Exactta communications Sim card rip off Rome

We flew into Rome airport on 1 July at 630 am from Cape Town transferring from Doha-total flight of around 11 hours. Immediately after entering the terminal, alongside the baggage collection, is a kiosk advertising mobile phone and roaming services. The company is called Exactta The kiosk is attended by a well dressed middle aged woman who speaks excellent English. Not having visited Italy before and wanting to call home to tell our family that we arrived safely, Exactta seemed perfect.

The lady inserted a card into my spare mobile phone to 'test' if it worked   Once it worked she said that the connection was now set and that the cost would be Euro 110 plus Euro 30 deposit which was refundable once I returned the card.   At the outset I told the lady that we were joining a tour group and would leave Italy from Venice. She said that this was no problem and I could drop the card off at their kiosk at Venice airport. She blantly lied to me -there is no Exactta kiosk in Venice.

We then made 2 short calls to South Africa of no more than 2 minutes each. The card worked fine and we took a cab to our hotel some 35 km from the airport.  Some 2 hours later I needed to make another call and the phone would not operate giving a message along the lines of 'no service'. I tried again and again but it would not work. I then emailed Exaccta telling them of the problem and asking them to send a technician to our hotel with a functioning card. No reply to my mail. For the rest of the trip the simcard did not work.

At Venice I posted the simcard back to Exactta. Once we returned to South Africa I emailed Exactta to complain about the card and lack of service but they said they would only check the card at Rome airport with me in attendance. I argued that for me to return to the airport at Euro 100( there and back) plus get off the tour for about 4 hours was not practical and unfair to me as coinsumer as I was expected to foot the bill for the additional travel to the airport at great inconvenience to me. I paid Exactta in good faith and their card should have been 100% fully functional. Their services are not cheap so I would expect zero defects.

Despite attemps to get names of senior management to complain to the customer services department refuses to listen to my story.

This is a bad advertisement for Italian tourism and Exaccta need to be invetigated by the Italian authorities and kicked out of the airport. There have been many similar complaints to mine and this can be seen on your site as well as Facebook,Trip Advisor etc. Be warned this company abuses its clients by selling defective goods and having no customer service ethic at all. With Exactta the customer is not king!!!!!