Lebara Mobile - www.lebara-mobile.co.uk

My husband and I were long time customers. We asked for a cheaper monthly deal. My husband was offered a great deal and a massive refund. I asked for the same deal and was refused - I was offered nothing. The people I dealt with on the phone and over chat were very rude, dismissive and patronising. I left a poor review after my last chat. Overnight Lebara emptied my account of data and minutes. Data and minutes I had paid for and needed. My phone had been on WiFi and I had been asleep. Absolutely shocking treatment.

I complained via email about the sexist treatment, rude staff and the removal of my data and minutes. My complaint was completely ignored and has never been answered - in over 4 months. Completely abysmal and unprofessional treatment.

Lebara then continued to completely empty my account of data and minutes - four times. Each time I had to contact via chat and phone to fight for the return of the data and minutes I had paid for - they often returned less than had been taken. Each time they were very rude and sarcastic. I was always told it was a technical issue and I would be contacted by the complaints or technical team - but I never was. I called and spoke to two different managers - they were not at all bothered. I was told there was no problem, and no investigation would be undertaken.

Finally I was offered £15 as a goodwill gesture - but it was not paid. Absolutely shocking. I had to contact them 6 times before it was eventually paid, months later. I dealt with incredibly rude, aggressive and very unhelpful staff.

In June I checked my account daily, and saw that every night when my phone was not being used and was on WiFi, significant amounts of data were taken by Lebara - every single night. A sneaky fifth time they emptied my account. I contacted them again and was offered a small amount of data. I refused and they threatened to remove my plan completely - the plan I had paid for and was using - and was told I would be left with nothing.

I left Lebara as a result of all of this.

I will persist until I get answers as to why I received this sexist and unfair, treatment, why they continuously stole data and minutes, and why their staff lied and were so rude, unhelpful and unprofessional.

The EU 'roaming' service provided by Lebara is extremely disappointing. Despite assurances that it would work, it simply doesn't. The customer service team promises callbacks that never happen, leaving you stuck on hold repeatedly. Three of us on the Lebara network couldn't get roaming to work in two EU countries, while everyone else around us had no issues.

We wasted countless hours on the phone with multiple representatives, but never managed to get roaming working. This left us stranded in unknown cities without access to the internet. It's appalling service and false advertising. Thankfully, we've switched to Lyca with no problems.

Still got no service. They switched off my Lebara SIM, switched off my porting in SIM and left me with no service. Promised me it would port by end of day. 24 hours later still no service. They just misled to you all the time. Utterly useless company. AVOID!

Ported into Lebara on 6 Nov 2023 from Lyca. Since then, incoming calls from Lyca network does not reach me. Tested via friends to understand incoming calls from Vodafone, BT, EE, Lebara are working fine.

Raising complaints since then almost daily & get a confident response - Issue will be resolved in 24 hours time.

They took 3 weeks to accept it was a porting issue. Sent a replacement SIM, made me reset my phone & network umpteen number of times - hard luck - nothing resolved the issue.

Data speeds & network coverage in my area is great, which was lone reason of moving into Lebara, but it was a mistake - as my family/friends/colleagues who are on Lyca network are unable to reach me.

Update 20-Dec-2023

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Nothing much changed other than someone making a call with more re-assurance. Those re-assurance also stopped after Day 2. The customer care easily washing their hands - issue is with Lyca which Lebara team cannot resolve.

Update 05-Jan-2024

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Nothing much changed. It has been 2 months. Lyca-EE, Lebara-Vodafone : They all are minding their own business.

Update 10-Jan-2024

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Complain re-raised (yeah they just close the previous complant without validating with me as resolved) on 05-Jan-2024 is CAS-1677460-L6N5L7.

On 10-Jan-2024 had to raise new complain CAS-1696478-D9G4H3 as previous one they wish to close without any resolution, but they think it is resolved.

Wastage of time for both sides. Incompetent people.

Customers - beware - you are at the mercy of fate !

Dear Lebara Customer Service Team,

I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the service I have received from Lebara, specifically regarding a refund issue.

Recently, I encountered a problem where my account was charged twice for a single recharge. I promptly raised a complaint, and despite assurances that the issue would be resolved within a couple of days, it has been over a month, and I have yet to receive any refund. This prolonged delay is unacceptable and has caused a great deal of inconvenience.

To exacerbate the situation, I have contacted your customer service three times, and each time, my request has not been registered or updated in the system. The explanation provided about a "technical glitch" seems more like an attempt to cover up the inefficiencies within your system. This not only reflects poorly on your customer service but also erodes the trust customers place in your brand.

I would like to bring to your attention the unprofessional behavior of one of your customer care staff members. During our interaction, he was rude and unhelpful, even resorting to cutting the call without providing any valid reasons for the delay in processing my refund. Such behavior is unacceptable and tarnishes the reputation of your company.

Before speaking to him, I had already spoken to two other staff members who also failed to address my concerns adequately. This experience has left me with no choice but to advise my friends, who are students in the UK and use Lebara, to consider transferring to a more reliable and customer-centric service provider.

I urge you to investigate and rectify the issues within your customer service department promptly. A company's success is not solely determined by its offerings but also by the level of customer satisfaction and service quality.

I hope to see a swift resolution to my refund concern and improvements in your customer service practices.

I have a Lebara SIM only deal. It is fine and does what it says on the tin

except

Lebara will insist on bombarding you with lots of marketing emails. Irritating, but you can opt out, right?

No. You can't. The opt-out option on their emails DOESN'T work.

I have opted out each and every month that they have sent me offers on Samsung phones, etc. And every month they send me another offer.

This got escalated to their IT who finally wrote to me saying that there was an error and it had been fixed, and the next month the same thing happens.

Last month I escalated this to their data protection officer. Sadly he didn't even bother to answer, never mind actually do anything.

So my advice is, by all means buy a lebara SIM, but make sure that everything from lebara is marked as spam and rejected by your email.

Date of experience: 28th April, 28th May, 24 June 2023

Became a customer of Lebara through a USwitch exclusive deal and at first they seemed very professional, sim arrived quickly, set up was easy, there app is good HOWEVER I could not make calls, I could not receive voicemails, could not call on their 5588 number and each time the message was I needed to “top up” my account although the account is a 30 day rolling contract.

Finally made a call to customer service and then I realised the error I had made with this company, the operator simply did not listen, advised me nobody was in the wrong, it’s just Lebara hadn’t taken the payment! Was advised the complaints team would call me within 24/48 hours, and “negotiate with me” neither she or her supervisor could help, in the end she put my call on hold and never returned back to me, absolutely appalling service. Who has ever heard of a mobile phone company stating you would get a call from another department within 24/48 hours, in the meantime cannot use the phone,

For me the final conclusion deduced is there is inherent ineptitude in this company, for no other reason than, having emailed to the CEO, I received no acknowledgment or reply from my correspondence, so they must either be inundated with complaints or totally arrogant. Needless to say the call from the complaints department never materialized either. I have now stopped the credit card payments and am sure they will resort to heavy handed tactics and refer to their T&C’s The motto of the story, if the deal is too good there is a distinct reason and this company gets a Gold star for ineptitude and arrogance.

What a rip off libara mobile phone company is not recommend to no body.I haven't used my phone for a bit they sucked my credit. .this is rip off libara.

Unprofessional ,slow and it akes so long to get things done.

Always a technical fault with there system

I bought a SIM at Victoria station for 10 pounds which gives 1GB of internet, 500 mins of Uk and 500 mins of international calls over a 30 day period. I have called UK and Canada without any issues and the internet connectivity is fast. I would recommend this product to any visitor looking for cheap, phone/internet service.