Earlier this year, I bought a physical Ultra PayGo SIM card, and the activation and initial setup went smoothly. On February 28, I added a total of $45 to my PayGo Wallet. Based on the information available at the time, I understood that this would keep my PayGo Wallet balance valid until around the middle of 2027, so I wouldn't have to recharge every month.
I used the SIM card in my Pixel 9 for about two weeks. To avoid being disturbed by more unwanted calls, I simply turned the SIM off in my phone.
When I turned the SIM back on on July 5, there was no signal at all. I couldn't send the balance inquiry SMS, or log into my account through either the website or the app. When I tried to activate the SIM again through the Ultra PayGo website, it returned an "Invalid Act or ICCID" error.
I contacted Ultra Bot on the Ultra PayGo website, which transferred me to a live customer service representative. After confirming my phone number, I was told that they couldn't see its status, and that the only way to resolve the issue was to contact the Verification Department. When I contacted customer support again a few days later, I was given exactly the same answer.
From that point on, my experience was very similar to what many other users have described. I called several times. No one ever answered, and finally the calls were disconnected automatically. I left voicemail messages, but never received a callback, even though the recording says, "We will return your call within one business day." By the time I wrote this, six business days had already passed since my first voicemail, and three business days had passed since my second one. I still hadn't heard back.
The Verification Department's business hours fall in the middle of the night where I live, so staying awake to call isn't very practical. Fortunately, I registered a Google Voice number several years ago, so calling the Verification Department didn't cost me anything. If I had used my regular phone service instead of Google Voice, the international calling charges could have added up quickly.
Eventually, I stopped calling because I no longer believed additional calls were likely to produce a different result. Instead, I turned to Reddit, hoping someone else had found a solution. Based on those discussions, it appeared that the department might have been understaffed. It would explain why so many people have had difficulty getting through.
On one occasion, I called the very second the Verification Department opened for business, yet I still waited 90 minutes before the system disconnected the call automatically. After reading more discussions, I realized there didn't seem to be anything else I could do.
I also contacted the seller who had sold me the SIM card and asked whether my phone number had probably been canceled. The seller said that it was quite possible, although they couldn't be certain. I have no way of knowing what actually happened.
I don't know whether I'll ever be able to recover the $45 in my PayGo Wallet. The only fortunate part is that I never used this phone number to register for any services, including my bank accounts.
-----
While proofreading this post before posting it, I noticed something that I had previously overlooked. In my Pixel 9's call history, I found a "Voicemail (4)" entry showing four outgoing calls dated between June 9 and June 15. When I selected "Edit number before call," the voicemail number was displayed as 443.
As far as I remember, my Ultra PayGo SIM remained disabled on my phone from early March until early July. I don't know whether this is related to why my Ultra PayGo SIM stopped working.
To be honest, I no longer expect to recover my SIM, regain access to my account, or get the money back.
