I have phone issues! And this post is going to be a bit of a rant about efficiency issues in South America. In each country it has been a struggle to get a pre-paid phone chip, or to get it charged.

In Brazil, I finally got a pre-paid chip from Claro, which worked pretty well. Except for the fact that I ran out of my 3G-data volume pretty fast.

Each time I got this message that I should text SIM to 252, and could pay to go back to full speed. Said, done! Just to receive an instant message that this service was temporarily not available and I should try later.

SIM. SIM. SIM.

No effect. So I went into a Claro store where they told me that this would not work for me and I could not buy more. “But I have so much money on the chip that I’m not using for calls, can’t I just buy more?”. Nope. “Don’t you want money?”, I said, slightly perplexed.

In Argentina, I got a Claro chip from my friend Fernando, who had one he did not use anyway. I cut it into pieces to fit it into the iPhone slot. Works.

Topping up however… pretty impossible. Claro has shops and little stands literally all over town. I am talking about hundreds of them. Hundreds.

However, you cannot add money to your account there. Nope. Not possible. You need to go to one of the little kiosks, where they do it, but charge you one extra peso for it.

I don’t care about that Peso, the problem is that Argentina is an economy without coins, so… no coin, no top up. Or no bus. Or no washing machine. Finally, I found a kiosque where you could top up with a machine…. (on my second visit, 14 months later, this was pretty much standard and no problem anymore… progress!)

I wonder what management makes decisions that lead to opening all those shops, just to have them NOT sell the Claro services and accept money…?

In Chile now, I went to an Entel store, just for a bit of competition. Maybe I should have tested the local Claro, though.

Entel sent me from tienda to tienda, one not selling pre-paid chips at all, one selling them, but not having the one that fits into my phone.

The last one might have done it but the girl spoke so fast, I fled. I have no idea what she was trying to sell me, but she ignored my pleads “más lento, más lento, pro favor!”

Shop number four didn’t sell them, again, but send me to a mobile phone store just down the aisle in the mall, where I finally got the Entel chip that Entel would not sell…

I managed to get it to work, following the instructions. However, no 3G connection.

I was ready to call it quits and depend on wifi for the rest of this stay… but ran into Entel store #5, where I queued up to tell my problem to be send to another queue…

So, bored, I finally had the idea that maybe I should just once switch off that damn phone and switch it on again… 3G signal! I’m in!

+56 9 8212 2103 is my current number. Go harass me!

PS: I can’t top-up the chip in any Entel store of course. Pharmacies and Supermarkets only.

I didn’t even flinch. I saw that one coming.