TracFone Wireless
reviews and complaints

I purchasd on line. Followed directions. didn't work. I called 5 different times. Their computer went down 4 diff times. and I was disconnected 5 times. with diff. customer service agents.I kept getting disconnected. . Was on hold for over 4 hours total. Last agent said He would send a new phone because mine was defective and he would get me free minutes .was on hold for over 1 hour, waiting for a reference # but I was disconected again. When I called back, they said I had to have that ref. #, I told them that I was disconnected before I got it. Sorry, there is no way we can find that info. I have every persons name I spoke to. They couldn't help because they have so many employees that it wouldn't be possible to locate them. Now, it's been over 30 days and there are no refunds after 30 days. I am so dissapointed with this company. I will keep calling until this is resolved or until I die. I was promised by the last agent that I would receive extra service and minutes, but they have no record of this.

These trashbags will take your money for airtime then steal it. Do not spend money on these foreigners. Not for one minute

If buying a new phone - run all your minutes down. DON'T TRY TO TRANSFER YOUR MINUTES. Usually does not work.

Those people that you had talked to might have been trainees because we can actually immediately activate your tracfone by manually providing you the codes.

Please stay away from then. They OUTSOURCE. SMH. So bad. sometimes you on hold for an hour. And all they can say is that they are checking records please hold or my system is loading. everytime I call them I cry. Bad service

why is it everytime you call customer service you get someone who you cant understand. I live in the USA when i call tracphone customer service i want to speak to someone that can speak proper english.

Um, didn't you read the front of the card you were purchasing? I have a trac-fone and have never had that type of problem. You probably purchased the completely wrong product and trac-fone was kind enough to compensate you a bit for your own error.

have been a customer for going on 5 years I think. I have had seamless service with a high level of satisfaction. I have had the same inexpensive phone for all that time. I decided last week to buy a new TRAC Fone a LG 800. I recieved it promptly and proceeded to try to activate it and transfer my minutes. The night mare began. I have talked to three service representatives and one supervisor and have left shaking my head at the level of ignorance about what should be a seamless procedure to transfer to a new phone and transfer minutes.

The first repersentative managed to activate my new phone with my old number although w she at first said Ineeded a different phone before she could do it. It turns out she could and my new phone was activated however my old phone still worked.

I therefore called and of course got a different rep, I guess you have no proceedures in place for any continuity for related calls, and after 30 minutes which I found out I was paying for she ran upagainst the need a second phone problem. After some questions she said she would have to send me a new SIM card for my old phone which she had managed by this time to disable. After pointing out to her I didnt think i should be debited the 28.5 minutes it took her to repeatedly tell me to allow her to take more time to enter information which seems to be yuir company mantra to w extract minutes from peoples account she said I would be credited those minutes when I called back to give your next rep a chance to play with my old phone with the new SIM card. Now, as I thought then, that was a outright deception to get me off the line

I got the SIM card yesterday and installed it correctly but now the phone wont boot past the screen that gives me the date service ends . Then the screen goes blank but the phone still has 71.30 minutes onit which I wanted to transfer to my new phone.

I called back just 30 and was told by the third rep that I didnt need the SIM card and all I needed was a different phone and that that Rep#2 had outright lied to me about getting credited for the 28.5 minutes spent getting nothing done. To add to my frustration the new SIM does not appear to work. After this i asked to speak to a supervisor a Victor.who outright told me I was not getting any miuutes back no reason, no company policy, just youre not getting them back and I wasnt getting my, paid for, minutes (71.30) transferred from my old phone unless I could come up with a alternated number.

I am disabled and homebound with TRAC Fone as my lifeline. I have one phone [protected], I can just afford the minutes I buy and it is painful to see them s dissipated by a duplicitous business plan. I spent about 50 minutes with your rerex sentatives on a proceedure that should have taken not over 20 min if that and that did not includethe 8.5 minutes spent on hold before I was told there would be a 30 minute wait. I had to witness bumbling support, out right misrepresentations and arbitrary dismissal by a supervisor. This indicates poor support training, poor coordination and no system for bundling problems with the same phone or subscriber. Your Reps tried to be polite and I applaud their English but they had a tendency to mumble which made their moderate accents at times hard to decipher. Another problem was the cross talk audible onto my call from their I guess booths from other calls handled by other reps.

I am sending you this out of frustration that your company would so brazenly rip off time on service calls caused by your own employees apparent lack of training, ignorance of procedures and I would think the poor writing and composition of your protocol book in which they had trouble finding the problems I was bringing to their attention. If I were dealing with say Amazon I would expect a quick reply and rsolution to my problem and even an apology. From the attitude and behavior of Victor I donrt think I will get my minutes nor an apology but I think you should know that a satisfied customer of 5 years is now not! I trusted you with my limited income and you ripped me off. I hope it was inadvertant and you will do what is right and not charge me for your employees lack of training.

Just in case you want to do something to transfer my minutes from my old phone

Hi, this is JC with TracFone Wireless. I read your post and am sorry that you are having problems. Please send me your contact information to the following email address TF.CorpResolutionTeam@tracfone.com . My colleagues and I can help you get the problem resolved right away. Please include your name, phone serial number or cell phone number. So you don’t have to retype this information, just copy your blog concern and email it to us.

I have had a Tracfone for some years. I have not had this trouble, but I will beware if it happens.

Since 18 May 09 when for no reason my phone was deactivated I have had nothing but problems with this company. The phone was for business and was listed in advertising. When they finally reactivated the phone they had changed the number. "We're sorry for any inconvenience". Then I discovered the phone wasnt recieving calls. Again they changed the phone number on me. Customer service is basically noexistent because all they can say is "We're sorry for any inconvenience." I have no idea how much this company has cost me in lost business but my advice to anyone considering a Tracfone purchase is "DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM TRACFONE.

For over a month I have tried and tried and tried to resolve issues with these idiots.I cant access my voice mail and the instructions are ###! The customer service are located in the Philippines and all are idiots none have a clue.You have to have 2 phones to set up your voice mail! They keep saying we will fix it but dont do anything.Dont buy a tracfone as they are liars and committing fraud as we speak. Here is what I had to say to them to get a response from management-which still was worthless! Luis, You may want to research this: According to United States Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1038 Prev | Next § 1038. False information and hoaxes How Current is This? (a) Criminal Violation.— (1) In general.— Whoever engages in any conduct with intent to convey false or misleading information under circumstances where such information may reasonably be believed and where such information indicates that an activity has taken, is taking, or will take place that would constitute a violation of chapter 2, 10, 11B, 39, 40, 44, 111 (A) be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both; TITLE 15 > CHAPTER 2 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 53 Prev | Next § 53. False advertisements; injunctions and restraining orders How Current is This? (a) Power of Commission; jurisdiction of courts Whenever the Commission has reason to believe— (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is engaged in, or is about to engage in, the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of any advertisement in violation of section 52 of this title, and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission under section 45 of this title, and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review, or the order of the Commission to cease and desist made thereon has become final within the meaning of section 45 of this title, would be to the interest of the public, the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States or in the United States court of any Territory, to enjoin the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of such advertisement. Upon proper showing a temporary injunction or restraining order shall be granted without bond. Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business, or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found. (b) Temporary restraining orders; preliminary injunctions Whenever the Commission has reason to believe— (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is violating, or is about to violate, any provision of law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review, or until the order of the Commission made thereon has become final, would be in the interest of the public— the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States to enjoin any such act or practice. Upon a proper showing that, weighing the equities and considering the Commission’s likelihood of ultimate success, such action would be in the public interest, and after notice to the defendant, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction may be granted without bond: Provided, however, That if a complaint is not filed within such period (not exceeding 20 days) as may be specified by the court after issuance of the temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, the order or injunction shall be dissolved by the court and be of no further force and effect: Provided further, That in proper cases the Commission may seek, and after proper proof, the court may issue, a permanent injunction. Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business, or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found. (c) Service of process; proof of service Any process of the Commission under this section may be served by any person duly authorized by the Commission— (1) by delivering a copy of such process to the person to be served, to a member of the partnership to be served, or to the president, secretary, or other executive officer or a director of the corporation to be served; (2) by leaving a copy of such process at the residence or the principal office or place of business of such person, partnership, or corporation; or (3) by mailing a copy of such process by registered mail or certified mail addressed to such person, partnership, or corporation at his, or her, or its residence, principal office, or principal place or business. The verified return by the person serving such process setting forth the manner of such service shall be proof of the same. (d) Exception of periodical publications Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the court in the case of a newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication, published at regular intervals— (1) that restraining the dissemination of a false advertisement in any particular issue of such publication would delay the delivery of such issue after the regular time therefor, and (2) that such delay would be due to the method by which the manufacture and distribution of such publication is customarily conducted by the publisher in accordance with sound business practice, and not to any method or device adopted for the evasion of this section or to prevent or delay the issuance of an injunction or restraining order with respect to such false advertisement or any other advertisement, it goes on and on and on-much like my attempts to fully utilize the services advertised by your company! It still does not work! I missed 2 important messages this am and cant access either! Your employees are poorly trained-I have heard the following from each> my password is > my entire phone # is the default password > the last 6 digits of my phone # is the password > the last 4 digits is my password > press the 1 key to set up my password-I have heard that 6 times-its all BS! as without a password you cant gain access! I tried over and over and over and it never worked. In my attempts to access my hotmail on the phone-it wont work either. Do you require employees to be trained? Do you use individuals outside the USA to save money or generate lawsuits against Tracfone? I see you are in Miami-do I send the subpena to you to appear in court? Its a long flight from Florida to Seattle-then a nice drive to the court house-for the cost of all that I suggest you simply send me another matching phone with free service as i have wasted over 400 minutes talking to those idiots in the Philippines who obviously have no correct training and refused to connect me to any manager. As a consumer who read your advertising on the internet & at Walmart for your services and read the advertising on the box that the phone is shipped in-it was my belief that I had access to voice mail when in fact-without having 2 phones-I cannot access any voice mail.That is fraud. I have no intention of wasting any more minutes on my monthly service trying to resolve this. I have several options to fully resolve this to my satisfaction 1. create a video showing my attempts to gain access to my voice mail and post it on youtube for the entire world to view and decide on not buying your phones or falling for your false advertising-my last video on that service got thousands of hits. 2. Just calling my friends at KING5Investigates our local news in Seattle and let Jessie expose you on CBS news so all consumers can avoid being ripped off by Tracfone and StraightTalk 3. Allow you to communicate to me and see if it is actually possible without me buying another phone, or finding a payphone and racking up another $20 in fees to gain access or flagging down some fool on the highway to see if they are willing to allow a long distance call to the Philippines to try to resolve this-Personally-I would never help anyone I dont know this way as there are so many frauds out there trying to pull a scam on you..like tracfone, straight talk etc Therefor: I demand replacement of all costs associated with the utilization of this cellphone, and or costs associated with the purchase of a similar phone with another carrier that works in my area, full reimbursement of all monthly fees at treble the damages of my expenses to communicate with your company and loss of time in minutes, internet, etc as a majority has been spent trying to setup this service. Its is entirely possible that I picked up a defective unit simply by chance still since its impossible to set up voice mail without a second phone-your still guilty of consumer and wire fraud.Who wants to be held responsible? Just supply me with that persons name, business license information-so I can ask the Dept of Licensing in Washington State to suspend or revoke permissions to advertise, display, promote, or sell all Tracfones or Straight Talk services in our state. May I suggest you forward this to the CEO of your company to resolve it as you did not even bother calling me? It shows you could care less-youd rather have consumers file suit than provide customer services. Better yet-I think I'll do some research and find the corporate officers and forward this to them and post this up at Boeing's main building ( largest by volume in the world ) in Everett so all the 26, 000 employees who pass the complaint board each day can avoid this mistake i made by choosing your product and ### services! It looks like I can communicate directly with > Mr. F. J. Pollak Chief Executive Officer and President Mr. Kevin Gulbranson Senior Vice President of Product Management Mr. Steve Ritter Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Do you suppose they will be upset to learn your employees caused all this or that you took no effort to resolve it?

I also have had a positive experience with their customer service. I dug out a pretty old Tracfone to load minutes onto but it was no longer on their current list of models so I could not load them. I actually put off calling until I had a free hour to waste on the phone because I expected it would be a dreadful ordeal but it was anything but an ordeal! Someone answered in a timely manner and stayed with me. I wasn't put on hold forever. The rep did have an accent but he spoke excellent English that I had no trouble understanding. He was pleasant and knew what the problem was and how to fix it. He offered to send me a new card to update the old phone so it could get on the system and he followed through. I did not have to buy a new phone! We have since added two more Tracfones and have had no problems with any of them.

You Have a bad cell phone.. I had the same problem . Turns out that the quality control on Tracphones are not the greatest and many have receiver problems.
GEt yourself a new phone.