Tello
reviews and complaints

I pay for MY Tello phone services and today I could not access any phone number. I called customer support only to wait 13 mins to be given to an answering machine to leave a message, straight from 611 from the phone. I have tired all online suggestions to fix the service, but I can't use the phone. I used the phone 2 days ago with out issue, shut down the phone and went to use today with the message your phone is not authorized to make calls to this number, I tried all my contacts and even random business numbers and the same for ALL! This is 100% unacceptable as such this voids the contracts of service, as none was provided. 1 day outage cost me speaking to the people I needed to get the work does as this is the emergency/work phone. My Tello should reimburse my payment for the month as I have canceled the plan, as any outage where I can't reach Customer service is a deal breaker, there is NO other support availed but email which I email out.

I had to get a line for my daughter during the pandemic, I had a phone which tello said wasn't compatible with their service. This prompted me to buy a phone from tello. The number expired due to financial circumstances. In an effort to retrieve the line, I was asked to buy a new line which I attempted, only to be told that the phone I bought barely a year ago is no longer compatible. The customer service representative I spoke to over the phone was very unprofessional and lacked empathy. This seems like a scam and a ploy for people to keep buying phones. I'm at a loss on what will happen to a phone I bought for almost $100 from this company. And the fact that my daughter will be deprived of reaching out to me during this summer break. I believe there should be plans in place for upgrade, you cannot just tell me that the phone I bought is useless due to whatever you did with your service. I strongly request for this issue to be resolved asap. Thanks

I have been a subscriber of TELLO since January . Coverage & data was exceptionally poor. Payment of 39.39 was pulled 6/13. On the app it shows that if you cancel your acc't, you lose your phone number (that I came in with) and I had to "take my number" before canceling. I called a rep name Rocio 6/19 to confirm this information. She told me it was true and "walked me through the process" of getting my acc't info, saying she had no access to it. What I was not informed of was that in getting this info required checking a box, which "forfeited" my right to a balance refund! Yet I would've lost my phone # if I hadn't gone through this process. I called Rocio a 2nd time, in which she had a different tone, stating that I should've asked for a refund first (which would've canceled my phone number) and how I should've read about the process (that she guided me through)...Basically I was in a lose/lose situation. I want my refund of 39.39, as this appears to be a deceitful practice.

I paid for a "Certified Refurbished LG Aristo 5" mobile phone from Tello.com. I paid a total of $128.52. What I received was a used, not reset, Boost Mobile LG Tribute Monarch phone in good to fair condition that I had to reset myself. The fair market value for what I received is $30. To be clear, WHAT I PAID FOR IS NOT WHAT I RECEIVED. I brought the matter to Tello customer service with the preferred resolution that they remit the difference or send me what I paid for. After several attempts to resolve the matter they refused to cooperate. I want them to remit the difference of what I paid for which is $98.52. I also asked that they send me what I paid for and the response was that they would not guarantee the items would be the same. In my opinion this is also FRAUD and THEFT. Please do what you can to remedy this situation and pursue legal options if any are available. I am attaching a picture of my "about phone" screen and account status. Please note the discrepancy. Thank you.

I received an email from Taeler saying I was eligible to migrate to the new Sim card in my area. I ordered the Sim card and completed the activation during which I confirmed the address and was told that I would receive coverage. However, after putting in the sim and resetting my phone I no longer receive service. I promptly contacted customer service I no longer receive service. I promptly contacted customer service and they informed me that I do not receive service in my area. I then requested that they switch my phone back because it worked perfectly in the same area on the old Sim card and they cannot do that so then I asked them to find a solution or replace my phone And they said they cannot I didn't spoke with two other representatives and requested a supervisor via the chat. The last person ended the conversation without resolving the solution. Now my phone does not work unless I drive to the city and I would not have updated it had I known ahead of time that it would not work.

I was notified by my Phone carrier "Tello" that I had to migrate to a GSM sim card. All the information sent to me said how easy it was and how great it would be, so, I installed the new SIM card. After that I found I could not access my voicemails anymore. I called the company today, Sept 16, 2021 a couple of days after I switched to the new sim and they said unfortunately the voicemails are gone forever! WHAT? I had no warning that this might happen. My sister died 2 months ago and I wanted to save her voicemails to me...but they are all gone! POOF! I am so upset by this I could scream! I've read that carriers usually save your voice messages on their carrier for 2 weeks...not TELLO apparently. They customer service guy on the phone just kept repeating to me that there was no way to retrieve my messages. TELLO NEEDS TO ALERT it's customers that this is what will happen. If they had alerted me I would have saved those precious messages from my sister somehow. I am totally heartbroken.

This phone company claims to be the most affordable "make your own plan" phone company. I pay 12 dollars a month for 300 mins, 1 GB data and unlimited text. I am very, very careful not to spend over the limit of my data or calls. However this month suddenly I have only 80 minutes left. Meaning, they alleged I have spent 220 minutes already in just a few days. I emailed support and they said they round up each call to one minute. I looked at my call list... 90% of my calls are UNDER 10 SECONDS LONG. This is NOT ok. A company cannot just change the definition of a measure of time. There was a lawsuit about this in the 90s for companies to stop doing this, and the customers won. Did Tello not get the memo? In addition, they are preying on already poor people. A person with a normal salary wouldn't care and would just buy a normal phone plan from AT&T or Verizon. My income this year has been 0 dollars. This is a textbook predatory business. I want my bill to be charged fairly. I did use 6 seconds, so I should be charged for that, not one minute. Do NOT get a phone plan from Tello.

Bought refurbished slip phone which did not work with old information, seller refused to apply warranty during claim processing I bought a refurbished slip phone from Tello. The phone did not work and was not refurbished with the old owner's information in it such as phone number and settings while receiving it. The phone cannot be used with full features, especially it cannot be charged. I contacted Tello within the 30 days warranty time period. Tello provided a couple of solutions to it. But it has kept non-working afterwards. Finally Tello said it was beyond the warranty time - 30 days, not further help provided. Attached below is the contact timeline to Tello. 1. July 8: purchased refurbished phone from Tello at $69.39; 2. July 11, received the phone; 3. July 23, activated the phone, but found it not working, contacted Tello with the chat records; 4. Aug 21, 2020, contacted Tello with the chat records for the dead phone with the case# XXXXXXXX; 5. Aug 27, 2020, complained again to contact Tello with the case#XXXXXXXX; 6. Aug 29, 2020, Tello provided a new battery replaced; but the issue not solved;

I have opened a Tello account (a reseller of *** this past spring and at first things seemed to go well. Then I started noticing that text messages to my family (multiple recipients) were never sent. I called Tello and was told that my phone needed to be turned off and back on. I did this and one such message will be sent; after that the system goes back to not sending messages any more.More recently, my family has contacting me to let me know that their calls are going directly to voice mail, even though the phone is not in use. I started dialing my own mobile phone number from my wireline phone and found that the mobile phone was completely useless. Calls to Tello have resulted in them resetting "the network settings for the phone" and calls can then be received for a few minutes after which all incoming calls will again be sent to voice mail.I have tried multiple times to contact Tello technical support and I receive no contact back. Requests to speak with managers were at first sent to individuals claiming to be manager, but who could do nothing to help. More recently requests to be forwarded to manager are either ignored or refused with the claim that there are no managers available (though they advertise the company is open 24/7).

tello.com suddenly decided to change their policy and expired and removed PAYG (Pay As You Go) customer phone numbers. Now unable to use phones. 8/20 phone number disconnected NO SERVICE when there is still an account balance $ in our phone accounts. No offer to assist transferring service to another plan, or to port out to another carrier, or offering refund of account balance. After multiple complaints, they offered to refund account balance to Paypal, and to recover expired phone number. Then another agent refused to complete this offer and no longer responds. Tried to port out our fully paid older phones and other carriers say IMEI not released by tello so we are unable to use phones with anyone else and have lost our phone numbers. This is illegal as the FCC requires carriers to unlock and/or port numbers. And they are stealing the funds balance from many customers. PAYG customers are most often light phone users, such as senior citizens and youth, so they are taking advantage of their vulnerability and lack of technology and internet accessibility during this time of pandemic. Instead of such harsh tactics, all tello had to do was to offer to switch PAYG customers to a monthly plan, and offer to transfer their remaining account balance, or 1st month free, or something similar. Instead of using honey, they tried to catch flies with vinegar.

I am a victim of Identity theft. Our emails and cellular service and online accounts were hacked and compromised. The police have explained how the cyber stalker was tracking and harassing us. And by hacking the online account and then Apple ID and IMEI. The cyber stalker had full control of *** since early Jan and we only recently figured it out finally. I had already cancelled payments and logged disputes on the card payment.Also, *** was never used whatsoever. However, weve discovered the hacker attempted to attach a dual SIM card when we recently attempted to get another device.Attempting to contact TELLO to shut down these accounts and give credit for ***March 2022, as police have informed us that any online accounts connected to ID theft should be removed/refunded.I received rude customer service and was hung up on and then placed on indefinite hold.I WOULD LIKE TO BE ASSURED BOTH OF THESE NUMBERS ARE DISCONNECTED *** and *** AND I WOULD LIKE A REFUND FOR ***MARCH 2022.(The cyber stalker has been accessing our accounts and changing account information and details so he/she is in control of our various accounts).I am requesting through the Complaintsboard.com that Tello freeze these account from any further changes or online access and please send account refund to the card on file. The card is closed, if it possibly doesnt credit, please send a check in the mail. Thank you for your help to resolve and help me recover from this horrendous experience of cyber stalking/attack and ID theft.

Bought Tello's product, a 6 month SIM card from StackSocial... Unlimited Talk and Text, 2GB/mo. Charged me monthly, not what I wanted. Cancelled me. As stated earlier, I bought Tello's product, a 6 month SIM card from StackSocial, a reseller of theirs... for a plan that involves Unlimited Talk & Text + 2GB data a month. I've been charged $10 a month since maybe May? And I noticed the other day that the charge is for $10+tax for "1GB data recharge"... which obviously isn't something I should be charged for... since it's supposed to be a prepaid plan. I did have to order a SIM card for it though, since SIM cards for Sprint (and Sprint MVNOs) are very specific, and cannot seem to be reused - if used previously. I reached out several times to Tello support, and the only resolution they would offer was cancelling my account and refunding the monthly fee. The problem here is I still paid for their product, the money still went to them, and I will still be out on the $49+ I paid for the 6 month SIM card... as well as likely the months of service I didn't want that were autocharged to my card, and that I contacted support immediately about - with no resolution. I told them within the last few days via email that I want this resolved, and they responded by cancelling my account. So, likely I'll have no refunds for this, no resolution for the money I paid for and service not rendered... By the way, I contacted them at least twice before this, and they still continued to charge me month to month. I'm honestly livid that they'd sell something and not stand by the product.

My phone number was forcefully removed and the corresponding credit was also taken away forcefully by the company despite multiple pleadings. I had signed up with tello about a year or so ago for a pay as you go phone plan since I rarely use my phone. On Aug. 12th 2020, I received a email from Tello telling me that unless I add at least $20 credit (even though I still have $5 credit balance in my account) or switch to a monthly plan by 19th, otherwise my phone will be disconnected. The reason is I have to add at least $20 credit every 90 days. I emailed back arguing a. I could not find such clause on the pay as you go terms and conditions. b. This condition did not exists at the time I signed up the plan. The reply was: this condition was added in September. In the 2nd email, I plead for a 90 day extension since I was not informed of the change. My plead was denied, because the company can change the policy anytime without telling their customers I was told. I pleaded again with reason that this can be considered a deceiving practice and also I need time to figure out what to do. Again, my plead of extension was denied. Now it's 15th, wanted to use my remain balance, I tried make a international call but failed. Emailed Tello and it was fixed the next day. So I used this to plead again saying since the service was not working before, can I get another month to figure out what to do. No luck. On 19th, my phone was disconnected, my credit balance was gone. I still could not find the said new clause of 90 days on the Tello pay as you go plan, One reviewer said you have to dig into small printed details to find it.

Tello has this policy in which if a customer recharges the service by hand (with cell minutes and/or data), the unused minutes (or data) for the previous month rolls over. At the time of renewal, there is an option (check a box) that reminds the customer that the period/ month is about over. Knowing that the period is almost done, the customer can go and renew by hand, keeping/rolling over his minutes. That has been my situation. I renewed manually for the last 4-5 months or more ending up with a somewhat large cumulation of minutes (I think there were around 3-400 minutes or more. I did check the little box so that I would be reminded to manually recharge the service and roll over the unused minutes. Even though I was set up to be reminded (I am 100% sure I did check the box for a reminder), Tello did not send the reminder and, because the service was automatically renewed, all the minutes I had were unfairly erased. This happened on 1/21. They likely saw I had so many minutes and wanted to reset everything. I am paying each month for the minutes I get, and I should be allowed to keep them. I contacted them about this issue and they gave me cold, "copy-paste" responses, ignoring answering the real issue. I would like: 1. my minutes I had accumulated to be reinstated, and 2. the minutes that are not used one month to automatically roll over to the next month (without me needing to manually reload). After all, we pay for them in full at the level/price they requested. Their site stipulates: "Not to brag, but we have a great Customer Support Team." That is not my experience. On the contrary, they chose to ignore the details/specific situation of my complaint. Thank you very much.

Change in cell platform from CDMA to GSM eliminates the use of Visual Voicemail. As a long time Tello customer I should let you know I've always encouraged and recommended Tello to all of my friends and associates both personally and also in my social media connections. Upon reading that Tello was in the process of transitioning from CDMA to the GSM platform I contacted Tello to inquire and Tello quickly sent me the GSM SIM card so that I could complete the process with my iPhone XR which I purchased directly through Tello some time ago. After completing the exchange from CDMA to the GSM SIM card then and only then did I discover that Visual Voicemail was no longer available to me with the use of my iPhone XR... I find this lack of 'warning' to be very unfair from the position of Tello, iPhone user's should have been warned of the loss of this feature prior to making the change... So now here I am a long time paying customer who no longer has the same features I've grown accustomed to with my iPhone XR and am having to find other solutions in order to be properly notified when I have received a voicemail... Currently I am having to forward all of my Tello phone calls to my Google Voice account just so that I am properly notified of a new voicemail... So I pay the same amount every month and get less in the way of service from Tello... It is discouraging to be told by Tello customer support that you are 'aware' of the problem but cannot give us any sort of projected date that this issue will be rectified... As a long time user let me be clear, I DO NOT want to leave Tello as my service provider but at the sometime I cannot see myself continuing to pay for a service that is no longer complete to me and without a 'projected' date of resuming to Visual Voicemail service... This is a clear 'change in features' and is unfair and is not even good business practice.

Pay As You Go credit expired without notification. I have been a Tello customer since early 2019 and I pay for a plan every month. I also have $35 PAYG credit sitting in my account since 2019 and not sure how the expiration of PAYG works with a plan. So I emailed customer service on 8/17 and in particular asked "If I cancel my plan for how long I can still use my PAYG credit." I provided all the details of my account and PAYG credit. I received the answer "Pay As You Go credit is now available for a period of 3 months since your last order was placed. If no order was placed in a period of 3 months, the credit will expire and the Tello service will be disconnected." I am still confused with the answer because I am not sure if the monthly payment of a plan is considered an order. So I called customer service and provided all the details of my account. I then asked "How long can I use my $35 PAYG credit after I cancel my monthly plan"? The customer representative said "you have 90 days to use your PAYG credit". After I made the last monthly payment on 9/5 I canceled my plan. Starting from 10/6 my monthly plan expired and I started to use the PAYG credit expecting to use it till early Dec (90 days past 9/5). On 10/16 I noticed I cannot use the phone for SMS/Data/Call. Then I logged into my online account and found zero PAYG balance. I called the customer service again and was told the balance expired because my last PAYG order is back in 2019, well passed 90 days. That is different from what the last rep said. I then asked why I did not receive any reminder and she said an email was sent. I found an email sent 5:33am on 10/16 notifying my PAYG balance HAS expired. In the email I was provided a link for PAYG Service Agreement which states "Pay As You Go credit is available for a period of 3 months since Customer's last Pay As You Go order. If no order was placed in a period of 3 months, Pay As You Go credit will expire and the Tello Service will be disconnected." The wording is very similar to what I received from the customer service rep except that rep used "3 months since last order" and T&C used "3 months since last Pay As You Go order". I am not sure why the email representative did not answer my question with clear terms as T&C used nor provided a link to T&C. And I am not sure why the phone representative did not tell me that my PAYG credit will expire right after my monthly plan expires when he knows my PAYG credit was purchased in 2019. Because of the misleading information provided by Tello email and phone customer service representatives and lack of reminder/notification from Tello before the PAYG credit expires I have to forfeit my $34.xx balance.