Yackie upgrades
 

I just received this, wonderful, yeah right !

Yackie Mobile Customer:
We have great news! We have upgraded our systems and will be sending you a new YackieMobile SIM card. Some of the upgrades include a faster call back response, more short code support, live customer support Mon-Fri 9-6 US EST and more. There is a $15 charge for the new YackieMobile SIM, shipping and handling is included in this charge*. All we need for you to do is reply to this email or call us at 1-800-360-2031 and provide us with the following information:

1. Full Name: John Smith
2. Your 354 YackieMobile (354XXXXXXXXX)
3. Complete shipping address (which has to match billing address, if you use CC to refill)*
4. Good call back number.
5. Apt, Unit or Suite #
6. City or Province, State and Country
7. Current e-mail address
8. *Fill out the attachment (YM CC Form) if using a Credit Card as the method of payment.
9. Call, email or fax us the information above at:

YackieMobile Upgrades

· Customer Support: 1-800-360-2031
· Fax: 954-765-3477
· Email: Upgrades@yackiemobile.com

We need this information as soon as possible. Your current YackieMobile SIM’s will be turned off by Jan 12th 2009. If you would like to pay for the shipping with your Paypal account simply send us an e-mail providing us with the e-mail address linked to your PayPal which needs to match your YackieMobile account and we will send you an invoice you may also call us with the information.
Have a wonderful day.

I just received it too. Don't understand why we have to pay $15 for the new sim though. It does not sound like much of an upgrade to me.

When you log into your web page, there is a section called identify verification that wants your passport number, social security number, and other stuff. Am I the only one who is uncomfortable with this?

The funny thing: in my email this sentence says "Your YackieMobile SIM will be shipped to you at no charge."

So are there different kind of customers for them or did they change the text of the emails inbetween?

Chris

They dont check the data. I clicked on drivers license and typed some fancy number and it was accepted...

Now would be a good time for them to roll out that SIM they talked about last year with the cheaper North American roaming profile.

This is a RIP-OFF!

Why would we want to pay Yackie another $15 to have a SIM card that none of us requested!?!

If they are changing their systems or whatever and they want us to continue using their service then they need to send this replacement SIM card out for FREE!

If not then they need to refund people their remaining balance and they can go elsewhere...

Stu, that has been showing up for the last few months. I just ignore it and click on the "my account" link.

I received the same e mail from them...

I emailed them back saying I am aware some have received the e mail but have been told they will be getting a new sim card at no charge....

I therefore requested one be sent to me without charge.

I assume everybody else here will be doing the same with a subtle (or not so subtle) suggestion that if they do not furnish a sim card for free to everybody, they will receive a great deal of bad publicity on this forum.

Not a very good service to charge customers and tell them the service will be shut down in 1 month and force them to pay 15$ for an upgrade.

What happens if you don't upgrade and still have money on your account, a refund ?
If you still have money in your account the could also charge your account for these 15$.

I still remember United Mobiles offer for a free +44 sim when you had a +423 sim. No charge just an extra number for free.

They sent me an email yesterday on the new sim and said there would be no charge, so I sent them an email asking for the free sim. Agree that the new sim should be free to ALL of their customers because they are the ones who want to change their sim cards for competitive reasons (similar to the free UM switch from +423 to +44).
Assuming they send me a working card, I wonder if it will have data capabilities, and at what price? Also the new card will hopefully say "roaming" instead of "oaming" on my handset...

Yackie has shown potential at times, but like a promising French restaurant in my neighborhood always just missed the mark because they always attempted dishes just a little beyond their abilities to mass market. Whether the issue is funding or skills is beyond my knowledge, but they always just seem to miss the mark by a bit.

I think that we should wait and see what happens.

I will ask for a replacement. Maybe they are changing their carrier....

..which would be the 3rd carrier in about 2 years then. Makes me very confident that everything will work smoothly ;-)

Chris

I have mailed them why they could not take the 15$ from my account because there is still enough balance left in that. so far no responce. This is not good.

Not holding my breath on whether they will send me a replacement sim either(no confirmation email or phone call received or order number on website, but it's only been a couple of business days). Traveling in about a week, so I may use up most of balance if I don't hear anything by the end of the week.

Yackie Mobile Customer:

Sorry for the inconvenience. This was a system generated email sent to
customers based on usage. After reviewing your account, you should be
receiving our new YackieMobile SIM free of charge. We would need you to
verify the following information in order to ship your new SIM.
1. Full Name: John Smith
2. Your 354 YackieMobile (354XXXXXXXXX)
3. Complete shipping address
4. Good call back number
5. Apt, Unit or Suite #
6. City or Province, State and Country
7. Current e-mail address

My new Yackie sim just arrived at home (still at work so won't be testing until tonight). To their credit, Yackie shipped the new sim card very quickly...I asked for it last Thursday, and I got the new one today on Tuesday. I will be curious if it still has an 09 Iceland backbone or if it is on a different carrier platform.

Yes. They shipped quickly. Mine came yesterday. It had the number still a +354380 Icelandic number. It came unactivated with activation instructions. That is, to call or email them with the old and new sim numbers so that they can do the transfer and transfer the credit. I sent an email yesterday night. My 8:30 this am, I received a response that I am all set. The sim is at home, so I can't test it yet. However, I have logged on and all the information and the new number is showing there.

Sent Yackie an email last night and they activated the new card, deactivated the old one, and moved the balance over for me this morning. Probably only thing left to do is to set up my voicemail.
Cover letter with new sim said the callback is now faster. That's good news because with callback cards (regardless of brand) there can sometimes be a bit of a wait for the call to come through.

I did a quick test last night. Direct dial from my contacts did not work (never got the callback) with the two phones, a Moto V551 and V195, I tested it with. I had to dial manually via the sim menu. The old sim worked in these phone by direct dialing. I was really surprised it did not work in the V551 especially. All the callback sims I have used worked in this phone by dialing directly from the phone book.

I really could not tell if the callback was faster. It does not seem like it in my opinion.

Update: Direct dial from the phone contacts works on my MOto Q. Still no way to check credit balance from the phone, via sim menu or not. It does not work!

Likewise I can't check balance from handset (other than might be possible through refill IVR or customer service live operator short codes but I have no need to add credit right now). However, the website will let me see my balance, which does let me know the balance was transferred OK. Looks like they have a few bugs left to work out.
Note also the website has changed, and didn't allow me to see GSM rates on their calculator when I tried it yesterday.
Phonebook access isn't a big deal for me since I only dial a limited number of contacts and know the numbers by heart (home is #1, followed by office voicemail if I'm on a business trip).

Yackie not working in the US
 

At least for the past 4 days., the sim has not been able to connect to any network. Since it was not critical for me, I only emailed them yesterday just to make sure I am not the only one. Here is their response. May be others outside the US are experiencing the same thing.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank You for using our service. We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties with our service. Please bare with us as we are working diligently to resolve this issue in a timely manner.

Regards,

bare with us? Who's naked around here?

still didnt get the replacement card so i cant test. Honestly they finally lost my trust completely. This would be the 4th SIM-card and the 4th number for me. This is more a joke than a reliable service.

Chris

I received my replacement before christmas, just need to activate is. Number is still +354

It's a shame that they have a uk number but customer support is only available during USA est time from 9-6.

For a company promoting the card in europe, customer support should be open during european times.

The sim has bot been able to register on any networks here since about a week ago, as I posted above. May be things are okay on your end.

Just called them like it said in the letter to give my old number and new number.

They guy on the phone said he could not activate the new number because the system was down. Looks like it has been down for some time.

He will sent me a mail once he gets it up and running and my new card is activated.

In the mean time i'll wait for the mail and test the sim when it's activated.

Yackie is going through some issues.
 

Here is the last status I received from them today.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our technical department has been working around the clock to locate and resolve this issue in a timely manner, we don't currently have an update as to when the system will be fully operational. I will send you a notification as to when the system is or will be operational.

Regards,

As you probably know, Iceland's economy is in deep trouble. It would not surprise me if 09 (on which Yackie is based) cannot pay their roaming bills. This will be a new test of global cooperation to see if carriers worldwide will once again allow +354 numbers to use their networks, or if it will be cut off for good. When I call in to 09 numbers, I am still getting the voicemail system, but the SIM no longer registers in the USA on T-Mobile or AT&T.

Same here. I still get the VM when I call my yackie number. But can't register on any network. It sure seems like 09, which yackie uses, has hit a road block.

My 09 sim and old yackie sim does not register on any network in Greece. I used both cards untill the 22 of December and they worked. Now they do not seem to work at least here...

Is Yackie working anywhere?
 

Same problem in Melbourne. No service for well over a week.

Is anyone in the world still able to use their Yackie phone service?

I received my card a few weeks ago. I didn't get informed about a replacement SIM so I assume I got one of the new ones. At first it showed a good signal with "Yackie Telstra" as the carrier. I could dial out but my 354 number was unreachable from a telstra land line and from my skypeout. Skype says that the number is either invalid or does not exist.

I called the 24/7 support line and got a recorded message telling me to ring back during EST business hours. Email support suggested I should use the correct international dialing prefix. Which of course I was doing.

Then a few days later I simply had no service.