We’ve mentioned Ovivo Mobile quite a bit here at Coolsmartphone.com and we were big fans of their business model, even though it didn’t seem to work out in the end. Things seemed to be going pretty well. You pay up-front for the privilege of having an Ovivo SIM, then on certain packages you didn’t pay anything more.
Over the years packages became bigger with additional minutes and data getting added. You merely paid for the free packages with the odd advert which popped up during your browsing.
What happened? Well, we’d love to find out. We were carrying their adverts and it was as much as a surprise to us too.
Last night we covered the sudden closure and indeed we can confirm the complete cut-off of service for customers. We have an Ovivo SIM here and although it shows coverage and shows Ovivo on the display, calls are not connected and data connectivity isn’t possible. Here’s a video showing how things are right now..
If you did choose to buy a SIM card on Ovivo, you can get a PAC code (if you transferred your number) and you should stop any Direct Debits you have. However, if it’s recent and you paid with PayPal you can raise a claim to get your money back. If you used a Visa card you should contact your bank and ask about the “Visa Chargeback Scheme”. You can also consider contacting the Ombudsman.
There was absolutely no prior notice or warning on this happening, and as someone who has recommended them here on Coolsmartphone I can only apologise to everyone who bought the SIM after reading my posts. The Ovivo Mobile Twitter account and Facebook page has vanished. Ovivo Mobile were in operation for almost two years.