roaming problems with NZ vodafone pre-pay

hi,

i can't seem to connect to t-mobile (or cingular for that matter) with my new zealand vodafone pre-pay SIM card. i arrived in los angeles on XMAS and am now in colorado, and haven't been able to connect in any city i've been in - the phone shows cingular and t-mobile networks are available, but it just keeps trying to connect or says limited service, and i can't receive or send texts or calls. i set up roaming with vodafone before i left NZ, and they said it should just connect automatically when i arrive in the US. i do have a t-mobile SIM for local stuff when i'm here, but just wanted to be able to receive NZ texts while i'm here.

in case it matters, it's a seimens C65 and it's unlocked.

going into local stores and talking to call centers here in the US hasn't helped (they all say it's a vodafone NZ problem), and vodafone NZ hasn't emailed a reply to my email from last week...

any ideas? i'm sad that i've probably lost some texts in the meantime cause don't they 'die' after a few days if they haven't been delivered? and i'm a newbie so please be gentle

and i'm also posting this in a couple other branches cause i'm not sure which is the best one - sorry if your'e seeing this again!

thanks for any help!!

 

i think you're right that it's a vNZ prob, will have to call them long distance i guess, arrrghhh!!

there is def an option to enable roaming outside of NZ/OZ with pre-pay tho - you register a couple of days before you travel, pay $10NZ and you get up to 3 months of roaming (you specify the travel dates), and have to give a credit card # as backup for money.

someone must've screwed up the dates or forgot to push the red button or something.

thanks tho

 

and btw, just remembered that i have a british virgin (the company!) SIM card that has roamed in at least 7 countries besides the UK (including the US) in the past 18 months, so it's looking even more likely that vodafone is the culprit...