Y’all, I was beyond excited when I saw this campaign and even more so when I was accepted into this campaign. This seemed like such a cool idea that could be useful in a variety of situations. Unfortunately, I was quickly disappointed by my experience.

 

Before getting into it, what is Nomad Air? Nomad Air (https://nomadinternet.com/pages/travel-bag-nomad) is an Internet and is one of America's largest rural Wireless Internet Service Providers. They are focused on providing High-Speed wireless Internet to rural communities nationwide. Instead of using traditional Internet wires, they do it by transmitting wireless Internet access directly to your home, business, and even while traveling – at least, that is the claim.

 

A popular website called CNET actually reached out about this claim in January of this year and had not received a response back from the brand (source here).

 

It took a while, but my package had finally arrived. I was excited to get it set up and get started to check them out for myself. Everything arrived in a cute little carry bag. Unfortunately, no instructions were included. Just a basic page with a QR code to bring me to a PDF file with very basic instructions. Nothing that really helped with troubleshooting.

 

So I went to their website looking for information on the product page. As a creator, they sent a creator kit which was the Air modem and travel kit. The images the brand used for this promotion on various websites for creators showed it came with a solar-powered battery. Mine did not come with that battery – just some non-solar battery (the brand in later emails made some excuse about this but it’s really disappointing when all over shows a different product than they are sending).

 

After finding nothing helpful about the setup through the website, I reached out to the brand through the blogger-to-brand website I had discovered them on. No response. So, I finally sent an email through their actual website. I got a response, but they take quite some time to respond. Initially, I thought they would be helpful as they made a few suggestions to try that didn’t work.

 

It was during this point I mentioned the battery being different and that’s where they tried to make it sound like the one they sent was better. Well, it’s not suitable for traveling as they were showing or off-grid as it appeared they were trying to promote as the one they sent me requires being plugged in. The one shown on several websites shows the solar-powered battery, which was the appeal of the kit making it seem like it could be used anywhere. Having to be plugged in (and a service that needs to be paid for) is nothing special to me. I already pay for an internet service which is cheaper and more reliable than what Nomad Air provides.

 

Eventually, the customer service rep I had been speaking with through the website (not sure if they’re the same one running the campaign for creators or not) suggested it was a defective device. I understand things happen so I suggested they send out the replacement with a return address label and once the new one arrives, I will place the defective one in that box and send it back. This is how it is generally done with any company and by the time I was done going back and forth with them, the packaging the kit had arrived in had been thrown out.

 

It was at this point the company just started coming off rude and having an attitude and pretty much demanding I just send it back. They were worried about their time crunch to get the review done. They were complaining because the review was already late, but admittedly it was because of a defective product, yet still somehow wanted to put the blame on me for this issue.

 

Well, today, through the creator platform they marked the item as shipped after having no further communication from them, which I only have so long to submit a review. So here it is.

 

I wanted to like the company. I hate just trash-talking over a defective product, but this was my honest experience. Would I recommend Nomad Air? Not a chance. The customer service is severely lacking. The communication is lacking. The product is overpriced and not the same as they display on their website.

 

 

Don’t take just my word for it, on Yelp, they have a 1-star rating with 141 reviews. Also, on the BBB website they have a 2.83 out of 5 star review with 995 reviews.

 

You can also check the Nomad Air community of users chatting. I didn’t know about this but Nomad decided to have a summary list emailed to me so here are a couple of topics of other people with issues with this company:

 

 

Those were just from the email summary I received that I didn’t sign up for or ask for. One thing I see consistently is the lack of response from their customer service.

 

As I have said, you can try them for yourself, but it seems like I am not the only one who had issues with them and I was supposed to be working with them to help promote their brand. But as of this post, I don’t have anything positive to say – other than the bag it came with is cool. I have no idea if they are sending a replacement or what since they stopped communicating.