Telestial Inc.Reviews of telestial.com

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

This company claims to provide a single phone number you can use across Europe. It is n't so. The SIM chip did not work in the first phone I tried, and technical support calls used up all of the "Free" time on the chip, and didn't help anyway. You have to buy in $30 increments so they get to "keep " a lot of unused time. "YOU DIAL A NUMBER AND THEY RING YOU BACK" . No where in their literature did they tell you that . It was useless. I had an emergency at work and I wound up being unable to be reached on my telestial phone number. In my opinion, buy and unlocked phone and use local chips purchased at a phone store with a phone card, and you will be better off. This company is horrible in both customer support and service actually provided.

Shipping was prompt and the setup was not difficult. I would not say the website was absolutely intuitive. I did have to click around a bit when it came to logging into the correct place as there seems to be several ways to login. What I am most displeased with (outside of the 10 minute hold time for support) is the misinformation on the web page prior to purchasing. The web page states that there is a charge to forward phone calls, but leads one to believe not if the phone is home and turned off: "Perfect for the business traveler, the Passport Plus features free call forwarding when you are home and the Passport Plus SIM card is not in use." Unfortunately, for me, this was one of the main reasons I chose Telestial over some others. They did offer to accept a return, but I do not have the time to deal with it now.

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