Yackie Mobile and 09: troubles by email

[MATHA531]

Just received the following from Yackie Mobile:

Dear Yackie Mobile Customer,

This past 8 day service interruption is due to a non-payment by our service supplier and Partner 09 Mobile (BluTel). Most recently the Iceland economy has plummeted and their investors have ceased to financially assist them in keeping service.

Yackie Mobile has done everything it can to assist 09 in resolving these monetary issues. Final decisions are being made and ultimately service may not be restored.

Over the next two weeks 09 will re-negotiate their contracts leaving you, our Yackie customers with connectivity or without.

Yackie Mobile has already started working on an alternative method to re-establish connectivity and make our roaming program stronger.

We would like to thank you for your continued patients and patronage. If service is not restored through 09, Yackie Mobile will work with other partners to regain connectivity. Once new partnerships are established all customers’ accounts will be moved to our new platform. All Yackie Mobile customers will be notified in advanced and proper SIM exchanges will take place.

Yackie Mobile sincerely apologizes for this unpredictable inconvenience and hopes to have some resolution soon.

Yackie Mobile

O9 might be a goner.....

- the last line is mine not Yackie's.

[Bossman]

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.

[bbob]

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.

[dg7feq]

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

[AndreA]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

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

Ok, don't worry.

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$.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by AndreA

Ok, don't worry.

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!

[GadgetKen]

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.

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by AndreA

Ok, don't worry.

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$.

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.

[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?