Tracfone Wireless

First of all, I am a 73 year old senior on disability. I have been a Tracfone customer for over 15 years, (Pre flip phone). I have upgraded at least 10 times and have had multiple problems with the website, the products and most of all with customer service via telephone. I am not generally sadistic, but in this case I think that there is something seriously wrong with me, because I keep coming back. My only excuse is that I have a long time serious anxiety disorder and live entirely on Social Security. Also I don’t have the energy to look for something better and I fear all these companies are the same.
Today, after having been given disinformation, I am returning 2 phones. One, that after one month of use froze on me. After 2 hours of tech service attempts it could not be restored. I was then told they would give me a refund, if I purchased a more expensive model. I am also returning that one, as it failed to activate. Also, they refused to give me the refund that was promised. They say that they will replace the original one in about 10 days. I am out almost $ 200 dollars and do not have phone service over the holiday. In order to not loose the original refund that was promised me, I had to talk to 5 people, in Columbia, Yvette, Kate, Vivien, supervisor Michael (ID# 540 225) and finally floor manager Rovian Arango (who says he has no company ID). I spent over a 3 hours, (much of that on hold). I hope that this time they will keep their word. These guys are almost as bad as Time Warner Cable.
Call me crazy!

Don’t I repeat don’t ever purchase a TracFone. If anything goes wrong with the phone such as ours within the first week of purchasing it, they will not replace the phone until you send them back to the phone first. They also will not give you a refund until they have the phone returned to them. So, even though you’ve paid for a phone you have to go without one waiting for them to replace it.
This company is a complete rip off!

I have chated 3 different times and called tech support once. Never can I ge them to connect me with a supervisor.
I have been using a tracfone since ³⁄₂₀₁₂ and never had a problem before this.
Here is the transcript from my last chat session.
TracFone: Hi! How may I help you today?
Kristine: Hi Robert.
You: Last night just before I bought a 120-​minute card online, I checked the balance on my Phone.
Service for the phone ended last May 28 2015 with a balance of 256 minutes.
As soon as I used the 120-​minute card, the phone showed only 120 minutes. It should have showed 616 minutes. The phone has 3x lifetime minutes.
I called technical support. They added 240 minutes to the phone, bring the total minutes up to 360.
Still the original 256 minutes was missing and I was not able to get the support person to understand that the phone had a balance before the purchase.
In the past when I bought a card for my phone, if the service date was expired, the existing minutes and the card minutes (card minutes multiplied by 3), showed up on the phone.
I thank you for your time.
Phone number xcxx-​xxx-​xxxx
Kristine: Thank you for visiting TracFone Wireless.
You: are you there
Kristine: Yes.
Kristine: I do apologize for the inconvenience. Please allow me a moment to check the account first.
Kristine: You are welcome. I am still waiting for my tool to load. Please bear with me for another two minutes.
You: I use around 100 minutes a month. on 1÷27÷2015 I bought 200 minutes, transaction id 1 121 529 913, service until 5÷28÷2015. 256 minutes had not been used
You: 200 minute = 660 on my 3x phone
Kristine: Do you have the phone with you?
You: i do
Kristine: Okay. Please go to the Prepaid Menu, select Code Entry Mode, enter *#30, and then click OK. Please provide me with the numbers after Parameter 30.
You: 1 065 076 054
Kristine: Alright. Please go back to Code Entry Mode, enter *#0, and then click OK. Please provide me with the numbers after Parameter 00.
You: 20
Kristine: Thank you.
You: I do not have a job and no source of income. 256 minutes is like $ 25 to me and that’s a lot of money for someone that does not have any income. It is very hard for me to get the money to buy minutes. that’s why I am upset about the missing minutes
Kristine: Thank you for waiting. I already checked the records of your account. I do apologize, but you do not have remaining minutes on your account, before you added the 120 minute card. It actually shows zero in the system. Therefore we could not provide you the minutes that you mentioned.
Kristine: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
You: connect me with a supervisor please
Kristine: I do apologize. Please be informed that you will provided with the same information even if you will be connected to our supervisor.
You: then connect me with the supervisors supervisor
Kristine: As I have mentioned, it would still be the same information that will be provided to you. We actually have the same process in checking the minutes on the phone.
You: do you have a retention department?
You: I have been a customer since ³⁄₂₀₁₂
You: I guess your company does not like my business and wants me to find another carrier
You: connect me to a supervisor please
Kristine: I understand your frustration, however we cannot provide you the those minutes, based on the records showing on your account. We are actually following the correct process.
You: hay Kristine, I am not mad at you. please connect me to a supervisor
You: how many times do I have to ask for a supervisor or the customer retention department?
Kristine: I do apologize, but we cannot grant your request. Since the minutes that you claim did not show up in your account, therefore we cannot add those minutes. The supervisor will also provide you with the same information.
Kristine: Do you have any further inquiries?
You: Who can I talk to that can research how many minutes I had on 5÷28÷2015. Do you not think it strange that when the service ended the minutes would be at 0 considering I bought 660 minutes 90 day earlier and only use about 100 minutes a month?
Kristine: No. I am the one that can assist you with this. As I have mentioned, there are no records on your account that you still have remaining minutes, therefore we cannot provide you with it.
Kristine: Do you still have questions?
Kristine: I have not heard from you for two minutes. If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact one of our customer care representatives at 1−800−867−7183. For your convenience, our representatives are available Monday-​Sunday from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM EST. Thank you for chatting with TracFone Wireless.
You: not for you. You did not connect me to a supervisor even though I asked many times. I am not done. This will be reported to the bbb and this transcript will be posted on the internet and sent to tracfone corporate
You: thank you for a waste of time getting the run around. You have a great day

Tried to signup for the TracFone Wireless Forums and after I created my account, I had to activate it. I never receive the activation email. Even after requesting it many times, I’ve never gotten an activation email. So, the help says, «If you have trouble getting your activation email, send a request to the forum administrator». The problem is that you have to be able to login to the forum in order to send email to the administrator. Since I can’t login because my account isn’t activated, I can’t send any email to the administrator.

Have ordered three different refurbished phones from the TRAC FONE website. The first one lasted just over a year before it malfunctioned and started randomly deducting minutes on it’s own. The second one was an Android phone that lasted about three months. Then the camera started malfunctioning. It would freeze and crash he phone. I contacted TRACFONE and requested an email label to return the phone. Three days later I received a return label from Fed Ex. I returned the defective phone, waited four days, received my new refurbished phone, took it out of the box, charged the battery, tried the camera, AND THE PHONE CRASHED (JUST LIKE THE ONE I JUST RETURNED). I contacted TRACFONE again, requested an emailed return label, and just got word my package is in Indianapolis, at the Fed Ex transfer station and is in transit. Even though the rep on line said it would be emailed. The excuse I get when it wouldn’t arrive was there is a problem with your address please call and update your information (even though I provided that information with every correspondence). Product stinks, customer service reps work from a script (if you get them off script it conveniently ends your chat), and they don’t listen to their customers. I now know I would rather be without a phone, rather than rely on TRACFONE
01-​15-​2016
To continue with the unbelievable antics of TracFone I add this to my complaint. I returned a total of four phones (all Android phones) with the same problem. The camera would fail and crash the camera. I recently returned a phone to TracFone (knowing they received it by seeing a signature of M. Santis). The company claimed they offered me a new upgraded phone over the four defective phones I had returned (which they never did). Finally I was told that a new phone had been sent to me and had been delivered to me on December 29^th, 2015. When I told them I never received it they claimed it had been activated and was in use. When I told them that I never received it and would not be responsible for it they said it had been delivered to this address. i couldn’t believe it when I found out that they had sent it to my old address. When I told them about that they claimed that I never changed my address with them. Which is ironic as the last phone I returned to them was sent to my present address (which we had been at for three months.) When I contacted customer service I was placed on hold (or what passes for hold on their chat line) for the better part of an hour and was then informed tat chat was closed and I would have to contact them again the next day. This went on for three days before I got to chat with an agent. When I explained to the agent what happened he said they could tag the phone as stolen and get me a replacement phone. I was later informed by my agent that the upper office was closed and would have to re chat with someone tomorrow (but I would not have to supply the same information as it was all in my file.) The next day I got an agent that insisted that they could not deactivate a phone without the serial number and meid number. I told them I could not supply them that as I never received the phone. They informed me that there was nothing they could do without those numbers. At tat time I requested a supervisor. I was given to a supervisor to who pretty much told me the same thing and if there was a problem I should contact their resolution department. I informed her that I had already done that without any resolution. Basically I now have a phone walking around on my account that I have never even seen and the company is of no help at all. I have a running complaint with the Better Business Bureau about TracFone and would recommend to one and all that you read what I have submitted before you decide that TracFone is the way to go. The saddest part of all is this company refuses now to replace a simple ten dollar phone because they would have to admit to making a mistake. One last thing, I strongly recommend that you keep copies of all transactions with TracFone as they will try to double back and hide the truth (when your files accidentally? get lost and mysteriously fall out of their computer.

My tracfone phone has been deactivated for a year. One year later, tracfone automatically charged me a reactivation fee (which ironically did NOT reactivate my phone, which I didn’t want to do anyway). The process of getting the fee refunded was incredibly frustrating. I finally did, although I felt like it was an endurance test– I could easily see people giving up and just letting them have the money. BUT it disturbed me that tracfone had my information, so I called to get all of it removed. That was also an arduous process, but (supposedly) I was able to get them to delete my name, email, and bank account information from their system. Or so they say…
Basically, tracfone is an elaborate scam, in my opinion. They make it next to impossible to close your account. Their phone tree is a maddening labyrinth of unhelpful information. I feel really sorry for the people who work in the «Customer Care Center» (lolz), it’s not their fault that tracfone is abusive– of both their workers and their consumers. I suspect tracfone has outsourced their call center, which means those technicians are getting paid next to nothing for taking the brunt of a lot of people’s anger (I really had to reel it in the FOURTH TIME I had to call and wade through tracfone’s quagmire of a phone tree). Anyway. Tracfone is ridiculously expensive, and I’ve switched to a proper carrier (at&t) which, although it is *technically* more expensive per month, I feel like I am paying a little extra to actually be cared about. My new carrier’s customer service has been spot on.

Never wrote a review on Unilocal before. Have to say something about tracfone. They charged my credit card over 10 times secretly. When I happen to find out what they did, it took me 2 hrs talking and waiting on the phone to get refund confirmation numbers. The thing is I don’t even know they are giving me the money back. They said it will take 30 days to process. Let’s see. Robber!!!

New to Tracfone as of last week. I had to call them everyday to take the next step in the process to port my #. Today I called them 7 times. got hung up on, drops calls, they say they already called me back twice and hung up… used 38 minutes calling them to fix their error of my IMEI # in THEIR system. They wont credit me. Put me on hold with an annoying buzz tone hoping I would hang up. I ran out of minutes. Writing to corporate in Miami.

I called 800# and was listening and responding a very long time to requested information. I was then transferred to a gentleman who could not speak English and did not know how to use the computer. He transferred me to another person. After a very long time she finally had the airtime transferred to our phone.
Last time we called, three months ago, this exact situation occurred. Also, we were charged twice. I called about the double charge and the answer by the Supervisor was there is nothing she can do about double charges. Unprofessional, non-​english and/​or very poor english speaking employees, technologically inept, sub standard customer service and untrained employees.

THE WORST COMPANY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE! NEVER AGAIN! DON’T RECOMMEND AND WILL NOT RENEW!!! 3 + weeks to get a replacement phone, customer service lie and don’t know their jobs, excuses, contradictions! Dropped calls, no service, hour wait times for CS. They screwed up and gave me all wrong information and it has been over 3 weeks that I am waiting for the replacement phone. Had to call 7 times and they just say sorry. I don’t care if they are sorry, just send my phone.

Absolutely THE WORST experience with my first and LAST prepaid phone. All I can say is «Wow.» I purchased not one, but two phones for our two children. Set up one phone in June, no issues at all — competent individual on the other end of the phone — could barely understand their broken English, but managed. However, trying to activate the second phone was a nightmare!
The woman took my PIN that I was given from QVC and the serial number, put me on hold. After 22 minutes, she never came back and I hung up. I called back (that’s an act of GOD!) Just plan to take half a day! Some guy tells me, «Oh, that PIN was has already been used.» AND… here we go. He repeats the phone number to me. It’s not the same number that is on the phone. It’s off by one digit. He actually has the gall to tell my that I was reading the number incorrectly! AMAZING! I said, «No, that’s the number.» He goes to his «other system» and comes back to say our system shows the …35 number (my phone shows…36). The 1200 minutes were never applied to the phone.,…three more phone calls…
AFTER the fourth call tonight, some guy just gives me a completely different number. HOWEVER, my 1200 mg of data are now 299.71. I’m a confident, college educated teacher of seventeen years. I know I had to have my wifi on at our home while I was TRYING to get this thing activated. That was the first thing I did. I absolutely know that Trac phone screwed me over! He kept telling me that the serial number reflected the minutes of data used. Again, the new phone is still in the FLIPPING box!!! I didn’t use any data!!! I’m livid!!! So my husband and I are giving our daughter her new phone with no data… nice Trac Phone! I refuse to buy anything else. Once the phone and text minutes are used up — It’s going straight to the E-​Waste!!!
We’ll stick to Sprint!

This is a horrible company to have a phone with. First they do not have an unlimited package. Then when you call customer service there are rude. They hung up on me several times. I finally got sick of got lied to and hung up on I asked them to unlock my phone so I could take it to another company where I wouldn’t have a to deal with rude people. Then they told me that my phone couldn’t be unlocked. I will never deal with this company again! I’ll tell everyone that I know not to waste their money or time with this company again.

This company has no respect for their customers. Worst customer service EVER and they will rip you off. I had Tracphone a few years ago, and was stupid enough to try them again. As soon as I use up the minutes I have left, I intend to toss this piece of crap in the trash and find another company that is less greedy and will respect their customers.
The first time around, I got a text on Xmas Eve offering double minutes if I bought a certain model at Walmart, that day only. I’m in a wheelchair and don’t drive, but it sounded like such a sweet deal that I took the bus to my local Walmart and bought the phone. By the time I got home, Tracphone had closed early and I wasn’t able to activate it. When I called again during business hours, they refused to give me the double minutes because they said the offer was only valid on Xmas Eve, even though I had bought the phone before the offer expired and was only prevented from activating it because THEY closed EARLY. I asked to speak to a manager who refused to help, and finally worked my way up through all the rude and uninterested Tracphone employees to a supervisor, who fixed things so I got the double minutes. The offer was for the life of the phone, but a few months later, they told me the double minutes were given to me ‘in error’ and took them away, so I discontinued service.
Six months ago, I found out I have a tumor in my head, on my pituitary gland, and I ended up in the ER multiple times, then found out I was going to have to make long trips to Stanford for treatment. I’ve been home bound for 3 years so I hadn’t needed a cell phone, but now I did. A neighbor told me about this great sounding deal for a triple minute LG from Tracphone. I was hesitant after my last encounter but decided to give them one more try. What a mistake! The first phone I ordered didn’t work. I called multiple times trying to figure out why, and their customer ‘service’ was beyond horrid. None of them cared or even seemed to know what they were doing.
Sent that phone back for a replacement, and this one doesn’t work right either. Can’t download pictures, can’t get the email set up, and I’ve given up my fruitless attempts to get anyone who works for Tracphone to fix things. I can make and receive calls, and I can send and receive texts, but none of the other features work. Since I can’t afford to waste any more money due to all the medical bills I’m dealing with, I decided to keep the phone for now, but tonight I’m re-​thinking that decision, and here’s why:
From the day I got this phone, Tracphone keeps sending me sales texts at 1 AM in the morning. I called them and told them that I’m seriously ill and that I don’t want any sales. They agreed to deactivate that on my account, and for several months, they stopped harassing me. This morning at 1 AM, I was awoken AGAIN by an incoming text from Tracphone attempting to sell me «AutoRefill.» So I’m now awake again, furious because they have disturbed my much-​needed rest and woken me from the first sound sleep I’ve had in days. That’s the kind of company this is: they harass sick people in the middle of the night because they’re so freaking greedy that they don’t care if they’re making your life miserable or jeopardizing your health, as long as they can send you their effing sales messages. And they can’t even do it during normal business hours, which I’m betting is deliberate. I think they figure if they send a text when it’s impossible for their customers to contact them, we’ll cool off and figure it’s not worth bothering them by the time they’re open again. Boy, are they wrong, and they’re about to lose a customer because of it.
Stay away from Tracphone if you want to get any sleep, or if you have any self-​respect. I can promise you from personal experience that they will NOT respect you.

Not sure why there are so many bad reviews. I have had Tracfone for 6 years and haven’t had much of a problem. My latest smartphone, Alcatel One Touch is fabulous! I bought it on ebay for $ 99 and it came with 1200 minutes. Super deal!
The only thing I would change about it is add more internal storage. Coverage is great…
I have only had to use customer service 3 times in 6 years cause I can take care of most everything online. Customer service took a long time and was frustrating (which is why I subtract one star. If you can take care of your phone needs online… I would highly recommend TracFone.

The FONE ITSELF works just fine and for the most part, the service is terrific.
I did have a problem with adding minutes and additional days to one of my three phones that I have through them, while using their website. Evidently, there was a «glitch» of some kind and my additional minutes were credited to the wrong telephone number, even though I did everything correctly.
When I complained through the proper channels about the problem, Ms. Renee Williams in their corporate offices immediately corrected the problem I was having, and to my complete satisfaction. I was highly impressed by her attention to detail and her professionalism in assisting me. The folks in their corporate offices must be very proud to have someone as competent as her, representing them to their consumers/​subscribers.
If you have MULTIPLE TracFone®™ accounts (as I do), you might wish to add minutes verbally with a «live agent,» so you don’t have a similar problem as I did, and I mention that, only because you might have a problem similar to mine.
I highly recommend this fine company and their products, and I am certain that you will be deeply satisfied with what they offer the public, when it comes to reliable and dependable cellular telephone services.

Only clicked one star because there is no 0 option!!! FRAUD!!! They sell activation kits for Verizon 4GLTE phones. Their website stated that my phone was compatible so I bought the kit, did the whole online activation and 36 hrs. later my phone still wouldn’t work and it said sorry, we can’t activate. After spending 30 min. on another phone with customer support, going through the entire process again and waiting on hold for 5 minutes while she tries to get the supervisor to activate the phone, she states that «Oh no, our kit isn’t compatible with Verizon only Sprint.» When I asked her why the packet says for used Verizon 4GLTE phones, silence. When I asked how to get a refund on a product which I paid $ 62 for that is now unusable due to their false claims she says there are no refunds. THEN SHE HAS THE GALL TO HANG UP ON ME WHEN I ASK TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER!!!

Warrning Warrning Warrning! DO NOT BUY A TRACFONE. DO NOT BUY A TRACFONE… THIS IS THE WORST PHONE COMPANY EVER IN THE HISTORY OF PREPAID CELL PHONES!
WARRNING! Do not Enroll in their automatic payment plan! WARRNING
this companys customer service center in the philipines has the worst customer care, dont ever think youbwill get a refund for minutes not used.
These phones have a trick to them, you would have to call customer support to have them refill your phone minutes after they automatically take your money from the bank. you think they would do this automatically like how they take your money from your account. Nope!

Yesterday was the very day fthat should have been the secopnd business day it was supposed to take before my phone was supposed to be resumed with my phone number as it was, so I was surprised to have Fedex deliver yet another SIM card.
I called the number I had been given, gave my case number and wound up talking for th first time to someone with Trakfone who was apparently not over in the Philippines. In short, my phone works again and it has my old number
I will say this for Trakfone. If you don’t lose patience and persevere against the odds, they might actually eventually do the right thing,

DONT BOTHER _​WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVA _​-​AND YOU USE YOUR MINUTES UP GETTING IT!!!
After getting a promo code at 8am this morning giving me an extra 140 minutes when i topped up i was good to go and happy — did the input and then get a text saying I need to call their customer service regarding the transaction. upshot was they said the promo code did not exist — I spent over an hour talking to complete idiots who were no help and lost over 50 minutes in the process. Load of crap service and total rip-​off to get any service! AVOID AT ALL COST!

The absolute worst customer service experience ever, extremely difficult to get through to a person, and they’re very dismissive if you ever do. The system itself is rife with delays and very backwards design.
eg; if your phone dies and you buy a new one to replace it, it could take up to FOUR DAYS for the new one to work. FOUR DAYS.
As I am writing this I have spent the better part of this whole morning just trying to get the new phone to work. Apparently ‘something went wrong’ and the phone was just left inactivated, and they had to do something special to push it through. They were about to give me a new number until I demanded that I keep my current one. What kind of phone carrier tries to give you a new number just because you need to switch phones — on their service?!