It's been a funny old week

We went live with MAXroam 7 days ago and it has been a spectacular success. We sold more in the first day than I had budgeted for the first month. It's slowed down a bit now but we are still selling 3 times more a day than I had ever hoped for.

We've had lots of great comments from customers and we've made quite a few mistakes as well.

The biggest one was our rate sheet. A couple of times we posted the wrong one so people were confused about whether it was in euros or dollars. We also garnered the attention of David Pogue over at the NY Times who corrected his original piece. Of course Andy Abramson was onto the bandwagon immediately.

I say it's been a funny week because you'd think from all the comments from the "intelligentsia" that we were out to fool people. Our rates are public. They are good and they are honest. If you can find a better deal somewhere else then by all means buy that service.

We've got over a thousand customers now who think our rates are pretty good so I think I'll listen to them.

Comments

[Daniel Gibbons]

Hi Sean,
Congrats on the way you guys are handling what will turn out to be a tiny bump in the road. The irony is that the customers who will benefit from and love your product won't even notice all the griping on the me-too blogs.

Is it me or is the blogosphere getting worse? Those who are bitter that they aren't TecCrunch or GigaOM despite their brilliant-if-unrecognized insight and wit, live for the day when they can stir up the trolls in their comments.
Cheers,
Dan

[andy]

Even Mr Pogue has commented on the odd coincidence of the rates he asked the company about turning out much cheaper than others to similar destinations.

While your published tariffs still contain these and other errors, perhaps you'd restrain yourself from the PR blunder of making personal attacks on some of the people who have noticed.

[Sean O'Mahony]

You are right Daniel. It's amazing actually. We have shown in documentary evidence what our rates represent but some people have their opinions and refuse to change them.

I guess the only path is that we become the "bad boys of telecom". A la Michael O'Leary ;-)

As I said to David Pogue yesterday when he asked me about roaming rates in particular countries (these are all for calls back to the US).

Bahamas
*******

MAXroam: $0.41 per minute

T-Mobile: $2.99 per minute

AT&T: $2.29

Greece
******

MAXroam: $0.64 per minute

T-Mobile: $1.49 per minute

AT&T: $1.29

Australia
*********

MAXroam: $0.54 per minute

T-Mobile: $1.49 per minute

AT&T: $1.69

New Zealand
***********

MAXroam: $0.79 per minute

T-Mobile: $1.99 per minute

AT&T: $2.29

Russia
******

MAXroam: $0.69 per minute

T-Mobile: $4.99 per minute

AT&T: $4.99

Iraq
****

MAXroam: $0.97 per minute

T-Mobile: $2.99 per minute

AT&T: $2.49

It isn't rocket science to work out that we are cheaper. Sometimes a lot cheaper and sometimes a bit cheaper. If someone doesn't like us, and no longer trusts us, because of something you (David Pogue) have written then fair go. Tell them to go ahead and pay $4.99 for a call from Russia to the US to AT&T instead.

All we are trying to do here is offer people a better rate while they are roaming. Why the hell am I having to defend myself?

[andy]

The comparisons above are all against roaming with US network SIMs.

The initial marketing for Maxroam is about local calls at local rates, or that it doesn't know it's travelling.

That may well be possible in future, but at the moment Maxroam is similar in charges to roaming in Europe with a European SIM, or similar elsewhere to other global SIMs, and can't match the best local main and mnvo operator rates for local or even international calls, like 10 to 15 cents from India or Thailand to USA

[andy]

... or rather, I think Maxroam could in fact integrate these cheaper local SIM possibilities into its system, together with recommendations and advice to customers to help set things up, but doesn't seem to be making a point of it at the moment ...

[Sean O'Mahony]

Hey Andy... please don't tell me what the target market for MAXroam is. MAXroam is now and always will be a roaming product. It has never been positioned as a home country replacement SIM.

I'm flying to London tonight. You know my e-mail address. Please e-mail me and let me know when you are available. I would love to finally meet you.

[andy]

Which would be cheaper for the customer visiting India - roaming at close to 2 Euros a minute, or having a facility to easily forward a Maxroam account to an Indian SIM?

[Sean O'Mahony]

Well... we certainly are not the most competitive in India. I think the best thing we could do is work hard and negotiate lower rates for our customers in India. That's what we are doing with gusto... yes gusto!

Now Andy. What exactly do you do for a living that makes you so knowledgeable?

[andy]

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

There are some countries that simply do not have cheap roaming, like USA and India already mentioned; also Argentina, Cuba and others.

How would you negotiate better rates than those available to all GSM networks, including the supplier of your SIM card?