How can I use international data on a prepaid sim (not vzw roaming) with the Galaxy s3?

[TN-Howard]

This has been incredibly frustrating.  I am in the middle of a trip to Europe.  Before I left, I confirmed with VZW CSR's that my s3 LTE phone is fully unlocked and that I could buy a local sim and use it while in Austria.

Aside -- I can't use VZW global services on their network -- cost notwithstanding -- because I  hit some device limit when I bought my wife an iPad, and VZW required a deposit for it.  No big deal, EXCEPT that here three months later I learn that VZW accounting prohibits global roaming if you account has a deposit.  So fine, VZW doesn't want me to pay them a dollar a minute and $20/100MB.  No problem, I can get a drei (3) prepaid card for 10 euros that has 1000 minutes and 2 GB of data.

So, I do.  I activate the card, and voice and sms work fine.  No data.  No joy.

Step 1.  I call samsung.  Samsung, after about an hour of claiming it should work, decides that it is because VZW has some sort of software block.  Not surprising, since the software is actually from VZW.

Step 2.  Call VZW.  After a great deal of ****  VZW says you have to go back to the drei store.

Step 3.  Return to drei.  Store rep discovers VZW software will not recognize their access point name (APN), and will not let you enter it.  They verify on a different s3 that the sim is fine.  With my VZW sim, I can see the VZW APN's, but because I don't have global services turned on, no joy.

Step 4.  Do some web digging.  Discover that this APN thing is a known bug.  Web sites (like the CSR in the transcript) suggest rooting or jailbreaking is the only workaround -- which I don't want to do.  But here I sit in Austria, with no data on a top of the line VZW phone and an account with seven different lines. 

So, how do I resolve this?  Take the phone back, because there is clearly a defect?  But if it's software, I'll have to get an escalation to get a different phone.  Is there a fix?  Sue for false advertising?  Better yet, start a class action -- there sure seem to be a lot of us in this boat based on web searches.

<< Transcript removed to comply with >>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[TN-Howard · Accepted solution]

OK, I have to throw VZW some props here.  I went to the store where I bought my phones, and explained the problem I was having with international travel and the s3.  The store put me into an iphone5 for free as a warranty exchange -- apparently they know the APN issue is a serious one and they said there was a big lawsuit about it.  It cost me a bit for power adapters and such, and a few paid apps, but the iphone has (reportedly) no issues with international travel and local sims.

Way to go, VZW. Mark this one up for responsive customer service.