TracFone Consumer Reviews - Page 9

I returned a defective phone over 3 months ago, that 7-8 people tried to fix over the phone, none were successful. Spent hours on the phone going through the process. Told to return the phone for a refund, which to date and 5 phone calls have yet to received. Now I'm told that I never paid for the phone, I paid for the minutes which they do not give refunds for. What good are minutes if you can't use them on a broken phone. This company is a ripoff and if you have it, pray that you never have to use customer service because it is a nightmare. No USA reps and good luck understanding these people. Stay Away.

MARYLAND -- We too have a problem with Tracfone's double minutes. In Jan 2007 we purchased a phone with"double minutes for life." Both in 2007 and March 2008 we had no problem getting our double minutes (in fact it was about 10 cents/min). In March 2009, no double minutes were given when we bought time. They claim the 2008 double minutes were a mistake and no such plan existed until a few months after we purchased the phone in Jan '07.

We are not at all pleased, especially after we called them and in the course of one hour we were disconnected THREE times. As of now emailing them isn't much better. In spite of pretty good reception in North Maryland, we're considering another company.

TracFone will not connect my phone because they said someone reported it stolen. They said I have to prove I paid for the minutes. I bought this phone over two years ago as an emergency phone to keep in my truck so I do not use the phone unless I break down. I initially bought one year service and then another year service rolling the minutes until I accumulated over 1200 minutes. Last week I went to use the phone and it did not work. After three hours on the phone they now tell me unless I can fax them proof of purchase they will not connect my phone.

Like most of the TracFone customers on this website, I was given the runaround by customer service (who truly are the worst I have encountered in many years). Like many other people, I bought renewal airtime and minutes, only to find my phone deactivated and to be told that there "was no record of that transaction on the system." My phone had been updated and I had a printout of the online transaction confirmation.

TracFone customer service are obviously paid on the number of emails they deal with per hour, because no one read my emails; they just bounced me back to the support line. No one on the regular support phone number had the authority to reinstate my service (or believed me, despite sending them a copy of my receipt via email).

I am posting this because calling the Corporate Support phone number, 1-800-876-5753, gets results. After calling this number, I now have my service reinstated. I am highlighting the Corporate Support number so that others can get their problems fixed. Overall: Will I return to TracFone next year? Probably not, despite being a customer for many years. Life should not be this hard.

I have used Tracfone prepaid cellular telephone service for 5 years. It works and fits my needs (I don't use it much). Starting last year, they began pushing a "Double minutes for Life" option. When you annually renew your 1-year service with and initial 400 minutes, you are encouraged to buy this option for an additional $40 with the promise that your initial 400 minutes will be doubled and any subsequent purchase of minutes will be doubled at no additional cost for the life of the phone.

I tried it this year. When I renewed my service for 2009, I expected that the 400 initial minutes would be doubled. Silly me. When I called to complain (several times - you rarely get through on the first try), I was told by customer service (not native English speaker) and her supervisor that the double minutes deal expired at the end of each year.

I guess the "life of the phone" is not expected to exceed one year. They admitted that their website and email promotions "might" be deceptive, but they have no intention of honoring "Double for Life" as it seems or of changing their marketing language to clarify what they intend.

90210, CALIFORNIA -- TracFone is a big ripoff. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!! I purchased a phone for my Fiance while she was here for a week. The package advertised low rate international calling. So we get the phone and I call and activate it. At that time the operator tells me that it will take another day to activate the international calling. So the next day we try to call out. Nothing. I spoke to customer service and was told the same thing, wait another day and try it. We try it the next day. NOTHING. Basically this happened for the next three days. "One more day, wait" and nothing from this crappy phone.

So after a week we still don't have the international calling so I call to deactivate the phone because I am going to return it. They deactivated it instantly just fine, how come they couldn't do that with international calling. I ended up getting my money back but wanted to tell other potential buyers that this is a scam. They do not deliver what they advertise on the packaging. This is also knows as "False Advertising", a lovely case for the Better Business Bureau. This company is a scam. Do not waste your time and money.

WATERTOWN, NEW YORK -- I was also charged twice for minutes although it did not overdraw my account. When I realized it and called to have the problem corrected I had a very rude woman who said I had only 60 days to file a complaint. It had been 48 days when I had realized the discrepancy. She became upset when I counted the days and refused to give me her name when I told her I wanted to complain. She said she was the supervisor and that no other supervisor was there. She then put the phone down for 23 minutes and refused to talk or answer my questions. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau.

WEATHERFORD, TEXAS -- I would like to know how many other Tracfone users have purchased minutes via online only to find that Tracfone has charged you twice for the one transaction creating a nightmare in your checking account. They don't deny doing it, but they say if it causes your account into overdraft then that's the banks and my fault. Then a 10 day wait for 64.94 to return to the account but still does not correct the fact of overdraft fees that have been tacked on.

How many other has this happened to and they don't even know it? My Tracfone days are over. This has been the second time they have charged me twice for a single transaction. Let me hear from you if too have been scammed. I am contacting the BBB.

PENNSYLVANIA -- I bought this phone for my mom and when I activated the phone I did not get the promotional 400 minutes. Why not? That's why I bought this, not sure what happened, but I had to buy the minutes when I should have gotten 400 minutes with this phone.

LEWES, DELAWARE -- We were going to replace a Tracfone with a newer model and had 1002 minutes on our phone. Tracfone told us we only had 293 and would not honor anything more. I have a picture of the phone showing the minutes but they did not want to see it.