Cello Mobile International — Local services in Town of Palm Tree

I'm rating CelloMobile as "one star" simply because this website does not allow a rating of NO stars....

Let me say from the start that in the end CelloMobile did refund all of the money I paid -- but that's very little comfort when you are overseas; need to use a phone; have paid a bunch of money for a phone; and that phone "works" but does not allow access!

In short: The CelloMobile phone I rented did NOT work as promised, and their Customer Service was abysmal.

Here's my story: It was unfortunate, but I needed to take care of some work while I was on vacation in Costa Rica. To deal with this circumstance I decided to rent an international calling phone from CelloMobile, and paid what I considered to be quite a bit of money --$25/day-- for a smartphone, with a spare battery pack, which would also serve as a WiFi hot-spot. I needed to be in touch for business via phone and email, so the phone was to provide access to the internet, apps, and phone service. This is what I needed, it's what the CelloMobile website promised, and what I expected.

My problems began immediately upon arrival. The phone was supposed to be able to access any of the cell networks in Costa Rica, and be able to function on these networks as an internet hot-spot. The phone provided to me by CelloMobile regularly showed 4 bars of coverage (4G), and it detected 3 networks (CLARO, MovieStar, I.C.E.) but it refused to connect to any of them -- either giving an error message that the SIM card does not allow connections to the network (Moviestar, ICE), or that service is not available (CLARO)..... On some occasions, after repeated manual restarts/resets it would sometimes connect to CLARO, but never once did it connect to any other network -- nor did it ever provide access as a WiFi hot spot.

I would understand that coverage might be a bit sketchy when we were travelling through more out of the way places in Costa Rica -- but the phone didn't even work when I was obviously in covered areas. Example: I was in a restaurant in Jaco, one of the busiest tourism spots on the pacific coast. Everywhere around me everyone else is using their cell phones -- for calls AND data. The CelloMobile phone showed coverage, but refused to connect.

From the very first day when I discovered problems, I contacted CelloMobile (which was difficult since MY PHONE DIDN'T WORK). I repeatedly called and emailed --I spent HOURS dealing with these phone problems-- and as the week wore on not only has CelloMobile NOT fixed the problems, my service has got even worse. These issues kept me from completing the work I needed to accomplish, and it put somewhat of a damper on my vacation.

The fact that the phone & data service that CelloMobile sold me was non-existent is appalling. But even worse is that CelloMobile Support represents what is perhaps the worst customer service I think I have ever experienced anywhere. Their supposed 24 hour support does not exist. They regularly close early, and take days off... When I could get them on the phone all they ever said was that they 'started a ticket' and sent an inquiry to the Costa Rice network carriers; but there was never a reply to my repeated emails to the CelloMobile support & tech staffs. A gal from their billing department did email back with profuse apologies and promises to refund my money, but that really wasn't much help when I'm sitting in Costa Rica and need to communicate for a job.

All in All, a terrible experience.

Final Note: When I first researched what rental cell phone & WiFi services were available in Costa Rica I found several comments online suggesting it's better to use a local company there in the country. I only found one outfit which had smartphone / hot-spots available -- "Cellular Connections". I emailed and called them to try and set up a rental, but unfortunately they didn't get back to me for five days, and by that time I had given up hope and rented from CelloMobile. There's no way to know how that would have worked out, but it certainly couldn't have...

I have used this company probably 4-5 times over the past several years. Mostly for trips to Europe and once for a Dominical Republic trip. I feel that the equipment is reliable, shipping has always been on time, they give you 3 days after you come back to mail the equipment back to them. There are several rules for when to turn equipment on and off so that they don’t incur roaming charges. But that is part of the system. I have not had problems with that while adhering...

Adding to this review... I have now used Cello Mobile three times in the BVI and issues with connection to cellular services have been fixed. They delivered the wifi hot spot on time and everything worked great for 2018 and 2019. I will continue to use Cello Mobile for my off the grid adventures!

2017 Difficult to connect to different carriers in BVI. For help they want you to email them when you have no access to...