I had requested Matrix for a Philippines sim for my 4 week travel to Philippines in April 2013. The salesperson who came to my office smoothly sold me a "Global SIM".
- I was provided a UK SIM to be used in Philippines - This meant that I cannot use the sim for local calls within Philippines, because nobody there will call international to a UK number!
2A. I was told that the rental was Rs. 499 per "trip". I read the fine print later and find that one trip is equal to 15 days. So, for my 1 month trip it was going to Rs. 998. The sales guy didn’t tell me that (obviously).
2B. This rental was charged to my credit card as soon as I started my trip - A total of Rs. 1255 (Rs 998 + some random amount of taxes and charges).
Outgoing calls very rarely went through. So, I stopped using my Matrix sim as soon as I landed in Philippines and made my quick call back home.
Incoming calls were supposed to be free (according to the sales guy). I read the fine print and found that incoming calls were to be charged at 0.7 GBP per minute. So, I asked my family not to call me on that number.
Due to all these problems, I wrote to Matrix support asking them to suspend my account and refund my charges. I received a response saying that they can close the account only if I returned the sim. Of course I couldn’t return it without coming back to India.
For the 4 calls that went through (for a few minutes), I received a bill yesterday for Rs. 1147, and this is charged automatically to my credit card. Overall, hopeless, misguiding sales guy, and very bad customer service.