TracFone Wireless - poor service!

Hi, CWebb. This is Mia from NET10 Wireless. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Should you need help with your phone. Please chat with us using this link http://bit.ly/2lHoBuo. For your convenience, our representatives are available Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM EST. You may also text the key word HELP to 611611 to view our self-service menu with a list of help key words with valuable information.

Tracfone - www.tracfone.com

Here is the e-mail I sent to Tracfone:

After 3 attempts, I finally got through to a "service" rep. on 9/11/07. Could not hear her at all--too much background noise and she came through very quietly. This was the case on a friend's phone too. After 15 min on hold and 1 hr trying to hear the codes she was telling me to enter, the service rep told me my 824 minutes would transfer to my new phone within 15 minutes of my hanging up. If she could take care of it without my entering the codes, why did I spend 1 hr trying to hear her?--which was never successful. Codes were never accepted. Now I have lost the 824 min on my old phone and have 0 min on the new. THANKS FOR NOTHING! If I don't receive the minutes I paid for, I will pursue outside agencies (gov't, etc.) to advocate for me! You can also reach me on my Verizon cell (XXX-XXX-XXXX).

Here is the "helpful" reply from Tracfone: In order to better assist you, please contact one of our customer care representatives at [protected]. I actually tried again (crazy!) and spent 45 min in a computer loop holding/transferring and trying to get a person. The computer told me my cell phone was activated--end of story as far as Tracfone is concerned. The problem is I have ZERO minutes and I paid for a years worth of service and I'm supposed to have 824 minutes!

Bought 2 cards to add minutes to my and my son's TracFone. The son's worked, but mine wouldn't credit my minutes after entering the code number. Called Trac-Fone, was told customer service representatives were busy with an estimated wait time of 15 minutes. 45 minutes later, I hung up, having burnt more than half of my son's new card. Went to their website: Unavailable due to maintenance. What a crock this company is.

Chris

I had been having to call customer service about once a month. My cell phone service was not working more than it was. I had spent more time talking to customer service on someone else’s phone than I spoke to people on my phone. Then they screwed up my account even worse: lost my minutes, days, even my phone number. They kept telling me they could not recover the information and do not give refunds. After four or five phone calls totaling four or five hours, and being told to call back again tomorrow- I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It took nearly two months to get a response. The minutes they could not recover in five hours suddenly became possible in less than five minutes. However, being two months after the fact, I had already changed carriers. I insisted on a refund for the unused time.
If customer service is not willing to solve the problem file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau Florida. www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org

The service at Tracfone is ridiculous. I purchased a phone, and it was a piece of junk. I got a replacement phone from the retailer, and that was a piece of junk too! I called tracfone and they wouldn't let me upgrade to a different phone but sent me another piece of junk LG220C. So, now I have had three of these crap phones and none are any good. I just got off the phone with tracfone AGAIN, and they refuse to help me upgrade and they won't refund my money. What a bunch of crap! Now, since I have over 700 minute accumulated, I have to stick with these jerks or lose that time. This phone is going in the garbage! What a rip off!

If you have to call customer service.. don't waste your time... the just don't even try to help with your phone problem! You just can't reason with them. I call this poor business policy!

It took me 2 days after total run around to finally speak to someone with any semblance of sense. And that person (the supervisor) gave me no satisfaction whatsoever. I can't go online to add minutes, (a computer glitch that they can't seem to rectify) I have to trek to town to buy a "new" pin number and call back, meanwhile my phone is deactivated and I loose any minutes I had. What a bunch of crap, a total ripoff. I spoke with "Jose", "Letica" "Sevilla" "Krystal" "Ameed"(who hung up on me) "Jeo" and "Elizabetha"(supposedly a supervisor). I'll bet they just passed my call to everyone in the office. I will tell everyone I know NEVER to go with "CrapFone". They can kiss my ***!

Net 10 and Trac Phone are the same company. The scam is selling very cheaply made, bad quality cell phones that don't work I went thru 5 dud phones & they refused to refund Talk Time I could never use, since all 5 phones were defective. Their company really operates by selling you the defective phone, then you waste $ on Talk Time minutes they refuse to refund even if you return the defective phone 5 times. This happened to me within a 2 month time frame - 5 defective phones - all my Talk Time minutes expired in 60 days and they wouldn't extend expiration date and refused to give me a refund. I wound up disupting the charges on my credit card and that was the only way not to get "scorched".

Tech support is just horrible - Mexico, Philipine, India Call center - they refuse to transfer you to a supervisor. Typical phone call to their 800# is never less than 45 minutes - they put you on hold for a very long time, repeatedly - and they cannot do Tech Support - so then they just "dump" your call and disconnect you.

I've had cell phones for 13 years and never a problem -Net 10 and Trac Phone is definitely the worst ever in my experience. Avoid them.

I made the very very sorry mistake of thinking this was the solution to inexpensive phones for my two teenagers.
Have spent HOURS AND HOURS in chat, on the phone (ran out of minutes on my regular verizon account thanks to this!) and in email with no less than 12 reps all giving me the different stories, solutions, etc.
Will be turning these in despite losing money as it's a bigger financial waste of my time to deal with such a beyond crappy company.
In the end, their poor service and products will do them in. It's just a matter of time, loss of customers and money before this happens.
IN the meantime, word of mouth and forums will help us get our message out. I am telling everyone I know to never get a Tracfone!

i have beeen using tracphones for over five years and now that I do not have money to get more minutes they will not give me a number to access my voicemail when I bought my first phone I had another number to access from land line I will not refer this type of phone again I have already had twelve people sign up and will not suggest it again you can either access my number long enough to get my messages or I will have everyone I referred to have theirs shut off

I bought a TracPhone for my wife to use. She has never been able to make a call last longer than 5 minutes. The phone randomly hangs up and you cannot call out again for awhile. After many complaints to TracPhone they sent another phone. Same results. I tried both local calls and long distance. Called my landline in my house same result. Called my cell phone (Sprint PCS) same result. I also called the other direction i.e. use other phones to call the Tracphone. The same type of failures. The phone just dies at anytime after the connection is made. It seems the only time the phone really works is when TracPhone sends sales messages to the phones mailbox.

I signed up for double minutes for life in 2007. Today when I added minutes to my phone they were not doubled. I spent 3 hours on the phone with one supervisor after another. In the end they denied that I had ever signed up for the double minutes for life and when I tried to correct that by signing up and having the minutes I had added this morning doubled they refused to allow me to do that. Horrible customer service.

I bought a tracfone and a 60 minute card. I had the phone/computer associate at walmart do it for me because I was unfamiliar with activating it, and they do it all the time.

it didn't activate. I went online to activate it. it didn't. I called them from my landline to activate it. still didn't work.

You get a canned email response that says to call customer service, then spend half an hour explaining, while they put you on hold for 10 times, saying I'm sorry it's not our problem over and over. It does no good talking to them, don't even try.

I bought 2 more 60 minute cards at walmart. we tried there to get it to work. the 2 extra cards didn't activate on the phone.

so I went to refund all, and get another phone. walmart took back all except the 1 60 minute card that would not read any longer on the bar code machine. they told me to call tracfone.

tracfone cust. service is in India. They are scripted to say "Hold for 3 minutes please" and "Sorry I can't help you."

I've told them the phone didn't work, the minutes never activated.

"Sorry sir it looks good to our computers."

Doesn't matter that the people at walmart and I couldn't get the phone to work, they can't help me.

I'm just tired of trying to communicate with them, it's like talking to an echo.

We bought a Tracfone Big Easy phone for a senior citizen family member who had trouble with the smaller button on phones.
First of all we looked on Walmart for Straight Talk and they had one however they said it would not work in our area
I then went on the Straight Talk site ( owned by Tracfone) and THEY said that it WOULD work in the area.
OhhKayy...
We then went to the Tracfone site where this same phone was for sale and, after punching in the zipcode, the phone came up that it would work in the area, so - dummies that we are - we ordered the phone.
After going on the Tracfone website, we attempted to activate the phone.
It would not activate.
Went on the toll free line and was told it would be at least 30 minutes.
Well I don't have time to waste waiting for someone to talk to, so I found an email by searching for Tracfone Complaints.
They finally, after two days, gave me a code that would supposedly activate this phone. The phone did come on BUT no phone number in the phone. When we went back on the site to sign him up for a monthly plan, it said FAILED.
So...
I have went and sent email number four to the company...
I really think that this phone does not work in the area so WHY would they keep saying that it does?
Really disgusted with Tracfone and we are afraid we will have trouble getting the money already paid, returned.

These complaints are very accurate/true, as I am having a similar problem with TRAC PONE.

I have a way that can direct you to the excellent reps. The email address to contact them is NT.CorpR[email protected] These reps resolved my issues real time, and they are very efficient. You can chat with them too through the chat link http://bit.ly/1b9xrmg. Try it!

I got a net10 75.00 card. And they put 1 phone with the internet and the other phone with out the internet. Don

I have had a Tracfone for several years and never had a complaint or problem with the phone. Anytime there were questions, I always got a quick and accurate answer. Then i made the mistake of trying to transfer my landline number to my cell phone! It would probably have worked fine, but someone at Trac entered one wrong digit and I entered cell phone ***. After six hours on the phone (not an exaggeration!), the problem is still not resolved and i have reinserted the old SIM card with its old number so that my family can reach me if they need me. It is not over because i know how to write scathing letters that get action . . .

Tracfone coverage in my area looks good on a map but bad in the real world; the coverage drops out a lot and waste my minutes. Tracfone cell phones are cheap as in how they are made. The LG 420 cell phone for Tracfone takes over 3 hours to turn on and load; I don't even have a lot of stuff on there. Tracfone customer service representatives are not helpful and give me the run around to fix my phone problems. I paid for something; it better work and if not I want my money back.

Stay very far away from this anti-service. To say the experience was an adventure might be accurate if you consider hours of bearing witness to incompetence (or maybe extremely poor training) an adventure.

I think I've memorized the serial number and SIM card ID from all the times I had to recite it (and type it in while lodging a complaint to TracFone directly.)

I have woods behind my house. So, I'm going to toss a baseball with one of my sons to warm up and then I'm going to launch both cell phones as deep into the woods as I can. Maybe the bears can use them, or more likely, they'll get a good laugh out of the *** humans who thought TracFone was a great idea.

We purchased two trac phones and minutes from radio shack in peterboro NH. the phones just did not work so we returned to the store and were treated like "***". No returns allowed as we were told we only had 15 minutes to return items, it is a 1/2 hour ride home to find out we purchased junk! manager and help are too rude for me...too many other places sell all they do...and just try and find an address to complain to...or call 1 800 who cares and get more rudeness...I for one will never return as a CUSTOMER!

This tracphone is for personal use. We have been on hold for several hours to get our minutes changed form one phone to another.

Very dissatisfied with service.

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To Whom It May Concern:

I am complaining about the tracfone I bought being useless to me. I bought it to keep in contact with a friend that was going from the hospital to a nursing home and back again for a long time. She has passed away since I got the tracfone. I have no one that I can contact with the tracfone any longer. I never got to get in contact with her on it either.

I have a good excuse for not being able to use the tracfone and that is because I am nearly deaf and I have trouble hearing on a phone line even if it is an amplified phone line. My way of hearing is from being able to read lips and that is the only way I can hear. I bought 400 minutes of calling time. I still have 379 units left on the card. I think I should be allowed to have a reimbursement for the calling time I did not use. I can not figure out any way possible for me to use the tracfone at all since I know no one that has a tracfone to be able to type a call to them even. I tried like I was told to do the other day, an that is I tried at the store where I bought the tracfone from to get a reimbursement for the calling time. They said they could not give me any of the money back that I spent on that phone so I am wondering if you could refund me some of the money I paid for the calling time. It is not my fault I am unable to hear on these tracfones. I could get the most of it refunded if not all of it. I am hoping that is what happens.

Could you please let me know if you can do this for me. I feel like I have been ripped off because there was no way for me to try to see if I could hear on the tracfone before I bought one. It is something I have a real problem with is the lack of confidence I have from my hearing problem. It is a way of people taking unfair advantage of me on a regular basis. I hope your company does not do that to me this time, too. Could you please let me know if you can assist me with this problem being solved. When I hear your answer I will let you know my personal information as to where to send my refund to at that time.

Sincerely yours,
NV

every month like clock work i wait till the middle of the month for minutes promised in 7 days only when i call and spend a whole day talking with a rep who clearly can not speak english and also refuses to transfer me to a superviser where i can get help(maybe)it is the most *** set up ive ever seen as we speak im still waiting on mimutes and thanksgiving is 11 days away does the gov know that we speak english bring these jobs back at least if were getting screwed we can understand were getting screwed.

Tracfone does dirty business. I am discontinuing my service after using the minutes that I now have.

I tried using a promo code that was on my tracfone for 20 extra minutes. I was kept on the phone for an unreasonable ammount of time and could not use the promo code although I had added the required number of minutes to redeem the code for my extra minutes. I was given a 7 digit number, and tracfone said they only send 5 digit codes. I am not happy! I asked to speak with a supervisor and spoke with someone called Von. Her ID # 57546. She kept me on the phone for a long time assuring she could correct the situation but in the end, I was told that she could not help me.

Beware! Read all the complaints before purchasing from TracFone. They are a rip-off company and I dare you to find one rep who speaks fluent English and can help resolve your issue in less than 30 minutes! Deactivated my phone for no reason, told me I had to purchase a new cell phone which I did, then told me they could not transfer my 350 minutes to my new phone. All this took place after approximately 2 hrs on the phone with an Indian, Oriental, or other non American non English speaking Idiot! Beware before you buy!

I spent over 2 and a half hours on the phone with 7 different Tracfone techs trying to make my Tracfone work. The only think accomplished was we managed to put the 120 minutes I bought on to the phone. I finally gave up and verbally beat a path to a manager to try and just get my $30 back for the minutes on the broken phone. I must have told the same information to 7 different people by the time I got to the biggest *** of all: Sergio, the manager of call center in Guatemala city, Guatemala in South America. After determining I bough the phone card 6 days ago in Wal-Mart said I had to send in a copy of the original receipt! Tracfone, I have it and I will send in a copy, say tuned! The irony is that the phone card was for 120 minutes and that is almost to the minute the time I spent on the phone trying to get the *** thing to work and then trying to get a refund. Hate Tracfone!

Tracfone technicians and service representatives located in Phillipines. Very difficult experience registering and activating cell phone on WEB. Site services repeatedly denied service support forcing me to utilize their (800) phone number. Lengthy call with redundant queries and attempts to consolidate already existing account were their focus. Not interested in consolidating exisitng account. Nearly a 45 minute to one hour experience to get phone activated. Next day I attempted to utilize a valid promo code for one year service. Utilized "TRACFONE" (800) number and new Tracfone to enable bonus minutes for additional minutes. 18 minutes of call time deducted from service on (800) number. Situation was perpetuated while agent repeatedly asked me to bear with the agent while they recorded the notes. Upon conclusion of 15 minutes of note recording (to which I asked whether they really needed me to hang on using up the minutes) they simply informed that the promo code was added. Latter is all really poor consumer provision and product promotional. Very little gain, very sad consumer provision, borderline scam, just a thread above hiding behind shield of "what did we do wrong" crap. WALMART (Where phone was purchased) should exert some of their purchasing influence to protect consumer and drop the product line.

I purchased a. airtime card for 1, 600 minutes, but only 12, 200 minutes were added to my Tracfone. - Motorloa STOLE 400 minutes! Today I called them about it & I was told I would have to supply them with a CREDIT CARD NUMBER? After I use the minutes that I have now, I WILL NEVER BUY AIRTIME AGAIN FROM MOTOROLA! THIS Company is a THIEF! PEOPLE SHOULD AVOID MOTOROLA PRODUCTS.

I have this year alone bought 4 tracfones, each one I've had problems with, I recently bought their new touch phone, when tryiong to get a code in, for personal reasons, it would not take it, after the 10th attempt, the sim card locked me out, after calling them and being on hold for two hours they told me they would have to send me a new sim card, since I had a older model of their phone I decided to just transfer my number to this phone while the sim card came, they told me it would take 7-10 days, they told me I coouldn't do this either, they would have to send me a new sim card for my old, deativated phone, another 7-10 days... The phone before this was the new LG touch phone they sent me this without a instructions manual, and I was using my fingers instead of the stylus, I never knew the phone had and it died, not only did I once again had a 2 hr wait to get a service rep, but they told me it would take me another wk to get the new phone, this has been going on since the beginning of the year, I am totally discusted with this company, the LG kept repeating msgs, so I would answer them and lose minutes, and I was not reimbursed fairly for all the m oney I had invested in their phone. If this doesn't work this time, I will go to another company, I have been with this company for 4-5 years, and lately things have gone downhill, I wouldn't advise anyone to buy their products!

Three times in the past 2 days, while using my phone to play Words with Friends, an audio ad has started playing out of nowhere. I shut down all programs and it kept playing. I turned the volume off, and it kept playing. I had to turn the phone off to get it to stop. I was so angry I didn't listen to the ad, but I caught the word Verizon. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Bought a new services card from Walmart to reload a phone. Call customer service to load minutes, was told minutes were added and to start a google account. I did these things and then was told that the phone was still deactivated. I call customer service back only to be told "oh I am sorry, your card was used to activated another phone " which isn't mines. I ask what do we need to do to get my money and was told that the policy was that nothing could be done. That I need to count it as a loss. I ask for a complaint department and was told they no such department and that the policy was a new one of no refunds or transferring of minutes once the card has been used. I stayed on the phone for two hours or more trying to get my money. I ask why wasn't it a policy for cases such as mines and was it just wasn't. So they just gave my money away. Please be weary using this company!

I purchased a Net10 $25 airtime card, yet only to learn that it wont work on my smart phone, and only works on a few older phones like flip phones, yet that fact isnt in print anywhere on the net10 refill card for $25. so net10 tells me to bad for your loss and tells me to buy a $35 refill card, , and thhey are keeping my $25.00 i spent on this unused card, , , well...here is my video response to Net10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY26bhg7EIk&feature=youtu.be

TRACFONE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE OF A LIFETIME! July 2015
I made the mistake of giving my housebound, immobile aunt- who could not afford a phone- who needed a lifeline- this terrible company's phone. They treated her so blatantly rudely on the phone when she called for help ( I was on the line- 3 way call from my phone) telling her it wasn't their job to help people who didn't know how to use their phone and insulting her through out the call. Of course there was no higher up to consult as this was "the supervisor"! Evidently he has no boss. Customer “service" that on every call tells an immobile person with no other phone line or communication they have to call from another line to get help! (Despite them being perfectly capable of handling it on a 3 way call but not wanting to put the effort)
- A circus of handling my complaint-- complete with a call at 6AM on the 4th OF JULY- AMERICAN HOLIDAY - the epitome of the core of off-shoring your customer "service" & a basic problem this company has in understanding this! Not only BAD BUSINESS but DISRESPECTFUL!
- email to customer service that generates an email back asking for a call that cannot solve the problem- I call the number given only to hear a recording that says the company is closed- every time- even during normal business hours. But I managed to use the extension given in the voicemail to reach an operator…Who CANT HELP ME -because she "does not deal in complaints”, has "no supervisor there" and does not have ANY information to help me other than to "email corporate"- as I HAVE JUST DONE HERE TO START WITH to get to this point! OR "call them"- which I JUST DID only to find out she can’t help me?! And has NO OTHER NUMBER for me to get help with the problem she cannot solve?!
-A phone system that gives a recording saying you are closed even during hours when you are open and works if one puts in the correct extension to actually access live help- well hidden- and without anyone to care or fix it.
- Basic tenants of customer service lacking - whoever is responsible for sending these emails and leaving voicemails- you need to leave a name and number where you can actually be reached to actually solve the problems!
- Every employee should know who is CEO, how to reach corporate, how to get a supervisor immediately and how to escalate problems they can’t solve!
- A customer “service” department works on it’s own without supervision and is free to say and do anything they please with customers - without recourse- or concern.
Emailed CEO per info above and will find his phone number despite it's deletion in the above post!
Twitter and Facebook reveal this awful company who evidently just keeps raking it in off the backs of the poor without a care.

I think that net10 has some serious issues in regards to internal fraud of customer payments. I checked my records and also all the email correspondence I have had with Net10. I have all the proof to show that all my monthly bills have been paid through my credit card. However Net10 claims that I have not paid any charge since April. I have proof that from my email history that I had requested auto-pay and have been enrolled a number of times as I had learned that for some reason my number was kicked out and then started to receive warning emails that my account was in default. I strongly believe and am able to prove that some one on the inside of Net10 is skimming monthly fees that are being paid to Net10 by their customers. Basically a scheme like that would be called by the FBI a wire fraud over state lines which is a criminal offense and provides for jail time and penalties. I am about toput a document together that will clearly demonstrate that Net10 is not minding the store and is exposing its customers to a fraud scheme but also identity theft by their employees who use customer confidential information to manipulate the Net10 computers and divert customer payments to themselves.

Straight Talk, a TracPhone company, set a new low standard for service.
After a few months of very poor service, we stopped paying and went to Version. When we tried to get our phone number back to Version, they would not give it up "because it was not active since we had missed a payment." If we wanted, we could pay another month ($45) and they would then release the number.

In other words, they would hold the number we had for 10 years hostage as a parting shot to very dissatisfied customers. I am trying to get an email on Steve Ritter so I can contact him. This is a perfect example of how poorly a company can be run.

I agree wholeheartedly with all the comments about how lousy Tracfone customer service is.
On 12/13/14, the phone number I have had for years disappeared from the Tracfone online information, so I did an off/on reset several times to no avail, even though the correct number was on the "My Phone Number " display. Then, a second different number showed up. Contacting Tracfone customer service was a total multi-hour runaround ending with them saying they would "overnight" a new SIM card. Well, that was Saturday and the damn SIM card never arrived until late the following Wednesday. Then, the runaround continued Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (today) with no resolution, but plenty of ###. Supposedly, T-Mobile has deactivated the phone number even though I never had and never will have anything to do with T-Mobile. I have no idea why T-Mobile has any role in Tracfone business, but that's what the Tracfone "experts" are trying to feed me. Now, I'm supposed to wait another 24-48 hours for something to happen. Will they call me when the problem is resolved? Yea - right! They were supposed to call today (another 24-hour wait period expired), but no call, so I called them with another round of the same ###. Thanks to complaintsboard.com for the information on who to contact at Tracfone. I will send this comment plus more to them.

Trying to get my Tracfone problem fixed has been sheer torture. I used the resolution email address someone posted and they "fixed" a problem that didn't t exist. It was clear they didn't even read my email message t. It has been over a week and I've had to restate my problem over for the fifth time. They would rather I call them, but my home phone is dead and I have no work phone. Either the agents do not read the messages or they can't read English very well. Maybe that's why the company wants phone calls, because the agents can't read! Or the customer service is designed to be so bad so we'll throw the phones away and buy a new one. Don't you wish you could put the phones where they belong (;? Now I know why on TV the criminals have bags of disposable cell phones. They're all the Tracfone and Net 10 phones with problems they can't get fixed so they're just hanging around until they're used up (:

I have two TracFones. One has not worked for days. Each time I call they tell me to call back in 24 hours. If you ask to speak to a supervisor she will tell you she IS the supervisor. She says their "engineers" are working on the problem. I offered to take them some coffee if she would give me their location. At one point she said repairs could take "years." That was PROBABLY a language error, but I'm not so sure. Terrible, terrible service. And they're closed altogether on weekends (what, they can't afford the extra 45¢ an hour for their employees?). And their website has been defective (at least on MY browser) for a long time.

I've had Tracfone for almost a year now. I'm generally satisfied that I get what I pay for. However, if for whatever reason a text does not get sent, when I select the option to retry sending, I get charged for trying to send again. Tracfone does not give refunds for their inability to provide the service I pay for so beware when trying to send text when there is no service or when calling to complain.

Tracfone is commiting fraud. It told me I got free promotional minutes 100 minutes. It then deducted money from my bank account on my debit card 2 days in a row. I called I emailed to refund my money and they have taken out money today also.