Blocked account for 2 weeks during onboarding
I created a Rebtel account for my 82 year old mother so she could make international calls. The experience during signup was surprisingly frustrating. First, I attempted to add $5 using her MasterCard. The payment was declined without any explanation, even though the card works normally elsewhere. I tried again with a Visa card in her name — same result, again with no explanation. Eventually I managed to add $5 using my PayPal account. However, after installing the iOS app on her iPhone, the account suddenly became blocked. Support asked us to provide a copy of her passport, which we did. We were told the issue had been escalated to a specialized team. After that, nothing happened for more than two weeks. What was most frustrating was not the technical issue itself - yes bugs happen - but the lack of transparency. No explanation for the account lock, no estimated resolution time, and only generic support responses that only add to the frustration. For a problem occurring during initial signup, this is a very poor experience. Unfortunately it completely undermined our confidence in the service.