Is Maxroam working?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by labigo

I received this message from help desk:
"On the reverse of your card you will see a number beginning 048. If you put a +32 and remove the 0 from this number you will have +32489XXXXXX. This is your new sms number which you can also take calls on."
I didn't understand the new sim has a new mobile number...
Now, it works...
I can make/receive calls and send/receive sms on the belgium mobile number.
But the new rates?

Especially, I wonder if receiving calls on the Belgian mobile number is cheaper (or even free in some countries?) than on a DID? I think it should as it used to be in Yackie with their Manx and Iceland SIMs...

[Bossman]

Yes. The old sims are dead. The new ones are not fully alive either. Here in the US, only incoming works on the Belgium number. Not sure how much it coosts as they ae updating their website. Dialing out direct (not callback) I get a message that the call cannot be completed in the country dialed.

They sent an email yesterday that they in the process of attaching the DIDs to the numbers. They also attached the new user guide. I am going to the Caribbean next week, and needed to be reachable, so I had planned to forward my mobile to my local USA DID. Well, that is not functioning for now. So, I will just forward to the belgium number via a 3rd party. Not knowing how much calls are is a pain though.

Originally Posted by petkow

So am I to assume if I have an old unregistered SIM with them this will now no longer be able to be registered? I got a couple of freebies from them when they first set up, but have never found a reason to use them yet. Looks even less likely now!

[labigo]

sending an sms from Italy is 0.25 €
Incoming calls on the belgium mobile number are not free...I was charged 0.54 € for an incoming call (1:50 min)...

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by labigo

sending an sms from Italy is 0.25 €
Incoming calls on the belgium mobile number are not free...I was charged 0.54 € for an incoming call (1:50 min)...

I didn't say that incoming MUST be free on the Belgian number, but I wonder if they are at least cheaper than via DID.... 0.54 € for 2 minutes isn't any good deal in the EU

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

I didn't say that incoming MUST be free on the Belgian number, but I wonder if they are at least cheaper than via DID.... 0.54 € for 2 minutes isn't any good deal in the EU

It sure isn't....with most any British sim, it would be 38p which, at the rate sterling is dropping, will soon be equal to 0,38€

[motif1]

Maxroam may be belly-up, ex, late, no more. I might have the luck to have bought the last SIM from them.

I've been trying to get a username & password so i can get a local phone number since Monday, now it's Friday. I was sent usr and pwd that were the same single digit & did not work on their site. Possibly the last gasp of an automated registration system left by itself, no longer tended by humans who are all off looking for new jobs. The Maxroam phone does not answer. The customer service mail site could only tell me the beginning of the week that "upgrades" were underway and would take a few days. A week is not a few days. Anyhow, what "upgrades" - apparently system shutdown? The only other activity was yesterday when somebody went in and marked my series of complaints as "resolved". Umm, well not exactly...

I can't understand, it's not like Ireland is having any kind of economic problem that could cause companies, especially wobbly start-ups, to go out of business as fast as you can blink your eye...

Oh well what are the alternatives for roaming cards? Well, ones that are still in business, that may be the harder part. Yackie rates are higher than maxroam was when it was working, and does not have as much country coverage, especially Africa which I need.

[Bossman]

It depends on when you bought the sim. Did you buy the old sim with Israel number or the new one with Belgium number? They are having some issues (just like celtrek) transiotioning from the old Israel provider that is no longer functioning to this new Belgium carrier. As I posted, they sent me a replacement sim with the Belgium number, but it's not totally functioning. Incoming calls and sms work but out going does not. Their customer service sent an email a couple of days ago, regarding the issues thay are having. See it below
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear MAXroam user

By now you should have received your new sim, or are due to receive it shortly.

The sim comes preloaded with €10, your remaining credit will be available asap. Your new sim uses the latest GSM technology, has coverage in 203 countries and data coverage in 139 countries with inbound roaming in over 50 countries at under 20c

As you know this is cutting edge technology and we apologise for a few hiccups whilst we get your billing and local numbers connected to your sim card, at present you can make or receive calls and top up your account online.

We have attached our new user guide to help you familiarize yourself with your new sim.


Best Regards,

Originally Posted by motif1

Maxroam may be belly-up, ex, late, no more. I might have the luck to have bought the last SIM from them.

I've been trying to get a username & password so i can get a local phone number since Monday, now it's Friday. I was sent usr and pwd that were the same single digit & did not work on their site. Possibly the last gasp of an automated registration system left by itself, no longer tended by humans who are all off looking for new jobs. The Maxroam phone does not answer. The customer service mail site could only tell me the beginning of the week that "upgrades" were underway and would take a few days. A week is not a few days. Anyhow, what "upgrades" - apparently system shutdown? The only other activity was yesterday when somebody went in and marked my series of complaints as "resolved". Umm, well not exactly...

I can't understand, it's not like Ireland is having any kind of economic problem that could cause companies, especially wobbly start-ups, to go out of business as fast as you can blink your eye...

Oh well what are the alternatives for roaming cards? Well, ones that are still in business, that may be the harder part. Yackie rates are higher than maxroam was when it was working, and does not have as much country coverage, especially Africa which I need.

[bbob]

As you know this is cutting edge technology, yeah right.

Seems like you have to switch cards every year almost. For that reason I don't handout my cell number anymore and just use pbxes.com to forward to my cellphone, whatever number that might be. It's just a pain in the ass to give out new mobile numbers every year to friends and customers.

Just use your own forward to the cellphone, you can register your own did number and no longer you depend on a provider that might shut down or temporary not work. When one card goes out of business just forward to another card.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by motif1

I can't understand, it's not like Ireland is having any kind of economic problem that could cause companies, especially wobbly start-ups, to go out of business as fast as you can blink your eye...

errrm...think again. In any case, I'm not too sure if they can be classified as out of business.

Oh well what are the alternatives for roaming cards? Well, ones that are still in business, that may be the harder part. Yackie rates are higher than maxroam was when it was working, and does not have as much country coverage, especially Africa which I need.

Try ekit. I'm still happy with mine! For now at least.

[GadgetKen]

Originally was sent the MaxRoam Israeli card with a "Yackie" discount for switching. Didn't work properly so they sent a Belgian replacement. It does work for send/receive text messaging and for outgoing calls (haven't tried incoming yet). Call placed on T-Mobile did not work with standard direct dial with + or 001 code, but did work with alternate *182*001*******# command on T-Mobile USA to dial my office voicemail. Callback was fairly quick, had very good voice quality, and I was charged 1.01 Euros for a short USA to USA call under a minute. Error message or incomplete calls were charged half a Euro each. Cumbersome dialing method but I can program a few common numbers into the sim phonebook.
Reason for switching sims was given on their zendesk csr system as "We have had a failure of our SIM toolkit on a select batch of SIMs, this is the software on the SIM card that allows you to make cheap and receive cheap roaming calls. Unfortunately your SIM was part of this batch and we will ship you a new SIM, free of charge. If you could please email us with your current address we will see that a new SIM is shipped out to you immediately" rather than a problem with the underlying Israeli carrier.
Most recent zendesk csr response gives some hints on dialing and switching carrier that I found helpful:
"I'm afraid that due to upgrades to our system some parts of the website are unavailable. Unfortunately this includes the reactivation page. The sim card was preactivated though so you can use it to make and receive calls and sms messages. You can also top up by using the following link: https://www.maxroam.com/MyMAXroam/TopUpExternal.asp
I'm afraid that these upgrades are essential as there are some changes to our service. For example, you now have one number for voice and text. On the reverse of your card you will see a number beginning 048. If you put a +32 and remove the 0 from this number you will have +32489XXXXXX. This is your new sms number which you can also take calls on.
We have dropped our priced in 55 countries by 50%. We now cover 26 new countries and your sim is now data enabled.
We aim to have the website running as normal as normal as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused in the meantime.
With regard to your issue making calls, Please check your credit balance first of all. If you have enough credit to make a call, then please turn your phone off for 90 seconds. Turn it back on and allow it another 90 seconds to start up fully. Then try to make a call using the *182*phonenumber# format. If this still does not work, please try select an alternative network and place a call. If none of this works, please contact us again."
Bottom line is that the new sim is functional but they really need to do more work to get everything working properly. We'll see whether they can pull this off...