TracFone Consumer Reviews - Page 5

I know customer service has gone downhill in the last few years but attempting to talk to TracFone customer service was one of the worst experiences that I have had. First my daughter had lost her phone and I called to stop service and asked them the steps I need to take once I purchase a new phone. The call center (wherever it is overseas) has their representatives reading from a script and every time I asked a question that was not in line with the script the person would just repeat the script over and over again.

After I purchased her new phone, I wanted to transfer the over 200 minutes she still had on her lost phone. Once I activated the phone, they only gave us 70 minutes back. The test call worked but later that day and for the next 3 days (they say the transfer can take up to 72 hours to take effect) she could not use her phone. It kept saying Unregistered SIM. So I called back on the 5th day (because the online re-register did not work) and was placed on/off hold for over 45 minutes while their "special" department was working on building documentation for my case (whatever that meant).

Finally, after several minutes of turning the phone off and waiting for them to run test calls, we could make a receive calls. I asked them about the 200 minutes that she had and was repeatedly told that I must have the "lost" phone in order to verify minutes and that I must deactivate the phone. I told them I deactivated her phone right away. I know they must have a server or database out there that records each phone's minutes but at any rate, the woman on the other end would not answer direct questions.

I asked to speak to their manager which took another 20 minutes of being placed on hold. I guess they do not consider how much time and money they are wasting on 1-800 customer service calls. Once I got the supervisor on the phone, she went through the exact same script. I let her know that it took 5 days to get my daughter's new phone working and that only a portion of her minutes were transferred and asked what they could do for us in regards to credit. Again, she just repeated her broken record. What a waste of time.

Needless to say, I will never buy a TracFone or their services again. It's so disappointing that these companies are so narrowly focused on profit that they send their customer service overseas and they do not care whether or not they have satisfied customers. Well, they just lost another one.

FLORIDA -- This all started when I let my minutes run out on my Nokia phone. So I bought a new 60 min card for 20.00. When trying to redeem these minutes, my phone would not take it, so my wife called Tracfone and explained the situation to them. She was told that this Nokia phone which I have been using for the past couple years without any problems, suddenly was not compatible to our area code. So this person said that they would send a new free phone, so we agreed to this and she also told my wife that we would not lose the minutes already on the phone.

So, a few days go by and I receive the Motorola phone in a box that stated "Reconditioned, guaranteed for one year". So, try to activate the phone and install the minutes, no luck. Call Tracfone again. My wife spoke to someone called Napoleon, and he tried to have us install several codes without any luck. The phone would not take the codes. It just said denied. So after an hour on the phone with someone who could hardly understand you or you him, he finally said that the phone was defective, but they would send out another phone in 5 to 10 days.

Well, we are past the 10 days, so my wife calls again, and no one seems to know what she is talking about when all she wanted to know was when our new phone would come. There did not seem to be any record of any conversation that she had with Napoleon. They wanted her to go through all of this again, and she did get upset with this lady and said that she had just done this and was not going to do it again. During this conversation, this woman was impossible to understand, and my wife would hear herself echoing every time she would say something. It was very strange.

The next step was emailing, which I did, customer service. Three times, and each time I was told to call and speak to one of the customer representatives, and of course, I said, why? You don't get anywhere with anyone that you cannot understand. All they wanted to do was have me call again and I just wanted to know where the phone was that was supposed to be sent to me. Anyhow, after a couple of e-mails, they must have blocked me because, the mail came back, undeliverable. These people are an injustice. I do not even have a phone now, and my phone was working perfectly well before all this mess.

This company is a joke, and they are getting away with this and it is so wrong. Something does need to be done and I have contacted the BBB. No phone, lost minutes, and they will not reactivate my old phone either, can you believe this? Anyhow this is my story, and I am mad.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- Buyer beware. I read reviews before I purchased 2 Tracfone prepaid plans. Since I live in such a large city, I didn't think I would have the coverage problems I saw others had. Other complaints seemed too uniquely specific to an individual's situation. Boy was I wrong. I was surprised to have such poor coverage! We live in the center of a large metro SE city, yet we find we are roaming just 10 miles from our home. Not only are we roaming, but we can't complete the call until we pay Verizon w/ credit card for these calls even when our plan supposedly covers all roaming fees.

Additionally, there are broad areas where we get no coverage at all. Our phones' displays do not always indicate "roaming" and "no service" (it can even display 4 bars!), so we don't know when we aren't covered until we attempt to place a call. Okay, so we had some coverage problems--who doesn't? So we contacted CS to sort it out. After a year & a half, it is evident they cannot correct the problems, nor do they care... After all, we've already bought our minutes. I've spent hours programming strings of numbers into my phone and have never been successful in patching even one of the problem coverage areas. It's ridiculous.

The CS have always been courteous, their English is usually pretty good, but their remedies have been totally ineffective for me. Perhaps if you get good Tracfone coverage in your area (and you are not relying on the display to indicate that!), you may never have to learn how fruitless the CS effort is. I have given up on Tracfone, thrown the phone on the ground, and written new check to T-Mobile. My advice: if you want to try Tracfone, start as CHEAP as possible --with free phone & minimum minutes --and try using that phone from every location you can think of. If it doesn't work well for you, don't think they can, or will, fix it for you. Just hang up on them and find another service.

COLORADO -- I have had contract phones for a long time. I am not a person who lives on their cellphone. I decided to try prepaid cellphone service instead. I tried Verizon, T-Mobile, Virgin, etc... I still found that my minutes were temporary, meaning that they would be erased after a month. I also had trouble with coverage at home and when I traveled. My friend suggested I try TracFone. I did my research and purchased one. Here is what I found. Unlike any other carrier, TracFone doesn't have their own service (towers, etc.). They have agreements with all the carriers, so their phones piggyback off whatever carrier is available.

Since having TracFones for a year now, I have experienced the benefit of this in that I have more coverage in more places than any phone I've had previously. When I purchased my first phone (I have 2 TracFones now - Nokia 1100, Motorola v60i cdma), I got a year card for it. My minutes are safe for a year. Before I activated my TracFone, my friend sent me a "referral" from the company. It gave me one hundred minutes on my phone for free! I thought that was a great addition to everything else. There is a lot more detail I could give about the phones themselves etc. If you have any questions or need a referral for yourself, feel free to email me, ** is my address at Yahoo.

The only thing one should consider about TracFone is which phone is right for your needs. I started with a Motorola v60i w/ cdma technology. I find it gets the best coverage when traveling but it does charge double minutes when roaming.

Because of this, I also purchased a TracFone Nokia 1100 w/ gsm technology. It actually gets better signal in the town I'm in but not as good when I'm traveling through the mountains. I don't have roaming charges, same rate anywhere in the country. Overall, TracFone has been exactly what I needed in a cellphone, because I don't live on mine, if I did, I'd get some contract plan. I use my phone maybe once or twice a day and I don't stay on it for hours.

NEBRASKA -- I bought a reconditioned Tracfone from the website because it said just pay for a 40-minute phone card and get this reconditioned phone for free. Well, what could it hurt? I already had an older Tracfone, so I decided to basically get the free newer phone. When it arrived, I immediately activated it online. After 20 minutes of activating it, it finally gave me my cellphone number and said wait 5 minutes, and try dialing that cellphone number to see if your cellphone rings. If it doesn't ring, it could take up to 24 hours to activate. Well, guess what. It didn't ring. Not even after 72 HOURS!

So, I called the customer care center. I first spoke with some foreigner who had a STRONG Asian accent. I could barely understand the guy, plus he was extremely rude. I spent 30 minutes with him just reading "settings" and other stuff. Finally, he re-set the phone, and said it could take up to 24 hours to activate. IT NEVER DID. (Keep reading, it gets better!)

So, I called again. This time it was a woman, who also had a strong Asian accent. Basically, the same thing. We re-activated the phone, and got a new phone number. I tried to call my cell now with this phone number over and over again, but it led to somebody's voice mail. The next day, I kept trying that number to see if my cell would finally ring. Nope. In fact, somebody else answered! I even double checked my number through "settings" and I was dialing the right number.

So, I called back a third time. Finally, this guy was able to resolve it. If I had known this process would have been so inconvenient, I would have never bought from this company. I am WARNING you: DO NOT buy a CELL PHONE from TRACFONE. Besides their lousy service, you cannot understand the reps!

KEY LARGO, FLORIDA -- I had been a customer with Straight Talk for more than 3 years but the summer of 2011 is when the Tracfone system that was powering Straight Talk went haywire and I spent hours on pay phones (great fun finding one that worked) while traveling trying to get my Straight Talk and a new Tracfone to work. They somehow worked the bugs out and things were good till I needed to replace my phones with new ones. Now they had SIM cards and the fun began. Kept one phone 8 days and returned it thinking my problem was the phone. Ordered a new one on-line and proceeded to call and e-mail about not being able place or receive calls.

In a one month period other than the calls the techs would make to test the phone I received 8 calls and was able to make even less calls out. Returned that phone and gave up on Straight Talk bought a Tracfone. The store clerk spent 20 mins porting my number but they had to send me a new SIM card???? So for 2 days no one knew my number and then when I got the SIM I could not make or receive calls. Spent 2 hours on the phone passed off to 6 different people before ** was able to resolve my problem But - the second new phone which I have had for 1 week has only worked when I call tech support and they test it.

I just spent another 1.5 Hours on the phone. First tech passed me off and I went on hold to that "pathetic" hold recording and then they said there were so many waiting I should call back at another time. 9:45 pm called again, passed to 2nd person, turn off/on, remove battery, enter codes, remove battery and SIM sometimes works when he calls me sometimes not. I ask for a supervisor and guess what, I get disconnected!

I call back busy recording 'call is important to us', yadda yadda. Tech called back while I am on hold listening to the noise and leaves a different number to call him back - try that, get some long string of numbers and no connection. When I try to make a call from my land line to the cell I get a 'cannot be completed at this time' and a message 6. When I try to call from my cell it looks like it is ringing - no sound - and after 3 pulses on the face of the phone it says call ended and goes back to the home screen. Text works and I can call voicemail for all the good that does as I am not receiving calls.

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- I have been TRACFONE for 1 year and a half. I thought initially it was a good pay as you go with triple minutes for the LG phone. I have had MULTIPLE MULTIPLE problems with customer service. Calling the MIAMI number you are on hold for long periods of time. When not on hold you get transferred to Costa Rica the Philippines and this past Saturday was routed to Columbia. I asked numerous time to speak to a SUPV only to be put on hold longer and then the call was disconnected by TRACFONE.

Recently March 1, my TRACFONE only 3 months old, died - the on off switch ceased to work. I called TRACFONE - said they would send me a new one. Then on Tuesday, I decide NOT to get the new phone as I was switching providers and ending the terrible service with TRACFONE. I called - placed on hold for 15 minutes until I spoke to someone. I gave her my ticket # told her I do NOT want the new phone. I asked if it was shipped she said no. She cancelled it for me on Tuesday. I come home on Thursday and its at my door. I was LIVID. I called - was on hold for 45 minutes.

Spoke to two people who could not help me and asked to speak to a SUPV. They wanted me to bring the phone to the PO to mail it back. I said "NO, This is YOUR problem as I cancelled it on Tuesday". Finally was able to reach a supv - she and I sparred back and forth. I was on the phone with TRACFONE a total of 110 minutes. TERRIBLE customer service, terrible people - some who cannot speak English. And I had to be on hold for 110 minutes when I called on Tuesday to cancel this new phone order. NOT my problem but they made me take 110 minutes out of my time to call them back AGAIN.

Last year, ** in corporate was the only one who could help me. I had her phone # and lost it. The multiple calls this past month I requested to have them email ** and wanted her help again. Never heard from ** and doubt they emailed her. She is the only one who resolved my previous problems. This is a TERRIBLE company for customer service. DO NOT USE THEM.

Checked web to see if I could address problem there but there was no way to do it. Called Tracfone yesterday. Put on hold for long period waiting for a representative to speak to. Awful music. Finally got someone to talk to who was difficult to understand and had problems understand me because he was from another country. Was on phone long periods while he supposedly researched. Finally disconnected me. He never called back. I called back and was told Tracfone was not accepting calls because of high volume.

Called later and went through the above process again. Was told they could verify only 320 of the minutes and I was finally able to get some credit for that. Asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I was being transferred to one but was sent back to the original holding pattern. Minutes disappeared from my phone and Tracfone refuses to credit the full amount. Had to wait on hold multiple times, got disconnected, misdirected, etc. Finally got 320 minutes but when I asked to be transferred to supervisor, I was misdirected back into the main line to hold again for another representative. Spent hours on phone. Other problems:

(1)Bought phone online that was supposed to work in my area. Tried to transfer old Tracfone number and minutes. Never got phone to work. Never got old number back. After many calls (with the same holds, failures to resolve, disconnects, misdirects, etc. as mentioned above), I was told my phone must be defective and they would send me a new one.

Arrived about a week later and it did not work either. Went through the same process as noted above. Still no service. Was then told I had the wrong phone for my area (even though their web site said it worked in my zip) I went back to the web, ordered, and paid for the phone that tech said I needed. Returned the other 2. Received new phone about a week later and went though the whole process again but eventually got phone activated and minutes transferred. Never got my old number back. Spent probably 20 hours or more on phone problems in the last 2-3 months.

(2) Cannot get phone register online for value plans. Get message that says the serial number belongs to another account. This is still unresolved and makes it difficult for me to get minutes on my phone. Tracfone used to be a good deal and I used them for the last 8 years. However, customer service has gotten progressively worse to the point where it is not worth it to deal with this company at all. Also, avoid Straight Talk and Net 10 because they are all related and have the same problems.

Recently got a TracFone prepaid cell phone while visiting family in the States. We wanted something cheap and easy because we would only use it for the two weeks while back in the States. A family member recommended TracFone because the handsets themselves were so inexpensive and minute cards were readily available. I also heard from a friend of the family they have good network coverage.

What I saw during the two weeks the phone was in use astounded me. When I used to live in the States I would never have even considered getting a prepaid phone - cell contracts were just how everybody did it back then. Now I'm not sure why anyone still bothers with contracts anymore.

First of all: the network coverage is exceptional! It was painfully obvious to everyone that the TracFone had better signal than any of the three other phones (two on contract, one other prepaid) in our party. We were on the road a lot of the time and saw some of the phones lose all bars for long periods at a time. The TracFone was the most reliable in remoter areas and the most consistent with signal strength. When actually using the phone the calls were clear sounding with minimal interference and almost no dropped calls.

TracFone also actually enables you to place calls to many countries at the same rates as local calls! That's right, there is no extra charge for international calls to many overseas numbers. I was told it isn't to all countries in the world but we placed calls to Australia, UK and France at no extra cost! That is phenomenal value for money right there. I know of no other carrier, contract or prepaid, who gives that as a standard feature. Normally you have to sign up for an international calling bundle just to avoid paying like $2 to $3 per minute. The call rates were low although not the lowest available on the prepaid market over there as I understand it.

Still, TracFone proved to be very good value for money. The handsets I saw on display were the simpler, older types but at least they were cheap. I will definitely look at TracFone as an option when next time we visit the States. Based on my personal experience I would recommend this prepaid option.

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- I dislike cell phones. I have one only for emergencies. I've had a Tracfone for several years and had accrued over a thousand minutes. Recently, I misplaced my phone and called the company to suspend my service until I found it. I wasn't in a hurry to replace it, because I never use it anyway, but I did buy another phone. I attempted to register the phone online- but was told that the serial number was already in use and assigned to another person. That meant I had to call the "DREADED INDIA".

The first woman I spoke with was unintelligible. I could understand the second person but he repeatedly asked the same questions to verify my identity. He finally cleared up the "serial number" problem and began to re-instate the phone. He told me that the minutes were unable to be transferred from my old phone to the new one because they had expired. As far as I am concerned my telephone service was "on hold". The thousand minutes I had paid for are still available and it only takes a push of a button to transfer them.

There is no use in asking to speak to a supervisor. They don't seem to have that word in their vocabularies. There is no sense in getting mad either- then the accent really kicks in and, unless you speak Hindi, there is no sense in continuing. There is also a serious problem with service- particularly during "drive time" in the mornings and evenings, and also roaming. Tracfone leases cell tower use from other carriers, and at peak use periods, Tracfone refuses to pay the higher use fees to provide service to its customers. A "no service" message is displayed on the phone. My brand new phone is in my desk drawer. Goodbye Tracfone!!! Hello, Comcast!