Net10 Wireless review: terrible customer service! 138

The only way to stop this insanity is to stop using their service. Cut your losses and get a real company to service your cell phone needs. This company has been treating its customers like garbage for years and will continue to do so because people stay with them. Are you really too poor to go with a real service? Is it worth the poor treatment you receive to save a few bucks? I think not. Hit em where it hurts, their pocketbook.

Here is my story I will make it short I do not recommend net 10 cell phone it is a sham making calls for two weeks some lasting one and one half hours a total joke,
thanks

WORST SERVICE I HAVE EVER SEEN BY FAR!
I have been trying to activate and transfer a phone number to a new net10 phone now for OVER 2 WEEKS. I have spent at least 10 HOURS on the phone with them trying to resolve this and still no activation. The customer service is trrrible and their customer service people do not seem to know what they are doing. They transfered my phone number from T-Mobile and now it is someware in limbo. They sent me a new simm for my phone because they gave me a new number instead of transferring my old number, now they say they sent me the wrong simm and have to sens me another one. THEY ARE ALL IDIOTS!

I will never purchase a Net 10 (LG900) phone. I purchased this phone two months ago and added 300 minutes of airtime. Suddenly, after minimal usage, the minutes were gone. I purchased yet another phone card with 300 minutes and had over 100 minutes left. Suddenly, the minutes are gone ONCE AGAIN. This company is a complete SCAM and I will be sure that I spread the word.

For 2 hours awaiting customer service on toll phone for reactivation and upgrade (((on hold-wait time))). heard the same elevater music and prompt messages, i swear i hear that again i will have a nightmere or total mental breakdown in the future... as stupid as i sound typing this it doesnt have a real lack of irony to my customer service expierence my best respects and wishes go out to fellow net10 victoms in the us and international. and i mean that sincerly guys ! :)! "Net10 please get a real Service orienintated life" From a Northwest Arkansas Citizen here. yaa i know i cant spell...boo hoo...

I bought $25 airtime online, but never get the 750 minutes. I called the customer's service twice and hardly understood what representatives' English. I wrote email and never get a reply.

The customer service at Net10 is way below the standard.

Worst service that I have ever received. The port was a disaster requiring multiple calls. It worked OK for a couple of weeks and then the current batch of problems started with being unable to add minutes. Multiple (6+) calls all lasting over and hour, 3 sim cards later, "lost" phone number 2 times and numerous attempts to assign me an alternate number. If this phone were not a gift Net 10 would be deep sixed a month ago. DONOT buy anything from them!

I wanted to change my plan from a fixed monthly card to a monthly fee. My phone was deactivated and still has not been put back into service. I have been on the phone for 3 days @2hr per day. My phone is still not fixed. Every time you call you keep repeating the information and the same things are discussed over and over and over again. They do not appear to have any one in the service department that can actually fix a problem. I would not reccomend this service to anyone...

Customer service is provided by people who live in some foreign country, are taught the basic English, and have been given American names. Who do they think they are fooling here? We need to drop these 'out-sourced' C/S and bring the jobs back to the US and start providing quality CS to the customers. It is WAY LONG OVERDUE!

Every time I call Net-10 C/S, I am treated like some imbecile who doesn't know what's going on. If you ask too many questions or ask for information they don't know how to handle, then they put back into the lineup for service or hang up on you entirely. You have to call back and if you ask for a supervisor then you are put back on hold and are 'blind-transferred' to someone who claims to be a supervisor when all they are is some lead from the floor. I used to work for a sweat-shop like these and I know what tactics they use just to keep their people answering all the calls. The FCC has no control over a foreign C/S center other than the parent company and good luck trying to find that one!

Yeah guys Net10 is really great when it comes to signal strength but kind of shoddy when it comes to phones and CS. It's a discount option. But you go ahead and tell me where you can find unlimited everything with GREAT signal strength for only 50 bucks and get back to me. For me, it's totally worth it because I save about 100 bucks a month.

I have been dealing with Net10 for so long---I went and purchased www.Net10SUX.com! Now there is a place on the web where we can share stories and GET RESOLUTION! send me your story of HATRED for Net10 and I will post it online for the world to see.
Email your story to--
admin@net10sux.com
--and I will post it online :D

Screw you net10!

OMG -- My husband bought a phone that was supposed to have data service for our area. He purchased from Net10 because he was promised it would be a fast delivery and setup. The phone did arrive very quickly. BUT -

Not only no data service but no service whatsoever. I've dealt with 5 customer service reps and one supervisor in 4 days and no joy. I can't tell you how many codes I've entered, how many minutes have been wasted due to them telling me to make "test calls" that I knew wouldn't go through (yet I'm charged for them!). They've changed the phone number 4 times and each time promised me that it would solve the problem. Of course it didn't.

My husband needed this phone for a trip he is taking tomorrow afternoon. I'll be calling back one more time tomorrow first thing in the morning. If this phone isn't working by then - they can keep it. $160 is at stake, but if I don't ever get the refund it'll be worth it to NEVER have to deal with their awful customer service again. I've wasted hours of my life these past four days with absolutely nothing to show for it but a terrible headache.

Oddly enough, I've got a Tracfone (same company, yes?) that works just fine in our area. Knock on wood it'll stay that way!

I'm a patient person. I've worked in a call center - I know what it's like. Believe me, I do. Yet after reading the scores of complaints about Net10 I cannot understand how they can still be in business! Oh, never mind - I guess they stay in business because suckers like my husband keep buying their phones.

Just write that money off. Sometimes you just have to move on and take the lesson learned.

Yeah so the customer service seems not to be very good but I just found out that you can actually go on their facebook page and get help. Was about to quit when I got my answer there. Now that everything works, I can say that NEt10 signal strength is some of the absolute best that you can find, contract or no contract, and it's dirt cheap. Good luck.

Net10 really needs to do better with customer service. They don't listen to you. I had a terrible experience with them. I'm a college student trying to save money and the company couldn't get my transferring of my number correct or even provide me with a working phone. I asked for a refund it took 3 days to talk to someone who finally made sense. I honestly see why when I worked in retail people weren't buying the service. I couldn't even tell you how the service is because I never received it. STILL WAITING ON A REFUND THAT THEY OWE ME FOR THE REP PUTTING MINS ON A NON-WORKING PHONE.

Alright, so that you have the customer service reputation, which is pretty bad and probably for a good reason. HOWEVER, there are many ways to avoid customer service (facebook page!) and avoid their farm out in India. If you manage to do that, you will find that their signal strength is a STEAL. Mainly because they use Verizon and ATT towers for their signals, so you can get a great signal pretty much anywhere. And you won't find a package as complete as their unlimited talk/text/data/411 for as cheap as 50 dollars a month, anywhere.

net 10 is the worst pre paid service provider you can go with...i do not i repeat DO NOT recommend anybody in the world to choose them...the customer service is an absolute joke because you cant understand the foreign [censor] first of all and second off all the manual says your security code is 0000 which its not and you will be prompted with a PUK code after entering the wrong one which they provided in the manual what a joke THEY SUCK and really need to just go out of service..how they stay in service i have no clue because they are the worst company i have ever delt with in my entire life and i have delt with over 50...

Again, I cannot say it strongly enough: Avoid Net10. They may seem like a good deal for awhile, but you will come to regret every second and every penny you spent with them

The complaints about customer service are absolutely correct. As long as everything works, you're ok. A problem comes up, you're screwed.
Avoid them. Here's what happened to me:
. After being with NET10 for over two years, I moved from NJ to FL; needed a new phone number. They said they couldn't change the number without sending a new SIM card. I install the SIM card and IMMEDIATELY the phone will not stop ringing unless you either answer it or turn it off. I called Cust Svc (hah) three times, entered code after code, (usually having to redo my contact list each time) and nothing solved the problem. This took up almost 6 hours! Nothing worked. Finally, emailed them - they answered without reading the email- emailed them again, then called them again. The guy said they had no record of my previous calls. The said it couldn't be the SIM card if the phone could receive calls, it had to be the phone because the phone was old and out of warranty. They advised buying a new phone. I asked, Why didn't the problem occur before the new SIM? They said you got that months ago, why are you just calling now? I said I have six hours worth of phone calls with you dating back months. Well, he has no record of those calls, therefore, it must be my phone and I should buy a new phone.
I would rate them 0 stars if I could. Again, avoid them.

I had a Net 10 phone. I was somewhat happy with it. (If you can believe that). Then I decided to upgrade the phone. BIG MISTAKE. This is where all the problems started. I was unequivocally assured that I could port my old number to my new phone. So I made the purchase. The new phone was a disaster. Didn't work well at all. And to boot, I was told by endless customer service reps that I could NOT port my old number to the new phone. I made complaints about the phone and was sent a replacement phone. (Having to send the original one back). The "new" replacement phone was a mess too. So I complained again. And was sent ANOTHER replacement phone. That phone TOO was a mess. I made a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. A rep from Net 10 called me and assured me that she would refund me the cost of the phone AND sent me another phone. THIS NEVER happened. I finally gave up. I never got a working phone. And I was never able to use up all my minutes. Yes, I lost money, but I'm free of the Net 10 run around aggravation now. They are blatantly ripping off the public and getting away with it! A testimony to free enterprise.

I am saddened by your experience. It is not the first nor the last time I will see this happening. I even wrote to corporate and got no response. They do not care. I am thinking about getting a hold of the attorney general for my state and seeking a class action legal suit. Maybe they would listen then!

I've been a NET 10 customer for about 7 years - never a problem till now. I was approaching my service end date so bought a new card online thru a card retailer & paid by Pay-Pal as I've done many times before. My phone now shows over 2000 minutes (I don't use it much) & 113 days. Yesterday when I tried to make a call I was informed my phone had been de-activated. When I called customer service, I experienced the horror expressed by other users. After two hours I was finally told that the phone had been de-activated because of a credit card charge-back. I tried to explain I NEVER ordered anything from them with a credit card but they wouldn't listen. Said I had to send them $49.10 via money order before service will be restored. Numerous other hours, requests to talk to supervisors, security department, etc., have fallen on deaf ears, as well as direct e-mail requests. My delima now is: do I pay the $49.10 or forfeit over 2000 minutes?
As large a company as they are, you'd think they could hire AMERICANS who speak & understand English. Customer Service? It should be called Customer Harassment!

Net10 has atrocious customer service. Their phone center personnel are stupid, lazy, unresponsive, untrained and totally incompetent. Generally they do not speak or understand standard United States English at all well. They are very dificult to understand and they do not appear to comprehend at all well. They will very often tell you things they are just not true. They wil ask you for the same information over and over and over again. they will repeatedly put you on hold. It will often taken many repeated calls and hours of your time to resolve any problem. They are not honest or ethical you cannot take them at their word.

They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. The only viable solution is to not do business with them. they are not worthy of your business. the government should intervene and shut them down.

I have a Net 10 phone. The minutes ran out so i bought a card. Everything was fine until it said Max calls reached, something like that. With 296 minutes left. So i bought another phone and ASSumed i could transfer minutes from the old phone to the new. So i called to activate the new one. Telling my story to the customer service rep she said "Well what was the zip code you bought the old phone in"? This was after all the serial codes had been spouted off! So i say i dont know and what does that have to do with anything anyways. Then there phone started to break up------perfect. Disconnect. Well the new one started to work, i thought id call back at a later time. CALL #2 Called the customer service number told the Philapino my problem and it starts like this. ME-I have minutes on my other phone id like them transfered to my new phone. Philapino-Hold on for 3 minutes to conferm the minutes on the old phone. ME -ok. Philapino- you still there sir. ME yes. Im showing you have 0 minutes on your old phone. ME- WHAT!?! Philapino- Yep no minutes. ME- thats imposible Philapino -sorry sir IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO FOR YOU. After arguing with him he hung up on me. So i called back. This time i got a hold of a women. So i tell her the same thing. She wants me to start entering codes on the new phone for some reason. Im thinking this will get my old minutes back. At the end of the conversation she says WOULD YOU LIKE TO PUT YOUR OLD MINUTES ON YOU NEW PHONE. I about blew a head gasket. THATS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING THE WHOLE TIME! I demanded to talk to somebody i charge. I get a man named Joel. He says i have no minutes on my old phone. But he'll give me 50 minutes "free". I say you owe me 296 minutes. He says what date did you by the card for the old phone? I scream YOU ALREADY KNOW WHEN. I tell him i have the reciept AND the card...silence. He asks what date did you by the card.. I tell him the date of the reciept...finally after 1.5 hours on the phone i say give me 200 minutes will call it even...He jumps at it. They do this on purpose to rip you off...I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER NET 10 PHONE AGAIN! ABSOLUTLY THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERENCE IN MY LIFE! NET 10 IS A SCAM...CUTOMER SERVICE IS PAID TO LIE.

SIM Error Message

[Tue Oct 05 2010 08:07:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)] My number
was ported on Sep 14th and I have received a total of 4 different sims &
my phone still says unregistered sim on the main screen. I have spent
hours on the phone with customer service to no avail. Last Tuesday,
9-28, and the rep said you were sending a 5th sim. Last night I called
customer service and was told that the 5th sim had been canceled. Why
couldn't someone have let me know that & why. Then that rep's computer
crashed and she said I'd have to call back. I called back and was on the
phone for approx. an hour and the rep picked up the phone (I could hear
the boiler room noise) then hung up and disconnected the call. I have
had enough of your poor service, please refund the cost of my Net10 phone.
*ESN o IMEI:*
[protected]

I have had nothing but problems with the phones and the customer service. I will never use Net10 or Tracfone ever again!

I have been a Net 10 customer for several years and have just recently had a major problem with them. My phone got wet and I ordered a new phone from them. The new phone came in three days but when I called to activate it I was told that I was only receiving 200 minutes from my old phone. I had almost 1600 minutes on my old phone but Net 10 didn't seem to have any record of it. When I went into my Net 10 account online I found that there is no way to access airtime minutes info on either my wife's or my phone. This is a problem that Net 10 needs to address. I think that if my sim card had not been damaged I probably would have been alright by using the old sim card in the new phone. Net 10 is definitely not state of the art when it comes to restoring your minutes from your old phone if the old phone won't work.

@Doug Ferguson i have no complaints with net10 i have never had trouble with tech support they always resolved my issues and answered all my questions they consider me a loyal customer having to wait for the phone upgrade does get annoying ive upgraded 3 times since ive had NET10 i love net10 wouldnt goto any other company never even heard of the Pure Talk USA if it was a great service people would know about it

I like net10 and the customer service was fine. If you curse and act like a butthead, what would you expect? But the 2 times I called them, they were fine. My English isn't perfect either (is yours?) but I spoke slowly and they were very helpful.

Love paying 10¢ a minute and 3¢ fir texts. Great coverage too.

I'm happy!

My experience seems to be the opposite but people only post with problems, so duh!

I get greatt service with Net10, 10¢ a minute calls and 3¢ for texts.

The two times I needed to call customer service, they took care of my problem quickly. Yeah the English wasn't perfect but is yours perfect either? LOL!

I suggest that you speak slowly, plainly and politely. Save your "choice words" for your pals at the trailer park or laundromat.

If your on Facebook, they have a technical support page too so you can always use that if you need to also.

I save money with net10 so I'm happy!

I never had a problem with net10 in all my years dealing with them. I have been a net10 user for 3 consecutive years. Every time i call the call center i am greeted with excellent service. I feel as though all these complaints might be spam.

Net as a bad attitude to its custmer.No body there speaks english...I FELL THE OWE ME ABOUT 600 MIN TO MY PHONE...NO QUESTION ASK. THE MANGERS THERE LIE LIE LIE...

It might help if you were a little more specific as to exactly what they did wrong.

net 10 needs to be out of service forever

i agree that net 10 fones suck really bad i went 2 fetch a message and it wouldent even let me open it. i asked my mom if she would buy me a non crappy fone and she said the fone u have is in perfectly good shape then i said u wouldent no. thats y net 10 fones suck really reall bad

I agree with the complaints above! I wasted 150 minutes on their crappy phone system because THEY screwed up my number transfer, and they also sent me the wrong battery with my phone. And they refused to credit my wasted 150 minutes too. And to top it all off I lost my phone number because of them! AVOID NET10, and especially don't try transferring a number through them! I wish I never bought this phone!

I think NET10 has sold my cell phone number to third party phone-sales organization. I have used NET10 for 5 months, and so far, it was ok. So I have purchased 1, 000 minutes to use it for long time. However, right after I have purchased the 1, 000 minutes, I am getting so many sales phone calls all the sudden. I blocked the sales calls which shows numbers. But now, they start calling me as "Unknown" numbers which I can not even block.
Simply there isn't any feature to block those "Unknown" numbers. NET10's customer support says that I won't be charged unless I picked up the phone. This is totally stupid.
I strongly believe that NET10 or somebody in NET10 has illigally sold my phone number for stealing our minutes.

I still find CS to be a pain. I have had a net10 phone for about 2 years, not one problem, the phone then gets broken and my wife buys me a new one but its not net10 and we don’t get signal from most other carriers where we stay. Then i buy a new net10 phone and believe it of not i had to fight with CS for an hour, after almost smashing the phone i called back and tried again, well they fixed the problem. I do feel bad about shouting at the rep. It was after all not her fault, they could only help me when i was calm and explaining it properly. CS is just something you have to deal with because most carriers out source now days, and they are people after all, they make mistakes, but they can fix the problems if you work with them.

It's not over! Last night Net10 customer service called me to try to talk me into staying with them. I told them I had given them every chance to get things right and had decided already not to continue with Net10, and had already signed up for Pure Talk USA. I told the agent that I planned on using up the time I had already purchased that was originally on my old phone and then not renew my airtime with them, but start to use my new service.

Well, today my old phone no longer works! Neither does the new Net10 phone. So I guess the saga never ends with them. I'm going to have to call and see if I can get them to reactivate my old phone as I don't plan to forfeit the 400+ minutes I had on the old phone before all this started! Their incompetence really wears you down.

I've been a Net10 customer for about 3 years and never had a problem with the service and coverage or phone usage for the first 2.5 years, always bought my cards at department stores, entered the airtime pin and in 5 seconds or so the new time was on my phone. Never had to call support for anything. Then in October last year I foolishly decided I was tired of the candy bar phone and decided to upgrade to a new LG 600 flip phone which I ordered from their website. I spent a few hours on the support line with them giving me codes to enter and such and it was finally decided that the SIM card was bad so they sent me another one. Called again and went through the process of getting it working and after asking for a supervisor, this lady, although hard to understand her accent, she got the phone working. A few days later I realized my voice mail didn't work. I tried to follow the steps to set it up, but it never gave me any response but that this voice mail account was invalid. Called them again, several times over three months, hours on the phone, never got it resolved. Each time the last person I spoke with would tell me to give it 2 or 4 or even 24 hours, leaving the phone on and it would be working. Never a change. I gave up on having voice mail. It was starting to seem to me that the 2, 4 or 24 hour statement was their way of getting me off the phone and admitting they had no idea how to help me. This was December 09.

A few weeks ago I crushed the display of my LG and although the phone still works, I can't read anything on the display, so I don't know who's calling me, and I have to call out by entering the number since I can't see my phone book. So, I ordered the exact same phone from them. Figured it was worth the few dollars since it comes with 300 more minutes. Basically cost me $8 after air time to get a new phone. Got it Friday and called to get it activated, minutes transferred from the old phone and phone number etc. Was on the phone long enough that my home wireless phone went dead, right after I had asked to be transferred to a supervisor and was starting to explain to him what I had been through when the phone died. Called back and got a different tech, went through all the same process again, asked for a supervisor and was told none could speak to me and I'd have to wait 24 hours, leaving the phone on while he escalated the issue to a department in Florida. I told him that was unacceptable and wanted to speak to a supervisor. He hung up on me! I called back Sunday evening (of course the phone still didn't work, and the old phone still was sending and receiving calls even though the new phone had the minutes on it and showed my phone number) and spent another 1.5 hours speaking to supervisors. Again they claimed I needed to wait 48 hours this time and someone would call me when it was resolved. I didn't argue this time, just accepted it and decided in the mean time I would research other options. I read the complaints on this page and saw someone recommending Pure Talk USA so I looked at their options. Their info looked good and I couldn't find any complaints about them, and the folks who were talking about them were all happy customers, and some said their tech support and customer service is in the USA and you can actually understand them and they treat you with respect...

I found Net10 customer support page and submitted a request and told them what I had been going through and that I was giving this one more chance to be resolved and was going to give up and go with another provider. I got an auto response that confirmed they had received my request and that someone would be in touch with me...in 24-48 hours! So, I went to the customer support page on Pure Talk USA and sent them an email asking a couple questions. Within 5 minutes I got an email back from one of their customer support persons answering my questions and telling me they would love to have me as a customer. Not an auto response, but a real human. First impressions are golden in this industry...

I called Net10 tech support again last night (Tuesday--48 hours later) and told the first tech that this was my last phone call and that they had this phone call to get my new phone working or I was done. Over three, yes three hours, and 5 support people, (the last 4 were supposed to be level 2 or 3 techs) and several codes entered, turn off and on, remove SIM cards, read numbers etc. no one could get the phone working. Every one of them, before I told them once again that if they couldn't resolve the issue I was done, told me to wait 24-48 hours with the phone on and it would be fixed! Every one! When I would give them the "I'm done" speach, they would transfer me to a higher level supervisor and I'd start all over again with the codes and reading them the SIM number off the card etc. After three hours of this, and the 5th tech telling me to wait 24-48 hours, I calmly told him that I am a patient man, but I have my limits and I was done and would be packaging up the new phone and sending it back for a refund and going with a new provider.

I signed up with Pure Talk USA last night and am waiting for my new phone. I'm not going to be porting the number I've had for 3 years from Net10 because I just don't want to have to deal with them again in any way. I'm ready for a fresh start. I'll report back here in a few months and let everyone know how it's going.

It is sad that a company I had no complaints about for so long has such bad tech support and customer service that a loyal customer of 3 years has been turned away, even hung up on when all I was trying to do was upgrade to a nicer phone and keep the service! Very sad. I guess if all you ever do is buy the package phone from Walmart and it works, you should be good to go, but if you ever have to get involved with tech support, may God be with you!

Side note: While typing this I received an email from the lady in customer service from Pure Talk USA thanking me for becoming a customer! What a timely email!
Doug Ferguson
Texas