No service in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and limited coverage elsewhere, if you travel and need emergency Car phone try another
provider.

I've had the Go Phone and it's predecessors for over 7.5 yrs. Never a dropped call, only had low/no bars once (driving through Illinois/Indiana on I-70), even have service off-road in Rocky Mountains and during other travel around the US, got a free phone every time the service changed (back and forth between AT&T and Cingular).

Yes, the price has gone up slightly during that time. When changing to the new provider and phone, I did have an issue with not being able to call the cell from home, but this was fixed within a day. My spouse has the same plan and has had the same experience.

The only downpoints are: when adding a recharge from the phone, I am charged for the 4-5 minutes it takes to make the transaction. When adding a recharge from another phone, I am asked to input the ph# a minumum of 4 times. Both are aggrevating, but at least I only go through it once every three months.

As for many of the other problems I am reading about in this forum, it sounds like they did not research or read the fine print before agreeing to the service. I can't see how that is the company's fault. You should pick the service or plan that meets your needs, not something that doesn't just so you can complain about it.

I originally bought my gophone when my best friend moved out of state, and her son was staying with us, and she had a gophone so I figured that I would get one so he would be able to stay in touch with her for much cheaper, and wouldn't have to use my computer (as I do for making phone calls).

Until very recently I was very pleased with the service, it allowed me to pay as I needed and could. But within the last month, the network seemed to go down the tubes. I'm constantly getting call failed, or when trying to call my husband on his phone, the "network down" message.

Just tonight, at work our power went out and when our power goes out our store phones do not work, and we relay on our cell phones to contact store and district managers. And of course, guess what happened, network was down. My coworker didn't have a phone on him, so we had to sit in the dark for about a half hour, until finally I "broke" the rules and sent him to find a pay phone which we all know that is getting harder and harder to do now.

Aside from that the service really isn't that bad, and the text package works well for me.

The only other problem I've had was the actual phone. Granted I did buy the cheapest phone you could buy, but in the last week or so, after making a call, or simply hitting a button, when the screen light would go out, the phone would make a pop noise, which freaks me out quite a bit, but that could just be the cheap phone.

Text spam is eating up my pre-paid time and there is no way to turn it off.

Sept 7 2008

North Florida/Dallas/Chicago

I have had Cingular/AT&T GoPhone service for over a year. The first phone I bought to activate the service was a piece of junk, but that was easily solved by going on eBay and searching for AT&T/Cingular UNLOCKED phones. First had a Sony-Ericsson J220. Decided I wanted a flip phone with no external antenna, since I carry in my pocket and prefer not to get stabbed. I had 2 V3 Razr's, but I broke them both within days, They're really fragile. I'm now using a Samsung W755. It's great. I figure that I spend anywhere from $15-$35/ month on the 25c plan. I recharge online, have never had a problem. I do get a text from AT&T once in a while, which annoys me, but I think you can stop the marketing messages if you want to. I've only tried to reply to a text they sent one time, and it didn't go thru, so I didn't worry about it.
I use GoPhone service to talk. Not text. Not send videos or pictures. Not download music. I have never downloaded a ringtone in my life and never intend to. I saw the post from the guy with unwanted contacts in his phonebook, but I have never had on that I couldn't easily delete. Maybe it's a different plan than mine. If you're the kind who needs to hear inane music rather than a 'ring' when you get a call, or feel some wierd urge to text Buffy and Chip every 15 minutes, this probably isn't the phone for you.
If, like me, you make a few short calls now and then, and only occasionally yap for more than a minute or two, this service is perfect. My credit is excellent, and I can afford a 'regular' plan, but I don't see the sense in it. Why pay $50+ a month when I make about 20 calls a month, at most? I refuse to commit to a plan for two years. With GoPhone, I can get a different phone every month if I want to buy one on eBay/Craigslist/wherever.

I also purchased a go-phone and since use we only us it for the children when they have to go places like music lessons etc. we rarely use more than $5 per month. I was not told about the fact that if you do not use the total balance you will loose it after the "airtime minutes expire" AT&T have even registered this scam to steal your money as the AccountRollOver plan. NOWHERE does it warn you about this ..... Why would you need to fund an account that still has $70 on it ..... Does not make sense at all. If it has happened to me I am sure it has happpened to others as well ..... Any good lawyers out there for a juicy class action suite .... I do not care about the $70 that AT&T stole from me but this practise needs to stop!

For all you people who complain about the go phone i know what you mean. i work at the call center that handles the prepaid payments for ATT. i takes hundreds of these calls every day and its a pain to listen to your problems as well. We don't get paid much and we are on a time limit per call so when the call takes to long we transfer you to some on else. When you ask for a supervisor you get someone else in the other one hundred cubicles and they aren't supervisors, just some one else who's turn to be a supervisor.

So far I like the ability to have excellent reception even far out in the country. That is the main plus with AT&T. Second plus is even on the cheapest model it allows you web access. You have to buy a certain model to have web access with Alltel.

One question I have on the AT&T prepaid camera phones:

With the pictures I take are they only viewable on the phone itself or can I email them or store them on a website?

What a rip off. I was being charged for incoming text messages that were from advertisers and then on top of THAT I was 'signed up' for a $9.99 monthly service that I didn't even know about. My minutes were being sucked away without my knowledge. This should be illegal. I will be looking for another provider ASAP. I wasted over $100 on this cell phone spam that I wasn't even aware of. What kind of company permits this to happen to unsuspecting customers? B'bye AT&T.

I don't know why there is such a big difference between the editor's rating the the average users rating. The Editor should reflect.
My personal experience is that AT&T's service sucks. Its web site (to add money) is not working and its customer service tried their best to make themselves unavailable. And they double-charged me and made sure I had no way to complain to them and after I made a dispute claim to my credit card company, they absolutely ensure that I was given a hard time. The reason I came across this web site is that I am trying to look for a better company.

I dislike like the phone as the features aren't all there cracked up to be, you can't get roadside assistance with a gophone, and trying to get a straight answer from someone about the maximum dollar amount is like pulling teeth. otherwise being able to call my wife's family from canada for free/ a dollar a day is pretty cool

I am very very happy with AT&T i like the free m2m and free nights and weekends AT&T has been great !!

I like the service but the $0.15 per text whether its incoming or outcoming is outrageos. They are makin plenty of money to just charge $0.05 per message.

AT&T is flat out too expensive on the prepaid... I had AT&T wireless before, during, and for a while after cingular... and my plan was awesome... but I no longer needed a family plan and suddenly... what was I gonna do with a $90 plan for 2 people. I didn't need the massive minutes, so I tried out some prepaid options... and in short, I quickly switched to T-Mobile, where I quickly bought a hundred dollar card (which gave me just over 1,000 minutes), stuck it in my phone, and was good to go for up to a year on it... best of all, because I bought the "gold" minutes plan that does give the one year expiration and also the 10 cents a minute rate with 10 cent texts and 25 cent picture messages... well, at the end of the year, if I still had money left from the $100, I could roll over all of it by purchasing just ten bucks or however much. That's a great system for loyalty and T-Mobile has just been kicking the pants off AT&T in almost all areas (heck, 2 people can share an unlimited everything plan on T-Mobile for $150 a month... compare it to that being the price for 3k minutes on AT&T... everything on T-Mobile is better... and I don't expect that to change for a really long time!)

I've used Gophone since January of this year. At first it sucked. The $.15 charge for texts was killing me. When they began offering packages for text messaging and night/weekend minutes then I began to enjoy the service.

I use my phone a lot and because of an ex girl friend that messed up my credit I had to switch over to prepaid service. Overall ATT gives the best option... Here's why... for every $100 of refills they credit you extra time, it starts at $5 and increases $5 up to $20. I'm at the top level now so everytime I reach $100 of refills they give me and extra $20.

I buy $100 refill card every month. After I top off I have $120 balance. I purchase the $20 night/weekend package, and the $10 unlimited text package. That leaves me with 900 anytime minutes and what comes out to free nights and weekends. All of which roll over because I always refill before my account expires.
The beauty of it is I don't HAVE to refill with $100 dollars every month. If I don't have the money I do $50 or sometimes just $15 to hold me over until I can put more time on the phone.

Try telling the company of your contracted phone that you'll only be paying 1/4 of the bill this month. I've tried of prepaids and to me ATT provides the best.

would like to be able to want to read texts or not, instead of automatically being charged for text before being read.

Got the gophone with $1/day and 10 cents a minute option. Only use for emergencies, which means almost never. Costs a little over $8 a month, since minutes expire, and I couldn't find anything cheaper. Got the cheap Samsung A117 for $10 refurbed on ATT website, purchased $25 card with it and they loaded an extra $10 since I loaded the card within 10 days of activating the phone. Never had a cell phone before and still don't see a pressing need for it. I was able to stop their marketing messages easily, after they offered the option after one of the messages. Battery life might not be the best, but haven't used it enough to check. My first three months are up this week, so I need to reload before expiration to get the leftover minutes rolled over.

I just had a prepaid minutes expire. I tried to renew online but it wouldn't let me. I contacted customer service after my minutes expired and recharged to continue service. My balance which was over $100 did not continue on so I lost all that money. Usually other services try to reach you via phone or text you when your minutes are about to expire but AT&T prepaid does not. I do not recommend this service at all.

Nokia 2610 purchased online would not charge on arrival. It took 2 hrs. searching the purchase paperwork and dysfunctional web pages to find out how to obtain support, and before they will replace the defective phone I have to drive it to an AT&T store to have them verify the problem. A very frustrating and discouraging start for my GoPhone tryout.

One thing that really bugs me about the prepaid service from AT&T is that they keep boosting up rates, especially on texting. When I first bought my phone 2 years ago, texts were 5 cents/min. In a month, they're going up to 20c/min. Very disappointing.

Pretty happy with the service.

I use the $.25/minute plan. They charge you for outgoing calls and also for incoming calls.

Lately, however, it seems that I also get charged in case a call does not connect. For instance, I try to call a friend, his phone rings 3-4 times, I hang up. And it costs me 25 cents! WTF, AT&T???

Besides that, GoPhone makes a lot of sense if you're not a big cellphone user.

NO coverage..If you travel AT&T prepaid coverage is not the same as their "regular plans" prepaid only works with certain cell towers "Cingular kept their towers and at&t won't let Prepaid rome off them...May work fin in your home area and most freeways...but don't get off the beatton path...

We have been using go phones for over a year now after our contract was up with TMobile. We have been extremely happy. We use our phones ALOT, my husband is a business owner, and I am a full time student. We have 2 children, one with a phone she uses for texting only. $20 a month unlimited. My husband and I pay about $150 per month for all 3 phones. We have had very few problems with service, and any problems we did have were temporary. One problem I did have a few months ago was I bought a refill card, and it didn't work. The store refused to refund or exchange. I called Customer Service and they added the money, even though I had no proof that I had actually bought a card. (I did have a card and receipt, but they couldn't see it.)

The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is because they do charge you for calls that don't connect. They charge you to check voicemail from your phone, although it is free to check it from a landline. And they do indeed begin to charge you for the next minute before the first minute is up.

I got switched to GoPhone by the family plan because texting was killing the bill. So, my mother made me switch to GoPhone. I got the 400 minutes and 3000 N/W plan with unlimited texting. I love GoPhone. I get a signal everywhere and the service is so reliable. Customer service is wonderful as well and I was able to get my Sony Ericsson z310a for free. Overall, I'm happy with AT&T. I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't talk a lot, but still wants a "real" phone.

This can really suckk=[
i ran out of minutes and they IMMEADIATLY gave my number away
when we called customer service they said i had to get a new number,new sim card, and new minutes
and it ended up it would have been like 150$
for a 74$ phone

Att sucks. Their rates are too high. And now they're are eliminating their 19.99 unlimited data plan. I guess they figured that was too good of deal. I'm switching to t mobile, their prepaid service is just as good if not better than att, and its cheaper. Anyone looking for another prepaid cell plan should check out t mobile.

I bought a go phone in July at Walmart. I was fairly happy with my service and then decided to upgrade from the pay as you go plan to the monthly prepaid plan where they debit it out of your credit or debit card. I bought a new phone for $149.00. It worked great for a month. I went in to pay the bill this past Monday and this dummy in customer service charged my debit card THREE times. She tried to do it a fourth time but by then she had exhausted the funds in my bank account on that card. I spent 4 hours in the AT&T store trying to get this straightened out with no luck. Then because it was declined the fourth time they cut off my service! I called their 'customer care' department and was treated like dirt by most of their representatives. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told I could but she would see to it that I had a 'long, long wait'. I'd already spent 4 hours on the phone with them and couldn't take anymore. My password was reset and given to a rep at their store. He read it off to me quickly and then threw it away so I had no idea what it was. I told them I got the phone in September and they insisted I had gotten it in July. I just couldn't figure it out so tonight I finally got a decent customer service rep who gave me my pin number and I was able to look it up on the web. They had my address as Dallas, Texas. I live in North Carolina. So I'm trying to figure out what is going on now. I did manage to get one of my payments back from my bank and I'm waiting for the rest. I asked a store rep if I could just go back to the pay as you go where you buy a card to add minutes and he said yes but I would have to change my phone number for some reason. Then I find out from their customer service rep on the phone that my phone number will stay the same. I wasn't going to do it but since I just spent so much on a new phone I will unless I can find another company that will use this phone.
AT&T customer service is the worst. DO NOT GET A GO PHONE. It is a total rip off and they are clueless when you ask a question. Even my bank thinks they are a bunch of idiots. Also they are too expensive and very, very rude on the phone.

WHAT EVER YOU DO DO NOT GET THE PLAN THAT TAKES MONEY OUT OF ACCOUNT, i CHANGED BILLING AND GO PHONE IGNORED AND BILLED OLD DEBIT CARD AND OVERDAWING A UNUSED ACCOUNT, NOW I HAVE TO DRIVE 6 HOURS ON MY DAY OFF TO DISPUTE CHARGES, AND TAKE AT& T TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT.

It costs so much you might as well get a contract... but get the contract with a company other than at&t. I live in the middle of a midwestern major city and I am lucky to get one bar and I can't use it to talk, only text because the service is so bad. Go phones are WAY to expencieve for the quality they provide. Try a tracfone. Better service no matter where you are and SO MUCh cheaper than this stuff.

Having had a postpaid account for more than ten years with AT&T, when my daughter needed a pre paid phone, I chose AT&T GoPhone. I made a huge mistake. The service is horrible, they have overcharged me, not included features that I wanted, hung up on me when I called for help, etc. etc. etc. I have now spent more than 7 hours over the least 3 weeks to try and correct the situation to no avail. I will be canceling my entire account with them and oh yes, I have even called the CEO in Houston- no help. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!!

my advicejust avoid at&t prepaid service, its a sham as the customer is held at gunpoint pretty much. i ask rhetorically...why lose minutes that have been paid for. tmobile and tracfone, though they have a few issues...are better by far in that one can purchase -one year- cars.

The call quality is good but the rates and customer service is very poor. I am changing to another carrier because money/minutes dissappears rapidly out of my account because of a ring one scam that att will not or can not do anything about. the customer service reps are condescending and are hard to understand at times because they have strong accents

This is the best! I got a Cingular Go Phone back in early 2005 and have never had a problem with the service. I've used the phone in many states including FL, MO, OH, TX and in between. Always a good signal and clear calls. Still have the same phone. I put $25 on it every 3 months.
When AT&T took over Cingular I started some of those annoying text ads from AT&T but I called customer service and they put a stop to it.

I had an at+t prepaid gophone. Needless to say, the customer service was very bad and the custmoer service representatives were rude to me. I would not recommend any gophone at all or any at+t phone

This is a rip off.

AT&T lies when they say best coverage.

Travle with AT&T and you wil see how bad it is.

NO SERVICE AT ALL out west and in a lot of the US. Dead Zones everywhere.

I switch to Verizon PrePaid and its the best.

tons of features, Unlimited Nights and Weekends, Unlimited text, pictures, videos, and IMs to anyone as well.

Also, some of the best phone too.

Verizon is the way to go.

ive had a tracfone,simple freedom, tmobile, virgin mobile, and att. do not listen to ppl that do not like att. they are either mentally challenged or too stupid to work a phone. go phone is easy, relatively cheap, great service, it doesnt take an idiot to work the phones. GOD!!!!! everything else is either too expensive of difficult....

at first lots of spam calls. got that solved but the coverage is terrible!

I have the AT&T Go phone for $1.00 a day and 10 cents a minutes. I have not seen those 15 cent text messages, the only ones i get are from AT&T. I only had it for a month, usually someone just leaves a voice mail, coz im not there to answer it. how do you know if the 25 cents a minute plan would be bettter if I seem to miss a lot of calls and someone just wnats to leave voice mails for me. would the 25 cents a minute be better?

I've had a go phone for about three yrs. I haven't had any major issues & the ones I've had have been taken care of by Cust. Ser. I've been reading about not having good reception, etc., I find the opposite is true. I had the cheap phone & up-graded to a Samsung & am totally satisfied.

I've had AT&T for several years after they bought out my original carrier. Then it was Cingular which had pathetic customer support. Not it's AT&T again and instead of Free2Go it's GoPhone. I have to buy $25 worth of minutes every 90 days or my minutes will expire and be lost. That comes out to $8.34/month. Not too bad. BUT when my minutes are about to expire they send me email, text messages, and block my call with a voice message that I have to listen through and then push the # key to continue to make my call. Then it charges me 50-75 cents for having to listen to their sale pitch!!! They refuse to stop blocking my calls with their message. They will not acknowledge that their message cost me money. Aside from all that the service is reasonably reliable and it's the only network what will work in my rural area. I'm looking into Net 10 but from what I've read I may just stick with AT&T. I boycotted AT&T for years because of their long distance got-congress-in-their-laps extortion policies but they took over my original cell phone company so I got stuck with them. BTW I had "AutoPay" with Cingular and every 90 days my minutes would expire and I would lose my rollover minutes. They never informed me there was any kind of problem with my credit/debit card or gave me any kind of grace period. Personally I consider AT&T to be a bunch of crooks (Cingular too) but they seem to have me by the, well, you know.

I Do/Don't recomend this because if you lose your phone, they dont offer any plans for inshurance for the phone. Also, they should make the voicemail calls for free, not charging me 5 dollars. Its ok for a last minute resort.

I bought a prepay phone about a year ago and it worked just fine for a couple of months but within the last few times that I have added money It has taken more money than what it should I had $3.85 on time made a free phone call and seconds later I had $.38 WHAT A RIP OFF... I do not recomend this plan to any one and whatever you do DON'T BUY THE SPECIAL FEATURES!! Free nights and Weekends more like CRAP!!

Pros:

With the $1 a day plan (only when your phone is used), all domestic calls are 10c/min. If you want to call internationally, use a domestic "proxy" (forwarding) number and you will only be charged the domestic rate.

Great phones and great selection! Refurbs in my experience are as good as new and a great value (I own several phones, both new and refurb). Refurbs are an even better value when you use a rebate site and can get $20-$30 cash back.

Do not seem to cripple/disable features/functions on their phones like T-Mobile has the nasty habit of doing (so they can charge you for everything, like getting photos off your phone onto your computer).

GSM network, so the phones can be used overseas if tri- or quad-band, and unlocked (important for someone like me who spends much time overseas). You will save a TON by using a sim for the provider of the foreign country you are in... most foreign cellular is prepaid, and VASTLY superior in both features and cost compared to the US (otherwise known as Cell Hell). Most phones can be instantly and easily unlocked with a "HyperSIM/SmartSIM" etc. (SIM unlocking chip). Also, you can use any unlocked GSM phone on their network... I can switch between my smartphone (purchased full-price, unlocked) and an everyday "beater" in 30 seconds by just swapping the sim.

Refill cards readily available and reloading trouble-free, right from the phone.

Their coverage is excellent, at least in my experience. Far better than T-Mobile. I swear I could be 3000 feet down in an iron ore mine and still have a few bars.

Cons:

20 cents per text sent or received (as of recently... the 15 c rate is old info as it has since been raised). Usurious! But it seems all the primary carriers have followed suit, in lock-step. Did I meantion the US is cellular hell?

Insanely expensive data charges if you want to do anything more than look up something on Google... viewing this site would probably cost several dollars!

Customer "service" (what service?) is as bad as it gets. Fortunately, I very rarely find myself needing to avail of it; but the couple of times I did, it was a nightmare.

The $1 a day when you use the phone plan, while it reduces the per-minute rate and thus in one sense is a "pro", is also a "con" at the same time because it wastes a dollar of your load that you get no use out of.

Overall, like all the providers, AT&T has its foibles, but is a good choice, considering the rock and hard place US cellular customers find themselves between, and is by far the better of the two domestic GSM providers.

As an aside, I found a backdoor way to bypass the high cost of text using a Java app. called Nimbuzz, running on the data plan since SMS are less than 1 kB each... worked great for 2 days, long texting sessions cost me only 30-40 cents in *total*... and this was international, mind you! Then they must have figured out what I was doing and locked it out because it will no longer connect to the internet no matter what WAP config I use. Oh well, was nice while it lasted... ;-)

I've been a customer for a couple of years. Whenever I have needed it, I have always found customer service to be poor--difficult to access, giving wrong information, and even at times rude. Recently, because of incorrect information given to me by customer service agents, I had two breaks in service right in a row and lost over $100 in built up airtime. Though they even confirmed that they saw in the notes that I had been given incorrect information, and that they understood that was the cause for the break in service, they refused to reinstate the minutes the second time because there had been a break previously. Yes, let me repeat that--they admitted that they could see in the notes that it was totally their fault, and yet refused to make good. There are other plans just as inexpensive, and it is impossible to believe they could be worse in customer service.

They nickle and dime you to death. They charge you to listen to your message's which is a total rip-off. They also charge you for people leaving a message on your phone, even if it's off. I changed to prepaid to save money cause I don't call people much, but they stick it to you anyway they can. ATT prepaid is nothing but a ripoff!!!! Thanks for nothing ATT!

Overall, I must say that I am satisfied with my ATT Go Phone and service, altjough I must admit that the charges to use the internet are a bit ridiculous and also charging a extra .50 cent delivery fee for answer tones. If I had to make a complaint, it would be about the text messaging. I don't think you should be charged for other people sending text messages to your phone. I mean you can't control when other people text you. This uses up all of your minutes, even with a package. I will be switching over to the Prepaid account that gives you minutes and extras as a plan and they automatically take your payment from a checking account or credit card. I will see how that works, if not I will switch back.

It gets 2 stars because I have luck with the service in a variety of areas, but that's about the best it gets. I am constantly charged for all sorts of things. Like, whenever someone calls me I always am charged 10 cents for it even though I didn't answer it at all! Plus, if someone sends me a message I am right away charged a dollar for that day even if I haven't touched my phone.
I am also very unhappy in how their rates keep going up. When I first got my phone, the texting was at 5 cents per text: I could deal with that. But now, it is at 20 cents per text! And with my plan, I am unable to get a "messaging package" so I have to pay for every stupid 2 word text I receive and/or send.
AT&T Go Phone is a total rip off. I'd rather go with a plan and pay an activation fee that will stay consistent in what they promise and not be totally ripped off by some cell phone cons.

I've had my gophone for a year with the pay as you go plan. I havn't had problems with coverage, I'm in the California bay area. I like how you can buy the text cards for how many you want for a set price.

AT&T has been one headache after the other. At first I liked their reasonable packages and no strings attached GoPhones. It was convenient and pocket friendly. But as time has passed AT&T has gotten ridiculous with it's rates. I have seen the text messages go from free to 10 cent, to 15 cent to 20 cent! Not only that they charge you every time you access your voicemail. That was one of the final straws for me. I just switched back to Sprint (somewhat reluctantly) and will pay for their Simply Everything Plan, that way everything is covered. The price is worth the freedom and convenience.

So long AT&T and good riddance!

I rarely use my GoPhone and am happy enough with the actual service. Customer support is another story entirely. First, they do their best to prevent giving out the money we're due for referrals. A referred person has thirty days to register, and ATT says verification can take forty days; right there, they make it too late to correct any problems. Trying to rectify the situation requires waiting forever on hold, and usually being shifted to another rep who may or may not know anything about the program. Finally, they send emails after the time they were supposed to approve the payouts has expired, and tell you to try again. However, the person referred, who has had the service for awhile by now, is already on their list of current customers, so can't be referred again. They deny the payment initally, and then require jumping through more hoops, which also don't work. Don't count on getting any referral money from their program. If others have had similar problems, a class-action suit might force their compliance. wojunk@yahoo