Telestial Inc.Reviews of telestial.com

Telestial is awful. I ordered the service and the SIM card I received never worked. I tried first in the US. No Dice. Called tech support. After hours talking with them and no resolution, they refused to send me a new card BEFORE I LEFT! Told me to wait until I arrived at my destination and if it did not work, they would issue me a refund. When I arrived at my destination, it did not work. I called tech support again....went through 2 more hours on the phone and then they agreed to send me a refund. The tech support specifically said, "there is no point in returning the SIM card. We know it doesn't work. Just throw it away." One month later, I received an email from Telestial saying that they did not refund my money "because I did not return the SIM card with the original packing." What the **** do they need the SIM card back for? They can look at the time used on the SIM that I was never able to connect. They can look at time used and see I was never able to connect. And even if I did return the SIM card, what the hell do the need the clear bubble packaging back? Nothing I can do now. I guess I can try to cancel it on my CC. Total rip off and waste of time. The killer of it all, they could have sent me a new card BEFORE I LEFT and it would have cost them the amount of postage and nothing more. Instead, they tied up hours of my time and tech support to resolve nothing (even at $10/hr + taxes and benefits it had to have cost them $75-$100 hours in employee time). Just think about how much money they wasted on their employees when the simplest and least costly solution would be to send me a card the same day I reported it was bad.

I wish I had read some of the reviews before buying and depending on a telestial phone for a recent two-week trip to the Mediterranean. The phone did NOT work in Rome, Alexandria, Cairo, Turkey or Athens. You usually get the message "Limited Service Available" which means NO SERVICE AVAILABLE. And customer service is worse than the phone. They chided me for not calling customer service when I had a problem. How can you call customer service when your phone doesn't work? They do NOT stand by their phone (no refund). My wife and I were depending on this phone to keep in contact with her 87 year old father who lives alone. Very frustrated, upset and angry.

The pay as you go SIM sounds like a great product - you have both a US and UK phone number. The problem is that connecting a call is very unreliable (inbound / outbound). Texting is even more unreliable. Customer service had no idea how to resolve the problem - "what do you want me to do?". How about make it work! They could not make it work so I'm getting a refund (I hope).

The positive reviews here r obviously from the company themselves. NOTHING about this product is positive. Misleading advertising of call rates and services. They charge u for a call even if the other person never picks up (and it doesn't go to voice mail or anything). On top of that they charge u a lot to call customer service from this phone so u have to find another way to call them when u have a problem. I wanted the phone just for emergencies while backpacking alone in Eastern Europe. But like another reviewer when I did need to use it (as I was stranded without accommodation) the phone never dialed me back. This happenned on the 3 occasions when I really needed it. I kept trying and trying and trying. The next thing you know I'm out of credit. I had been charged every time I dialed the number even though the phone never even rang. By the time I was able to get on skype a week later and call customer service to demand my credit back they told me "Too bad, you should have called us earlier". I had to argue with them for half an hour for them to reinstate my credit. Disgusting! You think because its free to receive calls it will be useful for your family to call and check on you. Think again. Countless times my family called me and either got some other person and other times my phone never rang. I would be holding the phone in my hand waiitng for their call and it never rang. This was useless to me.

FedEx lost my phone and telestial did nothing to help. BelievedFedex left my phoneoutin the rain and was deliveredwhen it was not, someone was ot home when Fedex stated they left phone on doorstep. believed Fedex even though Fedex told me that their driver had not responded to their calls for information on the delivery. Stay away from these people.

They sent me a crappy packaged sim card- must have gotten wet or something cause it stuck to the backing. The Pin and PUK numbers were obliterated and when I tried to return it they kept me on hold for 20 minutes and then said too bad.. guess it's buyer beware. I'm out $47 for a crappy non-usable sim card. Don't buy from this company

Telestial is horrible. I see many recommendations for telestial. I want to share our story so others won't share our fate. Our daughter purchased a Motorola v600i with Passport Plus plan from Telestial for use on a trip as an intern in Uganda working on TB research. She chose this phone after careful consideration because she would need the phone in London for a few days, then Dubai and then Uganda. She worked on line and with calls to the company who assured her the phone would work in Uganda. She arrived to find her cell phone did not work. On Sunday morning we called Telestial in Boston (since she can't call) and, with our daughter on chat (sporadic internet service), worked through a number of proposed solutions, none of which worked. The support person said a technician was required The call never occurred, nor did they call me as the additional point of contact to say the call would not happen. Once I called the company back, they said the technician really would call so we set up a chat near a phone in an office with somewhat regular phone service. They called back to say that, despite their website stating they carried service in Uganda and multiple assurances from their phone reps that they carried service in Uganda, it seems they actually don't. Her phone is useless. o I called Telestial to see about the refund and it was denied by management (with no contact to us), who refuses to discuss issues with customers. The only way to get a refund is to pay international shipping charges from Uganda, and wait for the phone to arrive back in US, if it ever does. Telestial recommends not sending from Uganda. So, a young woman is stranded in Uganda with no working cell phone due to false advertising and a poor customer support network. All calls and help were generated and coordinated by us. Telestial takes no ownership of the problem they created and are keeping hundreds of dollars hostage, nor do they want to see an equitable or appropriate outcome to a bad situation. I strongl