TracFone Wireless
reviews and complaints

In March added 120+ had 335 minutes total w/expiration date 11 '15. Just noticed today screen shows 67.30 minutes left w/74 days til expiration! All-calls duration section of phone shows I used only 39 minutes. Rarely use flip cellphone during last 3yrs; always have carryover minutes; I add minutes [double lifetime] before expiration date. Tracfone tech & tech supv said their codes don't show any minutes disappearing and said they have no records to show how many minutes I had or bought in March nor do they show how many minutes I had on certain days. Also said I should have called sooner so they might have been able to tell me how minutes disappeared--Don't use phone often, and always noticed hundreds of minutes left! They concluded I used them. Told them I don't text, use internet, nor make many calls; and phone was not stolen or in someone else's possession. To get [irrelevant] record of my calls I have to fax letter and leave phone on for 30 days awaiting a response; they aren't able to leave a voicemail. Letter's procedures are issued via fast-speaking taped message...not online. Also the letter will only yield a list of the calls made/received last 90 days--will NOT give info re number of minutes had at beginning or end of list. Ridiculous that Tracfone doesn't keep better records and/or admit the possibility of a hacker [or employees] having access to/stealing customers' minutes. The lack of customer records and that fast procedural recording makes it seem like they don't want you to be able to track your minutes. They're able to add minutes to my phone from their office with the touch of a few buttons; so I'm sure they're able to make minutes disappear. I want my minutes returned! Also, internet is rife w/others' complaining about Tracfone's disappearing minutes! PLEASE STOP THIS SCAM!

I had bought my 2 teenage boys tracfones at the beginning of august 2015 but one of them quit working in less than 2 weeks. Called tech support on 8 - 11 or [protected] but could not get it to work so they sent me a prepaid envelope to send the phone back to them and they would send out a replacement phone. Sent the phone back to them on [protected] and called on [protected] just to see if the replacement had been shipped yet and the girl told me the first ticket #[protected] was not done right so she made a new ticket #[protected] and i would have the phone friday [protected]. No phone came on 8 - 21 but on monday 8 - 24 i get a box but it has another return envelope but no replacement phone so i call again and get the runaround from more people and should have the phone thursday [protected]. Now on 9 - 2 - 2015 my 14 year old son still does not have a phone and all i get from customer service seem to be lies. The only thing i am getting from this experience is to believe you have to be incompetent and a liar to work for tracfone !

I have 3 sons with close to 2, 000 minutes each with a month's worth of service days, and one with over a year and half of service days and no minutes. Why can't I share those minutes with the one with no minutes? Their customer service wait time is way too long and I often get hung up on or someone that barely knows what they're doing. If I could take the phone and minutes to another provider I would. DON'T USE THEM IF YOU CAN HELP IT.

My ZTE Valet phone start telling me that "this phone does not have the funds to make this call", It has happened twice, the first time I called customer service and they had me put in various codes, and fixed it. The last time it happened, I mysteriously lost all my minutes, over 1700 minutes so I called customer service and the Lady basically told me I was lying about my minutes, which I did not appreciate, but after talking to a supervisor they told me that it would take 4 days to get my minutes back, tomorrow will be 7 days and I still haven't got my minutes back, or my $100.00 phone has not been fixed.

I bought a track one a year ago and never used it. I tried to reactivate it online and add minutes. The online system took my minutes pin number but couldn't get the serial number to work so I called customer service. After an hour on the phone I got my phone working and it showed I had 90 minutes. Odd since I only bought 60. I called a smart phone to see what the number was and I had a new number, no surprise. I used the phone for 2 days and then it was deactivated. I called customer service 2x and finally was told my minutes were given to the person that had my old number and there was nothing they could do. They didn't assign the minutes to the phone serial number, they just picked an old number. Anyone thinking about getting a trackfone and especially reactivating one, think twice. Trackfone is a scam and they have no qualms about giving your number and minutes away to anyone. DON'T BUY TRACKFONE!

I have been using Tracfones for a few years now, having switched from my old LG240G to my current LG800G phone, and I am bewildered by how this unbelievably bad company is still in business...
I mean, their phones are certified garbage that are so prone to glitches, and bugs it is not even funny, and their excuse for support, is atrocious.
HOW is this company even real?
STAY AWAY people, the money you save is NOT worth the frustrations, and unpredictable screw ups that come from this sweatshop superstar company.
My old phone, the LG240G, started to stay on when it wasn't in use, thus draining the charge down all day while in your pocket instead of shutting down after 10 seconds of dissuse to save power like it was made to do, so I traded, up I thought, to the LG800G, which had triple minutes instead of double minutes like the 240G, but also came with a bag of bugs, and mistakes that were relentless, and unpredictable...
Case in point, for the last 2 weeks, the phone has been turning itself off after not being used for more than an hour, even if it has full charge. This has been causing me to miss several important calls because they are all automatically sent directly to voicemail because the phone is off. For the record, you ARE deducted for calling, and listening to your voicemails, and I have done so MANY times, and know exactly how voicemail works. Now today, I get yet another voicemail, from my mother no less, and I try to delete it by pressing 7, but it won't work for some reason until I listen to the entire message all of a sudden. So I do, and at the end it says, to replay press 1, to delete press 7, so then I press 7 again, and I get, "That is not a valid entry"?
?WHAT IN THE WORLD? Are you kidding me? It even showed 7 on the screen, and there is ONLY one 7 key on the numpad, so how do I delete the voicemail?
So, I call Tracfone "Support", yeah right, but hey, I needed a laugh I guess, and after 20 minutes of menu options, I get a person on the phone who obviously knows nothing, and he wants to transfer me to a tutorial on how to use voicemail despite the fact that I thoroughly explained to him the problem. They absolutely REFUSE to take responsibility for any mistakes, and ALWAYS assume that you have messed up, and are doing it wrong...
WOW, I mean WOWOWOWOW, what a completely criminal organization, I say it again, STAY AWAY from Tracfone, the money you save is not worth being sucked into their little web of sweatshop superstar equipment, and absolutely appalling customer service!

I have made at least 5 calls over the last month trying to reactivate my husbands tracfone. I know I would get a new number, which is no problem for me. I had to buy minutes right away. Then we worked for over an hour trying to get the tracfone reactivatedl I was asked to call a number to see if the activation worked. It didn't work. They said it may take some time to work and try it the next day. The next day it did not work so I called tracfone again. The same procedure happened again. Finally I talked to somebody and they said my phone was defective and I should buy another phone and call back. I bought a new phone (more expensive phone)and the same problem existed. This time it activated but I could not call. I was told again that by tomorrow morning it should work. Of course it didn't and I made another call to Tracfone. We worked on codes again for a long time, transferring to a supervisor and doing all things over and over again. Nothing worked so they said they would send me a phone and I should call back to reactivate it. I asked if my number, minutes and service would transfer. She said they would. The phone came in the mail about 2 weeks later. My husband needed this phone for his trip. He had to go without. The tracfone finally came. I called to reactivate it. I had a reference number so she could see what happened before. I told her my story of my first phone being defective and the 2nd phone not working and the new one that needs to be activated. She wanted the serial number and phone number of the original phone. She activated it right away. So my phone was not defective! She then activated my new phone. She gave me my 3 month service but now I had a totally different telephone number. That was fine with me but I had only 10:00 minutes given to me. She couldn't find any record that I had 1, 287.90 minutes that were not transferred. That's a lot of minutes and money. I wonder if they still have a record that I get double minutes each time I buy minutes. I was totally frustrated! She apologized and then asked if I wanted to buy more minutes. How can I get my minutes back?!?! All of the service reps were very nice and patient. I have had 5 tracfones before and good service. This last experience was terrible. If I don't get my minutes back I will be finished with tracfone. They recorded each conversation so it is all there.

tried to add minutes, didn't work, called tracfone they said sim expired. Sims don't expire and there were remaining minutes and expiration date was 2024. got all kinds of excuses and runarounds. a knowledgeable tech could have gotten into database and solved whatever problem they created. Chat boards said that that day there were lots of people unable to add minutes, so perhaps their system had been hacked and customer/sim data stolen. complained to better business bureau and tracfone remained adamant that there was nothing they would do to resolve my problem. Someone named 'Betty" kept sending emails in very poor English, so it's probably an avatar, but clearing making excuses and more than likely never spoke with anyone level 3 in tech to solve the problem. Guess they have enough business they can be nasty and uncooperative. This number is one I cannot afford to lose for business purpose, and there is data on the sim I need. My lawyer is drafting the complaint and this 'company' will be sued. and as much publicity around the case as I can generate, so other customers will be alerted.

Called for "unlock code" from TracFone to utilize my older LG phone with another cellular company. Just needing a basic non-smart phone for child.
Over an hour on phone with 3 representatives; 1 had heavy accent, very hard to understand and was insistent that my phone issue was due to not able to make or receive calls. She argued I didn't need an unlock code. She put in a help ticket and advised for me to wait 48 hours for resolution, which would be done wirelessly to my LG at home. I just needed to keep the power on continuously. The next person was pleasant, but didn't want to help, and had me immediately transferred. The last was by far the rudest and shortest phone discussion, as that person flat out said, TracFone can not unlock LG phones and promptly disconnected the call.

Gosh TracFone, you have done such a phenomenal job at not only selecting top-notch service reps, but in training them for problem solving and overall customer service! Just so hard to believe that customers far and wide aren't standing in line for your excellent services. Keep up the great job! In the mean time, I'd rather spend my hard earned pay with another company who is appreciative of my continued loyalty and while I'm out-of-contract!

all i tried to do was add 1 year airttime. Spoke to various people who cpuld not understand me. My Visa has been debited twice and tracfone says i have to deal with my bank but it was tracfone that made the error. I still do not have my airtime. The manager said i had preauthorized the debit but that it is not true. I pay once a year by phone. My bank confirms a Can debit of $170 or us$ 129.66.
my phone number is/was [protected].
The have taken without my agreement 2 payments and i still do not have any minutes. They say my bank has declined the payment yet my bank says my account was debited twice.
I think tracfone is confused because i am a Canadian resident. They kept asking for my zip code and I kept telling them my Canadian postal code. my email is [protected]@yahoo.com
please help me as I have been taken advantage of. ed

About three years ago I spoke to someone and they recommended I check to see if I qualified for Safelink telephone service. I went online, completed the application, and within 2 weeks, I had a phone and airtime. From that time until now, I've never had a problem with the service, getting requests to fill out questionnaires and to buy additional airtime constantly. My usage is less than 50 minutes per and maybe about 20 minutes for text messages. Recently I noticed that my remaining airtime has continued to go down, so I called Safelink and they advised that I was no longer eligible (I guess the overwhelming rate of SS increase did that - all of about 1.7% over the past 3 years! Anyway, the suggested that I go to Trakfone, so I tried to use their online site and simply could not get a log on. So I called and spoke to a very nice woman from the Philippines, who said that she would assist me, and proceded to provide her all the information required from the phone number, address, and credit card number, and annual income. After about 30 minutes or so, she advised that I could not sign up for Tracfone because I was a Safelink customer! Oh yeah...remember that was told by Safelink about an hour or so before that I no longer qualified for Safelink! All I can say is that something --- no...many, many things are seriously wrong with this system. The phones and phone service are acceptable, and even the representatives for both companies seem qualified, but the people who oversee and manage how the system is run should ALL --- 100% of them --- be either fired or indicted for incompetence and stupidity (oh yeah...they are not crimes), for the waste and confusion that surrounds the system.

Kast year I called but you never get to talk to a person. I purchased a one year card that should have had double minutes but they only gave me regular minutes but charged me for the double minutes. I've tryed to contact them but only get back a card to keep my minutes. And they charged me about 280 minutes to change I want to speak with someone that understands english. They have been hard to deal with but i've spent alot and don't need to lose any more. They should have a number to to talk with a person but they don't want that so they can have it there way. Going to file at bbb and anywhere else I can. Peeved off in va. Kinnie yost.

Enjoy the use of my TracFone; however, dealing with the company is a totally different story! After spending minutes short of one hour with a representative that I had a hard time understanding, I found out when I got an email showing the receipt from the airtime I had purchased, that I was charged double! Grrrrr! The representative kept asking me the same questions over and over and over and even though I got two text messages notifying me that my time period was about to expire and they (text messages) gave me a promo code to use to get an extra 20 minutes, somehow the promo code expired (even though I just got a text 2 days ago showing that particular code -- the rep said it had been used back in 2014. DUH! Sooo, long story short, not only did I not get the extra 20 minutes but was charged for 120 minutes (which I never asked for) instead of the 60 minutes I requested. This company needs to hire people that can be clearly understood and know how to use their computer system AND listen to what the customer is telling them. Seriously thinking of dumping TracFone as soon as my minutes are used up. Sure don't need this kind of harassment!

had a tracfone for years. so decided to get a new phone, and transfer my minutes over, after many call got to talk to someone, but had to act like I was going to buy something in order to talk to a human. gave her the information she said my phone would work in 2 days. well after 4 days had to call 6 times to talk to someone after on the phone for 1 1/2 hours she told me the phone I got would not work in my area, I asked how would you know if a phone worked in my area, was told I wouldn't know until it wouldn't work. I told her to just put my time back on the old phone, I was told it would take 2 days, well still wouldn't work . went back through all the calls and waiting and number pushing. was told again it will be 2 more days. called back told the to just refund my money, I was the told I couldn't get my money back because it was a government issued phone. I told the man I bought and paid for the phone the government has nothing to do with my phone. after another number pushing was again told it would take 2 more days. well guess what still no phone... WORST PHONE EVER...PLEASE NEVER BUY ONE

About a month ago, I bought a new Tracfone (serial no. [protected]) for my boyfriend whose old Tracfone (serial no.: [protected]) had broken. We both spent hours on the phone trying to transfer the old phone no. [protected]) to the new phone and attempting to activate the new one. After talking to about 6 or 7 different reps who couldn't seem to accomplish this, one finally said it was done. I then tried to add his phone to my family plan, but again spend hours talking to countless reps with no success. It ended up that instead of transferring the old phone number, as was requested, we were given a new phone no. without being told. I then spend countless hours trying to get customer service to get the original phone number back, to no avail. Extremely frustrated, I finally gave up, since no one seemed interested in resolving the error. After resigning myself to the fact that the old no. was lost, I tried (yes, for hours) to get the new phone added to my family plan and was told there was an error and to check again in 24 to 48 hours. Well, it has been way more than 48 hours (weeks, in fact), and, totally fed up with customer service and tech support, I decided to use the Web site to check the status of this issue. I got an error message and a phone no. to call (this has happened many times during this debacle as well). To conclude, I am thoroughly fed up. If I could, I'd just get rid of our Tracfones and find an alternative, but we've been customers for years without any problems (because we never had to deal with customer service). Clearly, customer retention is unimportant to Tracfone, because no attempt has been made to elevate any of these issues despite my many attempts to resolve them and my obvious frustration. Meanwhile, no one can call my boyfriend, since his phone number isn't working, and after a month, his phone is unusable. The new phone has no minutes, and of course, no one knows the phone number.

I have been with tracfone for many years, never had a problem, and have upgraded phones all along. I got a new phone about 3 months ago, triple everything, great. So I'm heading to town the other day and my truck overheated, so I pulled over and tried to call for help. Although this is the same road in the same zip code I live in, I had full bars showing, and I couldn't make a call out. I kept getting a message that I didn't have service. This is July and my service is until Sept. or so it says on the phone . So when I got home, I called customer service, and the total nightmare began. I was informed by the guy on the phone that my phone wouldn't work off of t-mobile towers, and I needed a new sim card. I explained that I have used that phone all the way from the town I was near to call home (all same zip area), and he still insisted I needed the new sim. A few hours later a lady called me from trac, and told me I would have a new phone sent to me, this was last week, Today I get a email from them, saying my phone was delivered today in N.Y. The problem, I live in Missouri. So I called them again, and was on the phone for 2 1/2 hours, for them to tell me The new phone was being sent out today, a week later. I never could get an answer as to why the phone wouldn't work, that had just worked 2 weeks before when I used it. They were also going to send me a old, old phone that is not even listed on the website, nor is it one I want. It has the very small numbers to use to call out, I told them that's why I got rid of the other phone I had, because it was too difficult to use. I like the big numbers, because I have fat fingers, and can't see all that great anymore. He said well, it's already sent. So I informed him, that I would not except it from the FedEx man, he said well you have to, and then send it back, I told him in no uncertain words, that I wasn't about to pay gas for 100 mile trip to go to a FedEx place and then pay them to process the package. That I would not except delivery. This was after I had told the same story to 8 people prior to him. Finally I ask him out right, did tracfone and T-Mobile merge, and he told me no, that they use their towers or some crap, And he gave me another ticket no. so I can call back in 24 hours to find out what's going on. I told him they were making my chest hurt with all the crap I had to go through on their phone number, just to talk to a human. I was also told I would have a new phone number. I am 60, and disabled with terrible memory problems, and this is about the biggest plate of crap that anyone could be served from this company. I am still fighting with these people, and it is making me physically ill. I refused the delivery, and called them back yesterday, and after 20 minutes talking to one person, I was again transferred to a person in Corporate, and after going through the whole deal, I was told I would have to wait 48 more hours. This is on them since they sold me a phone that came up as working in my zipcode area, and then suddenly change the towers, so my phone doesn't work. The kicker is that the very phone I have is still listed on the website as working in my area. I don't know what has changed with Tracfone, but it isn't the same as when I signed up all those many years ago.

I have been a customer of tracfone for approx 4 years. I am a prepaid customer and buy minutes and time as I need them. On 6-24 my phone stopped working. Called customer service and found out they had switched my phone number to someone else and changed my status to inactive so I can't make or get calls. I did not contact tracfone and I did not request any change. Advised I never authorized the change nor did tracfone contact me in anyway about this. So the person stole my phone number and my service was cut off and tracfone says sorry, they can't do anything about it. This is pure FRAUD. So now I am out the price of the phone, the minutes I paid for and time. Plus I lost the phone number I have had for 9 or 10 years and have to contact banks, insurance and lots of friends, family and business to tell them not to call me at that number. So be aware that if you are a tracfone customer, anyone can request your phone number and it can be taken away from you, your service made inactive without your being contacted or authorizing any change. I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and asked them to investigate.

I reactivated my tracfone phone which prior to reactivation had over 900 minutes. I am a long term customer of tracfone and in the past experienced very had good customer service and support. This was not the case here. The Cebu Call Center and in particular Jolly Lao - Supervisor was so RUDE and lacked or had No Customer Satisfaction orientation She informed me that since I missed the reactivation by 1-2 days she was not able to provide any further assistance. Here supervisor REFUSED to get involved and get on the phone to provide Customer Satisfaction obviously due to the poor phone management of Jolly. Jolly Manager's name is Maryehel Aquino. I can tell you that going forward I will not be recommending Tracfone. There are so many other options in the US and I will make sure my complaint and dissatisfaction gets noticed about the POOR Customer Service and experience recently received. I really expected a different Call Center experience, that a Happy Customer is a Returning Customer. In their opinion, they basically were saying with such actions to go get your Customer Satisfaction from our competitors. We certainly will not miss you. HOW RUDE! I hope you speak to both Jolly and Maryehel about there attitude towards Customer Satisfaction. I hope they are warned and or possibly fired. You can not expect to run a business this way. I welcome response back.

I called a tracfone agent to add minutes to my account. I told them about issues pertaining to my phone and gave them my serial number they added the minutes to someone else's phone. Minutes I purchased. Then when my minutes never added to my phone I realized there was a problem. So I called a tracfone agent, asked to speak to a manager and she told me they would reissue my minutes after they sent me a new SIM card. Because it wasn't my fault the minutes were added to the wrong number. When I received my SIM card in the mail I called to add the minutes and they told me they could not add the minutes. I pretty much lost $29. By allowing them to add the minutes to a strangers phone.

Tracphone sent me two new sim cards because their reps couldn't figure out how to transfer my current number. Everytime they sent a new sim card it had a different phone # not the number I was transferring. They do not even know how their system works!

I will throw phone away once these minutes are gone ( that is if I can even make a call) Do not do business with this company!
Walmart is partially to blame for allowing these types of unqualified vendor's in their stores.