Is Celtrek working?

[DRNewcomb]

My buddy has my Celtrek SIM in the Philippines and it's not working. The CompAdmin site is down and my online account balance now shows $0.00 (It should be at least $50.) I hope this is not the beginning of the end for Celtrek.

[Bossman]

This may not be related, but thought I'd mention that my Maxroam sim (which use the same back-end as Celtrek) has not worked in about a week. And I can no longer log into my account as of 3 dys ago. Even though before then, I could log in but not do much because they were going through some maintenence.

Here is the msg I get
-------------------------------------
We are sorry but either an error has occured on our system, or your account is no longer active on the MAXRoam system. If you feel this message is being displayed to you in error, please contact team@maxroam.com

[DRNewcomb]

Response from Celtrek:

Very sorry for the service interruption, there are a handful of
customers that are experiencing some problems, we are currently working
around the clock to get service back up to where it should be. Please bear
with us and I will keep you updated.

I'm not sure how many constitutes a "handful".

[christophe]

Hello

I have the same problem contacting support when traveling in spain and belgium this week; they answer it ll be fixed in the next days.

With yackie wich is out, i hope that celtrek will be most reliable!

[Bossman]

What a response from celtrek. " A handful of customers" The network is down and it's all their customer that is affected. I seriously think it's NOT a coincidence that maxroam is down too. They both use the same back-end. Maxroam is not saying much either.

[bones_boy]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

My buddy has my Celtrek SIM in the Philippines and it's not working. The CompAdmin site is down and my online account balance now shows $0.00 (It should be at least $50.) I hope this is not the beginning of the end for Celtrek.

Yep - my balance is gone too. Same generic message from Ryan with Celtrek. Will be fixed in a "couple of days". Between Hop Mobile, Yackie, and these guys, I'm wasting more money than I'm saving by using the cards in the first place. Learning lessons here but not as quickly as I should.

Somewhere I hear my AT&T Sim Card laughing heartily as I prepare for a trip to Perth...

[DRNewcomb]

This is why I do carry both my T-Mobile & Mobal SIMs when I travel. I have not heard of any problems with Mobal yet.

BTW, Ryan says Celtrek will ship new SIMs tomorrow. At least they are responsive. The 45 Euro I had on 09 just vanished in a puff of smoke. (I wonder if they invested their customers, balances in derivatives.)

It sort of brings into question if I've actually saved any money with prepaid SIMs or not. If all the balances just vanish, how does that save you money?

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

This is why I do carry both my T-Mobile & Mobal SIMs when I travel. I have not heard of any problems with Mobal yet.

BTW, Ryan says Celtrek will ship new SIMs tomorrow. At least they are responsive. The 45 Euro I had on 09 just vanished in a puff of smoke. (I wonder if they invested their customers, balances in derivatives.)

It sort of brings into question if I've actually saved any money with prepaid SIMs or not. If all the balances just vanish, how does that save you money?

Well so far, the only one that has been relatively stable, and I understand the word relatively is well very relative, has been United Mobile...for the most part they've worked and I haven't lost a cent of my balance yet (although I obviously don't like the 0,19€ fee for receiving "free" calls) but according to this board gossip mongers, at least the +423 UM version seems to be in real financial distress. Of course, I can only hope the euro (as well as sterling) continue their downward plunge against the USD mitigating some of these costs (when last I checked today, the euro was down to $1.26 and sterling down to about $1.42 which means the 0,19€ is "only" $0.24 or thereabouts and I as a traveller of course only hope it eventually ends up where the euro should have been all along namely at par with the USD but that's for economists to answer).

Ekit passport is available on ebay for $20 with $10 credit so there's not too much to lose there. Also will be interesting to see just when UM+1/44 actually launches.

For travel solely within Europe, one of the free British sims with eu roaming rates might be a simple solution too.

[Bossman]

Wow! The cards stopped working or they deactivated the cards, sent out new ones, and did not inform customers. Again, I believe it's the same underlying problem that affected Celtrek.

I think this is my 3rd or 4th replacement card from maxroam. I lost count how many the now defunct Yackie sent me.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

I'm afraid that the temporary solution we set up did not last until you received your new sim card as we had intended. It was sent out earlier this week.


My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,

[frenchfry]

This is the email CelTrek sent, Wow they want me to pay for the sim replacement!

Dear Valued CelTrek Customer:

First let us thank you for your long term relationship with our Global Roaming SIM card. We do hope you have enjoyed the savings.

In order to carry on our service to you, improve, avoid past technical problems and provide more stable service, we have been forced to terminate our relationship with our past carrier and move to a new carrier. This has allowed us to add additional countries to our service, lower costs and finally have the pre-paid data service for your convenience.

The above improvements mean changing the SIM card you currently have, and as these SIM cards do have enhanced features, we propose the following:

1. All SIM cards that you have with us can replaced with our new Global Roaming Voice and Data SIM card for the reduced price of $10 per SIM. (a $49 value)

2. Airtime rates--now for 215 countries--will be per the attached rate sheet. Note the large savings for all our top destinations!

3. Your current airtime pool will be transferred to the new SIM.

4. This offer also includes free shipping in the US. (Shipping outside of the US is possible but will carry cost, cost may be deducted from airtime)

To receive your new upgraded SIM:
1. Please contact customer support either by email
(Support@CelTrek.com) or via phone 1-888-5CELTREK
2. Please have handy the best shipping address for us to mail your

replacement SIM to.

Administration will deduct the $10 cost of the new SIM from your airtime and then load your new SIM with the remaining airtime balance.

We appreciate your continued business and support.
Best Regards,