Also looks like there are variations of price within US. If you choose the original Ohio 567-252-xxxx as your additional phone #, the cost is $9 per 6 month instead of the more common $36. So my guess is that you'll get the 567-252-xxxx as their choosen "free" USA number for you.

At least they are making progress on things. Now they just need to get rest of the website to work (call history, voicemail, etc).

Just so I understand this, if I now sign up for a Yackie SIM and request a number in my local market, any number, not just a particular number, they are going to charge me $36 more???

Yes.That's the way it is on the website now. You can either have the free (US,UK or France) number. Which in the case of a US # we do not know what the areacode is (could be that Ohio areacode), or have a number of your choice for a fee.

You can actually try doing it until you get to the checkout pount and cancel.

Well, I emailed Cizake 2 days ago, and zip, nada, no response. Anyone here have any better luck getting through to him faster? I'm nearing need for Fed Ex if it's to get to me in time, and I'm just so dang discouraged. I put "urgent" in my subject line, tho I'm sure he's inundated. I really would rather use this service than UM, but may have to decide tomorrow to go with them.

Any help appreciated.

Karen

I have e-mailed him, sent him a PM on here and tried the online help on the yackie website all without nothing.

One thing I could not deduce from the update to the website is, if after 6 months they will automatically charge another $36 for excample for another 6 months. So, the bottom line is the number will cost $6/month. Also, what about those of us that already have these numbers, are they going to start charging us every 6 months? I guess Cizake is the person to ask these questions.

Well @ $36 (per year?) plus the rest of the high startup costs, I think Yackie has just priced itself out of my market. After all, what happens to that investment if they follow easyRoam into oblivion. I'd have invested a lot of up-front costs with very little return.

Actually, it's $36 every 6 months for an additional number.

They have now updated their website where by there is no choice but to opt for a free US, UK or France number (The dropdown displays only these 3 countries). One can't go further unless they choose a free # from one of these countries. After that, then the next screen asks if one wants to add another number, Choosing "Yes" then it displays all the other countries/city and the and an associated fee depending on the country/city. For most US cities the fee is $36.

Chooing "No" displays the normal screen with just the cost of the sim $49 + any topups.

Here is a typical message.

"You can buy 12036484723 phone number for 6 months for USD 36"

Well, Cizake never responded, so I'm going the UM route, I guess. Sheesh. What a drag Yackie is now. The website is sooooooo non-functional!

Karen

I know...It's a major task trying to get any kind of response back from yackie. I myself will be needing to topup my credit, since I plan on using the trip on an upcoming trip in a few weeks. I'm not even sure how I will be able to top it up. I'll probably try contacting Cizake and hopefully he'll be able to help in that aspect too.

yeah, thats kind of funny.
Its even hard if you _want_ to spend money sometimes ;)

I also tried to call the hotline / email the support to ask them to tell me my balance and if it is already low how i can topup...


So far the card itself is working fine for us now. In and Outgoing calls are working well, SMS are very fast and reliable.


Chris

It seems that i am falling from one pit into the next one...

Yesterday my girlfriend called me and told me the card said it has low balance.
We used up just a few minutes and about 20 SMS -- and we had the card with 99$ airtime. Now what? I emailed the support 2 times, i talked with the live chat "yes, we will send you a email shortly (that was yesterday), the hotline is always "busy talking to other customers"....

No reply from cizake for quite some time as well.

Slowly my patience is gone.

Chris

Oh Yes. I forgot to mention that. The billing is completely inaccurate! Cizake did mention that I should not pay attention to the call log on the new login that he provided. Well, I took a look at it anyway, and it was so inaccurate it was like a joke. SMS, VM were being billed incorrectly at like $0.50. Incoming calls were like $0.60 min. Quite a few outgoing calls that I did not even complete (never picked up the callback)or make were billed at the above rates. When all was said and done. Just for the couple of test incoming and out going calls, and 1 SMS the total bill was and is still showing $25.46. I manually added the calls and they did not even add to half that. Not being able to check balance from the phone, I could not tell what the phone balance would have said. For example, the 3:46 min call I made to setup VM shows a cost of $5.00. Yes, it's very wrong!

Well, I informed Cizake and that's when he asked me to not even look at the call log/balance. because their biilling was very messed up. So, he credited my entire intial credit back to me.

So, those that have used this sim (and that also can view call log via the special login from Cizake). You may need to pay attention to your balance/usage. It's probably very inaccurate.

I would have to think they would fix the billing issue soon though.

dg7feq, contact Cizake right away. There is probably no way around it right now but for them to credit your entire initial credit to you.

So, Bossman, have you been in contact with Cizake since you tried to help me make contact with him? I never heard word one from him, so went ahead and ordered UM, with $35 priority mail, yesterday. Then signed up for CBW. It's getting very close to the wire--Barry at CBW says it'll take a week from when I get my UM number till he can issue my dedicated 800#.

This whole thing has been such a frustration!

Karen

Karen,

Theres some talk about this in another thread but basically some of us including me as well received e-mails from yackiemobile stating they are refunding our money if we have ordered because of a problem with the supplier of the sims. So, until further notice they are no longer accepting orders. Im in the same boat as you.

KarenM, No. I have not heard from Cizake. I asked another question regarding the posibility of topping up my sim. But, I have not heard anything back. I do not think I will top it up any longer unless the billing issues are ressolved. So, I will probably depend on my UM sim as my primary sim, if all the issue are not ironed before I take a trip next month.

I understand your frustration Karen. I just can't think of how I could have ressolved that billing issue were it not for Cizake. I know nobody has heard anything from him recently. I hope it's just temporary though.

I received this email from Cizake (Also posted here). This was actually in response to the email I sent on behalf of KarenM. May be some of you also did. I gues the next step is how to get a refund. It seems like a very good product, but it's so unfortunate. It was obvious that something was going wrong once we stopped hearing from Cizake.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear customer



I am sorry to hear about the bad experience you have with Yackie Mobile. This product is an inherently good one.



Unfortunately the directors of the company had not taken as much care with the essentials of providing excellent customer service or technical support.



I had continually tried to get them to focus on those issues in addition to providing the physical sim. My goal was to not only have an excellent product, but an excellent company, offering all the support to make you want to be repeat customers. Some of you know how much I have been responsive to customers because I believe no company can survive without a strong customer relationship.



However, with the continuing problems at Yackie remaining unchanged, and my having done all I could, I decided to leave Yackie Mobile and formally ask the owners of the company to make a full refund to all customers.



For more information concerning your Yackie refund, please contact Michel at AcFrance@aol.com or ceo@yackiemobile.com.



Best regards,



Florian SEROUSSI

Just a note to all that, despite Cizake's unfortunate departure from Yackie, I just received an e-mail from Yackie providing me a link for account information and usage, along with a username and password. Looked at my call history to see if it picked up the call I tested with, and it did so accurately. I was charged $0.35 for a 33 second phonecall from my VZW cellphone to my Int'l phone. Still trying to figure out how to change the password, but otherwise am happy to finally see this working.

FWIW, it took me almost two months from the time I ordered my card until I received it (ordered around 5/19), and was extremely close to canceling. I still feel that, if they can get everything functioning correctly, this is still by far the best option for an Int'l SIM, especially for those who make phonecalls from Canada or Mexico to the US, where other cards don't seem to come close to Yackie in regards to call rates.

Unfortunately, I have not had an opportunity to test these calls out myself, so one never knows until tried, however I am going on a 3-country/2 week vacation to Europe next month, and will summarize my experience when I return along with accuracy of the online call-log when I return.

Patience is a virtue to all. Here's to hoping that everything continues to improve with their service. :beer:

I also received the link (they reset my password). Cizake had already given me this access anyway. That's how I was able to see the call logs. According to your test you were charged $0.35, but according to their rates shouldn't that have been $0.24?

To change the PW click on "Update User Details" on the right.

I got my login details today too.
but they are quite weird.
Every outgoing call has 2 lines - both start about 2-3 seconds from each other, have different durations and charges.

Example:
This should be one call to a thai cellphone...

furthermore i bought the card with 99$ airtime, used 33$ according to the bill check -- and have 8.41$ left.

And: the test calls that the technical support made with me while my card did not work for incoming calls and which were reset are back on the list as well. about 10$ of test calls and all billed now.

I sent them a email. Lets see what happens now.
The hotline is still not reachable - but the live chat was on this afternoon and the person i talked to there (the same one as 2 days before) was quite helpful.

Chris

No, because I called from mobile to mobile, both origination and destination being in the US. Based on the rates, it should be $0.69/minute, and I called for half a minute, which is what they bill in.

Am I missing something? There should be no mobile/landline rate difference in the US while making calls to a US number. So, you made the call from the yackie sim right? If so, you should have been billed the outgoing rate of $0.49.(Billing starts when the other party picks up). If it was an incoming call on the yackie sim, it should have been $0.24.

Their FAQ says they bill for the first minute and than 30 seconds increment after that.

Q: What charging interval do we use?
A: The initial charging interval is 60 seconds and per interval of 30 seconds after first minute

Here is the rate table:

From United States to United States land line USD 0.49/min.
From United States to United States mobile USD 0.49/min.
Incoming calls to United States USD 0.24/min.
Incoming sms to United States USD 0.00 per sms
Outgoing sms from United States USD 0.30 per sms
Voice mailbox
Customer service
Call divert
Language selection
in United States USD 0.29

I checked the rates on my bill a bit:

Incoming calls in the US are billed with 14 ct/min (instead 24 on the rate sheet)
a call from US to thailand is billed with 36ct instead 49
a call from US to german mobile is billed 49 instead 69
a call from US to german landline is billed 56 instead of 49
a call from US to US is billed with 35 instead of 49

so all rates are still a bit wrong - fortunately mostly cheaper.

but all unsuccessful calls were charged too with 1 or 2 minutes.

Chris

Yes. I aso noticed that non successful calls were billed. That is, callbacks that I did not pickup, and calls that the called party never picked up.

I hope they are at least working on this important piece of functionality. I had planned on using this sim on a trip next month. But, not knowing what I will be charged per call, and not being able to topup will probably make that impossible.

Yes, indeed.
I especially want to know where the remaining 57$ of my balance disappeared to.

EDIT: the remaining balance shows correct 65$ now - but the test calls are not yet deducted from the bill. But good to see that they are working on it B)

Chris

Some callback companies list the two legs of the call separately like this, so this looks a bit like the call to your phone, then the destination

I can't figure out the numbers though - is that a US number that diverts to your SIM?

Does anyone know how I duplicate the "+" on a Lichetenstein phone number when I am calling from the U.S. on a regular phone?

I'm trying to call United Mobile, and when I dial 011 then the 423 (Lichtenstein code) then the number, nothing happens. I appear to be doing something wrong. Anyone awake at this hour who can help with this? (I'm in CA).

Thanks,

Karen

Karen, I'd expect the 011423... to work (but I'm in UK so not an expert on the US)

Some providers have difficulties reaching the UM range of numbers, either because they are not defined as valid, or because the cheapest bulk carriers they use only connect intermittently anyway.

Do you have other long distance or international possibilities to try? Or I hope US members can help better than me.

If you are trying to call UM from a US carrier I agree with Andy. 011423xxx should work and if not try another provider.

Or switch to another carrier (e.g. Tmobile If you are in Cingular or vice versa)

they always show two numbers.
one is a us-number, the 2nd one the number you want to call.
The US-number is different at every call we made so far.

Some more examples (the real called numbers got some xxx):

12/08/2006 18:01:57 Outgoing Call 17632455140 1.05 2:19
12/08/2006 18:02:23 Phone Call 491725623xxx 0.44 1:53


interesting here: USA to USA - only one billed leg appears on the bill
06/08/2006 23:55:38 Outgoing Call 17047789323 2.10 5:26
Phone Call 15073343xxx

in germany the first leg showed a german mobile number, the 2nd the real number:
06/08/2006 10:52:48 Outgoing Call 491700694961 0.93 1:08
06/08/2006 10:53:09 Phone Call 6692836xxx 0.02 0:47

again: germany to germany - only one billed leg on the bill:
20/07/2006 17:37:08 Outgoing Call 491720036274 0.75 1:10
Phone Call 493677877xxx

some more work to do for the programmers i would say :)

Chris

That should have worked Karen. From the US, you dial 011 to replace the +. Like the others said, it's possible the number is just not working, or your long distance provider does not recognize that number. Note that it's very expensive to call any Liechtenstein number from most US long distance providers. Same thing for calling cards. So, you may want to try emailing them first.

I am assuming you got the info from their website.

phone: +423 663 099 911
Email: customer.service@united-mobile.com

wow - that looks complicated

I've had some weird caller IDs shown on my Liechtenstein mobile sometimes like Russia Bahrain France, so there are clearly all kinds of odd routing possibilities

Do you have also an Israel number for the SIM, and have you dared to call it yet?

Yes I have and i dared.
There is a announcement in hebrew and english that the number is not assigned.

Chris

As per the thread below, a number of us have had our DID's deactivated. So, we cannot receive incoming calls. It just rings busy. Anyone else???

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inde...showtopic=1453