Net10 Wireless review: terrible customer service! 138

Some times you have to take the good with the bad, i used a contract phone most of my life. Its the norm right. Untill i had money troubles and had to cut costs and work more, yet the more i worked the more my phone bill cost. When i cancelled my phone and got a prepaid phone due to the fact i could only afford so much and had to limit my minutes i found i got more minutes for less with net10. Yet i agree there CS sucked, so did my contract carrier before that your just paying so much for it they cover it up. Net10 is alright by me. You want raw service that does what it was made to then this is it. Get over the small things and look at the costs at the end of the month because thats what counts.

In my opinion NET10 has terrible customer service due to many problems aside from their customer service people. Customer service/technical support is a "burn-out" job. Most problems that people encounter involve
data integrity. Net10 apparently does not have adequate data integrity controls in place so it customer find that
they have lost minutes or days due to incompetence of Net10 management and it's lack of integrity dealing with
it's customer (aka clients). So far as simply using their phone services they use the major carriers to provide
the physical connections. It's up to Net10 to manage account minutes and service days. Whenever you contact
customer service you are at risk. If you want to transfer minutes and service days to an upgraded phone you
may find out the hard way you've lost your minutes and/or service days. A common excuse is that these were
"bonus" minutes and service days that were not "paid" for and not subject to reimbursement. I have disrespect
for the phase "Indian Givers" due to the way the United States has convistcated tribal lands and have driven
native americans to less desirable areas. I now realize the term is probably acccurate but has been applied to the wrong ethnic group which should the asian Indians from India. My simple request to change my phone number lead to so much chaos because of NET10's data integrity (database integrity) with data quality so poor that I fesl that you may only want to conider their services if you vacation at a beach (water damage would be minimal),
are a serious debtor who need to frequently change phones, or are a cell phone junkie who needs to limit phone cost over charges. These people stink!
should not consider using their services as using no more than a "junk" services.

Mathew55904 i have used a Samsung on net10 for ages now. Never been a problem. I mean it’s understandable people are angry about things that go wrong, but i mean i have used allot of phone carriers and it’s not like they any different. Net10 at least saves you money. And when you fed up just don’t pay any more it’s not like you got a contract. From my experience with net10 i have had a few of these problems but never anything that bad or that couldn’t be resolved if you’re patient and persistent.

u have a samsung phone thats you problem its not NET10 Samsung and LGs have never worked right to begin with

The worst ever experience. I talked to a net10 rep on the phone and purchased my phone on 3/6. Was so excited to get my Samsung 401G. I received & activated it on 3/10. To find that it wouldnt work right, on permanent roam and browser wont connect

I wont go into great detail about the long hold times, dropped calls and support people repeating the same things over and over and not being able to identify that the problem was the WRONG phone for my area.. Being told that ticket was escalated and never being escalated ...etc etc...

Long story short . After 10 days of daily calls, 20 CS reps, 12 hours on the phone they finally agreed that I have the wrong phone for my area, I need the Samsung R451. Sent me a new phone. On 3/24 receieved tried to activate new phone. Wrong phone again, set up for Smart talk, not Net 10. They said they would send a new phone on 3/24, / 3/30 and now on 4/6. So I have YET to receive the 3rd phone.

I cant get beyond customer the CS supervisor to a higher up department or person to resolve this situation. I feel like I have just went around and around in a circle for the past month, so I am just sitting here wondering what to do now. I have 2 phones that dont work. And I get the same repeat crap everytime I call net 10. I have to explain the entire situation and they are so confused about what they have and have not sent to me...just mind boggling how unorganized they are. Everytime I call they dont have the correct info from the previous conversations...I have to start from square one each time I call. And the fact htat I cannot talk to someone in a higher department to resolve this is just rediculous...

This is a copy of the letter I sent to net ten!----------
I have been on the phone for over an hour and you still cannot get my issue resolved! What is wrong with you people? I have been with net ten for five years and I thought you were a good provider until I had this issue. I ordered two phones and when they arrived one could not read the sim card and the other onecould not get on the web. When I called I was basically told that I had to go outside to get on the internet! Does this sound like good customer service to you? I am at the point that I want my money back so I can get another company that wil provide good coverage and service. You people have my money and I have this kind of service and phones. Hang your heads in shame! I am contacting the BBB in my area and some other resources. I can tellyou that this is THE worst service I have ever recieved from ANY company. I expect a solution to this problem or I will be contacting my attorney in regards to out and out fraud and theft since you have my money and I have this kind of equipment and customer service! I hope you people sleep good at night knowing that my wife is a cancer patient and cannot use our net ten phone to call for doctors or for emergency service!
Richard Maloney

I got a new Net10 phone a few months ago, after being with them for 4 year and about a week ago the internet on this new phone stops working and i need it for work, i was so angry and the lady from net10 cs was of no help until i slammed the phone down, the next day i called and got the same lady who had worked out my problem and everything was sorted. I was very rude and impatient but its nice to know that she understood and still fixed the problem, these are people too and they deserve respect and a little patience. Hard lesson learned but at least phone still works.

You should all move over to Pure Talk USA. They are a Georgia based company that has support in the US. Just like Net10 they are 10 cents a minute or less depending on usage. They are no contract, no roaming, and are on AT & T network just like Net10. The best thing is that their SIM card will work in any unlocked GMS phone, including your NET10 phone if you unlock it. They have a monthly no contract plan [$10/month, 101 minutes] similar to Net10, but you can have a preset number of minutes added if you run out during the month and any unused minutes carry over to the next month. Their support is great! No waiting for ever to talk to someone.

Stall far away from this company I had their service for less then a week. This my third time on the phone try to get my voice mail working.

The second time I demand to speak to a supervisor what a joke. I was promised that it would be working within a couple of hours and that I would get 60 minutes credit to my phone .

That was Saturday and now its Monday still no working voice mail and no credit. I called tec support and he transferred me to someone else so 20 minutes on hold for the first person and now its been another 25 minutes and still waiting for someone to answer the transfer.

Steve

I've heard so many complaints regarding prepaid cell companies and did my research before I decided to go with Net 10. I wasn't surprised that the company outsourced their customer service (my major previous carrier did the same thing) so I prepared myself when I had to call over a SIM issues. Luckily, I had a quick and painless experience and when I spoke to a few friends who also have it, they also had a good experience. Sometimes its a bad call center or an inexperienced rep, but a whole company should be judged on the good and the bad. If you are with Net 10 for the prices, savings, and service, then stick with it - even when you end up in India.

Sorry I forgot to post that corporate phone number for Net 10, [protected]

I have a net 10 phone, and for all of last year I had an automatic 150 min. a month added to my phone and was billed on a credit card, worked well until Dec 09 I got billed but to get my minutes and airtime I had to call and wait for a human to give me a long string of numbers to get the minutes, same thing in Jan.. Now in Feb. 2010 I was billed on Feb. 2 and my airtime expired 2/14, but on 2/15 my phone still showed 2/14 due date and no new minutes! So I called the phone number they provided me in the original agreement, the recording said they had a large volume of calls and could not take my call, to call back at another time, same message on the 16th, 17th, so on the 18th I called my credit card company and disputed the charges and blocked them from ever charging my card again. God Bless Chase, the best credit card company in the world. But because I had 697 minutes on my phone I went to Walmart and bought a 200 min, card, but when I tried to use it all I got was invalid code, so I called the number on the card and waited, and waited, 3 people later and a hour later, I was told she could not help me because the original 150 minutes was still pending, she could not ad the minutes from the card I bought, so I gave up with her. When I first called I had asked the first girl for the corporate number and when I called this number I still had to wait on hold, but a human answered and after 50 minutes I had the 200 minutes and 2 months airtime added to my phone. I will not go back to the original plan and as soon as I find another phone company to move to, I will give my phone to a relative and let them use up the minutes.

I was told by a Net Ten customer service rep they had three phones with unlimited plan for $50/ month so I went out an purchased one of these phones ($80.00) to find out after 3 days of trying to contact customers service again to get this plan (over 4hrs hold time) that the phone had to be purchased at Target and I had purchased mine at Walmart so I could not get this plan. NET TEN CUSTOMER SERVICES IS AWEFUL! and they need to inform their employees of these details so people like myself don't spend their hard earned money for nothing. I am now looking in Verizon were yes I may pay alittle more, but they are honest, friendly and so far I have dealt with non-foreigners which I can understand easily. I will never purchase another Net Ten phone and have informed my friends and family of these crap too.

PLEASE DO NOT BUY NET10 THEY ARE A RIP OFF!

Having just got of the phone with net10 for the umteenth time with NO satisfaction whatsoever, I am really, really, pissed off! They have NO clue as to how to resolve issues with their phones, they do not speak English well enough to be understood, and they give the customers more disinformation than useful information. The average "supervisor" is dumber than a turnip, and at best - their job is to run tackle for their superiors. I will never again purchase one of these useless phone items from these lying cheating bast--d's!
Far and away the poorest business practices I have ever dealt with. They run their customer service area like some cheap boilerroom operation...the FCC should shut them down!

I just got off the phone to Columbia, the day before it was the phillipines, they charged me 14.95 for overnight service but didn't ship the phone for 2 days, I was told they would not refund my money, I would blame myself for not trying to buy American products and deal with American citizins but would not know where to begin on that project! The superviser would not give me his name or anyplace to call to request my 14.95 back. If I could say what I would like to do to the country of Columbia I would be arrested, so I won't! Good Luck America, were screwed1!

You want bad, try this. I'll just do the summary since details will take pages. Net 10 owed me 150 minutes due to a failed airtime transfer on my original phone. Let the nightmare begin. I preface by saying I am speech-impaired, so all of my phone calls to them have to be made over a TTY device with operator assistance. (I use the phone for texting, in case you're curious.)
Between November 28, 2009 and December 7, 2009 I made 7 phone call, each at least an hour long (one clocked in at 2 hrs 25 minutes), with a Net 10 rep who could barely speak English. Foolishly, I had believed them that the issue would be resolved as I upgraded to a phone with keyboard. (I am regretting it.) I estimate total phone time to get it resolved at about seven and a half hours. In the meantime, I am corresponding with an e-mail rep, estimated 8 exchanges there.
I was outright lied to, hung up on, disconnected and just, in general, given a complete run-around.
Oh, yes, in the middle of all this, I am dealing with the new phone, which is supposed to charge only 3 cents per text, but charges 5.
Then I decided to tell them I wanted compensation for my trouble. Yeah, right. Two more phone hours and 5 more e-mail exchanges, and they finally offer me 50 minutes. No airtime. I am accepting that, but not as a final resolution. This is still on-going, and, really, is now a game with me. I will continue to make a nuisance of myself, just for the heck of it, at this point.
The thing is, the service is actually nice, just don't have any problems!

Customer service at net10 is an ABOMINATION. Have been on hold now waiting for CS for an hour and a half. Elevator music and repeated statements that 'my call is VERY important to them'. If it's so important, would their net10 CEO wait an hour and a half if he called his office and waited for a line? Original call because we can't get the voicemail to work. Went online, followed the Tech Service instructions exactly (all the time still on hold waiting for a rep to pick-up) and it gave a box that said net10 needed to install an update to the phone (which we just bought a month ago) and when the download was complete, the stinking phone (an LG) does not work AT ALL. Disgusting piece of dog droppings company that will leave customers on hold for hours and without paid services.

I have over 4-hours on the phone trying to get my voice mail working, not to mention the 50-minutes I burned up on the net 10 phone. I finally have it working. I trying to retrieve the 50 minutes. They just keep ignoring my e-mails. What do I have to do to solve this problem

Cliff Sabin
Serial #[protected]

Phone # [protected]

Does anyone really care at net 10 about this crap? I have been on the phone now 4 different times trying to get my phone to work. I won't bore you with the stupid details, but what a mistake this choice in cell companies was.

for all the negitive posts in this topic NET10 is the NUMBER ONE Prepaid carrier in America if you dont believe me goto net10.com!

I hate to hear of all the issues that other customers have faced, but i surprisingly had a GREAT EXPERIENCE, with Net10. I am used to being treated poorly by customer service, especially regarding prepaid services. I was enrolled in auto pay, and wasnt aware of it. I saw that I had been charged for new minutes. I called Customer service ready to have to argue my case, and demand to be refunded. To my surprise I did not have to argue, and the rep was very nice. Took my info, and i was refunded. I didnt get the lady's name, but her service was GREAT. However, I am still shocked all went so smoothly.

that's how they make their money by eating up the minutes you paid for by keeping you on hold or talking in circles and charging you for messages never sent.

Wow, I guess I'm not the only one to have problems with them. I also got cut off when talking to a "supervisor".

Maybe I should just take this phone to my friend who owns a cell phone repair shop and see what he can do with it...

I don't know what we will do, those who rely on NO contract svc. There are no good providers. Everyone is going bad. Have had net 10 for yrs..always happy..
had reception when others didn't..now can't get it hardly anywhere. On phone with "Carlos" for 21/2 hrs. Kept putting me on hold and was surprised when I outlasted him..told me to call back in 10 days to see if it had got better..meanwhile no phone..wasted 288 min that I can't use. Don't know where to go as everyne is total fraud. I believe net has changed pro-
viders in my area. Son lives in NC and his svc is still good. Maybe they will fix it when enough quit them.

JBe i fully agree with you i have never had a problem with NET10 service or Customer Service

and NET10 phones ARE NOT too costly all prepaid phones average NET10's price TRACFONE is cheaper on phone because it is 33 cents a minute

Is this all you people do is complain all day? I love my net10 phone, I can surf the web (news weather sports) and download ringtones, text, AND I had good custumer service. What more can you ask for? Cheap and dependable cell phone service. I'll never go to them "Big guy" companies.

I don't like NET10 choice of phones they suck and their prices of cell phones need to come down because they are a little pricey. I like the plain, but they need to change some things.

I, m glad I, m not the only one dealing with this issue. net 10 does need to be dealt with. I, m not stupid

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Donaldhugh47
To: Donaldhugh47
Sent: 6/1/2009 20:41:20 Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Re: Other Features (KMM3731025I16433L0KM)

In a message dated 6/1/2009 20:30:12 Eastern Daylight Time, Donaldhugh47 writes:
After speaking to net 10 today for several hours and several hang-ups and not being able to fix my new net 10 phone I was given a return authorization no # [protected] for the return and of the phone and assessories for a refund to my checking account hopefully you will return the price of the fed-ex return of $7.41. I got the phone to go on vacation next week. The first time I tried to use the phone was when my car broke down and it didn't work and I had to walk to a station ( not to happy a camper )the phone didn't work. I'm very unhappy with net 10 and the tech's that I talked with several times. Now I have to get another phone from another service all before I leave for vacation next Tuesday morning. FED-X tracking no is #[protected]

In a message dated 6/1/2009 00:53:11 Eastern Daylight Time, Custsrv@net10.com writes:
Dear Donald,

Thank you for your interest in NET10 Wireless. We are responding to your
recent inquiry.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any
inconvenience you may have experienced with our service. In order to
further assist you with this issue, we will need to speak to you
directly to check the internal settings of the phone.

Please contact one of our customer care representatives at
[protected]. For your convenience, our representatives are available
Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 9:45 PM EST. To expedite your call,
please have your NET10 handset and serial number available.

Thank you for being a NET10 Wireless customer. We appreciate your
business.

Sincerely,

NET10 Wireless

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Fed-X tracking no is # [protected] for the return of the phone and assessories!
Issue Category:
Features
Specific Issue:
Other Features
Brief description of issue:
[Sun May 31 17:34:45 2009] [Sun May 31 17:31:42 2009] Phone don't work
wher when I dial it say's max phone numbers are reached I can't make a
call or recieve a call what's up PLEASE HELP!? this is not good as I'm
without a phone why have minutes if I can't use them
ESN or IMEI:
[protected]
NET10 phone number:
[protected]
First Name:
donald
Last Name:
mcgrath
Address Type:
Home
City:
bangor
State:
ME
Zip Code:
04401
Phone Type:
Home
Phone Number:
[protected]
e-Mail:
donaldhugh47@aol.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? Explore WhereItsAt.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your fingertips.

I ordered a phone which was defedctive, then returned it. I received another one of lesser value that had static in it. I returned that for a full refund and have never received my refund. That was over two months ago. I have been on the phone with net10 for approx a total of 6 hours trying to settle this (at several different times). Each time I am told something different. Today I asked the person on the phone which state he was in---he was in Guatamala! No wonder he doesn't know whats going on!

not true on the PUK code it didnt work for me and i called 611 (Tracfone) and they said rarely will u beable to unlock the SIM card when the PUK code thing is up ive found that true i still have 1 try left on my SIM card to fix it by trying hte SAME PUK code 9 times

ITS NOT CUSTOMER SERVICE ITS THE DIP ### THAT CALL THEM BEING STUPID AND NOT WILLING TO LISTEN THE MINUTES EXPIRED BECAUSE THE SERVICE ENDED DUH! YOU PEOPLE PISS OFF ME ALONG WITH ALL OTHER NET10 CUSTOMERS THAT LOVE ITS SERVICE

they state on any online shopping site they CANNOT deliver to a PO Box they cannot gurantee delivery

Sim card always defective. Was told a year ago that a tower was down and that's why I had no service. LOL Then it was the sim card. Then they were going to send me another one. LOL I wen t out and bought another phone and screamed until they connected me that day with my same number (they told me I would have to wait 7 days to connect to my old number with my new phone!). The new sim card, which was being "rushed" arrived over the Christmas holidays - 4 weeks later - and while I was not there to sign for it. They kept calling me about the delivery and I just kept telling them to come back out the next day. lol Thought they would like to see what it's like to waste their time too. Never got the sim card. Didn't care. Looking for a new company - or better yet - no cell phone at all.

Their service DID NOT GET BETTER. It's still lousy. Let's hope the bad economy shakes these leaches out of their complacency and they decide that making money is better than lousy customer service. I don't understand why they can't pay the same money to a firm that will actually get the job done for them. You cannot unsubscribe from their text messages, emails, etc. The link is broken and has been for months. You cannot tell me that's not deliberate. Trying to call them to unsubscribe means waiting for over 40 - 50 minutes even thought the recorded message states a "ten minute wait time." I lost 60 minutes of cell phone time dealing with them and never got it credited back. If all other things are equal, I'll find another company that wants to keep customers - not annoy the hell out of them!

I had the Unlimited plan set up with automatic payments. In December the auto payment bounced. Oops! My bad. I called to pay over the phone three days later and had the most ridiculous, yet typical, Net10 experience.

Of course, I had the Indians who I couldn't understand to save my life. Everything they said was soooooo scripted and repetitive it was driving me insane!

OK. At this I need to place you on hold for 2 minutes. Is that OK with you? Yes? At this I will will place you on hold for 2 minutes. Thank you in advance for your patience.

I wanted to tell them to quit ###ing asking for approval to do what needs to be done to fix the situation and just do it!

There was nothing "2 minutes" about my hold time.

They would not allow me to pay over the phone to keep my phone working. I was told there was a "30 day cooling off period." Cooling off period? I'm trying to keep my phone working, not buy a gun!

All in one breath they told me my account was canceled and active. Being canceled prevented me from being able to take corrective action and so did being active. I tried to explain to them that my account is either canceled or active, but, it cannot be both. All they could do was repeat their lines like a robot.

My phone just died over this weekend and I ordered a new phone from them so I wouldn't have to change my number and now I'm kicking myself in the ### for it.

Did I mention their web site sucks? The forms frequently do not work. You have to pull teeth to find some common information.

Before I went Unlimited I remember needing to purchase airtime cards online rather than just buying airtime itself online. What's the point in having a web site if you have to perform electronic transactions via snail mail? How about if they telegraph me instead?

Every time I have any contact with Net 10, whether online or over the phone, it is always a nightmare!

if you were just a little smart, you guys dont blocked the sim card himself, im a CS agent and I spend 8 hours listening the same stupid /(&%$%% all day, you guys dont even know how to turn a cell phone on, very sorry if the english is poor but there's no choice you have to call customer service, do not be surprise if we repeat the words back to you, the company req that we can get fired if we do not so, and it's not funny... so easy for you to call and said "this is just ridiculous" let me ask you something how much do you pay for this littles phones?

you can fix the PUK code problem by going to net10.com. enter your IME # found on under your battery (since you can't look it up on phone when it's asking for your PUK code) then it will ask which problem you are having, pick puk code and it will give you a number to put in and a new pin code.

voila! i didn't even have to call customer service.

L

I wish I had been aware of this site before I purchased my Net 10 phone. Although, after reading some of the problems others have faced, my experience could have been much worse.
Oct. 15 Purchased Net 10 phone with 300 minutes. Called tech support to arrange porting a number. Was informed that they would have to send me a new sim card to complete the process. Didn't sound right to me. But (being new to Net 10), I mistakenly assumed they knew what they were talking about. Was told the new sim card would arrive in 7-10 business days.
Oct. 24 (today) New sim card arrived, and I promptly installed it. Called tech support to activate phone, and spent about an hour entering strings of codes. Was told to leave the phone on for an hour and it should be ready to use.
1 hour later... checked screen to find SIM Card Registration Failed message, and 0 minutes. Called tech support and spent another hour entering codes. Actually got the 300 minutes added. Again told to wait an hour and the phone would be ready to use.
1 hour later...same message. Called tech support and was told they could test the phone right away. After 20 minutes of listening to that dreadful music, the guy came back on the line and said it appeared the sim card was defective. By this point I was getting pretty pissed. He said they would ship another card, and they would rush it to me in 3-5 days.
After I got off the phone I figured "what the heck", and re-installed the original sim card. Turned on the phone and, SUPRISE! it made and received calls!
Called tech support to tell them I wouldn't need the new sim card. Asked to speak to a supervisor, and 20 minutes later got one. She listened to me explain the entire mess, and then started to walk me through more codes!? I yelled, used a few colorful words, and told her I will not be buying any more products/services from them. She calmly asked me if there was anything else she could help me with today. I replied, "Lady you haven't helped me YET!", and hung up on her.
Also like so many others, all of these conversations were tedious due to language barriers.
Moral of this story: Save your money, and your sanity. AVOID NET 10!