ConnectNetwork by GTL
reviews and complaints

Some days messages will go through fine and quickly and I will receive confirmation emails, and sometimes messages will take days to go through and I won’t receive an email at all telling me it’s gone through. I really wish those who handled this app and the system would care more about reviews and fixing the issues. Our loved ones may be incarcerated but that doesn’t mean that they’re not humans deserving of a proper communication system that’s ironed out. It’s not entirely difficult to fix the issues within the app and the process for getting messages through at a reasonable and consistent pace and having a notification system that allows for peace of mind on whether messages have gone through. WE ARE LITERALLY PAYING and we still are not getting an app or system that is even mildly reliable. PLEASE, I am begging you, PLEASE fix SOMETHING, ANYTHING PLEASE

I have a iPhone. & Since the new update the messages will not show that I received a new message. Only time I know is because it tells me in my email that I received a new message. Then when I go on the app it dose t show or nothing none of my old message sent or received are there any more. When I try to compose a message it closes out the entire app. Idk what y’all did with this new update but it sure doesn’t feel like a new update because it’s not working at all. I have to go on my safari just to log on n send a message which doesn’t work like the app was once working. I haven’t spent a lot of money with this app for it to shut down the way it does. I have uninstalled n reinstalled it so many time to get the exact same results. Fix it please cause this is unacceptable when this is one of the many ways we can contact our love ones. Please bring the old update back or fix the new one. Sincerely a validate customer!

We deserve better than this awfully code written monopoly app the states found the cheapest at the prison convention. So tired of not only the incarcerated still not even seen a judge or convicted being treated like garbage. Now they found a new way to take every penny from their loved ones trying to keep contact to make sure they aren’t being completely treated like roaches. This app is so poorly written and will kick u out a month at a time for absolutely no reason. Keep your money You’ve deposited when you want to close an account. Take your money to never send the message or pictures or videos. And this is what they used to replace actual contact with your family and loved ones. This is another form of being inhumane to people who aren’t even convicted guilty. Complaining means they cut you off of your account too. Sometimes permanently. Disgusting. This whole system needs to be redone including the customer service.

I hate that whenever I sign out of my app I have an issue logging back in. I try to reset my password and it always tell me my security answer is WRONG, but if I choose I forgot my username and enter my email and security answer it works. It’s stressful enough people have to pay fees, but why make things more complicated. It’s easier to verify our account if we enter our phone numbers to receive a verification code to enter. Then if you create a new account you can’t add your phone number to put money on your line because it registered to another account. Then there is no way we can delete our account nor customer service and our card information stays on there also. Let’s be real, anyone can answer the security question if they know you it’s not like you can create your own question to make it harder and it doesn’t give you many options. I only reinstalled the app because it wouldn’t allow me to add money to my love ones pin account.

I have sent multiple messages that have taken days to get delivered. Unfortunately with no job due to the Covid quarantine I can’t afford to keep paying the outrageous FEES and costs of the phone calls. Messages are the cheapest options but they don’t away send and if they say they do my loved one isn’t always receiving them. Not receiving any “rejection” messages because I don’t send inappropriate things, just trying to keep up with day to say life to keep both our spirits up being apart. It’s very frustrating, this is a scary time to have someone incarcerated and not being able to connect with them when we’re paying these fees and costs is ridiculous. My app doesn’t have the “request call” option. I’ve sent money to the trust account that doesn’t always get credited on his end as well and get told “sorry” after waiting on hold for an hour when I called. Now he is no longer receiving 2 free calls a week so communication is going to get less and less.

If I could rate this company 0 stars I would. All they do is steal your money, charge OUTRAGEOUS prices for phone calls to a loved one, and take a huge fee out for an “Applicable Transaction Fee” which takes out about $4 for no reason. No processing fee is $4 every time you make a transaction, they have to be making so much money off of people who just want to talk to their loved one. Whoever made these prices should be sent to jail themselves, it makes talking even harder. It’s like they want everyone in the process to suffer even more than they already are. If you are looking for a way to talk to a loved one, just add money on their commissary (it still takes out a fee but you can do regular commissary money as well as phone money) and have your loved one call you off debit instead. You’ll pay less fees and be able to talk to them longer for much cheaper. I hope this review ends up helping someone, I wish someone told us to do that before I wasted so much money on this scam.

Update:
I will update the rating to higher stars when I can send an email. Which the app now allows but I can't add the inmate and it's not pulling/recognizing the inmate from my account already.

On the bright side, I can at least see the messages my nephew is sending, I just can't reply! Please fix!

I will give this good feedback, the app now supports messages! Big upgrade and as soon as it works, I'll change my review to more stars!

Original:
The only reason I got this app was to be able to email my nephew in prison.

We pooled the money to buy him a little tablet ($250) but since the state keeps 20% of all his gifts for restitution we had to save an extra 20% for it.

Anyway... The app doesn't allow you to send email, or notify you that an email has been received. It doesn't even allow you to properly manage inmates you've added...

JPay was so much better... PA why did you have to switch to this horrid service with the most useless app ever developed?!

App Dev... Add email. It's the only reason we use your service!

You will save more money by mailing a hand written letter thru the postal service. They break everything down so an extortion fee can be charged for everything. If anyone else tried this with an app they would end up in a courtroom. They shouldn’t make it sound like it’s a way to contact loved ones since the people managing this app should be in jail themselves. Families have enough of a burden to bear when a head of household is in jail. The makers of this app are just shaking it like a money maker. A fee to put money in a trust fund, a fee to purchase debit links, a fee to buy message credits and a fee for advance phone pay. They have their hands in everyone’s pocket every step of the way for an app that barely works, nothing tech savvy about it. Good luck trying to contact them by phone, I sat for two hours waiting for someone to pick up while being barraged by advertisement with an annoyance level I never experienced. Inevitably I hung up and not long afterwards they just stole the money I had on advanced phone pay. Someone needs to regulate this type of service since it’s riddled with fraud.

I wish I would have read the reviews before using this app. I put money on my inmates trust fund but when I did the advance pay, I did not realize it was only for the inmate to call me. I called the company (GTL) and explained my error and that I want a refund. They said if they process a refund it will take 30 days and also my number would be blocked so my inmate wouldn’t be able to call me anymore. I asked why my number would get blocked bc of a refund and he said it’s just the company rules. That was two days ago and I said don’t give me the refund bc I don’t want my number blocked. So the advance pay is supposed to be prepaid collect except my inmate called me collect and it was still trying to take a new form of payment! I checked the balance on the app which I just added 2 days ago and my inmate has not used it and the balance is now 0. They stole $15.00, provided horrible customer services, and are liars, cheats, and thieves. I will never use this service again. I will drive two hours to the prison to add money in person before I ever use connect network or gtl again. Beware, stay FAR AWAY FROM THIS APP.

I figured out one reason why messages are unable to send. You guys are lying to people that the character limit is 2000, but in reality it sends when I only type 1000 characters. This is how I found out. I had the idea to use GTL’s webpage login to send messages there instead of the app. Since there are God knows how many people have complained about this app, and I just thought maybe the app is bad, but the website isn’t. After I typed my 2000 character limit, I tried to save it as a rough draft on the website in my browser. THAT’S WHERE IT TOLD ME IT WAS UNABLE TO SAVE, BECAUSE THE LIMIT TO SAVING IT AS A ROUGH DRAFT IS 1000 CHARACTERS.

I know other people also complained about their messages said they sent, but their inmate says they didn’t get it. My inmate is currently on lockdown right now, so once I have a phone call with them asking if they got my message. I will update on my review.

So for now, the solution to texting messages to your inmate is to limit your character text messaging to 1000.

I hope this helps a little bit to people who require GTL to contact their inmate.

*Little update: My inmate got my text messages after just using 1000 characters :)

This is the worst app. Unfortunately it’s the ONLY app available to send out love ones digital messages in the PA DOC.
-There are so many problems and outdated options, it doesn’t make sense that we are even paying .25 characters. Furthermore
- you can’t even send 2000 characters if you have more than 25 line breaks?!?!? Seriously?
-Quotation marks are deleted in the sent message. YES, it makes a BIG difference when this is the only communication we have (other than copies of letters and paper that are MADE from a different company that I don’t trust are destroyed when they are originally digitally stored.)
-colons (:) are removed in the sent message so it doesn’t make sense to recipient that although I entered 2:00 P.M.. It instead shows 20 P.M. in the sent messages for the recipient (and in my sent box) even though that’s not what I typed.
-the customer service is horrible. The issues are not resolved or it takes hours on multiple phone calls to resolve.
-If I had another choice i definitely would NEVER choice GTL for these options. JPAY is so much more advanced in their technology for digital messaging. Why can’t GTL even try to be more advanced after over 4 years?

What the heck? Turns out that my phone number had a previous owner who apparently set up a connect network account with this phone number for advance pay. So now when I tried to set up my account, it declines by stating “this phone number is already in use in another existing advance pay account “. So when I called customer service, I had no support whatsoever and pretty much was told that I can’t use the mobile app. I was told I can still call to fund the account, but not use the mobile app!?!? It makes no sense..so basically I need to change my number and who’s to say that a new number would resolve this. What if that new number hada previous owner too?.. it’s ridiculous that there is no function or buttons or ctrl alt del magic on the customer service end where they can just update my phone number to my account! Can’t you just look up the number and find the advance pay account it’s linked to, and just UPDATE? DELETE? This agent asked a bunch of questions to authenticate my information and verified my account, and then to respond” I don’t have access to personal accounts and phone numbers so you are gonna have to just call the 877 number to fund and for balance inquiry”Seriously!?!? …I’m really bothered. So stupid

This is by far the worst app I have ever used. What is so hard about sending messages? So many times I have been almost done entering my message and it freezes up. The screen gets tinted and I can not save it into drafts, send it, nothing but back out. I retype and it happens again. I have been trying to send a message for a week now & cant. The app made me update so I did. Now I can open the messages but they are all blank. I can’t read any of the previous messages or the new ones sent to me. I called customer service, they said the obvious answer, high volume due to the holidays. That’s a lie. I type mine at 4am. How much volume is there at 4am. Quit using the holidays for an excuse and get your act together. This has been going on way before the holidays. Can you not prepare for holidays? I’m so done with ConnectNetwork. Also, customer service told me they had numerous complaints about this issue. To go onto the website until the app gets fixed. Guess what, the website aloud me to at least see and read my incoming messages but also freezes in the middle of typing a message. This is not fair what you’re doing to the inmates. I think we should have options on the carrier to use for messaging. Then maybe ConnectNetwork would step it up. Very disappointed

Not happy with this app at all but unfortunately it’s the only way I can communicate with my bf. I believe y’all have taken now almost $40 of my money saying “funds are expired” when I just put the funds in there? Why not REFUND my money instead of taking it sayings it’s expired?. Where do y’all have it written that funds expire? It’s only been a month. Same thing happened before and when I email y’all not once have y’all replied to me out of the numerous emails I’ve sent. And when I call no one has answers for me and still nothing has been resolved. I am extremely unhappy with your service! How u can justify taking money that’s hasn’t been used yet and saying it’s expired right after I deposit it is beyond me. And not right at all. The least u could do is notify us the funds are expiring and REFUND US OUR MONEY BACK. I won’t stop until I have answers. This is messed up! You can’t just take peoples money like that and think it’s ok. Furthermore you need to update your app bc the facility my bf is at doesn’t do messages anymore and y’all are still taking peoples money for that too and your call center can’t figure out the problem. Well I figured it out for u. So frustrating having to deal with shady apps like this. My review will change once y’all fix this huge and important problem on your end. It’s not right.

I have enjoyed using this app in order to stay connected with my loved one especially during this time of uncertainty with the pandemic and in person visits had been removed. Thankfully I have finally been able to see him a few times in person now and that has been GREAT. A couple things that would be nice on the app is the option to delete old messages, especially all of the notifications regarding the message credits that were sent. It’s nice to get those so we know he got it, but it would be great for me to be able to delete those messages so that they aren’t clogging up my inbox and sent box. Plus there are old messages that either I have sent or he has sent that I don’t necessarily need or want to keep, so it would be nice to be able to delete those as well. I know the delete option is available in the drafts folder, so again, it would be great if that could be added to the in and sent box as well. The only other thing is that I have noticed at times there are long delays of message approvals, more so on the messages he sends to me, he seems to get my message pretty quickly. Other than those issues, I think the app is a great tool to be able to stay connected and I appreciate the ability to be able to message him when we can’t talk any time we want. Oh, also, not sure if the correctional office has control over this, but it would be GREAT if he could get the phone app on his tablet so that maybe he could make calls outside of his dayroom times. Not sure how that works. Thank you!

This gtl has been the worst experience I’ve ever encountered! I put money on a account and it always said declined! And it sat there for ever! So then I started using my debit card and it always accepted it!
So for months and months my money on prepaid cards sat there and said declined, I tried and tried to resolve this issue and nothing came of it!
So then I cancel my prepaid card I used and got my money back and all of a sudden after months of it being on hold they say they tried to take the money and the card was cancelled and that I owed them 18.00! While I had money on that acct! They took that also! Not only that, but I put an additional 75.00 in a prepaid card and straight talk that I never got to use! So where is my money? I had over a hundred and 88 dollars on this acct and they took every every cent and now I see closed my acct! All because they say I owe 18.00! When they owe me money! I was told if I reissue the card and have the bank write them a note the money has been put back on the acct they would reinstate my acct! (Unblock it)! So I tried and tried and tried to send the money western union only to find they denied the payment! I’m contacting the attorney general now! This is by far a bunch of garbage! I have found another place that is by far cheaper and for 29 a month unlimited calls a month! Works perfect and not a ounce of problems! Gtl is a lying thieving company! I don’t owe them a cent and they owe me money! I’ve had it and will be reporting them today! And now I have to rate this bogus site or it won’t let me post this! So this one star is not a reflection of what they should receive! 5 stars for being a rip off yes!

First of all the app never works well I always have problems last night I was trying to deposit some money and it was logging me out every single time I had full strong signal in my house then I went to the regular website and it was still logging me out from the website obviously there's a problem with their main server
When I tried to deposit one time $20 it locked me out I did it again and it locked me out I did it for the third time and I gave up later on and that night I saw an email that said that I deposited three times I can afford to have three of those deposits I was only going to deposit $20
so today, I call customer service in this rude guy treated me like a piece of dirt treat me like I was nobody l, pretty much told me that he cannot prove that his website and his app was bad
apparently he was able to say that maybe I had a slow network speed but he don't have proof of that?
Then I told him, I deposited 3 times by mistake! If I wanted to deposit 60$ I would deposite one time and get the 3$ fee
Nobody would deposit 3 20$ deposits and have a 9$ worth of fees...obviously it was a freaking mistake!
I told him to give me my 40$ back he said he has to get all the money out to refunded...are u kidding me?
Then I told him go ahead and give all my money back and then I can deposit back 20$
While he is doing that he tells me that the account is going to be block and will not be active untill the money is deposit in my card and this could take 30 days!
WTF!
I told him I was going to deposit 20$ back to the account !
Then he acuse me of interrupting him!

They only do this because they are the only ones that give this service is a freaking monopoly

Screw this company

The apps still not stable and website too
He said there is no complaints!
Look at the reviews you freaking [censored] !

So glad I read all the reviews before I wasted my time with this crap. Even tho I haven’t used it I am certainly in agreement with others who feel these ppl should be inJAIL. Taking advantage of others is so real today n GTL is not example from the predators out here. Families n friends are already facing so much with their loves ones incarcerated n not this crap. Along with others this company has been reported and we r waiting to see what happens to them! Stop allowing these predators to take advantage of us. Save your money and find another way, research the companies that are actually creating positive ways to communicate with love ones. Send GTL a message that we are NOt going to participate in their greed!

I have sent numerous credits to someone, but they cannot use them. So the money I spent on credits was basically useless. I can send messages, but they can’t reply back. It shows credits on their end, but after typing an entire email it fails to let them send it. Also the screen only shows parts of things. Like certain words and images are text characters are missing almost like the app needs bug fixes. It’s very glitchy and the notifications aren’t anywhere near accurate in terms of the time I receive them from when they were sent. I’ve tried re installing the app but no difference. I also had to create a new username because no matter how many attempts to login with correct password, it says its wrong. The App NEEDS WORK!

THIS IS THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD AND THEY SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN FOR GOOD ! FIRST OFF THEY STEAL YOUR MONEY 2ND THEY COMMIT FRAUD BY GIVING YOUR ACCOUNT INFO TO OTHERS WHO CALL UP AND 3RD THEY CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT WHEN ASKING FOR MONEY BACK THAT WAS TAKEN OUT OF YOUR CARD AND PUT YOUR ACCOUNT IN FRAUD AND BLOCK YOUR ACCOUNT FROM EVER MAKING A PAYMENT WITH A CREDIT CARD AGAIN. I AM SUEING THIS COMPANY FOR GIVING OUT MY INFO WHEN SOMEONE CALLED UP AND ASKED FOR THEIR MONEY BACK THAT THEY CHARGED AND NEW THAT THE CARD WAS ADDED THROUGH PERMISSION FROM A FAMILY MEMEBR DO NOT EVER USE THIS COMPANY AND SERVICE AGAIN THEY ARE NO HELP AT ALL I WOULD WAIT FOR YOUR LOVED ONE TO GET OUT I KNOW ITS HARD BUT TRUST ME ITS WORTH IT !

At first I was excited that I can send messages instead of writing writing letters like the old days but now it’s getting a little annoying it’s always messing up and I’ve been for a day or so trying to access my account and it’s not letting me it keeps saying there’s a new update the 3.0 and that it’s available but it doesn’t even give me an option to avoid it I have to click on it no matter what and once I click it directly takes me to the app center and it says it has been updated already but it still does not let me access my account says the same thing every time I try to get on I dont know what’s going on .. oh and I never get notifications when my inmate sends me a message I always have to go on and check for messages ..

This app constantly lags. It is constantly buffering while trying to do ANY TASK, also will charge you multiple times for messages and videos. Videos and messages will be 'sent' but the person receiving them will get a BLANK MESSAGE showing only a subject; It will also show that way in your sent messages displaying 'Not available for download' and only show a subject. Customer Service is NOT HELPFUL. I have called and explained the issues to them, they can't help with anything besides ACCEPTING PAYMENTS! (Imagine that) The calls are 20 cents a minute! App is WORTHLESS. Video calling is always under construction &NEVER WORKING (its been MONTHS) ...Yet they still want you to pay for all these services that THAT DONT EVEN WORK! ‍♀️

So now I can’t log in to my app because there is supposedly a new version that’s better than before... THATS A LIE! This app should update automatically through the App Store. But instead, I keep getting sent from the Update Now screen to the App Store and the App Store says I’m updated and gives me the option to open it but low and behold as soon as I choose to open the app, I’m right back at square one and it’s telling me to update the app. So I try to log in through the internet and wouldn’t you know my log in and password are incorrect. So I have my information sent to my email and I’ve been waiting 30 minutes for my username to be sent.
And trust that my one star is only because I HAD to leave at least one star to write a review.

The web site has options to choose a recipient but the drop down menus do not work at all. This app doesn't offer this option so neither makes this possible.

This app does not provide transaction history, statement or balance info.

All this app is about is letting you make a payment but have only done so through the web site so don't know if the app works.

You should also know that you can add multiple phone numbers to your account but you have to pay for each number individually and a $4.95 fee is taken out of the total funds you deposit. You have to maintain a minimum amount to keep the account active.

The jail and prison system is a billion dollar business that has nothing to do with justice...it's only about profits, power and control.

Even before this latest update that has made the app unusable, I had many issues. A lot of times my LO didn’t receive my email, but the company had no problem whatsoever using one of the credits to not send it. This happens quite frequently. Actually, when I send an email now, I'm actually surprised when they do receive it and not that they didn't. I signed up no problem with my iPhone but when I tried on my iPad, the facility wasn't available. I might have received one notification that I had a message, but 99% of the time I don't. It's bad enough there is reason we have to use the app, but when it doesn't work yet takes your money, that's like rubbing salt into the wound. At least my computer still works to send emails. But they don't get most of those, either.

Ever since this update the app has been very glitchy. I have the latest version but each time I try typing a message a notification pops up saying “download the latest version” to update, but I already have the update, unfortunately it doesn’t allow you to close that update window so then I can’t save the message I was in the middle of typing. I just lost a message that I finished typing because of that update window blocking me from doing anything! I’ve uninstalled and redone loaded the app numerous times and have just updated my phone to ensure it wasn’t an issue on my end. I believe something is flawed with your new update and now I can’t even send messages because each time I open the app, regardless of redownloading it, it tells me to update and doesn’t let me click on anything. Please fix this issue ASAP.

I’ve tried using this app in the past. It just wouldn’t work for me.
I have used jailatm.com for 3 years now and never had a problem with it. They charged roughly $5 for $$ deposit to my brothers account and I’ve sent $$ to 3 different accounts back to back with no trouble. My baby bro. My kids daddy, and my oldest bro. Within mins of each other.
I couldn’t get anything sent through this app at all.
Jailatm.com isn’t working for West Virginia. Guess they dropped this state within the past month. So here I am trying this sorry app again.
I may just start putting $$ on the phone services separately and ordering food packs for them through another website. If this doesn’t let my transactions go through ima have to do that if anyone has a betterSolution please leave a review I’ll check bk in couple of days

I hate I have too give this app one star. Let me start with the good in I’m thankful for that . Yes it does get you connect with your love ones . HOWEVER, Seriously it runs so slow. you don’t even know when you got a new message. If you forget your password / username it literally takes 24hur for then too send a rest . And too top it all off it takes at least 48hurs before they even get the emails . Honestly I just really hate everything about this app. It needs too be updated and prices lower [censored] it’s just emailing .

Ps: in I called in to get asst. w the password reset the attitude I got from the rep. Omg rude , careless n rushing me off the phone. I understand the people we are trying to connect with mean nothing too you all but understand they are loved. They are our loved ones we care please be more kind thank you.

I honestly cannot believe how many times I have had to contact “customer service” in the last 6+ months. I’m always transferred 2 or more times before anything can ever be resolved. Now, the app has always been a pain to navigate as well as compose messages on. However, since the newest update, I have lost all information on my account, i.e. inmate information, inbox and outbox information. I have spent far too much money with this company to be unable to communicate with someone I hold dearly to my heart. Honestly. It’s 2019 I have NEVER had these kind of issues with any other platform for communication. There’s really no excuse as to why this issue occurred “because of an update”. Fix this. People pay you their hard earned money for a service YOU ARE OFFERING TO PROVIDE. If you can’t, DONT OFFER IT. It’s seriously so simple.

I can’t sign in. I got to sign in once but that didn’t last long. I got to read my letter but I went to write back and I couldn’t cuz it was saying that he was released and I know he hasn’t been released or I wouldn’t be writing to him. So now I try to sign in to my account and I can’t do it. This is really getting very frustrating especially to me. I don’t know why. Why would it tell me I can’t write to him cuz he’s not there? Why would it say I can’t write to him cuz it keeps saying that and that I have to go through and pick his name again? Do I have to go through that every time I write to him. I would like my account fixed soon please. Every time I call they give me a different thing to do this time it wax uninstall it so I did so now i can’t get back into my account. This is frustrating to me. I’m sure it is to my boyfriend too. Please fix this

This is the worst app I have ever used and my husband and I have both loaded money on our prepaid phone acct., but yet we still cannot receive calls from our loved one. It goes straight to voicemail with no ringing or anything. I have contacted my phone servicer, my phone company and this company numerous times and have spent countless hours troubleshooting and the end result is still the same, no phone calls or anything! They indicate that they are not experiencing any issues on their end and all is good but yet my acct is still not correct. They don’t know how to troubleshoot to see what the problem is. Totally clueless. I can’t believe a company of this, and doesn’t have better technical support and with as many people having this issue cannot resolve the problem I am going to call the ComplaintsBoard.com and complain. Totally unacceptable!