let me bypass the lock, as I call a toll-free number in Norway). Until now Jill and Hilde have been getting them for me in Bergen, as there are no stores selling anything like that in Volda. So imagine my joy when I found an online store.

And imagine my frustration when I tried to call today and found that the card was transpired. Not used up, I can deal with that, but just plain old transpired. The deal I agreed to when I bought the card, the card was supposed to be valid for a year from the first time I used it, or transpire on 01.03.2005, which ever came first. Somewhere along the way the company I bought it from (Global One in this case), decided to change the terms. After waiting for 20 minutes on the phone, I got through to their service phone and managed to tell them how I felt about this. After a brief conference at the other end of the phone-line, they decided to issue a new card for me. Fine, I was happy with that, so give me the number and I can get my call done! Yes, they would email me the number for the new card... in a week.

So, I got to spend 20 minutes listening to their inane music rather than talking to a friend across the Atlantic Ocean, I get the rest of the money I paid back in the shape of a special-issue phone card, and I will get to talk to the people I need to reach in the US - in a week. All this delight because a company decided I ought to get something other than the service I bought from them. I guess I should be grateful I didn't have to pay for the call to their service phone - waiting and listening to the repeated "all our operators are busy.... press 1 to talk to one of our english speaking operators" would probably have cost as much as I had left on the phone card. And I pressed 1 three times and nothing happened. Oh, and my angry, annoyed voice got recorded: for security and educational reasons. How about that. I hope they learn something.

Excuse me for not jumping up and down in pleasure. And thank you Telenor for not ripping me totally off on foreign calls.