Yackie Mobile and 09: troubles by email

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by GadgetKen

In this case I can't really blame Yackie because they got burned by an unforseen supplier problem.

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.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

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.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

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.

[GadgetKen]

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?

[Bossman]

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.

Originally Posted by GadgetKen

Anybody try MaxRoam and have any impressions on the quality of their service?

[Bossman]

Tried to edit my post above but could not because it's been more than 2 mins.
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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.

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Tried to edit my post above but could not because it's been more than 2 mins.
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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.

[GadgetKen]

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...

[Bossman]

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

[GadgetKen]

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.