Hello everyone.

While my first Bonaire trip was an overwhelmingly positive experience, I wanted to warn everyone of not being sucked in by those ubiquitous international telephones on Bonaire and their alluring, but misleading United States, Canada, or Europe "Direct" buttons.

I just received my first credit card statement with FOUR brief calls to Canada, each call averaging US $45. Ouch! For those rates, these calls must have gone to Canada "direct" via Venus.

I am surprised this topic had not come up on any trip report threads that I have seen. Am I the only dope who fell for these machines, or don't others want to admit that they too were duped?

Ouch! That’s steep Karl. Sorry to hear about that, I’ve never actually had the need to call home on vacation fortunately.

There must be a more affordable alternative; hopefully someone can tell us about them and to help warn others.

Thanks, Scott, for your compassionate words.

Because of Terez's illness and treatment, I called almost every night to see how she was doing. So, there are still a few more calls to be charged. Normally, I use a calling card, but for some reason my calling card, which worked fine in Miami, did not work with these machines in Bonaire, although the labelling made me believe otherwise. In the end, I phoned collect which seemed to lower the cost somewhat, but a comparison is difficult because the credit-card calls don't give me any details about the length of each call.

So all around a bad deal, and I just wanted to warn others not to be sucked in as I was.

Karl

There is another thread somewhere which was posted in the last couple of weeks. They too were shocked when they received their credit card bill.

Karl & Scott,
like Kay said: these phones were discussed be4.
Here is the thread
Keep away from the phones! Having dinner 4 that amount of money feels so much better

Repeat after me: AVOID THE BLUE "INTERNATIONAL PAY PHONES" WHEN ON BONAIRE :-)

It's cheaper to buy a cell phone here and prepay some number of minutes here.

Jake

AVOID THE BLUE "INTERNATIONAL PAY PHONES" WHEN ON BONAIRE

How did I do?

screw the phones...use sign language and the webcam

I have not paid a dime for multiple calls home on my last two trips to Bonaire.

Here's how I do it......

I sneak into the Richter house when noone is home and use their phone! Seems to be working pretty good so far!

On my last trip, I had a pass key made so it should be even easier on upcoming trips..... :-)

You could have just asked. We'll do a lot for friends who deliver Krispy Kremes and Clementines :-)

Jake

I guess I must have missed that earlier thread. Bummer! Could have saved myself a lot of money. Jake, I am interested how BONATA feels about these "rip-off" phones, as you correctly call them.

Karl

To be honest, Jake, I make one short phone call the evening we arrive to let one contact person know we made the trip safely. That person starts a network of phone calls with other contact people to get the word out to all appropriate family members.

Costs me almost nothing...... I like the idea of not being bothered by a phone while on the island. That's one of the reasons we like the SandDollar - no phones.

-dave.

Karl - no idea. I haven't brought it up with them or TCB. Feel free to do so and let me know what you find out. :-)

Jake

Sheesh!! OUCH! Karl, I know you had to call with your loved one so sick. Sounds like the prepaid phones is the way to go.....or maybe smoke signals. M.

Actually, I just noticed that the other phone thread was posted AFTER I returned from Bonaire, so could not have been helpful to me.

I, too, could not use my own phone provider's calling card eventhough the labelling on these blue phones makes one believe that one can. My phone provider at home also uses the slogan "Canada Direct" for their calling cards, which makes these phones on Bonaire with their "Canada or USA Direct" buttons even more misleading. False advertising, maybe?

Anyway, I have followed Jake's advice and written to the Bonaire Tourist Commission. Let's see what they have to say.

Karl

TELBO downtown during the day is another option. Make arrangements for a telephone call arrival night only in case of emergency: the 'No news is good news" system. Phone or email the next day, from BonaireLive, etc.

I use the "no news is good news" network. Absoulutely free!

"Phones? We don't need no stinkin' phones!"

I think the answer is right in front of all of us...

You simply don't need phones ("ohm-mane-padme-Iwillnotusetheblueinternational payphones-ohm") when you can pop into the local web-cafe and send and receive all the email you can stand for just a few guilder!

-LS

Hi Leif,
I think Karl really wanted to here Terez as she was going through some medical treatment. But you are right...email is cheaper.

Scott

should have been "hear", but I do bet he also wanted her here!

scott

Where can you rent these cell phones mentioned in this and the other thread, and purchase the phone cards?

Thanx!

Jimmy: I am not certain how to create a hyper link for you, but here is the Search Page results from BT under "Keyword Search" shown down below this page towards the bottom right of this page....if you enter CELLULAR ONE you should pull up several topics and postings regarding cell phones and where to find them in Bonaire.

We buy our pre-paid phone cards for the Cell One phone at LISA GAS over on Industrial Avenue. Be certain it is a Cellular One card if it is a Cell One phone you are renting. There are also Telbo cards for sale but I don't know if they work with the Cell One phones. With the cards, you only pay for outgoing calls....you are NOT charged for "incoming" calls to the cell phone...what a great deal!! Good luck! Carole

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/cgi-local/bbs/board-search.cgi

Let me try this again, Jimmy...hope it works this way! Carole

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/1022/57153.html?1041020761

This is an experiment for you, JImmy...keep your fingers crossed! CArole (if this does not work, go to "Keyword Search" on the bottom of this page and enter Cellular One under Topic and see what you can pull up. Sorry for not being able to help you out on the first try! Someone else will undoubtedly come to our rescue! CArole


Your search for Cellular One matched 195 pages.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Everything Else Bonaire: Cellular Phones in Bonaire
2. Everything Else Bonaire: Archives: Archives - 1999-05-27 to 2000-07-25: Cellular One

3. Community Chat: Is anyone up??

4. Everything Else Bonaire: New telephones around Bonaire = $$$$$

5. Bonaire WebCams: Archives: Archives - 2001-05-03 to 2001-06-30: Here's one for Cecil...

6. Trip Reports: Archives: Honeymoon

7. Accommodations: Archives: Free accomodation anyone? gotta like dogs

8. Everything Else Bonaire: Anyone going to DEMA in Las Vegas?

9. Bonaire WebCams: One week to go!!

10. Everything Else Bonaire: Archives: Archives - 2001-07-02 to 2001-12-31: Anyone need anything from Canada?

Result Pages: [>]

I'm glad 2 be able 2 play the "Someone else" 2day

Search-Result

Thanks, Igor! Maybe it's just my machine, but this is what I reached when I clicked on your link....what's the hap??? Carole
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Result Expired

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You cannot use this search result, as it was created from a different machine.


Please contact BonaireTalk Webmaster if this problem persists.

Back to previous page


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discus Pro 3.10.4
Copyright 2000, DiscusWare, LLC, all rights reserved
board-search.cgi
Perl 5.006
[check_ban_ip]

save the search result as html and then attach the saved html file using the \attach or whatever formatting string...

Hi
In order to add a little more confusion to the cell phone question let me tell this story. Last Nov. when we were in Bonaire I went to Cellular One and the Gal there told me "Yes they could program a second number into my ATT TDMA phone and then I could buy a card for $28 to use the phone on Bonaire". Just now I looked on their Website which has 2002 copyright and they say that they are using CDMA. I had previously read that Bonaire was useing TDMA. The website is here. http://www.cellularone.com/PressReleases.asp?PressReleaseID=76

CellOne and TelboCel here on Bonaire still use TDMA (Linda and I both have TDMA phones we bought in the states and used under a CellOne US (now Cingular) contract there and here under the second NAM with CellOne initially, and I switched to TelboCel about a year ago.

Jake

So who was it that sold all the islands on TDMA crap? Cable & Wireless (a.k.a. Clueless & Witless) bought into the same stuff for the Caymans (and probably other places). TDMA has no capability of carrying data, so now everyone's abandoning it for GSM/GPRS or CDMA. I fear the island companies, though, won't switch any time soon, ensuring the phones they use are different from everything else on the planet.

I'm hoping the Dutch operator KPN will gently push Telbo into adopting GSM, so roaming becomes a posibility for Dutch people. I'm bringing my GSMs along just in case

GSM is already available on Aruba and Curacao (no roaming on Curacao though), and is rumored to be coming to Bonaire in 2003 (with roaming).

Jake

Jake, any idea if the used standard on Curacao and Aruba is GSM800, GSM1800 or GSM1900?

Just for the information, I found out on my next telephone bill that calls from the room phone at Plaza last July were charged at rates similar to those mentioned above. Best to ask about charges before calling!!!!!

Kitty,

No idea, although the SETAR Web site for Aruba promotes 900/1800 and 900/1900MHz GSM phones.

I have a tri-band GSM phone though that I would love to be able to use down here.

Jake

I also sent this to Karl. This past spring when we were in Bonaire my husband had to call his 88 year old Mother a couple of times and also used those phones, so you know exactly what happened when we got home and got the bill. He called his credit card company and got the phone number of the company who is responsible for the phones. When he called them they immediately offered to reduce the charges by 40%. An offer he took but he also disputed the amount of the charges with his credit card company and they ended up reducing the charges even more as they thought the charges were outrages and there was no way to know what you were being charged. The company in charge of the bills is in the states. I would encourage you to fight the charges and don't pay until the credit card company is through investigating.
When we were in Bonaire this December I noticed there is one of these phones right outside the tourist infomation office. I went inside and told them that when each tourist who visits Bonaire and uses these phones gets home and then later gets the bill the last impression of Bonaire is that they were ripped off. He claimed not to know what I was talking about, had never heard it before, had no idea what the phones cost, couldn't cost what I claimed.....Everyone should stop in and visit him on their next visit!!
Constance

BTW, you can call the operator of these phones from the phones at no charge and get a quote on how much it will cost to make the call (which is how I found out that they charge $5/minute, with a $15 minimum, I think it was).

Jake

For those of you who have not yet resolved your Blue Phone problems, I have a contact for you who asked to be contacted to help take care of any open complaints or issues. His name is Robert Elsinga. He's with Global Link N.V. which in turn is affiliated with BBG Communications. E-Mail address is robert@bbhcomm.com

Jake