"Rented phone for use in Italy. Phone arrived hours before I had to depart. Instructions lacking. Stated I could call or text anyone in my contact list which I had loaded on the phone. Not true, could only call or text if they had What’s App (or similar) on their phones. I was unable to call or text, I was unable to reach anyone in the company. Left numerous messages to no avail. Once I got home it was still impossible to reach them and they only returned a call when I got good and angry. Their customer service is in the toilet. Save your time and money and don’t bother with this company. It was expensive and overall a very, very bad experience. "
"I bought a Mexican Simm card from them because I wanted to have my phone ready when I got off the plane. It cost about $35 I installed the Simm card, got off the plane and discovered it did not work, I had some rather tense moments because of this. I could not contact the car that was supposed to pick me up and when I got in a cab, I could not find the address of the B & B I was staying in. I managed to get there somehow and my host showed me how to get a new Simm card for $5 from any convenience store in Mexico City. I tried without success to get my money back from them."
"Is this company going out of business? They overcharged me and I have an email from them stating so - they asked if I wanted a refund or credit. I said refund. That was 6 months ago. I have been unable to get anyone to talk with me - to respond to chat or phone calls. I have not received the credit. They won't even respond that they are keeping my money, when I have confirmation that I was overcharged. Wish I had not given them my credit card. "
"06/22 - I rented a phone for my 15 y/o daughter for a 10-day trip to France. On day 1, it stopped working and wanted euros for credit. I had already purchased extra credit and even a US number to provide extra coverage.
I tried to call customer service...ZERO live person, only a voice mail. Tried their "live chat" ...no response.
I am not just disappointed, I am literally fearful for my daughter as she now does not have an effective means to call for help if needed.
This company is a rip off.
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"I have done business with this company in the past and was pleased.
Something has changed and recently I rented a phone that had no United States number provided. When I tried to contact them they did not answer their phone or chat. When I emailed them they did not respond so I returned the inoperative phone.
Their response to me was that my email was in their trash so they could not respond. When trying to challenge this with my credit card company they told them that I was too old to understand a smart phone. I am a 30 year old I T engineer. They did not provide a workable product and would not refund the cost.
They are horrible.
Never again will I do business with a discriminatory mean spirited company such as them.
"
"I have an older AT&T phone. Cellular Abroad helped me to get it unlocked so I could put in a 50GB SIM card for Italy to use for GPS. We drove all over Italy and the coverage and speeds were excellent. Great service!"
"My son was travelling throughout Europe by Interrail over Spring break so I purchased a Cellular Abroad Data SIM to make sure he could contact us in the event of an emergency. We ended up staying connected throughout his trip over WhatsApp and we could even call each other for free! I highly recommend this solution to all parents who like to stay in contact with their children during their travels around the world. "
"I rented a hotspot from Cellular Abroad for my European trip. We visited 5 countries and had 4 cell phones, all from Verizon which charges $10 per day which meant $40 a day of cell phone charges. The trip was 10 days. I spent $10 a day with Cellular Abroad for a data hotspot. In essence, the service I rented saved me $300 – plus tax so probably $350. The only downside (at least from my kids perspective) is that they had to be close to me to use the data since I was the one in possession of the hotspot.
Customer service was knowledgeable and offered this option which saved me money as opposed to getting 4 separate SIM cards.
Very grateful for their help!"
"I have an unlocked Verizon 8. I was traveling to Europe for 3 weeks so I called Verizon. The rate was 10 per day so over 200. The SIM I got from Cellular Abroad was $60 and worked great with my iPhone for calls and navigation. The only hiccup was that I didn't know how to get my SIM card out of the phone to swap it out but that has nothing to do with Cellular Abroad. Highly recommended."
"They got the order wrong to start. Finally sent me the correct sim card, hours on the phone with Sebastian. Phone worked for one day. Called to complain and Sebastian never saved my phone number. Phone worked for a day and then nothing. Full of empty promises. I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. I wish I had read the reviews before purchasing a useless phone."
"I purchased a pre-paid SIM so I could phone in order to get into the apartment where I was to stay in Berlin. But I was UNABLE TO MAKE ANY CALLS.
After four desperate emails to Cellular Abroad, they finally gave me a number to call for the German phone company, and said to select 0 for English. There was no 0 for English; they were all taped messages. (In German, of course!)
The German phone company eventually contacted me. That was six days later. All in all, an epic fail. "
"Was in France 17 days was only able to call out 3-4 days the support was unable to fix problem they only respond 8 to 5 week days, next trip I will purchase sim overseas plus the cost is much cheaper."
"I purchased a phone and sim card from this company. Arrived in Italy and made 1 or 2 calls within the country lasting all of 2 minutes. My "talk time" essentially expired after 2 calls and in a frenzy was able to add more time via my ipad. I may try this company again, but will make sure everything is in order prior to my travels to Europe. My daughter used the phone in Argentina but was unable to make it work, as well. "
"Before I buy anything now days, I research it online and in particular, I read the reviews. As I use cellular service for my business, I really needed to make sure that Cellular Abroad, the company that sells and services the National Geographic Phone for travel, was valid. The one review that I saw on reseller ratings was specifically for the Nat Geo product I was getting and it gave one star to Cellular Abroad - specifically for text messaging - which I do a lot.
Well, let me tell you my take on this. I got the phone and SIM and when I went South America, the first thing I did was to text home. The never texted back so I thought, "the review was accurate." So, I called to see if the person I texted got the text and she did, and she also tried to text back but that didn't work. So, I had her call Cellular Abroad (and by the way, I was not very happy at this point). What they told her was that some carriers, particularly Sprint, blocks international texting but you can call to have them unblock it.
To make a long story short, it was Sprint's issue and not Cellular Abroad's. And that, as it turns out, is the main reason that they claim that international texting is not guaranteed."
"I purchased the Cellular Abroad SIM Card ($39) for my daughter for her trip to Europe (Turkey, Greece).
It was disaster, and I regret than I get it through this company. We had hard time to make calls, and we could not send or receive text messages. Talking to support people, I was told that texting is not guaranteed. Also it goblet money for calls which did not connect.
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