Hi all,
I need some advice regarding mobile plans in Bulgaria.
I subscribed a plan in a Vivacom store. (the plan you can see on this link to be more specific http://nixanbal.com/vivacom-puska-neogranicheni-minuti-kam-vsichki-i-16-000-mv-4g-internet-za-23-99-lv).
First of all, it struck me that I had to pay a special deposit of 115 Leva as I'm a foreigner... But I did. The sim card worked well (4G everywhere, etc). A couple of weeks later, it stopped working (impossible to place a call, send SMS or data), I went to the store, and I was told that I had placed International calls (which was true but for a reasonable amount, ~10min of Europe outgoing calls) and I had to pay an extra deposit of 20 Leva. I tried to get more details, and I learned that they needed a larger deposit for calls not included in the plan. I paid again and it started working again.
The straw that broke the camel back is the roaming. I'm now traveling in Europe (Hungary and Slovakia) for a couple of weeks, and I can't get the Vivacom sim card to work when my other sim cards from other countries work nicely. Everytime I try to call, a message says that I'm not authorized to make a call. The message is in Slovak, so I suppose that the call is not routed to Vivacom infrastructure which made me suppose they didn't have roaming agreement (or roaming service included).
Questions : Did you guys have to pay deposit ? Are you happy with Vivacom ? Should I terminate that contract and see if the grass is greener with another operator ? The thing is that to stop the contract it will cost me 3 months of penalty.
Vivacom & roaming
Since I am a Bulgarian I have not paid any deposits ... so far.
Any way, here are some advices:
1. Call Vivacom and ask them to enable your roaming plan. This is probably the most likely reason for not being able to operate this SIM in other countries,
2. There's a special supplement for almost unlimited calls and internet when roaming, check for it next ime you visit Vivacom, not sure about the plan, bu it costs about 5 BGN per day for the internet in roaming.
3. There' s a special limit to your account, and it might become inactive when you exceed it - increase that limit, I suppose it is to the amount of the deposit you have paid. Probably you will have to increase the deposit too.
4. Get s.o. from Vivacom show you the best plan for your needs - they have this type of consultants.
Hi,
sorry for the delay but thanks for the help.
1- I've been in touch with them by email and they enabled roaming which finally ending working correctly.
2- True thing, however I tried to get it enabled, and called the hotline and was put through a technician who wouldn't say a word of English and just ended the call...
3- Yes, but after going through all the immigration steps I obtained a Lichna card and they offered to use the deposit as a credit to pay the upcoming bills which I accepted.
Thanks for your time 
Vivacom also have a contract for foreigners and one for Bulgarians, they will keep a foreigners deposit for 3 on time payments and a Bulgarians for just 1 month, then you will not get your money back but it is added to your account and used to pay your monthly fee. Customer service is an absolute joke, my advise don`t even think about a contract with these idiots.
I am curious about what mobile phone companies are best in Bulgaria, especially for a foreigner who travels a lot. Any recommendations?
lewis23701 wrote:Vivacom also have a contract for foreigners and one for Bulgarians, they will keep a foreigners deposit for 3 on time payments and a Bulgarians for just 1 month, then you will not get your money back but it is added to your account and used to pay your monthly fee. Customer service is an absolute joke, my advise don`t even think about a contract with these idiots.
I don't see what's wrong here . So they put it on your account, so what? You don't have to pay for the next two months, because you already paid.
I really don't see why you're angry at them...
Hello all . i need your advice as well Vivacom billed 370 lv during 2 weeks period They insist that i am traveling out of Bulgaria which is not true They insist that placed phone calls out of Bulgaria which is not true
If i want to cancel I have to pay 3 months of the monthly plan
They do not have a way to downgrade either
Tell them you would like to see what the bill is based on - they must have a record of which carrier you were connected to during the time in question. You weren't in any border areas at that time, were you? It's quite common in such places to find yourself connected to a node in another country..
We use vivacom for mobile and internet, they wanted 400 lev up front as deposit due to us not been bulgarian citizens. After 3 months the 400 was placed on our account as credit which was then used to pay the monthly bills, we have no issues with that method.
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