TracFone Wireless review: Replacement phone / customer service

In March somebody stole a phone I'd had with Tracfone for years.

I also had an Alcatel Pixie Pulsar that I'd purchased from them in 2018 that I activated and it worked briefly, but stopped ringing on incoming calls (which - upon further research - is a very well documented issue with that phone.)

I contacted them and they said I was eligible for a replacement phone and they sent me an Alcatel Raven A574BL.

*This* phone will not power up unless it's plugged into the charger and then it turns itself off about 20 minutes later which makes it virtually useless.

On Saturday, August 22, 2020 I contacted their chat dept. about this issue and was very specific about the issue. After trying several fixes nothing worked and I was promised a call from a supervisor by the tech (Wendy) at 4 PM on Saturday August 22nd. But no one called.

This is a copy of the question that I sent Saturday and today:

I have tried numerous times to resolve problems I have been having with my service.

On Saturday, August 22nd I spoke with "Wendy" and when the problem couldn't be resolved I was promised a call from a supervisor at 4 PM and nobody called.

I was extremely upset by this and actually waited until today to contact you so I could calm down. It's been close to 5 months since I had a phone from Tracfone that actually functioned properly and I am very frustrated with the situation. So... here is the question I asked on Saturday:

I just received an Alcatel Raven A574BL in exchange for a defective Alcatel Pixi Pulsar. The problem that I'm experiencing is that this phone will not power up unless it's connected to the charger and turns itself off about 20 minutes and had to be plugged back in before I can use it again.

Once it's powered up it functions as one would expect but the only time I can use it is when I'm at home and can connect it to the charger to jump start it.

And yes, I thoroughly examined the manual and don't see any problems on my end. I also took out put in the battery powered it off/on etc. as suggested by the tech (Wendy) on Saturday. And nothing worked.

Any suggestions?

Tonight, (August 26th) I tried one more time to resolve this and chatted with Diego. After repeating the same 'fixes' as with Wendy on Saturday he informed me that I could purchase a new phone from them (and that I was not eligible for another replacement) and they would transfer my account to it.

I have no intention of doing this, as I've been a customer of theirs for over 15 years and if that's the way they do business then I'm finished with them.

I personally suspect it is because it was a triple-minutes phone and they are no longer interested in servicing the account, although they were the people who offered this.

I would like a refund for the phone and 200 minutes of airtime I have remaining.

I will gladly return their replacement phone provided they mail me an envelope for it.

For reference's sake here is the SIM card no. for the first phone: [protected] (threw away the Serial No. info etc. because I did not foresee this problem) and the serial no. for serial number for the replacement phone - [protected].

Thank you very much for your help.