June 28 2016, 10:15

If you are leaving Russia to work abroad – disconnect the Russian SIM from all services. Otherwise, you will end up like me with Beeline.

Let’s say, at some point, the SIM stops working properly. This can happen after a delayed payment and it doesn’t restore properly post-blocking. Maybe it just broke – such things happen with SIMs. Of course, Beeline’s customer service says everything is fine on their end. You can’t just descend into a subway here and exchange a Russian SIM for a new one. So now, I have a tablet at home, which just yesterday miraculously received a promotional SMS from ZebraFitness, but is otherwise useless.

Moreover, this SIM was connected to Raiffeisen.Connect internet banking. No SIM – no transactions. Thankfully, there’s almost no money left in the account, so it’s not that big of a deal. But darn it, what if there had been money there! I call the bank – they say you can only change the number in person by visiting the bank or by somehow receiving a confirmation SMS on the old number. There are no other ways, sorry, dear customer.

So I imagine, if there had been money – what would I do? Travel to Russia just to change a SIM or a bank number?.. Absurdity 😦

#beeline #raiffeisen