JPay
reviews and complaints

I guarantee you’d see a boost in sales with more stamp purchases if you simply added read receipts as an option for all users in settings. It has been so frustrating trying to have a back and forth conversation because each message is screened and can take 5 minutes or 3 days. The user sending the message isn’t sure what’s gone through for certain. Things often are received out of order. Like if I send 3 messages today, the receiver might get the 2nd one first, the 3rd one second, and the 1st one third. The system will correctly put the messages in the correct order that was intended once they all come in, like in the received inbox, after all 3 messages do come through in that 1-3 day period, you’ll see them in the proper order in the inbox which is good, but it makes it impossible to have a fluent and coherent back and forth conversation.

Each facility from my understanding has their own screening process, so the only way JPAY could at least try to help with this is add a read receipts option. So I’m just hoping their engineers read this because profit is the name of the game and I’m telling yah, people will buy more if that feature is added. It’s super annoying not knowing what’s gone through and been seen or not. So we’re mostly going back to phone calls after realizing we’re getting upset with eachother over something out of our control.

Just recently, to view the balance of stamps I have, I am now required to turn on my location service. I do not understand why this request is necessary. Also before the above new process I use to see the balance of stamps before I confirmed sending an email. Not anymore. Another family member has this app and is not required to turn on location service before viewing a stamp balance.
I no longer receive a notification of a jay-pay email in a timely manner. As example, my nephew sent an email at 11:20pm last night. My notification was received at 6:00 am this morning.
I deleted my app to reset maybe, re- added the app and lost data in my old app such as all emails and my stamp balance since I was not able to enter my same password. I had to create a new password. Most other apps I have deleted and re-added still had my information.
Before deleting the app I tried to change to another email since I suspected the untimely email notifications were due to them. I received the message that jay pay had my second email.
I’m not sure when this happened. I need to know how to correct this.
Before my credit card expired and I forgot to change the new expiration date I had no problems with this app and would have rated it 5 stars. I was not able to change my new expiration date until I made another purchase. That was the start of my problems and now I will rate this app a 3.

This app does not let me to fund my loved ones media account yet it says it can. Can’t believe they put out a product this bad. No I’m no longer able to log in, it stopped notifying me of new mail, keeps having difficulties finding the mail trying to make a deposit is sluggish and takes forever to show it’s been done. Would love to communicate with my loved ones. They say their the best. NOT!

The tablets aren’t any better. My loved one’s has lost use of email, others have had items deleted, missing . Multiple trouble tickets have been sent in and nothing has been done to correct it. Yes I know this has nothing to do with the tables, yet no one will listen or answer with the other means of communication with Jpay.

Jpay sent a reply for this review. “Please email support @jpay.com or call [protected] to speak with a customer service rep regarding the issues your having with the app.”

They have to be joking. I started calling and was told they had nothing to do with the app. The same answer I get when call to say my loved one is have issues with his tablet and sent several trouble tickets. Again not their department. And so on with the phone end of customer service. The email side NO one has ever replied to any of my emails asking for help. Not a one.

My loved one is STILL waiting for a new tablet to replace the one their update corrupted.

Disrespectful that they think this is acceptable to treat us and our loved ones. Our state has us stuck using them so guess they don’t care.

To the most recent post about keyboard not appearing when sending a message. Make sure to tap right beneath the line to make the keyboard pop up, if you tap anywhere else it won't bring up the keyboard, just make sure you tap right under the line beneath "pre-paid?" To bring up the keypad. Hopefully this helps anyone who's trying to talk with their loved one. As far as ranking the app...it's alright for its purpose, I know there's a lot of frustrations with the app but I do understand some of the reasons why it might be that way. I do appreciate the simplicity of the app, it's pretty straight forward. I don't like how everything has such a delay. I do understand that they have to regulate things but I just try to not expect things for at least 24 hours to maintain sanity. Another gripe is how expensive everything is, this is something else that I understand, I know this is essentially a business and the goal is to make money, but I feel like regular communication with a loved one, despite the situation shouldn't be so expensive. Talking to them is hard enough with regulated and timed calls...I feel like a text message or a picture sent...or a 30 second video shouldn't be so costly. Beggars ultimately can't be choosers but it still salt in the wound. These are never easy situations BUT it would be nice to be thrown a bone from time to time. But again, a lot of my gripes isn't with the app itself, just the situation is a tough one. My heart is there with anyone else who is in the same situation.

I have been able to send pics ever since I downloaded this junky app but other people have written me because they can’t attach pics or videos and no, it’s not the prison doing it.

I just tried attaching pics as I usually do straight from my iPhone and now jpay is saying the size is too big. A vertical iPhone picture is the same size every time.

They also make you write an email to go with attachments to get another stamp out of you. So I wasted stamps thinking the attachments were working because I have the screenshots showing they were added.

Don’t even get me started on their god awful video visiting. EVERYONE has issues with it, EVERYONE. The visit constantly drops the “call” and the time keeps ticking down waiting for your loved one to call back, it constantly freezes, and it has a lot of sound issues even though the site will say everything is working great and everyone’s internet is way faster than they say you need.

Not to mention $5 for a lousy 15 minute video where you barely have time to say hello to each other is disgusting to do to people in an already difficult situation. Oh and they make you sign up 3 days ahead of time but it’s actually 4 days and their system for signing up is ridiculously complicated and a terrible format.

I have never seen an app with so many bugs and so many “updates and fixes” in my life. What a piece of junk, rip off magnet.

Another company needs to step into the game and put jpay out of business. This is a monopoly which is illegal as is how they rip off consumers.

The concept of jay pay and the tablets is great and I love being able to email my loved one verses handwriting and mailing letters and all the features but... they should be ashamed the way they are taking advantage and charging insane fees.. the stamps aren’t bad but the cost to send a picture, that it’s only 50/50 will actually get to the person, or if your letter gets denied u loose your stamp but u aren’t alerted if the prisoner doesn’t get something u send, u can’t even check if they get stamps u send. U can’t get any type of response even if u have technical issues. I Once u send a video clip u can’t get it out of the app to save.
The real crime is if u google and read about the company and how they offer library books ( since they said they would offer that when they talked officials into giving them the contracts... well they don’t offer hundreds of free books or basically anything free to the hundreds if not thousands of inmates that don’t have money or loved ones sending them money, so now those can’t even read books. The prices for music and a movie just go beyond gouging. But they are the monopoly so far, and it’s better then nothing to the prisoners.
Also I have a bad feeling about my financial and personal infos security in this app. They keep doing updates but I’m not noticing things being better.
I’d like them to make it so when we send a letter or stamps to an inmate we can see when it’s actually delivered to them and they see it, to know if the prison denies a pic or letter or video or if somehow they don’t get stamps or all the money we send .

Like many others have said, I am very grateful to be able to communicate with my wife. But half the time I can’t even login to my JPAY. At first I thought it was my cellular service but soon realized that it was this app because every other app I have on my phone worked just fine. I dump so much money into this app between stamps and sending money and the stamps aren’t really an issue with me however, the fees that it costs to send money to a loved one is RIDICULOUS but it’s a necessity because if we don’t send our loved ones money for canteen then they’ll starve in that place. The main issue for me is the application. Like I said before, literally 50% of the time it won’t let me login to read my wife’s messages or to respond to her. FDOC just changed their telephone service provider from Securus to GlobelTelLink which is a JOKE. The same issues are happening with GTL and it seems like they won’t do anything to fix it. When my wife calls the prison only allows us 15 minutes and 10 minutes out of those 15 are cut out to where we can’t even hear each other. Now I know this has nothing to do with JPAY but the point I’m getting at is I can’t even go visit my wife for one and for two the phone service is horrible so we barely get to have phone calls and thirdly, these JPAY emails are our last resort and then the JPAY app don’t work half the time. This is one of our very few ways of communication with our loved ones and with the outrageous amount of money we all have to spend on JPAY, I think our service from y’all should be top notch A1. That’s really all I have to comment on.

I started using this app about two years ago. Initially it worked great. However the more updates they do the mobile no longer works smoothly. Emails are days late at times. I have logged in on numerous occasions and got a error stating unable to complete the request at this time please try again later. I have been patient and worked through these errors however sunday I changed my password through the browser and ever since I have not been able to log into the mobile app. I’m getting the same error message. When I reached out to customer service the agent was very rude and didn’t resolve my issue and told me I just have to use the browser then! The mobile app is more convenient than the browser and during these difficult times due to covid this has been they way for me to stay connected with my loved one. After reaching out a second time to customer service and being told the same thing that it is not jpay issue and that it sounds like a connection issue and to contact my provider I have to decided to come here for assistance. It is imperative that I have access to the mobile app there is no issue with my provider. I have tried to escalate this matter through jpay as well and still no resolution. Not a happy customer. I also am loosing emails f rom when we first starting emailing and nobody can answer why that is. Of course when called and talk to service they were rude as usual no resolution and basically was told f it. I don’t know what to tell you they just gone then we can’t keep them forever. This is sad and unacceptable. Poor customer service. Poor response no resolutions waste of time

While the concept of JPay is nice, the actual product can stand to be improved. As with many other services offered to the family members and inmates, I can’t help but feel that this is yet one more product with a relatively high cost that delivers lackluster or bare minimum services resulting in both parties having to ‘just deal with it’ because it’s the only option available.

1. As others have stated, the time it takes to receive messages is unpredictable.
2. I have the JPay app on an android phone and iPhone and the iPhone app does not have the option to save draft messages. I have lost countless emails while writing them via the iPhone.
3. The font on the iPhone JPay is huge.
4. It would be awesome to be able to download all messages sent and received in a bulk or zip file. My loved one will be coming home in a few months and outside of logging in to JPay from a desktop computer and painstakingly opening each email and copying and pasting it into another document — there is NO easy way for me to download all of our correspondence through the years. Combined sent and received messages are almost 600! And the videograms that will be lost — also disheartening. There have been extremely special moments shared that are heartbreaking to think that they will be lost forever. If downloading the files isn’t available via the app, it should at least be an optional service that the company provides.

Both loved ones AND inmates are people. I wouldn’t accept nor pay for this type of service from any other vendor. I resent spending my hard earned money for a service that does not embody excellent customer service and product for its consumers.

It’s quick, not that expensive, and I can hear back from my friend pretty quickly, which is great. But it thrice gobbled my messages in the months b/f this update, and now it puts a new color of checkmarks (weren’t red before) in front of photos, but never reveals what that means (I photographed paw paw fruit on a white saucer, whole and then sliced), and the draft will read that your pics are attached but when you tap “Send” the stamps counter won’t acknowledge that you have any photos attached. So I shouldn’t be surprised that my buddy has half the time not gotten many of the photos that I have sent. Just give us a legend telling us what a blue versus red or green checkmark means and write down somewhere what types or sizes of photos you won’t accept, b/c mine have been pics of parks, animals screenshot from Twitter, and produce, plus I had enough stamps, so I’m in the dark and disappointed. Oh! And why can’t we attach more than one photo with the “Snap & Send” feature? Guys, sometimes I only want to send a couple of photos, not compose a message, but we’re forced to WRITE something (more $$$$$) or just send one photo at a time via “Snap & Send” (yet more $$$$$). It’s starting to feel like a scam if you do more than write short notes. It was good for a while.
Why doesn’t JPay offer a “Send to printer” option so that we can easily re-read/save a physical copy of the letters that we get? A crash could destroy some precious sentiments and recorded memories. And screen grabs print very little per page: The font’s huge, so 1 and a half paragraphs take up a whole sheet of paper pretty much. It’s laborious. Please give us a “Print” button.

I will admit I have mixed emotions about this, at first I thought this application was great and for basically what it is as a quick fix, it is. Until however, your “loved one“ God I’m just going to be honest here I hate that term that is applicable to everyone regardless they truly have little to no sympathy nor do they follow up on “The last straw”-breaching my privacy and data as well as the JPay tablet of my significant other a.k.a. loved one. After bringing this to their attention- months ago-I begin to feel under the impression that things had been resolved, until I received an email from someone that hacked into my “loved ones account“ after calling as clearly this or these individuals have my information we’re not only utilizing it but also had access to my personal videos and photos as well as any other cross communication-your customer service agent was a really good actress I will give you that for five stars. It’s now been over a month and I’m sure you’ve noticed a decrease in your income as I have literally stopped using your app. It’s one thing when your company it’s self messes up and then treats everybody like a criminal literally because they are corresponding with one to where it pains you to reimburse one stamp-I could get over this but what I cannot get over is breaching my privacy and not doing a single thing about it. Luckily, there are other organizations in place for businesses such as yours, and I will be utilizing that “business“ no pun intended. In the meantime, everyone should check out Ameelio-no it’s not an email applicable site however it’s free to some degree the developers take pride in resolving issues and well, trust me on this one.

I’ve been using JPay for nearly a decade. The company has its contract and there are no alternatives or competition, so the exorbitant fees come with the territory.

New rules have even eliminated the US postal service; JPay now has a stranglehold monopoly. Don’t like JPay? Then you get nothing.

Developers ought to add stamp features. Why should customers need to access the web page for this one item? Or at least have a counter to know where we stand?

Also, an auto-save, or at least a save before exit popup ought to exist. I have learned to exit the app, choosing to save a draft after writing a few paragraphs just to be safe. Then re-enter, choosing to not override the draft. I’m sure many others have lost plenty of text because the app doesn’t have a save button!

Also, it would be nice if I could review attachments from the app prior to sending. Facility rules are strict, so the ability to quickly review before sending would help cut down on those unintended issues that cause entire emails to be blocked. And the stamps lost.

A final, small annoyance. Why not expand the viewable writing space? While entering text, the window is so small that only a couple lines can be seen. Even this little app review window shows me over 15 lines of text! Trying to scroll too quickly can result in the whole app being closed and all work lost forever!

Again, the technique is to exit the app, choose save, and restart. Then open the app without overwriting. Then the window is big enough for proofreading.

All of these issues exist because of unmotivated developers.

The app is quite basic. There aren’t user-friendly features because there’s no motivation for improvement. Unless a developer actually reads feedback and still retains a certain amount of pride in their work.

After doing the update last night I have not been able to log into my account to view or send my loved ones messages I go to click on and it goes strait back to the iPhone screen, in 10 years I’ve had very few issues and have always injoyed having an extra way of connecting with my loved one sending photos messages etc. now I’m unable to do anything since updating it last night ! These are very important to me as much as the calls are because I live now in another state from where he is incarcerated, I have stage 4 metastasized breast cancer spread to bones spine and sternum and my Husband has step 2 Diabetes abs has suffered a stroke a few months ago , in 10 years I can’t even begin to tell you how much money I have put on this account it’s a very high amount I can tell you that , you say you fixed the bugs and other things on this app , NO you only made it to where it’s unable / impossible to be used as much money that I have spent and the countless others that use this app to keep in touch with their loved ones has forked out you’d think y’all would be able to get it right , I’m an extremely disappointed dissatisfied customer it’s a shame I cannot speak to my loved one I’ve been extremely sick and they know I have and they are trying to send me a message , before the update I sent them one abs it went through fine , please fix the problem , I’m certain that if you don’t your going to loose a lot of business because no one can send messages so no buying stamps no sending money which y’all over charge for ! I’ve never complained but now I am , your post on here says you fixed ? You didn’t fix anything you made it unusable
Thanks a lot
GJJ FIX THE ISSUES already so we can get back to talking to our loved ones
I’m rating you 1 star honestly because you said it was fixed it deserves no stars
Very upset mom stage 4 metastasized breast cancer bone spine and sternum incurable and upset

Over all I love the app. The only issues I have with JPay would be that there is no longer a sound notification to go along with the pop up notification on the iPhone. Sure I can just pick up my phone to see if I have an email. But who really has enough time to constantly check their phone. Y’all really need to bring back the sound notification. It’s really nice to know the moment I receive an email so I can reply in a timely manner instead of having to constantly check my phone. Also, when I do receive an email the red numbered circle saying now many messages I have in my inbox won’t go away the moment I open a message. It takes several times of opening the app, going into my inbox, reading the message I just got before it ever goes away. When I say doing that multiple times I mean multiple times. It took me doing that several times from Friday to Saturday for it to FINALLY go away. Just for it to return when I got a message today. ALSO, I have sent SEVERAL pictures to my loved one and he has only gotten a handful of them. I understand they have to be approved but what’s so offensive about a fish on a hook or a picture of my cat or the beach. I know they weren’t rejected by the prison. I have NEVER had a photo rejected. It would be really great if y’all would fix that issue along with the other issues that I have addressed. I am not the only one who has addressed these various issues so clearly it’s something that needs to be fixed. We spend hard earned money through JPay to stay in touch with our loved ones, and it gets expensive so it would be nice if we didn’t feel like our money is being wasted or thrown away. I’m going to continue to use JPay for communication, because it’s quicker than snail mail and sometimes a phone call isn’t always available. With the exception of the ones I sent last night(I’m gonna see if he gets them) until y’all fix these issues I will no longer send photos through JPay. Wal mart photo center will get my business. I love JPay but my money as a paying customer needs to be a top priority along with providing us a product that works every time we need it to and how it needs to work.

I haven’t been using jpay for as long as these people .ive been using jpay Maybe a little over a month. And I can honestly say it’s not that bad.

When I first started using jpay. Obviously idk what I was doing . It automatically open up to the “send money” screen it didn’t have the main menu set up yet. I was trying to send my BF some money anyway . Now the ONLY option that was given to me was something related to court payments. The wording was confusing but that was the only options so I assumed that where i needed to send the money. . Me being a new user I didnt know that if I added money there he wouldn’t be receiving it. Long story short my $100 went to his court payments and NOT to his account. When I called customer service . She was ZERO HELP. She basically told me. The money already went through there’s nothing she cans do. I DONT FEEL I SHOULD LOSE OUT ON $100 because this stupid app has been updating for the last year. And DIDNT GIVE THE OPTION to select STATE PRISON SYSTEM. I WOULD LIKE MY $100 BACK BECAUSE I DONT FEEL ITS MY FAULT. ESPECIALLY SINCE I WAS ONLY GIVEN ONE OPTION. THE APP NEEDs ALOT OF WORK. HONESTLY JUST GO ONLINE. If you want to make any payments because even now it’s giving me the option to send him money directly but it not giving me the option for court ordered payments! This apps updates literally every 3 seconds . Every time you sign in it’s telling you about a new update but I don’t see anything that changed.

I get my video calls fine. I receive my emails in a timely manner. Usually within a day. Although today i received a notification saying that I received an email earlier today . but when I went to check it the email wasn’t there. When I called customer support they told me that . My BF sent me the email but it has to be approved first and that can take up to 5 business days. Even though this is a convenient way to stay in contact when it works the way it should . It’s very annoying to haves to wait so long to be approved. I rather just write a letter at least I know he’ll always get it in 2 business days . All in all. I can say this app can use a lot more improvement And customer service has been good to me recently .
I will come back with and updated review to let you know how long i waited for this email to come through

I first wanna start this off by stating my issues with JPay. I downloaded this app back in 2018 when I decided to contact my aunt that has been in jail for 20 years. More than anything I wished to get to know her, but also form great memories together and form a bond through getting to know her through emails. I took a year break or two and when I got back on JPay I was unable to even get on my account. They had deleted my account. I restarted and made a new account. I was extremely disheartened by the fact that they deleted my account and all the emails and pictures that I had sent to her. But I decided just to let it go because I thought that maybe because I left for such a long period of time that was their excuse. However back in 2020 when I decided to start emailing my aunt back she had told me that all her pictures and videos and emails have been deleted just as mine were. I thought that this was horrible because this was the only way we could communicate and send emails pictures and videos. My thing is, if JPay is charging you a stamp to send the emails why do they get to decide when they want to delete your emails without asking for your consent first if you’re paying for them . Recently my aunt has told me that she hasn’t been receiving my emails. Some of them have been going through others have not. So I continue to write to my aunt and then about a day or two ago I realize that JPay was glitching. I had sent her an email telling her that I was deeply concerned because the app was glitching and I had a fear set all my emails would be deleted once again. But unfortunately not to my surprise I wake up this morning and I’m having trouble signing in. Eventually an hour or two goes by I’m able to sign in and I see I have two new emails from my aunt. Excited as can be I go to try to open the email. And unfortunately once again all of my emails are deleted. All of my videos and pictures are deleted. And the two emails that my aunt sent me this morning I am unable to open as they have deleted the two new ones that I have yet to read as well. I believe this is extremely wrong because they make us pay for each and every email. So for them just to delete emails without asking and without being considerate to the families of the people who are speaking and trying to form a bond with , is absolutely wrong and disrespectful. I really hope JPay will fix this issue as soon as possible and return to me all the emails that they deleted without my permission especially because I had paid for every single one of them.

When I try to send money to my brother and enter my Visa credit card number and verification code I get the message "invalid verification code". This code is accepted every where else. I have called, been put on hold for 20 minutes, then got the prompt to press 1 and I would get a call back but that call never came. This happened twice.

I emailed [protected]@jpay.com and received a reply that didn't pertain to my issue. I replied to their email and haven't had a reply.

What I need done ASAP is for JPay to contact Visa and verify that my code is correct. My brother needs money and if I use a different card I'm charged $10 to $20 plus an interest charge until the amount I sent is paid off. This in addition to

what you charge. I'm an 86 year old widow on a fixed income and can't afford to keep doing this.

My daughter is in florida prison. She has been there since March.2023. She has been given her tablet to use. I have custody of her 3 children until she comes home. We went to visit her almost every weekend until last Saturday. On the way to our visit we were in a very bad accident. Our car was totaled. It was a miracle that we were all ok. My daughter now does not want us to drive there anymore due to it being to much of a dangerous drive. She will be happy to see the children on the video connect. We started trying to do this way before the accident. Everytime we click on schedule a visit a red paragraph comes up saying our inmate does not have permission to do this. I have spent hours calling the facility, securus, and jpay. I have been told different things on why and none makes sense. No one will help. I was told that I had to have a laptop or desk top with webcam in order to do this. We have tried android phones, iphones, tablets, and laptops and still get the same message. I was told this is the prisons problem and.my daughter has to talk to someone there. Well noone there can help either. I managed a security office for 22 years and know that someone in jpay or securus could get into my account to see what's wrong and fix it. Tomorrow is her birthday and her kids.would just love to see their Mother's face. We had videos while she was still in jail with no problem. Please take care of this so she can see her kids and they can see her in real time

For last months I have been having major issues with Jpay.com . They keep declining my Visa debit cards which according to their website is totally acceptable for payments!

I cannot even buy stamps .

I have tried 2x visa debit cards...Still declined!

I have been in contact with customer support by email far too many times to count. They suggested getting a prepaid visa card...I applied especially for one listed by them, Revolut...guess what? Still flecking declined! What the heck?

I have done everything they suggested & Still declined!

I use my cards all the time on other apps/websites without issues.

I'm not able to keep in touch with my friend 😕 so what more do you want me to do Jpay...go public!

3/21/2023 I ordered and paid for a tablet for my son. It has not been delivered and is past the 90 working days.

Called 4/27 and informed not shipped yet. Called in June and told my son needed to file a support ticket. He did with no response.

Called 7/12/23 and told not shipped. Spoke with Darha who said she would escalate to supervisor and to call back in 2 days. Called back on 7/20 and was told they do not escalate and inmate needed to do the support ticket. Was also told they do not issue refund. I questioned if it still had not been shipped and shows in process that apparently the order was lost. Still said they could not do anything even though it ships from their warehouse.

JPay kiosks located at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson Michigan has been down for two days. Inmates aren’t able to receive or send messages. May you please look into this matter or reach out to anyone who may be of some help. Today is my fiancé’s birthday and I really wish he could have received his birthday cards today. I thank you so very much.

I have experienced the same issues most people write about. I recognize that prison staff are frequently responsible for delaying email delivery. But the functionality of this app is a different matter. All apps need occasional updates. However this app is full of small bugs. Nevertheless it is functional and it’s our only choice. I have just had to delete the app and download it again. This makes the third time in as many months. It freezes and cannot connect. After the re-install it will work fine for awhile. When my phone goes to “dark mode “ the app does not adjust like other apps and I am unable to see the reply I send so I have to go to settings and manually go back to “light mode “ temporarily. I have brought this to jpay’s attention already but as many of you know, jpay doesn’t respond to such complaints and instead just promises to look into them. But other than these irritations, it seems to work fairly well. Too bad our prisons don’t also.

I love the app and being able to write and send pictures. Over the past several weeks I have had issues with my loved one NOT getting my messages. It says it was sent and I see the, but he is not getting them. He is then writing me and snapping thinking I am not writing. ALL of our messages are out of order. Messages with pictures have taken over a week to get and he has stated he has only gotten 5 of 18 I have sent since MONDAY! This is starting to get out of hand. I now can not send a message because it closes out the app all together when I go to send a message. As much money as I put on here to message, I almost feel like it is a rip off with everything that has been going on with the app and all the “bugs”. If he is not getting the picture messages, then what is the point in wasting a stamp for each one? Had to use 3 stamps to send video because email was not working. Very disappointed and over all the problems and stress it is putting on my relationship.

Once again I’m back on here leaving a review first it was an email problem receiving and sending out of the blue after my complaint it was fixed. Now it’s not letting me log in it kicking back an error message saying unable to complete request at this time. I’m really starting to get frustrated with this app it’s truly unfair that I have to continuously go through issues with this company. Yes it’s great when it’s working and I would definitely give you 5 stars if it worked accordingly but lately you guys get no stars from me, every other day I have an issues an as much clients and money that is spent using your services it should never be any problems. Let me guess you guys are going to write me back saying please call technical support and send me the number right smh. That’s all you guys ever say, then you call and be on hold for an hour and magically the call disconnects or you do speak to someone and they say they will fix it and never do smh. I’m highly disappointed.

I used to really love this app because of how convenient it is, being able to just write my loved ones on my phone, send pics, videos and send money..but now? I have no idea what happened. It’s like it’s been updated to be dysfunctional! I no longer get notifications when I get emails, I used to get emails sent to my personal email to let me know I have an email and I don’t get those either. I have to physically go to the app just to know if I have an email. I’ve had emails sent to my personal email saying my photos were rejected, so I sent different photos only for my loved one to tell me that he in fact did receive the ones that were said to be rejected! It takes way longer to receive their emails than it used to and also vice versa. The word count is stupid, the least it can do is tell you how much you have to write before it means that you’re going to need another stamp! Who ever is in charge clearly doesn’t know what it feels like to be close to someone that’s incarcerated.

It has been times when me and my fiancé send emails and I send pictures and he don’t receive them and I send them over and over again and he would still not get them I understand when the jail takes the pictures but I feel like when they do that they should at least return the stamp bc they don’t receive the picture but I kno that is so good to be true...I do like JPay a lot it definitely comes in handy way better the hand written mail sometimes the only other issue I have had was when my fiancé had to buy a new j5 player and the jail had every inmate download a free game which messed up several players but we still had to pay out of pocket for it when it was not none of the inmates faults that the players crashed I really wish it was something JPay could do about that bc the players are definitely not cheap 49.99 each I jus wish it was something that could be done but I know JPay definitely would not fix that issue nor refund the payment other then those small issues JPay is great...

You updated the app for iOS 13 - update came out today, 9/26. One of the biggest features in iOS 13 is dark mode, which your app doesn’t work with. Amazingly enough, it was fine prior to the app update. At least the colors. Notifications were days late, but I digress. As it is now since the update, the inbox and sent folders are just black bars and in the inbox the messages show no preview visible because the text is white.
I’m still trying to figure out how exclusivity was achieved...

Updating 4
A new update today. To address stamp fees. And ‘bug fixes’ but still shows the same unusable interface. It’s the same on an iPad.
The mail window shows black text on black background for Inbox and Sent. The stamps transfer page shows how many I have but no clue what the three options are. Contacts page is the same.
Light mode, dark mode - even inverted. All the same. I can read an email in the app because I realize where to go. But about anything else, the app is useless. I have to go to the site.

This app and company is horrendously horrible. If I could rate it negative stars they’d have earned every single negative star. From not getting emails on time, if at all, to the constant crashing while paying exorbitant fees for the services offered, it’s not worth it. Add the fact that every single time that I use the service, I end up with fraudulent charges to my credit card. I utilize the same reputable companies and services so whenever I reach out to my loved ones and utilize JPAY, I always end up with several fraudulent transactions that occur for specific amounts stacked back to back. This is the second time that this has occurred and I will not be utilizing JPay anymore. I highly recommend that you find a different way of contacting your loved ones because this company is extremely problematic for more than one reason. It’s shameful that they don’t help with issues, ignore valid complaints, and feign ignorance of the problems that arise from doing business with them. Utilize this company at your own risk.

I don't really write reviews on any app but this app is really getting on my nerves because I have been using this app for almost a year now and I try to communicate with my fiancé every single day outside the 15 minute calls that we are allowed to but for the past 2 month it feels that who ever gets profit from this app they just money hungry we do not receive our massages or videos that we send each other or we write to each other in the morning and get the massage late at night and lets not talk about the video calls we are not able to make no video call for 6 months because the kiosk is broken so they are not able to hear nothing we say and on this side either and if we write to technical support they do not reply back or they never fix the issues and we just end up loosing stamps and never get the massages is really so inconvenient because we are so apart Im in Texas and his all the way to Georgia and all we doing is spending money on something that is supposed to help our love once to communicate with us and their is issues SMH!

I’ve been using this app for over 2 years now. The last couple of updates has really ruined things such as the length of time we get our emails. It used to be within 20 minutes now it’s up to 12 hours or more. Also since the newest update I quit getting notifications sent to my
Phone. Honestly though, prior to that notifications would be delayed anyway. So in order for me to even see if I have an email I have to go into the app and check it. As much money I’ve spent just on Jpay alone in the last 2 years, it would be nice to have an app that works... the emails sent in a timely manner - which was never a problem until about October/November.

Also, reading at past reviews I noticed that a lot of people had issues with their loved ones players not working properly after an update. The same thing happened to my boyfriend and Jpay refused to fix the issue so we ended up buying another one. It’s just a money game. As much money people spend on jpay related things it would be great to utilize that money on making sure your crap works properly.

I’m not sure how this is considered an app, it is basically just an email host. It takes forever to go through to your recipient, I sent a video gram 3/27 and it shows it sent but it’s never been received. The website boasts many different functions you can utilize within the app but there won’t even be an option listed on the “app”. It is not efficient, if you want to send pictures from your photo library you better know exactly which one you want to send because it is a three minute process to pull up 1 picture. If you choose wrong you have to delete it and you start back over from beginning. It only keeps so many emails or cards at a time, don’t think you’ll be able to go back and reread anything past your last 50. You can’t save those really special or important ones, those will become something you try to remember.
Your recipient has to plug into a kiosk that through a cumulative 2 hr window has a 50/1 ratio, so you either get to talk to your loved one or they can run to the kiosk and spend their 20-30 minute rec time uploading videos, pictures or emails.

Update: They just put out another update and now my app won’t work at all! It says I need to update but I did and now it says the app is no longer supported. I go to the App Store and it just says “open”. Ridiculous.

Updated review: So they put out an update and for 2 days I started getting notifications again. But now they’re randomly deleting messages from my inbox and outbox. Msgs takes hours to even show up in my outbox as sent and their site says 15 minutes! I’m done spending money on this app! With all the profit this company makes off of families you would think they would spend some of it on making decent products that work. Even their tablets are garbage, my bf has his for less than a year and it’s useless. Buttons break, won’t sync, etc. Jpay is a SCAM using predatory business practices to profit from families. Let’s not forget the prisons get a kickback for doing business with them.

After the latest update I can’t even log into the app anymore “unable to complete the request at this time” ...I’ve deleted and reinstalled multiple times.

The last two months JPay keeps not working at all I can’t sign in then when I get in it says I have no contacts but I do so because no contacts I can’t write my husband. Can’t read his emails I see 5 of them but can’t open. I’ve been trying for 4 hours to write him because of emergency and luckily he called me. Then I tried to call JPay to let them know the problem and it says I can’t call at this time contact them in website but web site won’t load on 3 different devices one being library computer. So no way to tell them JPay isn’t working. Then on good days some times it takes weeks to get a email other times a few minutes. When I say sometimes I mean every day at least one to two emails will take weeks to get. Why is it taking so long. And I’ve told JPay many many many times about this problem and they say oh it’s not our fault it’s the prison or oh well fix it nope still the same they give you a BS answer to get you off the phone. How hard is it to make a app work. Facebook has millions and never has these problems. This isn’t a complicated app it shouldn’t have these problems. I still can’t use JPay and it’s now been 5 hours what is going on?

it takes days to get and receive emails. it takes on average 3 days and sometimes longer especially for the ones that cost 2 stamps. i also get notifications that i have new messages and when i check there is nothing. called customer service and they can’t do anything. i’ve had to send pictures several times and emails costing me stamps each time but they were never received or received in the 3rd or 4th try. that means i’m paying 3 to 4 times the cost and never get refunded. also the emails are received out of order. some are sent the next day but then the inmate or myself will get one that is 5-7 days old. it’s ridiculous. it usually takes less time to send mail via the post office and they can’t read outgoing mail from prison that way but can read everything on jpay. what’s the point if the system is slow or i have to pay multiple stamps to keep resending the emails and pictures. also equipment is cheap and it takes forever to get even a charger replaced. not happy at all with this app or the jpay customer service. once u pay for the tablet they no longer care about the problems associated with the functions. wish there was an alternative company to use.

So the app is very convenient for staying in touch with my loved one who is incarcerated and I’m grateful for that opportunity to easier communicate with them but the recent update seems like it has taken a couple steps back from when I previously had it downloaded on my old phone. My software is updated to the latest Apple 13.0 version and I have gotten a new phone and since downloading half of the app doesn’t work or display what it use too, I’m wasting stamps trying to send pictures more than once and have yet to be successful with getting them delivered to my loved one via the app, on top of that the option to add more stamps and a card doesn’t pop up on my application anymore either. I’ve wasted a good amount of stamps sending almost empty emails because the attached files don’t stick when sending even though they pop up when I first am composing the email. It’s just frustrating since I’m on my last stamps and haven’t yet figured out how to get everything to pop back up like it did on my old phone, should I delete the app and try downloading again? As much as it’s not working I’d hate to get rid of it because the actual email part works well enough to keep in touch with them.

UPDATE: so in my prior review below, I state that I have contacted support and no support was provided and their answer was to contact suport! If I could rate them a minus 5, I would. One note to folks complaining about delays, that problem is not Jpay's, it is the screening process at the facility.

Prior review:

I get five or six notifications per day that there are new emails when there are none. When I actually do get an email, no notification. I have to go in the app and check manually. I have sent multiple requests for support via the website, the app, etc. and never receive a response.

The badge notification is no better. It will show over 200 new emails when there are NONE.

The update fuction does not work like normal IOS apps, it will tell you there is an update but does not update. Then eventually it updates when you are trying to log in. The update should be available the updates link in the App Store.

On the Jpay website, the video visitation still uses flash which is a technology that is no longer used in the industry and does not work on newer computers. Why doesn't the app provide a way to do video visitation? They only provide a way to send a short recorded message.