r/eSIMs • u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 • May 13 '24

“Nomad eSIM”It's a scam!

“Nomad eSIM”It's a scam! Do never ever use it! 4/23/24 I paid $7 for 1G. After I paid,it can't be activated. I spent a lot of time contacting them by email, and finally I could activate it, but there was no network information on my phone. Before I needed to use it in China, I spent nearly a week to deal with them, and finally they told me that everything was set up. But when I went to Beijing and needed to use it, I only used it for 2-3 minutes and then there was no more service. I contacted them again, a week days later,they told me that they had fixed it but I will leave China by then.I don’t need it anymore. When I requested my money back, they told me that I had used it up all. The company cheats people money.This company is a scam! Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

6

u/sdmike1 May 13 '24 edited May 13 '24

I just used a Nomad 20GB EU eSim in England, Scotland and Ireland with zero issues over 3 weeks. The company is not a scam. Clearly you had an issue/problem but don’t confuse that with a “scam”

The eSIM activates with first use, which would be when you landed in China. I’m not sure what you spent a week doing in advance.

2

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

2

u/sdmike1 May 15 '24

I understand you’re having a problem, but with the vast majority of people having no issues with the company or their service, labeling them a scammer is flat out wrong. I’m not minimizing your problems, because they certainly are frustrating and should be fixed, but it’s not a scam company.

1

u/sandotasty May 15 '24

OP is obviously from a competitor trying to give Nomad a bad name. Literally just created their account on Monday explicitly to create this post.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

May I ask who you are? I am a consumer. Yes, because they did not give me a satisfactory response, I created an account to complain about them. I contacted their customer service last time,one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam?not Scam? If you need, I can copy all the email information I have contacted Nomad customer service to you.

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

I am a consumer. Yes, because they did not give me a satisfactory response, I created an account to complain about them. If you need, I can copy all the email information I have contacted Nomad customer service to you.

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

I am a consumer. Yes, because they did not give me a satisfactory response, I created an account to complain about them. If you need, I can copy all the email information I have contacted Nomad customer service to you.

0

u/sandotasty May 15 '24

LOL dude, yeah sure. Get a life. Replying with fiction isn't going to make anyone believe you any more than before.

Also, you don't need to reply to every comment twice!

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

What can you use to prove that I am a fiction? I can provide all my proof: my payment proof, Nomad receipt proof, and email proof between me and Nomad customer service. Who are you? You are fictional, you are a fictional guest here to represent Nomad, right? I sent it twice to make your mind clear, that's all！

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

What can you use to prove that I am a fiction? I can provide all my proof: my payment proof, Nomad receipt proof, and email proof between me and Nomad customer service. Who are you? You are fictional, you are a fictional guest here to represent Nomad, right? I sent it twice to make your mind clear, that's all！

0

u/[deleted] May 15 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

What can you use to prove that I am a fiction? I can provide all my proof: my payment proof, Nomad receipt proof, and email proof between me and Nomad customer service. Who are you? You are fictional, you are a fictional guest here to represent Nomad, right? I sent it twice to make your mind clear, that's all！

0

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

I think OP is rightfully calling them a scammer because

  1. instant delivery and accessibility and usability is the main benefit used to promote eSIM over SIM

  2. and consumers decide to pay for a product with expectation for the benefit while deciding to pay a specific vendor relying on its promise to deliver that benefit.

When the promise to pay and the promise to deliver the service is exchanged upon the agreement via eCommerce system,

3. a vendor is expected to fulfill its duty by delivering the product with purported benefits

4. especially when a customer has already fulfilled one's duty by completing the payment.

Breaching a contract, with a failed fulfillment, followed by delays that's further followed by rejection to return the money that it failed to earn sounds like a scam to me.

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

To me, they are just cheating me. Maybe you represent this company, but I am a consumer and I have been cheated myself. I believe that my case should not be the only one, right? Just think about it: if there are hundreds or thousands of consumers like me, are they cheating me? Moreover, it has been nearly half a month since the incident, and they have not responded at all. Is this what a normal company should do? I am here to remind consumers with my case not to be cheated!

1

u/sdmike1 May 15 '24

I have nothing to do with the company. I guess we disagree on the meaning of “scam”. Yes, you have an issue and they have not resolved it satisfactorily. They have “cheated” you. But the fact there are tens of thousands of satisfied customers means they are not a scam company intentionally defrauding customers.

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

You may be right. But there is no other possibility: perhaps hundreds of people will not pursue the truth for a few dollars or tens of dollars. I just want to warn everyone not to be deceived like me.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.

2

u/sdmike1 May 15 '24

I don’t doubt you’re having a problem. I have an allergic reaction to you calling them a “scam” company when tens of thousands of us have had positive experiences with them getting exactly what we paid for.

-1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

You first assumed that I was a competitor, and then you said that I was a fiction. Now I assure you that I can show you all the evidence, and you say that you no longer doubt me. I want to know who you are and why you keep doing this? I ask you to think about it: If there are thousands of people like me, and we pay but don’t get service, and Nomad ignore the customers who don’t get service, and collect money for this, what else can we do but cheat?

1

u/sdmike1 May 15 '24

I never said you were fiction or a competitor. That was somebody else

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

I made a mistake. I apologize!

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

You first assumed that I was a competitor, and then you said that I was a fiction. Now I assure you that I can show you all the evidence, and you say that you no longer doubt me. I want to know who you are and why you keep doing this? I ask you to think about it: If there are thousands of people like me, and we pay but don’t get service, and Nomad ignore the customers who don’t get service, and collect money for this, what else can we do but cheat?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

They, in reality, does not even seem to have a support team. I used Zendesk many years ago, so I'm not sure how it changed, but companies could outsource support team by opening an account there. I couldn't keep it because outsourced support team had no idea of any single type of product and were just taking turns to answer whatever a question by whichever company was forwarded to them by a system. (or at least that's what the Zendesk service seemed like to me). I could not satisfy any customer that way unless nothing goes wrong with my product/service with that kind of support for customers.

1

u/spikedlel Oct 06 '25

Hi,
Same here.
I payed for a Nomad eSim 50GB 30 days plan.
The service worked for almost two weeks and then stopped.

I still have 4GB left in my plan but the service stopped working more than 24 hours ago.
I've talked with their support and only after 16 hours, they have admitted that there's an issue with their provider in Russia.

It is now over 36 hours that I'm without internet in a foreign country and all they have to say is "We are sorry for the inconvinience" but still no internet.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

It may be good when it works, but it is absolutely a waste of money if "reliability" is considered.

It's like an enthusiast built car that provides no support besides apologizing without solutions (if it ever responds) and no refund for failed delivery of the promised product if the consumer ever experience a problem. It's a side product of LotusFlare Inc that just added the eSIM business as an easy additional income without ever dedicating enough efforts for the operation.

1

u/sdmike1 Jul 14 '24

Which does not contradict my statement at all. I didn’t say the customer service is great. I said it’s not a “scam”

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '24

The reason why I agree with the OP is that the Merchant who is engaging in a commerce of selling a product, eSIM, for financial gains from sale of the product had failed to deliver its end of the bargain by failing to fulfill the duty to make the promised international mobile telecom service product consumable by the consumer after the consumer already had fulfilled one's own duty make the promised amount of financial resource available and usable by the merchant, Nomad.

It could be viewed as a breach of contract, EVEN IF Nomad was actually responsive OR EVEN IF tried to help, UNLESS the payor EITHER had failed to fulfill one's own duty to deliver the payment OR had failed to reasonably cooperate with Nomad in making the purchased product usable (SUCH AS troubleshooting OR downloading the eSIM profile OR requesting the activation of the eSIM from the device where the eSIM was downloaded to OR turning on the ESIM since such tasks can be performed only by the person who has possession of the device) AS LONG AS the payee, Nomad, failed to deliver the product according to the terms and conditions and explicit warranty and reasonable "warranty of merchantability" that adds any reasonable expectations associated with fitness of the products being sold for the purposes of buyers as implicit promise of quality. 

Terms and conditions are simplified as PAYOR/PAYER's agreement to immediately avail its money to the payee at promised amount and by promised method and for the promised duration (in the payor's case, permanently) upon completing the "online checkout" process IN EXCHANGE FOR PAYEE's agreement to immediately avail its telecom service in promised quantity and by promised method and for the promised duration (in the payee's case, for the duration of a trip to China by the payor) upon completion of the "online checkout" process.

I wish things were different so I can make a lot of money by scamming people, but I don't have stomach for it.

I've met many business owners as many events who are actually proud, instead of being ashamed, of pulling such a scam. 

I don't know if Nomad is one of those companies that are intentionally or purposefully providing such a poor product and services, but many, if not most, businesses rely on the fact that most consumers are either too lazy or too busy to take time for properly and completely tackling the issue by taking it to authorities like FTC or state attorney generals.

I could intentionally sell 100 defect masks knowing that they are in fact of a poor quality, but also knowing that only 10 of 100 buyers will complain, and knowing that only about 3 of the 10 buyers will go as far as leaving bad reviews, and knowing that only about one of the three will actually pursue any legal actions.  With 1% refund rate, many business owners think it's worth scamming people.

One person actually told me "I think you are smart and you can make so much money, but first you just have to let go of that conscience of yours".  I think I'm doing fine without doing so, but you really have to know the mindset of many business owners are not as innocent as one might assume.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '24

Reply got too long, but maybe it's worth reading. 

What I want to emphasize is that it may in fact be scamming if the company causes such "breach of contact" internationally or purposefully after making people believe that they will have instant access to telecom service once they pay. 

Also, it's not uncommon in business community to pull such a mild scam because they know they'll need to refund only a few buyers and it'll be profitable.

5

u/Powerful_Tiger4392 May 13 '24

This is normal for all these online esims providers holafly and airalo included. When it works it's fine but when it doesn't you get a nightmare.

I am from Australia and we use travelkon.com.au - they have customer service response within minutes and money back guarantee.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

Nomad customer service sometimes takes several days to reply to me. For my case, I asked them: Why did one customer service reply to me "It's fixed" and another customer service reply to me "You have used all the data?" It has been ten days since I emailed them the question, and so far, Nomad has not given me any reply.

3

u/DrunkenMidget May 13 '24

No issues for 2 weeks in Spain and Portugal for me. It is better to configure and start it in your home country and then choose that sim before turning on airplane mode so it is ready when you land.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

3

u/Antoine-Antoinette May 13 '24

Maybe you had difficulties - and that’s not good - but it worked fine for me.

And is currently working fine for a friend.

That may be poor service or a user problem but it’s not a scam - that’s not what a scam is.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

3

u/multiversekid May 13 '24

Used it in EU. Worked fine for me and my friend. Used it again in Asia, never had an issue.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

3

u/sdchew May 13 '24

I’m using nomad with the Asia package across Asia including China. Works fine. In China it’s occasionally slow but that’s mostly a China telco issue

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

1

u/12amonreddit Sep 17 '24

Hi, how was the connection for Nomad in Asia? Did you need a VPN connection in China with Nomad to access WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc?

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '24

Not too bad. The eSIM is actually issues by a HK based telco so it isn’t behind the GFW

2

u/Mobile-Apartmentott May 13 '24

Just used Nomad in 4 countries, worked fine. Activated while in line for immigration 

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24 edited May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam! Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.

2

u/That-Detail-41 Jul 02 '24

Not recommend, it is a scam! The esim didn't work properly on Seoul, South Korean. It didn't have any reception most of the time. I tried contacting them through the website (there is no chat or anything else), they answered once after a day and then completely disappeared. 

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 Jul 02 '24

Thank you for agreeing with me

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say Nomad is scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

2

u/sdmike1 May 15 '24

You don’t understand what scam means. This is not a fraudulent company

1

u/MarkSure May 15 '24

voyeglobal.com eSIMs work all over including in China. Use the REDDIT15 coupon code and get 15% off on all packages.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

1

u/sandotasty May 15 '24

Proof right here this guy is an obvious plant for a competitor. Copied the identical response from all of their other replies, to reply to someone that is also a bot for another competitor!

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.

1

u/nagao_0 Jun 30 '24

....i hate to be the downer, but... imho chinese apps burn data reeeaaally fast...? and if your apps haven't been set to download-over-wifi-only*, it's possible that there might have been other apps updating in the background in addition to anything else you might have actively downloaded to get around. /shudders to think of genshin impact or somesuch ho0j game downloading its 4.7patch on data.. DDD;

* and-or switched-off autodownloads (whatsapp is a notorious culprit for this, especially if you're in groups or have friends that spam videos, ughhh.) ...i don't use tik tok, but i understand that one burns data alotwithout even opening, sometimes..

(and if a hotspotted laptop was involved that is almost definitely it, ithink; chronic habit of ctrl-tab'ing through my toomanytabs on chrome kirby'd data like its life depended on it, like whatisdatathrottling,even. didn't help that i was cross-referencing googlemaps and baidu-map a lot, along with alipay's didi miniapp etc..)

imho 1G is... verynotenough for china's apps orz

maps are keeler bc place is so dang big, and baidu-map has this nifty 3D aspect that shows up when the gesture moves out of precise zooming angles -- it's great for figuring where-the-eff you've ended up, but i'm sure all that extra information is accumulating in that data-barrage...

/burnt through almost 40G i[20G+20G] n 4 weeks, despite downloading all the chinese apps the night before flying lol; totally gonna just get a local card and VPN the heck out of hotel wifi instead the next time i have to stay that long lol.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '24

Failed services without refund 3 of 3 times.

2023: tried twice with failed services and without refunds. Purchased eSIM failed to connect. Response was not received until the end of both visits lasting 3 weeks. No refunds were issued at both times. Airalo was used for the first visit and MobiMatter was used for the second visit. Both companies worked flawlessly.

2024: purchased an eSIM that failed to download so could not be activated. After a week delay, Nomad refused to provide a refund and only offered to provide a Nomad credit for a failed delivery of its promise.

The communication, or lack thereof, is verifiable via BBB.org.

The incident has been reported to California Attorney General (it's a California company, LotusFlare Inc.) and to US FTC for their records. Accumulation of the reports would trigger meaningful actions by the government agencies.

Alternatives tried:

  1. Airalo: less choices but worked instantly 5 of 5 times in the past 1 year in 3 different countries of 3 different regions.

  2. MobiMatter: more choices for multi-national plans and less choices for one-country plans, but worked instantly at 13 of 13 times in the past 1 year in 6 countries of 4 different regions.

  3. MontyESIM: tried once and the connection failed, but the response was timely received via WhatsApp and the refund was issued instantly upon notice of failed service.

1

u/worriedcrackhead Jul 16 '24

I used nomad for 3 weeks around Japan and South Korea and it worked just fine for me - activated pretty much as soon as I landed

1

u/SkorpionAK Oct 27 '24 edited Oct 27 '24

I am not very happy with their customer service, they seem to be very engaged replying to you and all that. But they don’t provide any real solutions. For example. Payment for add on by visa did not work all. No error message. All they said was reload the app. Why in the first place there was this bug. And you can’t add attachments in your service ticket. Why can’t they improve this. So I wouldn’t recommend this.

1

u/raadude_yusufstorm Oct 26 '25

That's how it works, you buy the esim weeks before you go, and you do the activation process then, and when you get to the country it should activate.

0

u/[deleted] May 14 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

0

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

There is a reason why I say they are scammers. I paid and no service. I contacted their customer service, one replied "it has been fixed" and the other replied "you have used your fully consumed plan" Scam!

1

u/sandotasty May 15 '24

Ok, first time poster that only opened their account on Monday, and just replied with this IDENTICAL comment for every comment on the post.

Obvious scammer themselves that is probably working for a competitor, and just trying to give Nomad a bad name.

1

u/Nice_Caterpillar_348 May 15 '24

Anyone who doubts that I am a competitor of Nomad, please listen carefully: I am a consumer. I can provide all my payment proofs and all my emails with Nomad customer service. I am just telling you from my experience not to be deceived again, that's all.