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Here is the full text of a letter
of complaint about mobile phone registration
in Turkey:
Dear Turkcell Management,
I have just returned from a visit
to [a Turkcell] office and I am absolutely
astounded at the misinformation that
has been communicated to me.
I would like to preface this letter
by saying that I am an American national
who lives in [Turkey]. I have never
had problems with my local government
offices, I own a house, I have a residence
permit and I pay my taxes.
I visited the United States about
two months ago and while I was there,
I purchased a phone (a Nokia E71, which
I did not believe was at that time
available here in Turkey). Before purchasing
the phone I tried to find out
the current regulations, to no avail. I contacted
the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC,
but never received a reply.
I have previously registered
a phone in Turkey – with Vodaphone – and not
had any problems with it. All my friends
use Turkcell, however, so I had switched
over to a Turkcell sim card back in
May 2009, using my old, registered
phone.
When I arrived in the Istanbul
airport on 23 June, 2009, I went to the Turkcell
booth there and registered my phone.
I made it clear that I was a resident here, I presented my residence permit
as well as my passport, and the phone
was (I thought) registered as such,
i.e. registered to a resident, and
not subject to the 2-month cut off
period.
All was fine. I had to visit the [Turkcell]
office...to unlock
my phone. While I had bought
an unlocked phone in the USA,
apparently it
wasn’t really unlocked. I
paid 50
lire [TL50] for
this service and the technician, Hakan
Bey, was terrific.
During that visit, which took place
in early July, I spoke with an English
speaking Turkcell employee, Tarik Bey.
(He is now working in [another] Turkcell
office). He confirmed the registration
of my new phone and, again, all was
well. He did indicate that my vodaphone-registered
phone (in which I was using my Turkcell
sim card) was not registered with Turkcell.
Since I could only register one phone,
I opted to register the new phone.
On 23 August, while I was away from
[my home], my simcard locked
and my phone was no longer usable. I thought
it might be a software issue, so returned
to the [local Turkcell] office. There,
I was told by Hakan Bey that, in fact,
my phone was registered only for 2
months, as if I were a tourist.
In order to get my simcard unlocked,
Hakan Bey told me, I would
need to present the following documents: my
passport (which I had), my residence
permit (which I had) and a document
called a Tomkat, which I had to get
from my Mukhtar [village 'mayor'].
This morning (25 August), the Mukhtar
and I went to the [town hall] and
obtained the Tomkat. We then returned
to the [Turkcell] office.
There I was told by a Turkcell representative
called Nulcan that I could
not register my phone. Why? Because I had been in
Turkey longer than one month.
She told me that I could re-register
the phone using someone else’s passport (someone
who had been in Turkey less than one
month), or I could
pay 80 lire [TL80] to re-register
the phone.
As I prefer to do things the legal
and correct way, I paid the
80 lire and now must wait 1-3 days for the
simcard to be reactivated.
What are my complaints? Let me start.
—There is no reliable, accurate
information anywhere about phone
registration. I cannot get it from your representatives
or your website. I cannot get it from
your embassy. Government websites are
vague on the matter.
—The Turkcell office at Ataturk
Airport in Istanbul either did not
register my phone correctly, or neglected
to tell give me complete information,
i.e. that my phone was registered as
a tourist phone.
—I visited the [local] office
at least three times in the last month and at
no time did anyone mention that my
phone was not registered in perpetuity.
—
Had there been messages (sms) to this
effect, I would not have understood
them. Presumably if Turkcell sends
warnings to foreigners about phone
cutoffs, you would have the courtesy
to send them in the foreigner’s own
language; it is unlikely that every
visitor to Turkey can understand Turkish.
—How on earth is anyone expected
to know this obscure regulation about
registering the phone within one month
of entering the country? No
one gave me that information in Istanbul,
when I arrived, and it just doesn’t
make sense. If I don’t know that my
phone registration expires in 2 months,
why would I think I need to re-register
it within one month of my arrival?
...
I have lost a great deal of time and
money pursuing this matter. When I
paid the 80 lire registration fee,
I was assured that this would take
care of the matter forever, and that
my simcard would not be cut off again;
but I have no guarantee that
in fact my phone is now registered
forever....
(Back
to SIM card Problems page...)
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