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We rented a cell phone from this company for my son to take to Italy for 6 weeks. The billing system was so complicated, you could not understand it. We were over-charged many times. I was told I would receive a refund but never did. What was supposed to cost about $100 ended up costing $400 or so. It was a ridiculous ripoff. They are ripping off students and unsuspecting parents. Do not use them if anyone is going overseas.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
We had the same issues with my daughter studying abroad in Rome. Her school gave a flyer to all study abroad students promoting piccell. It seemed like a good deal over putting an international plan on our current service. It was NOT! Her phone worked for maybe 2 weeks and then never worked again. I contacted Piccell and was told that everything was fine and she needed to contact them if she was having problems. How is she supposed to do that when her phone isn't working? She emailed them, no response. I kept calling piccell and was told that is was a problem with her phone. It definitely was not because she could put her "american" SIM card in and her phone worked fine as well as the Piccell SIM card worked for 2 weeks and then suddenly stopped working. Of course they kept billing her even though her phone did not work. She received her Piccell phone on January 12 and was billed for a half month. Her contract went through May 6 which is when she returned to the United States and was billed for the full month of May. I called Piccell to complain about being billed for a full month and was told that my daughter signed the contract stating she would be billed for a full month. I asked to see the contract and was told that it was an electronic contract so they couldn't give it to me. Really? You can't give me a copy of the contract but you can tell me she signed one that laid out some pretty unfair billing? They can charge you for a partial month when you pick up the phone but can't charge you a partial month when you return it. And for a phone that never worked for the whole 3 1/2 months she was there? Customer Service for this company is non-existent! If you can't call them to talk to them, they can't help you! You will be told that you never contacted them to say your phone is not working! And they ignore all email you send! This is just a terrible option for anyone going out of the country. I would warn you to explore other options for a phone unless you like just opening a window and throwing your money out of it!
DO NOT EVER USE PICCELL! I AM A STUDENT IN FLORENCE! IT HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE! horrible is the only word to describe it. My pic cell phone has been the most stressful and upsetting part of my entire trip! I would never recommend this phone to anyone! save yourself money and stress, and find a different solution to a phone abroad. Worst decision of my whole trip.
We completely Agree! Our daughter is in Florence and the phone never worked correctly and dropped calls every 8 minutes. Poor customer service with the young ladies in a foreign country no less. Use your current carrier call them first. Plans offered are within the same cost range and no stress or dropped calls ever! In Italy wifi is limited at best. It's better to know that your daughter will always have a phone that works when needed! I hope more people read these reviews!
Awful company avoid using it. They have horrible customer service - i was on wait for over 30 mins and received no useful information. Their bill cycle is complicated and your over charged for everything! just avoid it - if your traveling abroad i recommend to just communicate with others through wifi-apps like whatsapp ect. Honestly just avoid the company because it is crap - i cannot continue repeating that this company is all around horrible and i wish i never invested my money. I study in paris for a month and used the phone yet somehow paid like three times! just ridiculous please save your money.
Because of the problems in billing and the very poor customer service, I filed a complaint with the State of Washington Attorney Generals' Office. The end result was that Piccell Wireless never responded to the letters from the Attorney Generals' office. Then I sent a letter, FedEx, to the Office of the President and never received a response. There seems to be a pattern here. Perhaps, contacting the State of Washington Better Business Bureau may get a response. I will never use this company again nor will any of my friends, co-workers, or future students.
My daughter just got back from study abroad in Rome. At the AUR, Piccell was there promoting their product as the cheapest way to communicate while out of the States. The plan was $50 a month and included 1GB of data. My daughter always used free WIFI provided in her apartment and free WIFI at the AUR and any other stores, restaurants where it was provided. The first 3 months were fine - bills ranged between $50 - $53 per month. December 2 charged $53 for November (apparently - since charges and bills are not available until six weeks later). Then December 12 - as she is leaving Rome to return home - $467.61 hits our credit card. We email and email and finally on December 15th they respond and said that the charges are accurate. When we go online to check the charges for November - she is being charged for 380 something over her 1GB allowance - although she had never gone over any of the previous months - also I Phone to I Phone texting is supposed to be free when using WIFI and she was charged .4GB for every single one. We contacted our credit card company and started a dispute - Piccell said they will charge us $30 every time a dispute or question is started against them regardless of the outcome of the dispute. Luckily our credit card company has placed a block against them so they will not be able to get those charges put on our card. There is no way to know if any of this is legit - my daughter says that it is not because she would never use the phone for random stuff unless the WIFI was available. They give you no forewarning that you are going or have gone over your "allowance" as typical wireless companies in the States do. They claim videos were shown and literature - but my daughter saw nothing. The only impression she was given was that this was the company approved by the Study Abroad program since they were the only company at the American University of Rome. They pressured her into buying the plan and gave her false expectations and "peace of mind" that she was doing the most economical thing for cell service while out of the US. After she got back home and we started dealing with this mess - she found out from friends that had studied abroad before her - that they had encountered similar problems - one was charged over $1200.00.
We are in the same nightmare. We didn't even have the SIM card in the phone and was billed $83.00. What a joke, we returned it in Italy and the PicCell person refused to take it saying we had to mail it back. We took a photo of school agent holding the card then left saying we would not be responsible any longer. I also blocked this on my card and filed a dispute. PicCell responded to the CC company not to me. I am still refusing to pay this bill and filed a follow up dispute requesting that the CC demand actual usage information and tower locations. They are such a SCAM.
DO not use Piccell if you can avoid it! I am studying abroad in Denmark and my bill has come up to $430 in the past 3 months I've been here. They are horrible, they can't even explain the charges and my study abroad program has done NOTHING about this although several students have complained over the past years! If I had known before signing the contract, I'd have never used them! They were at the airport on our arrival day with my study abroad welcome team and they literally made you sign the contract as soon as you got here!
I was smart and gave them a virtual credit number with our last bill. Months after the account was deactivated they tried to bill an additional amount. When I called and questioned them I was told it was a mistake. Luckily the bill was denied by my credit card company otherwise who knows how long it would of taken for the refund! Billing was horrible, we never received the phone before my son left even though I requested it days before his departure. I returned the phone with tracking and they never collected it. Lots of small charges for the time he did use the phone abroad, luckily it only totaled $56 for the four months he was in Spain. We used them because the University said it was the company we had to use. We skyped and messaged and the phone was for emergency contact for the University otherwise we would of never have signed up with them. How they manage to stay in business is because of these demands on study abroad students from the Universities.
Very frustrated with this company. Lots of red flags, no receipt available at the time of order, the layout of the plans kept changing and when I logged in to see the information the dates were incorrect, could not decipher the fees, The phone setup nicely here in the States and when my daughter arrived in the UK, it did not work! No support on the weekends, so the email reply was received two days later. Piccell claimed it was working and my daughter reviewed the setup instructions again, (even had another person verify that each step) No connections, no data plan was working. So, I tried calling only to be on hold for 25 minutes, I then emailed a message if there is no service, we do not have a contract, he phone has been powered off! No response to date and started getting service charges on my credit card, now it's in the hands of their fraud department. Terribly inconvenient and I've advised the student internship agency about this, they too have yet to comment. They should have done a better job vetting this company.
This company is awful... We have paid them $2892.38 and they turned us into a slim bag collection agency "National Service Bureau, Inc. of Bothell, WA - who is trying to collect another $415.39... I have threatened legal action if they do no send us a detailed billing... The phone was turned in on 12/10/13 (their records show this) but are still trying to bill the $415.39. AWFUL COMPANY do not use
I agree with a previous poster: Those who profess to having had a good experience with PicCell must be employees of the company. Our experience was terrible. My daughter studied abroad and hardly ever used the phone. She never used her virtual U.S. number and gave it to no one, yet we still kept getting billed for it. I did a "reverse number" check on some of those calls -- they were people in various parts of the states who were complete strangers to us. We never had a single phone conversation with her while she was abroad; we emailed and skyped. We were not billed huge sums, but what was billed was largely not valid -- I don't think they thought we would notice. When the contract was over we returned the SIM card and received an email from PicCell that her account was duly closed. A few days ago, six months after the account was closed, we received a threatening email saying they were going to send an alleged outstanding balance to collection. I logged into the account and saw dozens of calls billed after the phone had literally been turned off for the last time. I was actually with my daughter in Europe at that time and know the phone was not being used. One writer noted that they stay in business with one-time customers. That is the truth!
These large bills dont make sense. You pay per minute. The rates are like 1/5 of the rate you would pay if you took your US phone in roaming. Incoming is free. If it costs .17 to call the US per minute and you call for 10 minutes, you will pay 1.70. Its simple. There is no excuse to have $700 bills unless you call a ton or use the phone in a way its not designed to like in roaming. You must have made the calls and from what I can see on their webpage and from my experience using them the rates are clear AND their customer care has always been stellar. I cannot speak for the situation where the phone was stolen but for the vast majority of people in my group, its been a great service. I can say no one in our group of 20+ had a monthly bill over $75. In comparison I pay around $125 each month to ATT here in the US.
I just studied in Madrid this past summer and unfortunately used piccell. At one point unfortunately at the airport right before a flight my phone was stolen and I wasn't able to report it stolen for another 8 hours due to the lack of internet and phone. In that 8 hours whoever stole my phone managed to call Cameroon and rack up a $1300 phone bill before I could report my phone stolen. I'm a student and an unable to pay this and honestly I don't know what to do. I was so apalled that I'm trying to spread the word so that others dont get stuck in the same situation.
I would say Piccell is the WORST COMPANY to get a prepaid cell plan with if you want to go abroad. It is already bad enough that students going abroad are saving dimes and pennies for their trip but piccell is sucking every little amount that is left from students! I have piccell for 5 weeks while I was abroad is France and I thought it was an OK deal until I got home and realized they charged me a ### load. They hide little details from you so that when you think they are a deal until you're done with their service! All the representatives can say is "Sorry we can't do anything about it! When you return the sim card to them they will also charge you money! BEWARE OF THAT! APPEARANTLY YOU CAN'T RETURN THE SIM CARDS TO EARLY OR LATE@!
Hello and just registered so we can help spread the word. STAY AWAY FROM PICCELL - THEY ARE AN UNSCRUPULOUS COMPANY that will basically steal $$ from you! Our daughter just came back from a Italian study abroad program, and although I cannot get into all the details right now, suffice to say that they have their HANDS in your bank account and pull money out, even over outrageous fees, and maybe even phantom fees. Good luck trying to stop them, or deal with their pathetic robotic customer service reps who sounds like they hear these complaints all day long, but don't give a darn.
Buy cheap cell phones in the host country, buy prepaid phone cards, look for other solutions, other companies - they are out there. But stay away from these SCAM ARTISTS. It is unfortunate so may Educational Institutions actually recommend them – sometimes I wonder why . . .
Bottom-line, we usually wish businesses to do well if they have integrity and pride in what they do. But this Piccell group are a bunch of SCAM artists who do not care that Students and Parents work so hard in today's economy for a special moment in life - only to coldly rip them off. Hopefully their demise comes one day, may karma bite them in their . .
Good luck.
My daughter was in Ireland for 4 months...we were charged over $700 for services. Granted she did use the service but the information provided at time of the order, the rates not clear. There are roaming charges, even when using the SIM card for that area. Extra charges, extra fees. DON'T SIGN UP FOR THIS SERVICE. You are better to SKYPE or use your regular cell service and purchase a SIM through them. TOTAL RIP OFF.
Piccell Wireless is THE WORST service I have ever had. You may think that this service is convenient, BUT DO NOT SIGN UP. The charges might seem low to you, but they REALLY AREN'T. EVERYTHING ADDS UP. They are so misleading I honestly wish I cancelled and paid the early cancellation fee because in my four months of studying abroad, my final bill came to almost $700. DO NOT DO IT.
GET A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE.
GET A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE.
GET A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE.GET A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE.GET A PAY AS YOU GO PHONE.
PICCELL is HORRIBLE. It is the worst phone company I have ever seen! The people making these good comments must be working for Piccell or something. I am in a study abroad program of 60 and everyone is having a problem with their piccell. bill. They are calls on my billing that I have not even mad. I probably use the phone for a max of 30 minutes a week and my bill is always over 100 a month! There are so many hidden fees and when you call customer service, good luck with getting though because it probably will not happen.
Just look at all the lawsuits that are out aganist them now. I have been to France, Italy and Spain and have found a lot cheaper ways to call America. Use Skype or Orange. Or anything but this phone company.
I'd have to disagree. Most everyone on my program loved it. The only one or two who didnt were the ones who completely disregarded reading the rates and didnt pay attention to the roaming information. They also have video that explains everything and how to keep your bill down. All the reps I spoke with were great and helpful. I was in Europe and they have local sims for most all countries there so no reason anyone has to roam. Incoming is therefore free. Calls between our group were extremely cheap. Calls to US as well. People who got prepaid regretted it when their credit ran out and had problems refilling, etc. Anyway, Id use them again without a doubt.
While my charges are yet to climb to 400 dollars, I do agree that this company is in search of one-time-customers. PicCell Wireless cares nothing for Customer Relationship Managment (CRM), customer service, or long-term customers. PicCell Wireless must be making incredible amounts of profit with all the attached fees along with the tricky wording within the contract.
I would not suggest the use of these services to anyone. With the company in the midst of litigation for overcharging students, my personal negative experiences with PicCell Wireless and its customer service (along with the negative experiences of the group with which I am traveling), and all the negative feedback about this company on the internet, I hope that consumers in search of abroad cellular services find other services aside from PicCell. It would be much less expensive for me and the rest of my group to purchase the equivalent of "Go phones" while abroad, thus I would recommend that option.
I used them with no probs at all. All you have to do is read the rates before you call. You pay per minute in Italy, its not like the US. Must have called a lot to get up to $400. Calls within Italy and discount call to US are under 20 cents/min.