Yackie Mobile and 09: troubles by email
 

Just received the following from Yackie Mobile:


O9 might be a goner.....

- the last line is mine not Yackie's.

Got the email too. It's so unfortunate for yackie. I used their sim on a trip last year and it worked quite well. It seemed like they were beggining to get things turned around, they just revamped their website, etc. This will be a big disappointment for them.

Received their "new"sim end of last year. Just don't understand why they are sending out new sims while in the mean time the financial situation of their providers seems to be a problem.

The next question will be what platform will yackie use in their next offer. There are not many options left, IOM or Estonia. Back to Israel like maxroam will not be an option. So wait and see. But we now now that Iceland is also of the list.

shoot, and i have 43 Euro left on my 09 card....

Ok, don't worry. :cool:

I just spoke with Yackie Mobile, they told that everyone can ask the refund of the credit simply contacting them by email.
Same thing for the upgrades, they will refund the 15$.

But that's Yackie...I think the poster was referring to his or her remaining balance with o9...if indeed o9 is now the late o9, that money is probably lost and gone forever although we remember that some of the Isle of Man sims arose from the dead!

Just tried my sim on T-Mobile and on AT&T in the USA. Briefly registered on T-Mobile, then went to "emergency only". AT&T only went to "emergency only" after a lengthy wait.

Unfortunate, because that leaves only United Mobile as my only prepaid gsm international call back sim and their new rates are not as competitive (although I have other options like Digicel, Iridium, VOIP or low tech solutions like prepaid long distance cards). Plus I agree Yackie seemed to be turning the corner with quicker customer service response and a better website.

In this case I can't really blame Yackie because they got burned by an unforseen supplier problem. I just hope they can successfully move us to a new supplier if they can't resolve the 09 problem and we don't get burned.

I'll contact them and see if they will be switching to a new provider quickly. If so, would prefer a sim exchange if the rates are favorable. If not, then I'll try to get the refund of credit.

Think Yackie is gone or about to go out of business due to the 09 Iceland backbone provider problem. Single word response to a trouble ticket I opened with Yackie was "closed". Website account balance now shows zero for what little credit I had left on my sim.
Other providers are very much aware of their problems and there is now a Google ad if you search on "Yackie" that says "Yackie mobile customers maxroam.com Get a MAXroam, we never go down use "yackie" to get a 20% discount"(think they use a carrier in Israel rather than Iceland and their website shows they just added data with their second generation sim cards). Suspect other international call-back roaming sim providers may provide similar discounts for switching to their sim cards. Anybody try MaxRoam and have any impressions on the quality of their service?

Yes. As I posted in another thread, of all the international sims that I have tried, maxroam has the best call clarity. Another good thing is that the caller ID that shows when I make outgoing calls is the local DID number (In my case local Chicago DID), not the +972 number like most other similar sims. Of course, you also get the "missed call" sms whenever someone calls you and your phone is not in service area, phone is off, etc. The sms also indicates if they left a msg or not.

Tried to edit my post above but could not because it's been more than 2 mins.
-------------------------
EDIT: I should add that maxroam does charge for calls that do not complete or to an invalid number. Bottom line: They charge as soon as you answer tha call back. In my experience they charge about 25-30% of whatever the rate is for outgoing calls in the region you are in. I brought this up with them, and the guy said they get charged for the call back, so they have to pass it on to the customer.

Thanks for feedback! I can live with being charged for a brief callback for incomplete calls or invalid numbers. I sometimes have gotten this issue with other providers.

The news on voice quality and DID caller ID is good. Important issues for me are reliability (why I also use Iridium in certain situations), voice quality and price (but willing to pay more to get the reliability and good voice quality). I'll order the Maxroam sim tonight when I get home.

I ordered the MaxRoam sim card as a replacement for Yackie. The 20% off "yackie" promotional code did work, although it was at the end of the checkout...correct amount converted from Euro to USD was charged to my credit card. I'll see if I can get a local US dial-in number once I get the sim card in the mail and I activate the card. Also noticed that TravelSim and CelTrek are now doing similar google ads if you search on Yackie on Google to get people to switch their cards over.
Hope that the ZeroMobile problem with Iceland will be resolved more professionally than Yackie...

Email From Yackie
 

Yackie Mobile would like to thank you for your patients during this extended outage. We are doing our best to keep you informed of connectivity and an ultimate fix for the current loss of service.

Yackie is close to finding another provider to handle our termination. We expect to have a new card and service restored shortly. We will contact you for shipping information once the new roaming SIM has arrived.

There are many rumours that Yackie is out of business and or we have collaborated with other roaming SIM providers. YackieMax and our VoIP services are still in service. Our GSM product is the only product affected by this outage. Also, we do not have any agreement with any companies and do not endorse their technology, SIM exchange programs or service.

Users who have $0 balance issues! We are aware of this and it is part of the transfer of accounts to the new system. All balances will be restored on new system. For example a user with a $23.52 balance at the time of the outage will have the same $23.52 on the new service.

When new service is available new SIMs will be provided free of charge and shipped to a confirmed address.

Thanks,

Yackie Support

So apparently Yackie may not be "closed" like the email they sent me?
 

I just got the same email from Yackie (actually two identical ones).

On a replacement Yackie sim, I'll believe it when I actually see it. Not very impressed with the way Yackie has handled this so far. Found out about the Iceland backbone provider 09 tanking through PrePaidGSM.net, not Yackie, and when I opened a trouble ticket about a replacement sim on an alternate provider they only responded with the single word response "closed". Yackie really should have immediately notified all of their customers of their problem, and kept in constant contact with them on their progress searching for a replacment carrier. Also concerned Yackie is running their website as if nothing is amiss, and unsuspecting new customers could get burned. Yackie is really going to have to work hard to win my trust back...

I suspect the MaxRoam sim chip I ordered as a replacement will come in the mail faster than a replacement Yackie sim will.

When I go to Bermuda at the end of May, I'll likely use my Digicel Bermuda sim chip for primary service, and callback sims, Iridium or landline prepaid cards as backups. For that location, a local sim or a prepaid landline card is by far the cheapest communications solution.

Well, at least they sent some emails this time. I can imagine its quite hard for them to loose their 3rd provider just a week after sending the 4th SIM card.
So far i had a +972 card which worked in my opinion very well at good rates (until they raised them a lot), then i had a +44 card that never properly worked, now i have two +354 cards... Lets guess what will come next ;-)

Estonia probably?

So has anyone actually gotten the promised "replacement Yackie" card they emailed us about? I was never mailed one, and wasn't really expecting they would send one, so I got a MaxRoam card as a replacement. Curious to see if Yackie will actually follow through and reissue sim cards that are non-Iceland based...

No. I do not expect it to be a quick fix for yackie. First they have to find a carrier that they can work with.

Same here. I will use my maxroam sim primarily when I head out on a Western caribbean cruise (Roatan, Honduras. Belize, Cozumel, Mexico, and the Bahamas) in a couple of weeks. My other sim, UM+ either does not work or is just too expensive.

I wonder if there is an Icelandic Consumer Protection Agency to whom we can complain about 09? I sort of miss the 46+ Euro I lost in that deal.

i guess there is a looooooong line of people waiting... when their banks crashed they lost billions of euro on saving accounts.

New Email From Yackie
 

Dear Yackie Customer

On behalf of everyone at Yackie Telcom Inc., thank you for choosing Yackie Mobile for your telecommunication needs. We are committed to providing you with the highest level of service and customer satisfaction possible. It’s important to us.

We are contacting you today to provide you an overdue update regarding your Yackie Mobile service. We are currently working to rebuild our Yackie Mobile service with the customer needs in mind; the current launch date for our service is set for June 2009. Once launched Yackie Mobile will provide faster more reliable service in more countries at cheaper rates. Yackie Telcom Inc. will be incurring all cost related to providing all customer with our new SIM card free of charge and shipped to a confirmed address.

Yackie Telcom Inc. is not out of business nor have we collaborated with any other roaming SIM providers. In fact we will be launching are U.S. based GSM service in the coming weeks, and our YackieMax and VOIP services are still available.

We are aware that all customer accounts reflect a zero balance, but this is not a cause for concern as once our new system has been implemented and launched accounts will be restored and will reflected your last balance.

If for any reason you would like to be refunded your remaining balance please email upgrades@yackiemobile.com. By receiving a refund you will no longer qualify for a free SIM card and free shipping once our service is launched, your account will be closed and you will need to purchase a new SIM card and create a new account for the new service.

If you have questions or comments, we are delighted to hear from you. Call our toll-free number (800) 360-2031, or send us e-mail at upgrades@yackiemobile.com. You can expect us to respond to your e-mail within 48 hours.

Again, thank you for your patronage. We look forward to serving you.

Yackie Customer Support

My advise.......if you want a [3 names removed] card, why you dont order it directly to the supplier......at last you are in direct connection with the provider



* [edit by andy: I've removed the link, as it is a company which has only postpaid customers and only in its own country]

edit 2: other names removed as well

And what, sir, is going on with your sim card I have in my possession and is apparently worthless?

As above, why don't you pull your finger out and provide your own customers with service, before lecturing others on how to do it?

Because after the three bad experience we had with

[3 names removed] .....we don't want also be a [name removed] reseller, or a [name removed] reseller

We work to have our own solution and to control it, when this product will be ready and fully fonctional, we will come back.

I've commented before about you abusing this forum to make attacks on erstwhile partners and rival products.

In the case of your most recent supplier, we can see you may have been unlucky, but the other 2 still exist and other resellers are still trading with them.

If you don't want to be a reseller for the other 2 companies whose names I've removed, for whatever reasons, then ignore the subject, or at least don't bother with it on here.

As I say above, so far the one of them only has postpaid customers in its own country.

So there is absolutely no point in people approaching it to ask about their own existing prepaid SIM card with other providers, or to attempt to purchase something which is not for sale there. And it is out of order for you to attempt to incite people to do so.

Posts by a certain other username here have been removed.

In future, please confine yourself to comment on your own product.

To help that, I've now moved these 5 posts to the most recent thread about Yackie

Of course you can blame them. It shows lack of due diligence. A company that does not look into the stability of their critical suppliers is doing a slack job.

Whilte I agree with your sentiments and am certainly not necessarily a fan of Yackie (although I have nothing against them either), I don't think they can be blamed for the fiasco of O9 which until the very end seemed to be very stable. It was the collapse of the Icelandic economy that seems to have done them in.

I'm not trying to criticize. I lost 47 Euro on 09, myself. I'm just saying that I bet Yackie wished they had asked 09 some tougher questions before they got into bed with them.

Interesting point of view
 

Before they close their doors, we funded them for around 200 000 $, and they also made a merge with bluetel and completly reorganize their company.....the market collapse stop from some of their shareholder a second funding and drop them out of the market

Zeromobile Italy, which is a company with some smart Italians business man was also affected, i understand we are not the smarter guys in this business, but we was not the only stupid guys to be affected by the 09 faillure.....

So what ? we are stupid and it's our fault? and the other are smart and just unluky ?

As i can see by reading the different posts here......this market are not very stable and i dont see any one provider without any problems....

we start this business in 2006, and despite all issues , we are still here, and we dont need to change our company name every 6 months...and we will release our own SIm card probably in June, So let's see what will be our product and if we answer to the public request or not...

Regards

and YES, i use a beta SIM card Yackiemobile......

Can You Tell us about this Beta SIM card :)

Is Yackie back in business?
 

I was just looking at Yackie's website and it appears they are selling SIMS and I would assume back in business. But my account still shows no balance ( I had one) and I have not received a new SIM. Are they back up and running? What's up with them?

They still mention having a +354 number ...

Yackie never updated their website since they had problems with their sims.

Dear customers

Our OWN Yackie Mobile SIM card is now in Beta test and work fine ( Multi IMSI, USSD call back, Camel enable, data, etc etc ).

We are now in trial production and we plan to have released and availlable our Sim card for end of July.

This time we will handle and manage this SIM card and we will not be reseller from one other operator or providor......So should be better.

This business look like the Highlanders movies, it will be only one.......:-)

We have availlable for now our YackieMax solution and our US SIm card

I was thinking of having yackie jack for my mobile because i have to make foreign trips by reading this thread i am not sure i will have this.

Yackie has some nice features and decent rates. But it looks like they charge $3 a month for the extra phone number to give users a Dual number SIM. Most other Dual SIM providers (like Ekit) do not charge an extra $3 a month.

But more onerous for someone like me, you must use at least $5 of their service every 90 days or the SIM and your credit expires.

I do not think yackie updated their website since they ceased service. So, all this stuff on there may no longer be true.