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TracFone Wireless

TracFone Wireless review: minutes not added after online purchase 6

M
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1:37 am EDT
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29-Apr-09

Tracfone wireless prepaid service

I've been using Tracfone since July '08 with the Motorola C139. To be fair up until now the service has been fairly decent with no big issues. That is until spending over two hours on the phone with customer service today (29-Apr-09) trying to finally get my minutes I purchased online to post on the phone. About a week ago, online I purchased the 450 minute/90day extension for $79.99 + 90 minutes extra minutes for $15 more ($5 for 30 minutes and $10 for 60). That and with the double minutes for life I originally installed on the phone SHOULD have given me 1080 total minutes (450 + 90 = 540 X 2= 1080) additional minutes. Well the minutes never posted but according to their customer service reps and hours of troubleshooting, since my expiration date has been extended 90days the minutes MUST have been added. We then went back and forth trying to see if I in fact have used the 1000 minutes since I originally added them a week ago. I barely use more than 100 minutes a month. And now the only way I can actually get the detailed call logs for the two week time frame for this is to mail or fax an official one time only exception they've allow (just for me magically) that's (subpoena official or whatever) to their records custodian and I should get this within 30days. I'm continuing to fight this in any and every way I can since who would pay nearly $100 for no service actually being added. It's like being robbed and then being accused of being the robber. But if those call logs clearly show that I didn't even make 10 minutes worth of calls during that period then I'm definitely going after Tracfone. Hard. Consumer complaints would be the minimum. If anyone else is having these same problems call and demand your call logs to verify where your actual minutes have gone and if they were in fact even added or used. It should take within 30 days for them to mail it or you could use fax. They don't know what the internet is. I'm already looking into other carriers like T-mobile and Verizon and to remember that you do in fact get what you pay for.

Update by michael A
Jul 15, 2009 9:19 pm EDT

UPDATE - 15 JUL 09

It's been over two months and still no call logs mailed to me from Tracfone after I faxed them all the information they requested including a scan of the back of the effected cell phone. Looks like they don't want to verify that they charged me without anything being credited to my account. I doubt I'll ever get my money back and it doesn't really matter anymore.

On a good note I'm very surprised that I've received a letter from the FCC complaints section that had a similar copy of my above original post/complaint. Maybe one day with enough complaints some action might finally be held or someone finally sues this company for all the fraud they've comitted.

I'm still using my Tracfone as a pseudo answering machine/screener phone and calling from a T-mobile prepaid phone and after entering my password able to check any messages. Hey even though I'm down to single digit units/minutes the service doesn't expire till the middle of next year so why not at least get some value back?

I'm satisified with the T-Mobile Prepaid service and later on planning on getting a Verizon Pre-paid phone to compliment T-Mobile's GSM network with Verizon's CDMA.

Here's to hoping Tracfone finally is brought to justice!

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6 comments
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Xierra
, PH
Sep 24, 2015 2:02 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I see so many people complaining on here, but I don’t think you guys are going to the right people to get help. My whole family has a TracFone. Every time something is wrong with it, we send an email to this address and the people working these emails are wonderful. Try it. The email address is TF.CorpResolutionTeam@tracfone.com. Send them your name, cell phone number or serial number and they will help you.

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BoogieBoogieAvenue
, US
Sep 09, 2015 3:00 pm EDT

Same exact problem here as well. I've got an LG 306G that I purchased airtime [card] for and added it online. Seemed to go thru fine, however the display on the telephone itself, it never changed. Because of that I called into Tracfone support asking if they were there because they'd not shown up and the phone still shows initial expiration date and that I've got 7 minutes left. I got someone with an extremely heavy West Indian accent and it was very difficult to understand him on our very lousy connection. I kept having to say "what's that? can you repeat that please?" He kept saying something that sounded like "dat phone zemmerite" and I had to have him repeat it four times to find out he was saying "that phone seems alright." And I'm thinking ahhhh no- it's not, that is why I am calling you. He told me he could see the minutes and the extended expiration date on his end. I asked why I couldn't and he said he didn't know. I wanted to scream "you don't KNOW?" Well, I sure as shiznit don't know- and if you don't know, who the eff knows? I asked what should I do and of course he said "nuttin dey come, I dink dey come." WTF man? So I said "so you're telling me there is nothing you can do- is that right?" So I tried to ask same question in a different manner, thinking there is some magic word or phrase I'm missing that will make him understand or possibly allow him to help me, "what if they don't show up tomorrow when my expiration time is up?" His super helpful response was "well if dey steel no show u haaf coll bakk." Oh sure, so someone else can NOT help me as much as you have? I'm shocked that this guy has a job. He did nothing, was of no help, had no answers for me and didn't even bother to TRY to help anymore than picking up the phone. I do technical support on the phone myself and I could not (WOULD not) leave someone completely unresolved like this. If in the million to one chance there was nothing I could do at the moment, I would take an email or phone # to get back with them shortly, when the resolution was available. Or else I wouldn't have a job very long- Know what I mean? I just want the minutes I paid for so I can use them up and get a different phone. I'm so incredibly disappointed in this whole thing. Be a different story if this were a one-off situation, but it's glaringly obvious, that it isn't. Seems this happens ALL the time and there is no hint of things changing for the better.

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Tamm1992
, US
May 28, 2015 10:56 am EDT

I had same problem adding 360 min. to my phone with a card purchased at walmart.com. Went through the same spill as everyone else. I was told they were added and all that was added was the service end date. The supervisor told me there was no one else to speak to because he had all the information in front of him. He pretty much made me feel like a liar! I don't know where to go from here. This is a new android and I can't keep buying phones!

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toadcrystal
, US
Jun 13, 2012 9:54 pm EDT

I had an almost identical thing happen. I switched my minutes to a new phone and first of all, didn't get all my minutes transferred. I called to complain and was told it was because my phone was so old, the display was not keeping up with the real minutes I had. I argued and argued and miraculously, I got the rest of my minutes. I had 1752 when I transferred and only got 752 the first time around. I got a text that said 1752 were transferred when this was settled. I don't use my phone much so I had just less than that a month later when my new expiration date came around and I had to add a card. I tried to do this online but this never works. Their online purchase of air time is a complete BS waste of time. It was the holiday weekend and I didn't want to go to the store to buy a card so I did this over the phone. I gave them the promo code from the book that came with my phone and kept repeating that I should be getting 1000 bonus minutes in addition to my year. I got talked into 2 years (what was I thinking?) for a cut rate on the second year and I, again, made sure this person on the phone repeated back to me that I would be getting 1000 bonus minutes. Days went by and I didn't see my phone display change. I was expecting to wait a couple of days because of the holiday. It read I had 0 days of service and yet I was able to make a couple of brief (5 minutes or less) phone calls. I got fed up and finally had time on a day off to look into this. I checked online first because I didn't want to talk to someone and waste more time explaining. My account showed that I had added 2 years but they don't tell you about minutes. I had to call. The first call I could hardly hear the man and that just made it worse to try to understand the accent. I assume this call center is in India? No offence to them at all but if you are running a telecommunications company, I think you should run it in the country you are servicing. This man told me that there was a code error and we fixed my 2 year expiration. Now, where are my bonus minutes? He seemed very confused at this point. Then he tried to tell me I didn't use the promo code in the 5-day window. I told him I used the code AT THE TIME I BOUGHT THE MINUTES OVER THE PHONE WITH YOUR COMPANY. I continued to argue until they transferred me to a supervisor. She told me there was nothing wrong with my account and it was resolved. Bull. I e-mailed their customer service to explain this in detail. I think you can see I'm pretty clear and thorough. I went through the sequence of events again. I had a response within 10 minutes on the phone and e-mail. From the same person who had just told me she used all her tools and resources and nothing was wrong. I e-mailed again and said I didn't want a response like that. That does me no good to talk to the same person who dismissed me and didn't look elsewhere for a problem. I asked for more in-depth research. I got an e-mail saying this had to be one on one and I needed to call and waste more of my time. I called and couldn't get through even though it was 11:00 a.m. their time. I had to call on my lunch hour and got this bull about their computer being slow or having errors so we wasted half an hour. I was a little hopeful since this person said she would have me talk to a tech person to check my old phone and some other things. I had to call back again. More wasted time as this person checked and still insisted I had been given the second 1000 minutes. To be fair, she did go back and admit the previous screw-ups. However, she said there was nothing I can do. She suggested someone else used my phone or I left my browser on. Interesting how exactly 1000 minutes were "erased." Also interesting since no one uses my phone and it's in my purse turned off unless I'm making a call. What a rip-off. I should have 2700 minutes and I have 1700. Bonus minutes my aunt fanny. I wasted so much time, they wore me down explaining over and over. They said they were documenting so why did I have to tell them again and again. I don't trust them since they screwed up transferring my minutes and tried to get out of fixing that, they can't get their online stuff to work right and their staff make up outrageous scenarios for how their mistake is yours. I wish I had never transferred to a new phone. I was happy the way things were and when I bought physical cards at the grocery store to load. What a load all right.

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Kayowe
Cullman, US
Apr 13, 2012 9:10 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I added my tracfone minutes, was accepted. But not added to my phone. Where are they? I need them. My Pin# is15421-[protected]. I want my minutes added now.

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Paul
, US
Jun 17, 2009 4:46 pm EDT

I hate tracfone as much as you do. I used to be a Tracfone customer. I almost got jipped out of $20 when I bought an airtime card and the airtime code didn't work. Luckily I did get my $20's worth, and I never went back to Tracfone after that.