Pat I have emailed you through the forum but have not had any response till now !
Please check your personal mail or respond here.

I am also experiencing technical issues with Maxroam and have contacted customer support via email with no real resolution.

I've sent an email to patphelan and asked for his assistance and will the forum know the outcome.

Those of you using Maxroam, please post your experiences/review in the forum.

Hi guys
I received one email where I dealt with it in under 20mins
standing by @ pat.phelan@cubictelecom dot com for any mail right now

Both issues dealt with in under 5 minutes

Still wish when you offered that free sim card a while back, I did not get a email saying that the email I sent was rejected from the mail server.

Has anyone even received a free sim card that they offered? This product is similar to yackie. And, it looks like most users in this forum are leaning towards yackie. Their generous offer is just too difficult to pass up.

I have mailed pat today (see mail address above) and got a response withing 5-10 minutes that he would sent me a card.

So it should be in the mail middle-end of next week and I will try their service and review it like i did with yackie.

Maxroam Feedback & Review
 

As promised here's the outcome of my communication with patphelan and my overall initial review of Maxroam.

Initial Order
Did not receive telephone number in requested USA area code. Not a huge deal for me, but for others it might.
SIM card was not sent via registered mail (which cost 1 Euro extra). Got the card OK so it's not a big deal, but it is still slightly annoying to have paid for a service and not have it followed through.

Initial Testing
Proof of concept telephone calls work when roaming in the USA on both T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless networks.

SMS text messaging is very intially very sketchy. 50% success rate. My first communication with customer support last week did not resolve the issue.

However after a very quick email communication with patphelan today, the SMS issue is now resolved.

The problem is that I was not sending the SMS message to the underlying SMS Maxroam number. I was sending SMS messages to my Maxroam USA number which doesn't work. I was only told of the underlying SMS number after communicating with patphelan.

I've told him that this information should be shown in the Maxroam account details, and instructions on how to send messages to a Maxroam number should be included in their FAQ.

Customer Support
Barely adequate over email. Customer support is located in Ireland and they do not have 24 hour coverage, which means that email sent the them during USA business hours will not be responded to until the next day. Just like any email support there will be a back and forth exchange while various solutions are offered, so expect several days before any sort of resolution.

patphelan has told me that customer support will be going on 24 hours within 4 weeks.

Telephone customer support is available, however one must pay the prevailing Maxroam rates calls. For me that would cost $1.50/minute, for USA to Ireland. I haven't called for obvious reasons.

I've also told patphelan that the website and the instructions sent with the SMS card should indicate that the customer will pay for the call to customer support. I only found this out after emailing customer support.

I am glad my SMS problem was resolved quickly once patphelan and communicated, but frankly it shouldn't have taken an email to the CEO to solve this type of problem.

I'm hoping that as customer support ramps up over the next several weeks, their responses will be more helpful and timely, like my communication directly with patphelan. If they can resolve issues like he can, then they're on the right track to grow.

Bottom Line
I'll use Maxroam as a backup on my upcoming travels, but I will buy a local SIM card.

The same situation with my order . SIM card was sent by regular mail, although it was ordered and paid as registered .

Can anyone that has this sim card verify if you get charged as soon as you answer the callback, and not when the number called actually answers (Like most other sims that use callback). So for example, if you call an invalid number, a busy number, or a number that just rings without an answer, you still get charged.

I have read many of negative the posts and I am not surprised as I had a few initial problems related to recieving the SIM, kind of my fault in not putting our company name in the address field.

After travelling with the card, India, Argentina, Germany and Italy. I can confirm that this is the best thing since sliced bread. My cellphone bills on my contract Italian and US lines run about 500 euro per month. Last month my Italian (Vodafone) bill was over 600 euro. Since I have been using my Maxroam for use outside of my two home countries, and using it for international outgoing from my home countries, these bills have been reduced dramatically. Today, my on-line Italian Vodaone bill is sitting at 40 euro and I bet if i check my US bill it will be even lower as I have been in Italy or outside the US all this month. I have my US ATT number diverted to Maxroam and I have spent about 30 euro of MAxroam for those calls and my international outgoing from Italy. At this rate my average total of both bill will go from over 1000 euro to under 400 euro. So far so good. Waiting for the callback is pretty quick and the recharge is almost instantaneous in my experience. Plus the voicemail actually works well (once I figured out how to get to SIM Apps on my V#1!.).

That indeed seems to be the case based on one test call.

Thanks MATHA531. That's exactly what I thought. That's the case with the one test call I made with mine too. The original yackie was like that too. So, may be it's the same kind of system or so.

But Phil, I know you monitor the board, your system should not charge people for calls that aren't completed......and please none of this it can't be helped.

A big big demerit for maxroam. Get it fixed Phil, it is almost robbery to bill people for calls that aren't completed. United Mobile and other international cards do not stoop to that low.

It is absolutely as egregious as what T Mobile US pulls when you use it for international roaming and don't answer a call and it bounces back to voice mail you get charged twice....they claim it can't be helped. It most assuredly can be helped and is just one giant rip off.

That doesn't sound too good then! Some destinations take notoriously long for the call to actually get put through after one has dialled. Hate to think you are getting charged for all that time.

I also noticed that unlike every other international sim that uses call back where each of them specifically states that "Call charges start after the called party answers the call. No charge applies during the callback", No where is something similar mentioned on maxroam's site. So, maxroam should at least let their users know that charging starts as soon as the callback is answered. This will obviously make some think twice using this sim. Especially with a similar offer from Yackie that works/charges the way its supposed to.

This is obviously a major NEGATIVE for maxroam in my opinion. Most people that have used other callbacks probably assumed maxroam will work like the others, and never thought much about this.

ATT does the same Do other operators in the world do this as well?

I can see that some cost is involved in carrying the call "round trip". Since that real cost is only a few cents, they could simply waive the cost. It would often be made up when the customer calls to pick up messages. It would also generate more revenue because people wouldn't be afraid to leave their phone on most of the time.

...mike

Yes, they do it in germany too. But they also write in bold letters on the websites that you should switch off your voicemail before going abroad to avoid high roaming costs.

Chris

This is because of DCF (Defined/Default Conditional Forwarding). I used to fight this battle every time I went overseas. It took about an hour with CS & Tech Support before someone would turn off the DCF. However, I knew that it was only temporary. Every now and then they ran a self-audit program on the system and that would reset the DCF if it was found turned off.

However, a few years ago I went through the usual pre-travel drill with Tech Support and when they turned it off this last time, it stayed turned off. Ever since then I've had full control of my conditional forwarding. (I have no idea what they did different that time.) When I roam overseas I can just turn the forwarding off and that takes care of it.

Only once did I get charged for a forward to voicemail. I was roaming on DoCoMo in Japan and had suspended my conditional forwarding. Their system still forwarded the call to voicemail. Since then, when in Japan, I cancel and erase my condtional forwarding (##) so that they won't have any way to know where to send the call.

It depends on if the carrier uses Default Conditional Forwarding or not. I call DCF, "The customer is an idiot mode." It's done because 90% of calls to customer care are "I'm not getting my voicemails." and the carrier gets tired of fielding these calls from stupid customers. So, they just program the HLR to reset the conditional forwarding back to the voicemail numer if it ever gets turned off.

Most European carriers do not use DCF. I think Orange UK does.

Here is the reply I received from Maxroam regarding the charges for calls not completed.

The reason you are charged for incomplete calls is because our system operates on a ‘call back’ method, you are charged to receive this call, it is similar to a connection fee. We are working on removing call back, and thus the connection fee, and should have this removed by the end of Q1 2008.


While operators such as United Mobile do not charge this fee (we are only charging it due to the system we use, which we are trying to eliminate), they do not offer the advantage of local numbers in 46+ countries, which means that those calling your from the US can call your US number at local rates, and do not need to dial a Jersey number, as provided by United Mobile, which is sometimes charged not only as an international number, but also as a premium number.

Of course, it is inexcusable on their part not to prominently tell people they will be charged even if the call is not completed...I don't think this is a usual thing and I can't, in all due respect to them, understand why it should be different just because you have a local number than it is for UM. (and of course the question is are you charged on both ends namely the call to their switching center in Ireland and then to receive the callback?)...it is a gigantic deficiency on their part and very nearly a deal buster, nobody should be charged when a call is not completed.

Sim showing "unregistered sim"
 

My maxroam sim card is showing unregistered sim. Anyone here have the same issue. I am in the US. I last used it on a recent trip in September. I can still log in and do any maintenance online. I have already opened a ticket with their customer service.

Just an update. He did mention that their engineers are looking into why it just died. The second status update is after I talked to them.
------------------------------------
Hi,

We have run some tests on your SIM card, and it appears to have ceased to function. I do apologise for this inconvenience. I can send you out a replacement SIM card, free of charge, immediately to your home address?

Regards,

Customer Service Operative

Nov-17 2008 at 16:07.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

A replacement will be shipped to you shortly. When you receive the SIM just remove the old SIM and insert the new one. There is no need to register the SIM card, as all your numbers and credit have automatically been transferred across.

Regards,

Customer Service Operative

Nov-17 2008 at 17:51.

Maxroam is also charging you even if the call is not completed, many other do this.

The argument that they have inbound numbers is very nice but has nothing to do with the story. If someone calls you on 1 of these did numbers and the call gets forwarded you have to pay for this forward anyhow. Also you have to pay for the did number if you want more than one. You can easliy setup a system like this yourself and use any roamfree sim.

For now I have not had to many problems calling jersey and it being treated as premium number.

but we have had the discussion here before about paying for calls that were not answered or if you received a busy tone. Yes operators should be clear about it and sure somewhere in the small print you might be able to find it. But like many others they are not clear or advertised rates on a website are outdated. There are just a few operators that have been in business a longer time that are clear about what they do.