TracFone Wireless
reviews and complaints

Tracfone are liars and thieves!

I bought a new tracfone and was told I can transfer partial minutes to my new phone. Well, today on 23 march 2010, the tech said they can do that and at my request transferred 150 minutes and leaving the 60 minutes on the old phone. Supposedly. The tech said it would take only an hour to update. Well after 2 hours, I turned the phones back on and the old phone had "0" minutes and the new phone supposedly has double minutes, but the time is only 150, not 300 minutes! So much for "double minutes for all time on that phone!

I called again and spoke to another"tech"who said when any transfer is done all the remaining minutes from the original phone are erased! Well, they lied to me and basically stole my money value of those remaining 6o minutes that I just bought to re-activate my old phone! If I had known that, I would have transferred the entire 211 minutes to my new phone with double minutes! I spoke with 3 different people, each one said they would transfer me to"their supervisor who was standing right next to them".
Then I get transferred to just another stupid"tech"!

The last one said I could speak with her boss, because my 60 minutes that I just bought got erased and there was"no way"they can retrieve them, even though I have the purchased time card in front of me. So, then they pushed"ignore" button and put me
On forever hold and after 20 minutes, I got the dial tone!

Basically they stole that $20 from me. I hate big corporations that love to screw the little guy!

Do Not Buy A Phone from the TracFone store. I used a KMart bought store for 2 years with this company - no problem. Wanted to upgrade phone, so purchased it through them. Hated the phone because if you hit the button and also hit the internet button, it deducted a half a minute. Called to get RA to return. 24minutes on phone, the guy still wasn't done talking. I said Do you know how long we have been on phone just so I can get a RA? Yeah, 24 minutes was his answer. They inform you you can only ship UPS or FedX so to return a 20.00 phone it costs 15.00 from my zip code. I believe they make it so hard to return item that you just give it up.

The customer service is terrible. Wait time is ridiculus. I have spent several hours trying to get service. On hold for an hour. Hung up and tried again. No one seems to be able to solve the problem. They have sent two sim cards.

I have had no service for two weeks. I have made at least 8 calls. Still no resolution.

I regret using tracfone.

I will not recommend tracfone to anyone.

Surely the FCC should investigate.

I see many other complaints and agree with all of them.

The price is not worth the inconvenience.

Use another company for wireless service.

I bought my Tracfone for emergencies only and have been "unwanted texted" to death since. At one point I needed to get calls from prospective jobs since I had lost mine, after daily junk texts that ate my minutes up I started getting calls but could not get messages because I was out of minutes and could not afford to get more at the time. I knew opportunities were calling and in an emergency Tracfone let me down hard! Today I replied to one to unsubscribe and got an answer right back, "Sorry, we could not understand your message". I had to laugh out loud! You have to use minutes to set up your voice mail as well and they drag that out too! Tracfone is a TOTAL RIP OFF!

TracFone is horrible! Cheap, yes, but horrible service. You either get the Phillippines or India; you know what that's like! We live in northern Ca. and went to southern CA. for Christmas. The doctors kept trying to call us to tell us our father was dying, but the phone would not hold the signal. I went through two batteries which took forever to get and the phone still will hardly hold a charge. I've hardly use any minutes because the phone is worthless! I called several times, talked to a supervisor who was going to resolve the issue. I called back with the number she gave me to cite and they put me right back at square one, as if I had never called before; yet I had already talked to two service reps and their supervisor. I plan to call their corporate office tomorrow and see if the management of this company is as bad as their product and their service.

My phone de-activated while i still had minutes on it so i went to the website to add more...the website asked for me to enter the telephone number of the phone, which to my surprise was already awarded to someone else though my phone still says it is the current number...to make a long story short after spending 2 hours (not exaggerating) on the phone with customer support they basically told me there was no way i would be awarded the minutes to my phone nor would they refund my credit card...in the past few years i have purchased over a dozen phones for different members of my family and friends...after this last ordeal i will never do business with the likes of the ###s again and just to be spiteful i intend to replace everyone's phones with a competitor who doesn't treat their clients like ###

I added minutes to my account on-line the night before I was to make an 8-hour car trip. When I checked my phone the next morning at 7am (when I was ready to leave), the minutes had not registered to the phone. I called & had to call back at 8am (when the technical department opened) to speak with a representative. This rep was able to get the minutes to show up on my phone, but the phone would still not make or receive calls. I called TracFone back & was transferred between a few people until I reached someone who tried to reactivate the phone number on the phone. He then assured me that he had solved the problem and, if I would wait for 1 hour, my phone would work correctly. I waited for 1 1/2 hours and tried the phone only to have the same problem. I called back, was transferred between a few people again, and reached someone who issued me a new phone number. He assured me that this would solve the problem and that I would need to wait another hour before my phone would be active. I waited yet another hour only to have the phone still not work. I called back again, was transferred around again, and spoke with someone who told me she was working on my account. I waited on hold for over 40 minutes, although she did periodically check in with me to assure me that she was working hard to resolve my account problems. After the last time she checked in with me, she must not have put me back on hold properly, because after she assured me that she was hard at work on my problem, I could actually hear her having a lengthy conversation (with laughing) with someone else on a topic that did not seem like it was related to my account at all. When I tried to get her attention, I was ignored. I hung up and called back, requesting a supervisor. This supervisor attempted to reassign me another phone number only to determine that there was some sort of a system problem. She transferred me to another department who informed me that there was a system error with the company's computer system and that they could not get my phone to work for 48-72 hours. This was at 2pm, a full 6 hours after I first called the company. When I informed her that, since at this point I had been trying to resolve my phone issues for over 6 hours and had no longer had any interest in keeping my TracFone, I wanted a refund of the money I spent to purchase additional minutes, she replied that the company did not issue refunds. When I protested, she said she would transfer me to a supervisor. I was placed on hold where I waited for nearly 30 minutes before I finally gave up and hung up. I called back and waited on hold for 10 minutes before being able to speak with someone and then another 10 minutes before I was able to be transferred to a supervisor. I explained the entire situation to him and requested my refund again. He looked at the account and tried to figure out the problem himself, coming to the same conclusion as had already been determined. I told him I had no interest in keeping my phone and wanted a refund of the money I spent putting minutes on the phone. He looked at the account and transferred me to someone in the credit card department to try to issue a refund. I was placed on hold AGAIN and waited for over 20 minutes to reach a real person. I have tried repeatedly to get a refund for the money I spent on minutes only to be told that the company doesn't issue refunds on airtime purchases. I finally got a hold of a supervisor who authorized a refund, but can't get anyone in the Direct Sales Customer Service Department to actually perform the refund transaction. No resolution has occurred and I wasted an entire day on the phone and had to ultimately reschedule my trip.

I have had a motorola tracfone since April 2009. It has never worked reliably in my home. Its purpose is an emergency home phone. I have made numerous complaints and have been referred to the 800# phone bank. To contact them by phone I must leave my home and roam around looking for a point of good reception. I finally contacted Florida's office of Public council. They then had a representative contact me by email as I requested.
A Denis Del Castillo. After another week he opted to forward me a replacement digital Kyocera phone. When it arrived I followed the instructions exactly for charging and activation. It said to charge initially for 5 hours. I did this. The phone came on but the icon for the battery registered nothing. I tried to contact Mr Castillo but it was a Friday and apparently he was gone for the week end.

I visited the website to register the new phone and maybe get some help. To access the site you must use a phone number. The kyocera displayed only the last four digits and therefor I was excluded from the website and referred to the 800#. I have wifi but no home phone.

I reread the instructions and decided maybe 5 hours had not been enough. So I left it on charge over night. Next day it failed completely. I continued to try to contact Denis Del Castillo by email but received no reply till the following Friday requesting I return the faulty phone. MY previous email had noted I already returned the phone earlier in the week but he would have had to read his email to know. Which he obviously chooses not to do.

I have asked him a number of questions which he also chooses to ignore. E.g. because I have been unable to use the old phone it has accumulated over 600 minutes. By accepting the new phone must I forfeit the old minutes? Will there be NO credit for the 10 months of NO service? Why do tracfone require people to register on their website then each time you log in you must enter ALL your information on yourself AND the phone every time? Seems like you are a new customer each time why bother to make us register? Why do they refuse to assign someone to a complaint so it may be resolved instead of dumping us in the pool and forcing us to begin a new every time they disappoint us?

This is Supposed to be a Service company. In reality it's a disservice company. Given the choice I'd never do business with them.

Sincerely,

Dr Thom Robinson

I purchased a 60 minute card approx. 2 weeks ago, as a part of this offer. I was suppose to receive 40 additional minutes, totalling 100 minutes. I never recived them
Additionally, I did not receive my alloted 60 miuntes per the safelink program for the month of February. Could you please look into this matter as soon as possible.

After having Tracfone service for almost two years Tracfone shut off my Phone service although it was paid for until June.

When I call them on it they told me it was not my phone and I owed money, then they traced it to an ERROR they made and then they sent me a new sim card, It came with a new Phone #. I called them on it and asked them why I had a new number and less phone time on my phone. They said the old number was unretreavable but they would call me back in 24 hours and get it for me anyways, 36 hours I sit here typing this with no answer and a phone number nobody knows.Several hours on the phone with these people over several Days has gotten me no where. They have prepaid service until Nov on the other phone I have thru them and they won't let me transfer my time to that one. Believe what you want, the number I was using was the only way certain people, know how to get in touch with me. Sorry it had to come to this.

this above company is unning a add on national they r false advertiseing from of the compliants i have read on a scam page called [redacted] there are many page of all which is fraud i read one where a 11 year child that had ben riped off their email is [protected]@tracfone.com they r scamming people natioon wide they should be took of the air committing this fraud an getting away with it i pay a company to have their an when i watch the comerical just find out later it fraud thanks ray

poor service - no resolution copy of complaint to ConsumerAffairs.com.
...
Tue, January 5, 2010 2:32:13 PM
From:
R. Tony Butler
...
View Contact
To: [protected]@tracfone.com
Fw: poor service - no resolution copy of complaint to ConsumerAffairs.com.
...
Tue, January 5, 2010 2:29:37 PM
From:
R. Tony Butler
...
View Contact
To: [protected]@tracfone.com

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: R. Tony Butler
To: [protected]@tracfone.com NO Response here either
Sent: Tue, January 5, 2010 2:25:54 PM
Subject: poor service - no resolution copy of complaint to ConsumerAffairs.com.

I will post this complaint on any forum I can find until and unless I get satisfaction. R. Butler 5 Dec., 2010

Date = [protected]:02:48
Name = Roy Butler
Address = 2166 highway 68
City = Embudo
St = NM
Zip = 87531
Country = United States
Email = [protected]@embudo-desert-rose.com
Home phone = [protected]
Work phone = not working
Company Name = tracfone
Company Contact = alan, cust svc
Company Address =
City =
State/Prov =
Zip2 =
Country = United States
Company phone = [protected]
Incident = Below is a copy of what I sent a to [protected]@tracfone.com who put his name on the web as a tracfone contact:

This is what I just sent to ha, ha customer service ha ha. What a joke!
If you are really an employee I would like some assistance. I want to use this service. I was previously with Verizon and their tower is 200ft from my home. I always had 5 bars here. This phone says it cannot connect with the network. I have held and punched codes till I'm blue. Any help ? or just like the rest? Serial #[protected], simm#[protected], name Roy Butler, Phone [protected]

previous message to you which you took NO action on:

"Order# 3000985 was not delivered by fedex although they show it

delivered Dec.22 at 1:56 pm. It was not . I was home and available and they did not come. I viewed the signature proof of delivery and there is no signature."

The next morning I found the box on the door of one of the out buildings near my property. Bad delivery, but worse customer service. You can bet I will advertise my experience on local and national forums. Thanks for nothing customer ignorance

On Dec 23, I spent 4 1/2 hours speaking to people trying to activate the phone. They said due to high call volume they could not help me then and I must call back.

On Jan 5 (today) I called and spoke for near 1 hour until I had another appointment and had to leave. I called back but on the the sales number and asked for a return and refund. I spoke to Roger who handed me off to Alan (who barely speaks English) after 6 min he hung up on me. I was always polite and patient.

The 7 or 8 people I spoke with were nice but terribly incompetent. They could not pass simple info like name and nature of problem to the next person when they would hand me off.

I just tried to call your sales dept. and a message says that you are not accepting calls right now. I finally got on hold and have been holding now for 44 min. I really want to use this phone and would accept it if it could be fixed. For now, it does not work, I am dissatisfied with my purchase and want a refund. Tell me what you want done with your phone.

I prefer an email response about what you want done with your phone since it will not work. You may call me if you (can speak English and) want to try to fix this, else I have no recourse but to dispute the bill on my credit card. I will wait until the afternoon ( US mtn time) of Jan, 6 2010 for you to get back to me before filing a dispute.
Damage Resulting = I am in a rural area and a caregiver for an invalid. My transportation is broken and I am stranded without communication except the web. I let my Verizon account expire after ordering the tracfone and now have no way to communicate. I can use the neighbor phone and that is the number I have given.
Contact me = Y

I purchased a tracfone on 12/24 and activated it the same day. I could not receive calls from anyone. Got a message saying number was invalid or a busy signal. Called customer service 8 times to try to resolve this over 5 days. Nothing. Customer service is horrible. They basically do nothing and keep you on the phone (I was on the phone with them for a total of 4 hours) until you hang up in frustration or they disconnect you (This happened to me without warning when I wasn't even speaking to the rep). They say one thing and then come back on the the line and tell you something totally different. Reps forgot what the problem was (I can't receive calls) and they would tell me (After a half hour) that my problem was fixed and now I could make calls (Which I could do all along)
I thought it was just a lemon or something and as I needed a call phone while traveling I bought another later the same day (24th) and it was a different model from a totally different store and this phone has the same problem! Tracfone will do nothing! They said they don't know what is wrong and if it lasts more than 48 hours maybe they can do a refund (Its been over 72 hours! And they say they can't do anything. Don't ever buy a tracfone. Their customer service is overseas and they have no idea what they are doing (Probably intentionally) so no one can assist you when there are problems.

Tracfone is by far the cheapest wireless phone service you can purchase. But, the adage you get what you pay for certainly applies here. Customer service is non existent, if you have to contact them plan on spending hours, and I do mean hours, on the phone going over and over the same story and the same trouble shooting until you call is accidentally dropped, then you can start over again with the next phone call. Getting your minutes wither on line or with Card codes is hit or miss. If you get missed, again plan on spending hours on the phone with customer service and then like as not you will be told the YOU are mistaken, the minutes were added. If I had it to do over again I would not have spent the money to purchase any tracfone products. My recommendation to you is avoid this company at all costs.

i bought a new tracfone ..i have a old one and i called to get my old phone plan put on the new phone .they said they would help me over the phone ...they were asking me questions and the guy talking to me was talking back and forth.to a superviser having me enter some code this was gioing on for about 40 minutes so far ..then the guy said i need to transfer you over to another dept ...i waiting about 10 or 20 minutes on there waiting phone conection...and it just got to be to long ..to do this so i hung up...i tried to get a refund for my phone and they said its been used so im out a refund..i filled a complaint with the bbb and they called me once and said that i never contacted them on the phone...in a letter 3 days befor i got the letter i filled another complaint saying they give me the tracfone corporate personel ansering machine..will ill see what is going to happen

I had to replace a failing motorola so I bought a new lg410g... Wanted to transfer my minutes and phone number... Obviously. But they couldn't use the sim card in my old phone or the sim in the one... So they had to send a new sim card... Every 3-4 days since sept 16 2009 I spend about 4 hours on the phone with someone reading a script and not enough english speaking capabilities beyond what is written on that script to understand that I was asking when I would get the sim card I was told would arrive 2 -5 days from the 16th of sept.
They sent it sept 27th I got it sept 28th only to be told I need a different sim card, they can't register the one they sent... I said no register this one! Now! Only to be told that the new phone is already working... Even though it had an unregistered sim card in it and I could not make phone calls from it!
I spend several more hours on the phone begging for a supervisor to sort it out and being told there isn't one and being hung up on or put on hold!
Recalling and being transferred from one person to the next, finally one guy gets the sim registered another gets my old phone number transferred another tries to do the same and transfers the number again then a third tries to transfer some of my 1500 (When I should have had somewhere between [protected]) when I pointed out that minutes where missing and that there were several days missing from my service... He said "no that;s right that is all you get unless you have an airtime card..." I said no there are 35 minute and 6 days missing from my phone I wanted them back i'd spent the whole day on the phone I was late picking up the kids because of their dallying do it now.
He repeated no, that is all you get unless you want to add a card now. I said no and filed with the bbb, ftc and the florida attorney general. Because i'd been weeks and I officially had enough of tracfone and want every penny I put into this phone back, it was bad enough that my double minutes for life never actually got me any double minutes!

October 13th I finally got an email from the bbb complaint liaison who emails me at 6:45pm est (After business hours) asking me to call her before she goes home for the day at 5pmest to resolve the issue... I am officially positive all she can do is give me money back now.. So a week later when I finally get a hold of her, I tell her I want a refund... So... She puts airtime and a year service on the phone! I told her I did not want it she says "think about it think about it".. But I had gotten a tmobile cell weeks earlier so why would I think about a company that tortures me and countless other customers for fun?
A week later I get a hold of her again and tell her I still haven't used the blasted phone give me my money back for the phone and the minutes as layed out in the bbb complaint and emails, she says fine no problem after all the mess that you had to go through it's no problem... Then she sends an envelope to return the phone and tells me to include the receipt for the phone.. I threw it all in.
I email her and tell her that I may not have every single receipt for the minutes but the minutes are displayed in the phone... (Open it you will see them) then suddenly she doesn't know what the refund is for and then she insists that her boss will let her refund only for the phone.. So I call and ask for her boss (Who no one at tracfone seems to know what her boss's name actually is because everyone pronounces and spells it 9 different ways) who tells me that she knows nothing of this whole mess, asks me that I paid for the phone and each airtime card.. I tell this boss person her and now these people are under the misapprehension that I discussed to a refund of $41.06!
Which is bunk! Which they keep insisting is very generous refund because this includes sales tax.. And is not quite 10% of what I actually paid or already agreed to in october! I am no longer supposed to talk to the liaison.. Just her boss whodoes not answer the phone or respond to emails... Shocker!
They have a phone and airtime with$551.20 of my hard earned dollars! They thought that I would have just folded in favor of the $41.06 and an end to the torment but I dang it I have principles too!
I've called the ftc and the attorney generals and consumer protection agencies up and down the eastern coast! Next stop... The press and the courthouse! And if tracfone or straighttalk which is tracfone have messed with you I suggest you do the same!

On November 17th, 2009 I attempted to redeem a 200 minute airtime pin number directy onto my phone. Somehow those minutes were redeemed on a different serial number.

The company declares that it does not redeem minutes to another IMEI than the one requested.(Obviously it did!) They will not transfer/replace/reissue my minutes and their terms and conditions preclude a refund as this was a "successful" redemption.

As I did not receive the minutes that I purchased, this can hardly be considered "successful" at my end and I cannot afford to absorb this loss of $40 plus tax.

This company refuses to be held accountable.

Well where do I start? I bought a tracfone motorola 260g. I activated it and used it for a couple of weeks. I decided to upgrade to an LG600. When I transferred my minuted to the lg, everything ok until I tried to make a call. I got a message that the service I was attempting to use was restricted. I called tracfone and throught the accents and lack of technological knowledge, the finally said the lg was defective. So they said they would replace it. Great...they sent my new phone to San Diego, I live in Indiana! When I called them they said another one would me sent. Well when I got that, it was a motorola 370 not an lg600. So I called to complain. I don't think they new what to do. After trying to explain that it was the wrong phone...they even tried to tell me they didn't have the ticket number they assigned me. Anyway after numourous time being put on hold, I swear, they hung up on me. So responded with a not so polite email to them. Remember the motorola 260 I started with, well that was deactivated when I transfered minutes to the lg.It still works! What idiots! The lg shows minutes and service time but I still can't make a call. I'm trying to get them to deactivate it. Then I'll get it unlocked and use another service. *** Tracfone!