Job Discussion Forums

[scb222]

i just entered the country a few days ago. when you arrive at the airport you MUST declare your cell phone at customs, and you MUST have your phone's original receipt, the customs guy will stamp your receipt. then you can take this receipt to turkcell, telsim, avea, up to you, and buy a sim and have it activated about an hour later - and low and behold you have a functioning phone.

if you didnt declare your phone on arrival, as i didnt cos there are no signs in English, and there was no information about such a thing on the plane, you MUST return to the airport on the same day you arrived and get your receipt stamped. if you go back a day after your arrival you will have to pay a fine of 56 YTL and wait 2 weeks for your phone to be cleared. if you didnt bring your recipt with you, i can imagine many dont, youre outa luck. youll have to buy a phone here if you wanna use a turkish sim card.

however, supposedly as of tomorrow, january 1st, for those arriving on or after this date the rules are changing again... you will supposedly be able to register your phone directly at the telecom office (turkcell, telsim office etc) who will then send a copy of your receipt and passport to ankara for approval. im told the procedure will take about a month, and i can well believe that cos anything that needs to go to ankara takes a looooong time! after youre approved you can buy a sim and youre set.

what a performance though. i cant believe it. i think turkey will need a better system if it wants to be in the EU. talk about stifling business!!!!

[TeachEnglish]

[dagi]

Those rules just exist on paper. In real life your phone gets blocked anyway, even if you enter the country and are all prepared, flash out the receipt and anything else they want to see. Even if you get that little stamped and signed note from customs declaration and take it to the Turkcell shop. Even if Turkcell does send the copies of all the documents incl. one of your passport to Ankara.
The phones still get blocked.
I did not even bother to try to get it hooked back on. Once they told me about the procedure, not thanks. I surrendered and exchanged my girlie gadget for a bulky cheap, but turkish one.

[lovelace]

A friend's phone got cut off for a time while the paperwork was processed (or something) but it started working again a week or so later. Perhaps an exception, I don't know.

[thrifty]