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2.5
Rated 2.5 out of 5
2.5 out of 5 stars (based on 1,661 reviews)
5 star18%
4 star13%
3 star14%
2 star7%
1 star48%

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
September 5, 2008

Bought the over 3 days they still have not activated it.Call them 2 times said I live in Pa they are working on the lines.NO THANKS By the way first cell phone. I give them 0 stars.

Terry

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
September 4, 2008

At first I liked my trac phone. I purchased a double minutes for life card and a one year service card. Now they tell me that my ‘double minutes for life ‘ card was for 1 year and has expired. I have spent many hours with customer service both on the phone (fortunately I have a land line) and via emails. They keep going back and forth with what they tell me. First I am told that it expired, then after complaining, they said I do have double minutes for life, then they said I didn’t have it so I called angai and I was assured I did have it, then they called and said no it is expired and they ‘can’t’ give me double minutes for life which is what I insisted I had paid for and would accept nothing less. I got a toll free phone number for ‘corporate’ and have been on hold now for ober 52 minutes listening to them say how important their customers are and the next available representative will be with you shortly(?). they want me to pay another $49.99 for something I already paid for. I was originally given this phone as a gift. Do more research before you buy. There is no ‘customer support’ with this company and if you don’t have a land line it will cost you a fortune in minutes.

Sue

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
September 3, 2008

Good phone if you don’t use it much ’cause could be expensive. Good for moms like me that just use it for emergencies.

lily

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
September 3, 2008

If I could give TracFone no stars, I would cheerfully do so! I have never had a cellphone before and decided I would start with a pay-as-you-go. I have had the phone for 2 1/2 weeks, have contacted technical support by phone and online at least 6 times, have contacted telephone technical support at least another 4 to 5 times and have contacted customer service at least 4 to 5 times. I have not been able to set up voicemail in all of this time and, now, I am simply going to toss this phone in the trash. The frustration and aggravation have hardly been worth the trouble, especially since my units keep dwindling due to their misleading assistance and I keep spinning my wheels. I strongly recommend anyone in the market for this sort of phone to avoid TracFone.

Carol Milioti

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
September 2, 2008

My cell phone use varies widely. Some months I’ll use it alot, other months I’ll barely use it all. Tracfone plan works better for me and with double points for life the plan is a real bargain – about 10 cents a minute with no monthly or daily fee. I almost never have had trouble with the signal in any of the states I’ve travelled in. The big downside is the phone selection is crap. You can’t even get a unlocked phone and adapt it for Tracfone. I would be will to pay for a better quality phone (not the minutes, just the phone itself) if they would just offer it. Most states have laws that require hands free use when driving. Only very recently have they finally offered ONE PHONE that has blutooth. This is just unacceptable. I know many other customers have the same complaints. Great minutes – crappy phones. Tracfone is gonna lose cutomers if they don’t get it together. Only one low end modle with blutooth isn’t goung to cut it.

tracfone-pa-usa

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
September 1, 2008

Gave my elderly father a Tracfone; after 3 months of use he bought one for his girlfriend, & brought it to me (in another state) to set up & activate. The email activation did not work because you need to enter an email address & the girlfriend didn’t have one, so I tried phone activation. It didn’t work after three calls (I spoke loudly & clearly in perfect English but it couldn’t ‘yes’ and ‘no’) so I called customer service. The guy said wait an hour. After an hour an a half I called back and the recorded system had me enter code after code after code. Hung up and called a person again (in the Phillipines). She had me on for about half an hour and finally said the refurbished phone was defective. I asked for free minutes to compensate for all my time, finally got to talk to her supervisor, who put me through all the same questions again and again for another 45 minutes and kept having me program and reprogram the defective phone…spent most of the day doing this. HORRIBLE customer service; I was at my wit’s end. We’ll see what happens next…

Noname

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 31, 2008

i wanted to upgrade my tracfone, so i did and after i bought it i wanted to transfer my number to the new phone without relizing that it did not work in my area. So i basically wasted 30 dollars on a phone that i cant use at the moment. Until it actually is able to work in my area or until i move to an area where it works. A very unhappy tracfone customer.

tracfone user

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 29, 2008

I wouldn’t recommend tracphone to my worst enemy. The customer service is unbleievably bad. I spent 4 hrs and talked to 5 people only to find out I had to have a new card. All of these people were impossible to understand and kept cutting me off. I said to forget it but was charged for 30 min anyway. When I found it on my MC bill I called and got the run around for another 2 hrs only to be told in no uncertain terms and very rudely that they would NOT refund the money even though I have not used a minute. I think it’s a total ripoff. For the first time in my life I became angry enough to tell the’out source’ person to go to hell. I am a very cool and nice person so you can only imagine how upset I was. DO NOT get a tracphone.

Lillian Riley

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
August 26, 2008

They have operators that talk with a accent which makes it hard to understand them sometimes. They also will hang up on you if your issue is little more complex than usual.

Tim William

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
August 24, 2008

Satisfied customers seem less inclined to write reviews, so I decided to write one here. I have been using tracfone since 2002. We have had some 10 tracfones in our family since then. They have all worked as advertised. Coverage in remote places has often been better than other phones. Tracfone contracts with ‘the best’ network in each area of the country, so they have very good coverage. Customer service is definitely outsourced, but I have not had much trouble. Once I have adequately described an issue such as porting a number, I have always had the case handled expiditiously. I now use their family plan. Granted our family does not use cell phones as if they were growing out of our ears, but we have pay $28 a month for four phones. With their family plan, calls are .20 a minute, or .10 a minute with a double minute phone card. If you talk on the phone for work I wouldn’t recommend tracfone, but for a reasonable amount of talking, it is the way to go. Their phones are also not cutting edge, but I bought a phone to make and receive calls, and a camera to take pictures.

Mike

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 23, 2008

I purchased a double minutes for life card at $49.99. They now assert that it was a 1 year card, which I find peculiar because I’ve been getting double minutes for the past two years. I would never have purchased a one year double minutes card, it’s a bad deal. I asked to speak to the supervisor, and believe I was transferred to another representative who then disconnected. No, I was not rude, they perceived a request for my purchase records as unacceptable, and disconnected on their end. They were, at that point, lying to me regarding my purchases of minutes. Very poor behavior on their part. It worked well for 3 years, but it’s time to look elsewhere. I dislike buying something I’ve already paid for, and I dislike being lied to.

Tom

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 21, 2008

At first i was happy with this phone then all of a sudden my phone started cutting off and with that wasn’t bad enough someone else had the same phone number that i had. they send me a letter telling me they were sorry for the mistake and that they would send me another phone and of course i never receive the phone and i had over 800 air time left. this was 2 years ago, i really wish they would of worked things out and settled this whole thing.

miriam

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
August 20, 2008

I bought the new Motorola W376G from Target for $49.99 (which comes with double mins for life) on 8/15/08 and then bought the 60 min airtime card for $19.99. I got a promo code off the web for 60 free mins and I had no problem activating my phone. This phone is great and the reception is better than I had with AT&T who I was spending $50-$60 a month for minutes I never came close to using. I figure I will save over 50%+ on my cell phone bill. The features are great ,you can customize the home screen with shortcuts and its very simple to use. I had my previous cell ph# ported over to this one and it was done very quickly. I called on Sat and got the new sim chip via dhl on Tuesday. I did have to call customer service to get my vm set up but both times I called customer svc I was pleasantly surprised on how well it went given the rotten comments about Tracfone’s customer service. I would recommend calling on a regular land line to call customer svc,activate your phone or adding minutes vs using their website, it seemed to work better and won’t waste mins. I would also recommend looking on the web for promo codes as there are always codes out there for free mins. The manual that comes with the phone is pretty worthless , very basic info so I went online to Motorola and downloaded the user manual. This is a great phone for people who want to text (3 texts per min) or just make calls, not for those that want fancy ringtones,etc. The phone is also bluetooth enabled but I haven’t set that up yet. I would recommend this phone to anyone who is tired of wasting their money on cell phone plans on mins they never use and get charged for all kinds of fees they don’t understand. I am looking forward to NOT getting a monthly phone bill from AT&T any longer and paying .20 cents for each text message.

PAULIE IN NOVATO

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
August 16, 2008

I LOVE MY TRACFONE! IT DOES WHAT I NEED IT TO DO AND MORE! I CAN EVEN PLAY BRICK ATTACK ON IT!

beefy mcgee

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
August 15, 2008

Well, after waiting A WHOLE MONTH and calling customer services several times, I finally got my replacement phone which is refurbished. I decided since I was not getting anywhere talking to the customer service on the phone, to email them. I got a much quicker response and I do not have to worry about not talking to anyone who can’t speak English! I had unfortunately bought a phone from another company so I gave the replacement to my daughter. So, I am moving up to giving them 3 stars. I wish that they had given me more units for having to wait so long. I also wish that I could have kept my number but they gave me a new number. So, try emailing technical support if calling does not work.

dissatisfied revisited

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 13, 2008

tracfone prepaid service is absolutely terrible. if you plan on using your phone…never use tracfone. call rates are outrages. i have been charged 2 and a half minutes for a 30 second call. you are also charged with the same rates to listen to voicemail. that’s bad enough, but the worst part is there customer service. HALF OF THE PEOPLE DONT SPEAK ENGLISH. talking to them to fix one lttle problem takes hours, and you get put on hold. tracfone’s phones are also very low quality. my advise, never buy a tracfone.

trever

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 12, 2008

Buyers beware…. WORST Service EVER!!!!!I am on my third TracFone…I had purchased this phone via their website. The first phone that I had received … did not work. So after being on the phone with them 1 1/2 hours… the decided that they would replace me with a another one… which was refurbished! Guess what? This one did not work either! Then they decided …after a little over 2 hours on the phone with them… the decided to mail me a third… And surprise… this one does not work either! After being on the phone with them for a little over a 1/2 hour with them today, they told me that I would not get my money back and I will not get another exchange. So here I am out over $50, over 3 hours of my time and I do not have a phone… As for my 2 cents… stay away from this train wreck!

duir2

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
August 12, 2008

A) Lack of quality customer service.B) Non-responsive to customer complaints.C) Misleading advertising: It DOES NOT TAKE seven days (as claimed) to transfer a phone number from other carrier.D) Bad, bad, bad company!. They do not stand behind their product.My rating: ZERO STARS

Roberto

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
August 10, 2008

We onlyb have tracfone. It saves us money but the customer service takes a loooonnnnnnngggggg time. All of the operators are from Belize and the Phillipines so good luck finding someone without a thick accent. You will have to add in many many codes to add airtime and to get your phone working. Time consuming but money saving. So if you have more time than money then this is the phone for you.

Tami

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
August 5, 2008

just recieved my prepaid phone,cannot activate it as wrong sim card came with it,will take up to 1 week to recieve propher one.I,m from Europe where I can get a free sim card from many shops and it works right then. Is prepaid new to the USA ???

peter

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
August 4, 2008

ditto for cutomer service but generally we’re generally pleased…just found out about no web browser but we’ve just learned that it exists in other phones… we’re in MD and my wife had no problem calling here from Maui in 2008

phil

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
August 3, 2008

Tracfone can be wonderful, for as long as nothing bad happens to you. I REPEAT: Tracfone is WONDERFUL as long as you don’t run into problems. The customer service is truly crap. If your phone breaks…too bad. No replacements, and you’re lucky if you get your minutes transferred without them messing up. Good luck trying your luck. Pray to the phone god that nothing bad would happen to u under tracfone.

Nina

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
August 3, 2008

Everyone in my house has a tracfone except my husband. That’s 5 tracfones in our house and tey all work great! My daughter lost hers and it was 3 or 4 months after minutes were due and I called to explain that she had lost it and was scared to tell me so when I tried to add minutes it wouldn’t take. I guess I am a lucky one because I got someone who spoke english and she gave me the minutes that were not used and doubled my minutes on the phone. We’ve never had a problem with reception except when my daughter went on a camping trip in the mountains like 8 hours away from home. I love it and would recommend it to everyone. Maybe they don’t have the fancy bells and whistles but it is an inexensive way to own a phone and with the price of gas going up to over $4.00 a gallon…bring on the tracfone baby!!!!!!!!

Bamamom

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
August 3, 2008

I bought my tracphone for emergencies and other infrequent calls. When my car broke down in the middle of the road, the call ‘could not be completed.’ In fact, it always takes several attempts for a call to go through even when I am standing next to a cell phone tower! I wish I hadn’t paid for a year of service.

Gidget

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
August 3, 2008

I have been with tracfone since December 2008. Its currently Augst 2008, so as you can see i have stuck with tracfone for some time now. I have no probelms on my phone so i dont use customer service but i have heard problems about it but its the easiet phone to use really, and i think its great. my 11 year old daughter uses it and she loves it. with the 3 month recharge minute thing she pays for it by herself with her $10 a month allowance. its cheap, not garbage, and work amazing. So i give tracfone…a 10! or a 5 whatever haa

Jullia

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
July 31, 2008

I have a Tracfone LG 225 since last Oct. 07. It will not stay off unless of course I take the battery out! I called the customer service on July 14th to tell them my problem. After 35 minutes of being on the phone with me, they said that they would send me a new phone. Apparently, they sent it and it had arrived to the wrong place on July 16th and DHL brought it back. I was never told this until I called again on July 25th when I called wondering where my new phone is. They said that the phone was returned to them because the address I gave them did not work. I have lived here for only 15 years! I gave them the address again and it was the same as before and they told me to that they will try again. Well, today, July 31st, STILL NO PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I do not get it by next Tuesday or Wednesday, I will tell them to just forget it and that I am going to another pay as you company. This Monday, will have waited 3 weeks! I am tempted to go to another pay as you go phone company. T-mobile starting to look pretty good. Other than that, I had been very satisfied with the service and the ease of refilling the units etc.

dissatisfied

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 29, 2008

I had Trac Pone for about 8 yrs, then this spring I up graded my phone. About a month ago they cancelled my service saying that I returned the phone to Walmart. Try to talk to a real person, it took forever, finally I talked to a person and they told me that they could do nothing for me unless I puchased another phone, which I did not feel is right. Then they told me to fax them all of my info, so I did, I am still waiting to hear from them, and I have over 600 unused minutes on that phone, they don ‘t care about their customeers

Theresa

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
July 23, 2008

I cant seem to get any good ringtones for a good price!! 23.99 MINUTES for a ringtone plus how long it takes to download..wow horrible and they make it higher everytime you add minutes..way wrong i payed for thyem and should get a descently priced ringtone..i also think they should add NEW ringtones every 2 weeks or so..other than that GREAT and i mean GREAT service!

unknown

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 23, 2008

My phone was deactivated for ‘roaming’. When I called customer service, they told me to purchase a new phone and they would transfer my minutes and double minute/one year plan onto the new phone because they told me they could not reactivate the phone. I did purchase a new phone, the cheapest I could find, and called them to activate the phone and get everything transfered. Then I’m told, no they can’t transfer my minutes but give them 24 hours and they’d transfer my double minute plan. They would call me and let me know that it was done. I did not hear from them so I called back to find out what was happening. I’m now told that because my phone was deactivated, all my minutes and plans are on the old phone and cannot be transferred. So they had been lying to me when they said it could all be transferred. They told me it was because I had used the phone in Canada, but I had not. My house picks up towers from Canada but I am in the US. They advertise Nationwide coverage!! I certainly will not recommend Tracfone to anyone!!In an emergency it works great–cheap and doesn’t need to have a contract but their customer service stinks!!! I keep asking to speak to a supervise and their excuse is that’s a difference department–we don’t have authority there. I can’t seem to get a hold of anyone from the US or corporate office where my complaint can be actually heard and understood.

Esther

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 22, 2008

TracFone has the worst customer service I’ve ever encountered! I received two new phones last year, and it took multiple calls of more than 30 minutes each time to get them working. They still are working properly.

CJ

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
July 14, 2008

Hey,I think tracfone has great service and customer care. away. It’s easy,fast and cheap.One thing I think is that they should do some sort of free nights and weekend who agrees.

d-man

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
July 13, 2008

The Tracfone Nokia 2126 was bought in summer 2006 as an emergency phone for the car, and for my boyfriend to take to his cancer treatments so he could call people. I never had a cellphone before, but he did and the contract phones could be a nightmare costwise if stolen or ‘borrowed’ and the minutes run up. Prepaid can be much less complicated or costly than 2 year ‘handcuff’ contract phones with moderate use or frequent user cost saving bundles. When he died, I kept the phone for sentimental reasons, but bought two more prepaid cellphones with two other service providers, a mobile web enabled candybar style Nokia 2610 with GoPhone (AT&T, formerly Cingular GoPhone), and a web enabled flip Kyocera K127 MARBL with Virgin Mobile. The Tracfone Nokia is an older candybar phone and has texting and call capability only, no WAP browser. Tracfone’s WAP browsers, when the phones have data transfer as an option, are locked down to Tracfone’s homesite and still are as far as I know at this time but maybe they’ll change that someday. Their website has info about the services they provide including their ‘local only’ WAP browser. It is possible to get text alerts on a Tracfone if it’s text enabled. I use mine to get email alerts from my internet service provider to tell me when certain emails enter my mailbox. I can limit it to people on my preferred contacts list. MSN or hotmail provides this alert service too. Violent weather advisory alerts can be subscribed to, I think at the weatherchannel website. And I can get eBay outbid notice alerts, PayPal payment alerts, so cellphones can be handy!I read reviews online and avoided buying a Tracfone Motorola with their lockdown browser, I bought the AT&T GoPhone instead because it’s truly mobile and I can do eBay, hotmail, Yahoo, etc.If not for sentimental reasons I would probably let the Tracfone go and just have a WAP enabled prepaid phone that has better rates and money saving text/data bundles. I still just save the Tracfone for backup or emergencies, short calls that last only a few minutes, and to its credit for that use it is a great, reliable little phone. I bought it new in package with a 60 unit topup card at Rite Aid and it activated just fine at the website. I didn’t like all the activation codes but once that was done, I was able to topup again online quickly using my debit card, no PIN codes required, and got the units sent to the phone after paying. Buying that way online I can get special deals for double minutes or double the service period, with no need to go the five miles to town or hassle with PIN codes. At the website, I can choose between monthly autodebit plans, or I can topup when I feel like it.If I talked a lot more than a few minutes a month, or sent more than a few texts a month using the Tracfone, it wouldn’t be affordable, the GoPhone is cheaper with the $1/day, 10c/min. plan with big MEdia Net data and messaging discount bundles. Tracfone just sells units and everything is deducted from the units or balance. There are no texting discount bundles, just better deals for buying more units.It costs 1/2 unit to send/receive texts on my phone, and 1 unit for 1 minute of talk time within the service area. The cost per text or unit varies depending on what card or unit deal is purchased. At worst it’s 33c per unit, but with double minutes deals it drops to half and with cards that have more minutes and double minutes it can be cut further. I don’t like adding more to the balance of my phone than I can afford to lose should it fail, usually I just do 60 days 60 units extension. By renewal time usually I’m down to 20-30 units left and the new units get added to the old ones because I topup before expiration, which shows on my Nokia’s home screen. For budget minded people, a double minutes phone would be a great deal. Some models at the website can be bought with double minutes for life for a very cheap price. So if you just want a basic talk/txt phone without worldwide mobile web access the double minutes phones might be worth researching. If you want FANCY, including music, camera, unlocked mobile browsing to do eBay, email, PayPal etc, you would want to go elsewhere unless they unlock their browsers and start doing data, or messaging bundles like AT&T or Virgin.Though it has never glitched I can see from reading the reviews here that other users have had trouble with lost units and service hassles that don’t get resolved or take forever to work out. So buying huge allotments of units to save money may save nada, especially if you buy a used phone or inherit one with an unknown history, for all you know it may’ve been dropped. I’ve never had to call a service advisor so can’t say how they are in my area. Verizon provides service for my Nokia 2126 here in Madera County, CA. At the website I found out I couldn’t buy ringtones here in my town, but the phone came with a lot of them and all I wanted were a few rock music tones. If I used my phone constantly for calls it would have been an issue but it was just not that important. It might be for someone who only has service with Tracfone and who uses their phone a lot. A person who wants to get a Tracfone should check service availability at their website for any services like ringtones, graphics, data, etc that they will want before they buy. But if a person wants a simple talk/txt phone with nothing fancy, easy to read screens, basic features that include a simple calculator, calendar/scheduler, alarm, stopwatch/timer, a few simple games, a boodle of preloaded ringtones for identifying groups or callers with custom ringtones, the Nokia 2126 with Tracfone could be a good deal. I don’t know much about their other phones because the 2126 is the only Tracfone I’ve used.The phone service help desk may have people who don’t speak fluent English because Tracfone isn’t strictly an American company. I read online somewhere that it has a base in the U.S. but that it is owned by a Mexican company or associated with one. I’ve never called the help desk so I don’t much about their service.I like my more modern AT&T Nokia 2610 and my Virgin Mobile Marbl better, they do more. I would do a QWERTY keypad device with camera and music features if I had the boodle of bucks to go that way, with a Windows enabled PDA or smartphone and lots of memory storage, more than my first computer had! I keep the Tracfone because of sentimental reasons but it’s also pretty reliable and simple to use. The signal strength isn’t as good at my place as the GoPhone’s but I’m in a marginal or fringe service area for the Virgin and the Tracfone can get signal in the house but the Virgin’s is weak to non existant in the house but strong outside. I live north of Fresno CA in the mountains south of Yosemite so topography affects signal or service, because the Virgin gets super signal strength at the mailboxes 1/2 mile from the house and along the road into town. All 3 phones have a great signal along the road to town and in town. I live in a sheltered hollow.Phone service websites usually have a map to show where their phones get a signal, and it’s worth checking those. Some just ask for your zip and tell you if they give service for your area. Topography will affect service no matter what it shows on the map.One good thing about prepaid, you can check service in your area for a specific provider, like Sprint, Verizon, AT&T etc and then choose a phone service based on how well their prepaids work. If it doesn’t get a signal where you are or if the signal is marginal, you can try another service by just discontinuing the phone and getting a different one. Prepaid doesn’t charge a penalty for cancellation, you just quit using the phone and it expires.

Hoppy Froglet

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
July 13, 2008

i have a conern???? every time i add minutes to my trac phone i instantly get amessage from trac phone to add miutes and get a bonus … i added 60 minutes on july 11 then as soon as it is added i get a message : add 60 min. and get 50 free ‘ come on give me the 50 minutes !!!1 this happens every time i add min. trac phone is the only mobile phone i have and i love it but i get upset when i get my bonus after i have added …. why? i dont have the money to go get another card to get my bonus.

gloria weller

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 13, 2008

Other reviewers have said they wouldrate tracfone -5. It is just the customer service I would rate -5. My phone, the reception and coverage areas are great. But then there is a problem, all customer service does is talk from a script. You ask them a question and they type it into their computer to get the answer. And it is not the answer you are looking for! I have had their service for over 4 years, and if you can get someone in customer service who speaks english well, you are lucky! Why do they even give you an option of english or spanish!? Although the ‘service’ is good, their customer service stinks. I have only had problems when it comes to adding minutes or making a change. I recently lost my phone, and when I found it it didn’t work. Probably because it got wet outside. So I purchased a new phone. Now I am waiting 15 days so they can verify the 1300 units I had on my old phone! My 15 days are now up, and they tell me that department is only open Monday thru Friday! They could have told me that when I opened this inquiry or case. I just wasted 30 minutes on hold to find this out. I never would have called on a weekend if they told me this beforehand! I think they are hoping I would have used my cell minutes! I would switch services when I use up the minutes they will hopefully give me, but, other plans are much more expensive, and I only use my cell occasionally. I got it for emergency only. But have found texting is great! For those who don’t know, Net10 and Tracfone are the same company. And all the other pre-paid plans are much more expensive. So, if you can put up with basically a once a year hassle, and don’t need to talk/text a lot of minutes, and just use it for emergency or occasional calls Tracfone or Net10 is the way to go and the least expensive.

jersey joe

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
July 11, 2008

I had a Tracfone for two years before switching to AT&T. If you only use a few minutes per month or only have the phone for emergencies, Tracfone is excellent! But as I began using my phone more and more and needed more minutes, I found it less expensive to get a contract plan with AT&T. But during the two years that I had Tracfone, it was great.

Gary Rybold

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 11, 2008

Tracfone is a company that needs to be avoided at all cost. Their customer service is outsorced and you can’t understand most of the people you are trying to get to help you. I asked a number of times for a number or mailing address in the states and never got a response. My son bought a trac phone and card. It worked for a while. The phone now does not receive a signal in Major cities, and even our home area. We tried to get help and of course were unable to understand the 4 or 5 sequences of numbers we were told to re-program my son’s phone. Now he is locked out of his own phone.. I have filed a complaint with the Florida BBB, and am in the process of writing the Texas Attorney General, Florida Attorney General, and the FCC. A company that has TV ads telling the public how great it is needs to also tell the public if you have a problem get ready to talk to people outside the US for help. The broken english is so bad you constantly have to ask them to repeat what they have said.I am sick and tired of hearing ‘I am sorry you are having this problem’, and nothing getting done that I want my son to be reimbursed for the phone, and two unable to use phone cards. I SUGGEST YOU LOOK FOR SERVICE WITH ANOTHER COMPANY. THIS ONE IS NOT WORTH THE HEADACHES.

Rick Hammer

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 8, 2008

If you are not a patient person, do NOT use this service. I bought a tracfone but had to return it because upon attempting for about ten minutes (assuming I was doing something wrong) to just assemble the phone, I realized that, possibly due to some manufacturing fault, the back did not fit. Tracfone requires that you call them with a tracking number when you return one of their products so you can get a refund. This is perfectly reasonable. But be prepared to be on the phone for at least twenty minutes when you do call and be forewarned that the person you speak to does not speak english well. You probably won’t understand half of what’s being said to you and you will have to repeat yourself at least three times when giving information.Tracfone’s prepaid service in itself is probably okay, but at some point you’ll need to contact Customer Service and that’s where I believe their service falls short.

Barb

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
July 8, 2008

My wife and I have had Tracfone for many years. We are happy with the service they provide. Sometimes the wait time for customer service is much too long and some of the agents are hard to understand. But overall we are satisfied with the service.

Vic

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 6, 2008

I hate tracfone. Tracfone was my first cellphone service I ever had and absolutely hated it. Only recomended for people over 60 years old or are just going to use it once or twice a month. If you are a teen that talks a lot, go to somewhere better, like virgin mobile. Most likely you will find yourself talking with their horrible customer servace at least once a month because your phone is ‘magicly making your minutes dissapear’ or some other really stupid problem that shouldn’t even happen if they were a good phone company. What happened to me is my phone all of a sudden stopped making calls or texts. I called tracfone, (waiting for about an hour on hold) and they told me that my phone was broken. (way to state the obvious) and ended up going through at least 4 replacement phones before I gave up on them and switched to virgin mobile, where I still am, and are very happy with their service. DON’T GET TRACFONE!

Stve

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
July 6, 2008

Ive had tracfone for 2 months then I switched to verizon impulse because the phone i had was ugly and boring but the service is good and minutes im switching back but I dont know when im trying to get a job so I can have my own money and pay for my own stuff

Marquis

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
July 3, 2008

Ive had tracfone for a year now and its not gave me the first problem.The only problem i think they have is the custamer care reps.Because they can barely speak english half the time.But ovrall i lik tracfone really.but i think they need to have the moto razr.

MM85

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
July 1, 2008

I had this tracfone for 10 months and i had a problem with it and i decided to upgrade my phone to a newer model and I had problems with the message icon. whenever i have a voicemail message the message icon does not appear on my screen. i tried calling customer service 4 times and they still can’t solve my issues. I really hate this company. I trusted this company at first because i had no problems with it. don’t ever buy a tracfone. it’s a waste of money.

juli

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 30, 2008

The trac phones are great but how do I go about getting a new one since my old one won’t add minutes.It says it is restricted.

Angela

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 29, 2008

I have had a trac phone for about 4 years, just decided to upgrade to a better phone, got an LG3280, after activation when someone called I could not hear the ringer, they replaced the phone and the same problem, second time around customer serive was no help and supervisor was rude. I want to return the phone and replace it with another, was told I could not do it. wont use them again, they were good until we ran into a problem

JimA

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
June 27, 2008

Had tracfone for about 3years and i had no problems with tracfone i have double min for life so its not really that bad like people say they are.

John

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 27, 2008

DO NOT BUY THIS!!!! My phone became defective and they cancelled the shipment without notifying me about it and when i asked why they told me they couldn’t tell me, then talking to the corporate office, they told me that i had recieved too many replacement phones, even though this was my first!!!

Weston

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 25, 2008

Have had two tracfones for years of different makers although mostly motorola. Lost one phone only due to battery failure. Replacement battery more than phone. Called customer service and had all information transferred to new phone. Area technology changed and tracfone offered free replacement. Never had problem with charging phone by computer or card purchase. I use special promotion numbers with time purchase and never have problem. They will email with promotional offers without numberous emails.

larry

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 20, 2008

It is not true that you have to recharge every two months. I buy a 12 month card.

Herk

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 17, 2008

Tracfone has not provided purchased service. After I purchased service, minutes and a cell phone, I discovered that the phone was defective – CONVERSATIONS WERE VIRTUALLY UNINTELLIGIBLE ON BOTH ENDS. At first Teacfone refused to replace the phone since calls did connect. After more than an hour on the phone, a supervisor agreed to send a replacement phone. WHEN THE REPLACEMENT PHONE ARRIVED, IT DID NOT WORK AT ALL. After more tnan an hour on the phone, and speaking to a supervisor, the supervisor finally agreed to send A SECOND REPLACEMENT PHONE, and promised that the first phone would remain active. The first phone did remain active until 9:30 PM, when customer service closed, and they deactivated the phone. When I called customer service the next morning. customer service agreed to reactivate the phone, but with a different phone number. After more than an hour and speading to the supervisor and the senior supervisor, Tracfone informed me that my phone would be deactivated, my account was deactivated until I received the SECOND REPLACEMENT PHONE, IF IT ACTUALLY DID WORK, and although I had paid for service, they would not provide any service at all until a working replacement phone was received. They said the second replacement phone had been shipped. I checked with DSL and learned that the phone had not been shipped at all. I called the senior supervisor back and learned that nobody knew when the second replacement phone would be shipped but was tole that I should receive it in a few days, but it could take a week or so. In the meanwhile, TRAFONE WOULD NOT PROVIDE ANY SERVICE, although I had paid for ample minutes.

Christi Oliver

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 17, 2008

i have a tracfone motorola v170 and it totaly sucks. it says you can get ringtones but you cant. They say its ‘America’s #1 prepaid cell phone’ but they should say ‘America’s #1 Most Expensive Prepaid Cell Phone.’ I tried some promo codes to get more out of it and the sim card got all screwed up. the service sucks. you have to use the minutes, that you bought, before they expire. Tracfone keeps sending me expired promo codes. i just hate it so much!!!!

Michael Clifton

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 16, 2008

Consider Tracfone unless your net cost with another service is below 10 cents per minute. From my experience, I would highly recommend it.I’ve had a Tracfone Motorola C139 for almost a year. I probably use it about 30 minutes/month. I’ve never had a dropout; service is reliable and clear everywhere. For about $6/month, I’ve accumulated hundreds of spare minutes. My wife pays about $35/month with T-Mobile. She can’t get reception in our house or in her office, which my Tracfone does, in both places, at full strength. Cost-wise, she could do as well as I do with Tracfone. She plans to switch as soon as her contract expires. (A contract is one trap that Tracfone eliminates from the get-go!)With double minutes for life and promo codes available all over the net, I always look forward to renewing my service to see how many hundreds of minutes I can tack on for chump change.Customer service has been friendly, effective, and patient. The most difficult time was arranging to pick up the phone from FedEx. Tracfone requires a signature if you order the phone on-line.

3C

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 16, 2008

Expensive on the minutes, cheap phone–bought mine for 10-bucks. If you use this as a disposable cell phone only– use it then chuck it. You would not have high expectations for the service. It only serves one purpose. Make your calls—trash it and get another with a new number.

TracFone Customer

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 9, 2008

I have been ripped off by tracfone. In January 2008, I subscribesd to the plan of double minutes for a year at the cost of $79.00. Except for the first month, every month I experience not receiving my double minutes. If I call for assistance with this I can expect to be put on hold for hours. I have contacted this company about this to no avail. Just a rip-off, I suppose.

BF

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 8, 2008

horrible customer service. Under no circumstances would I ever want to deal with them again.

jsch

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 6, 2008

Well let me start off with the phone models. They all SUCK. They don’t even have as little as a camera phone. Well they have 2 but still. About 1 year ago i bought my first TracFone. Worked great. But i wished a camera phone worked in my area.Well I bought a new phone about 3 weeks ago. I thought no problem i’ll switch my number to my new phone no problem. WRONG! I called them and they said it should be working in 48 hours (I couldn’t understand them because it was out-sourced people) I called them in 72 hours because i was trying to be nice and give them time. Well i was a little meaner and then they told me ANOTHER 48 hours and they even got the #’s wrong I gave them.So I keep calling them every two days for 2 weeks and then they finally got HALF of my phone active. I could make call but not recieve them, and no voice mail or texting. A week later i was fed up 3 Weeks I screamed at them. I started to get REALLY mad and they FINALLY got my phone working.Message: BE REALLY BITCHEY TO THEM OR THEY WON’T TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY.I’m switching to Net10 soon so I can get the Motorola W175 with a VGA camera. But bummer that tracfone and net10 are the same company! 🙁

Lennon Chamberlain

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
June 5, 2008

Worst customer service that I have ever run into…the customer service centers are outsourced all over the world but none in the U.S. I am an occasional user of a cellphone and have been a TracFone customer for some time. Among the problems I have had: 45 minute wait to talk to a service specialist, assigned a telephone number that is 1 hour away and all local calls in my area are deducted at a long distance rate, and still waiting after a month for international long distance to be processed on my cellphone. I am done with them and going to another prepaid cellular phone company, the one that is rated number one in customer satisfaction and customer service! I would not recommend TracFone to anyone, stay away from them! Zero Stars!

Dr. Gregory Haglund

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 5, 2008

I have been a Tracfone customer for 4 years, and it has been a great. Low cost is a huge bonus

pokey

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
June 4, 2008

Despite what newcomer had to write, overall Tracfone has been a great phone. I have been using them since they first came out. And like every other phone service provider yes they have changed but it has been for the better. Customer service does tend to lack alot. But the overall perfomance of the phone is great. And I spend a heck of a lot less monies on my tracfone in a year than if I was with another provider.

firemandisney

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
June 3, 2008

I have had tracfone for two years and I have had many problems with customer service and the phone itself. The customer service stinks. You spend hours on the phone and most of the time, they dont fix problems. The phones stink. I bought my first one and before the one year mark came around, it took an hour to turn on, and hour to text, and I would get text three days AFTER the person sent them. When I got my second tracfone, I spent WEEKS trying to get it to work. Not days, but WEEKS. The company gave me the wrong SIM card in the phone so I called them and then they said it was the right one and gave me all these codes to put in just to shut me up. Then I called back the day after and I did that for a week or so and then finally, they sent the another SIM card and that didnt work. So I had to call them AGAIN and they spent two hours transferring me to the same department 10 times or so. And when my phone finally started working, things wouldnt work on it. Almost a year later, they STLL dont work after calling the company 5 times every month.I would recommend tracfone to someone who doesnt use their phone at all. But honestly, most people buy a phone to USE it.I deffinatley would not recommend tracfone to someone who frequently uses their phone. You just waste minutes and the phone cards arent to cheap and the minutes can rise up to 30-40 cents a minute for some phone cards. The cheapest price for minutes is 20 cents. Seriously, its not worth it. At all.

alyssa

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
June 1, 2008

I have t-mobile as my regular service, and have been generally happy with it. I use my t-mobile phone for my business, too. I got a tracfone as an additional number so I could give out a number to women I meet on Craigslist. That way, they won’t hear my business line voicemail, or if they get bonkie-nutz, I would not have to deal with them calling my primary cell line. For that purpose, the tracfone has been great. I bought a double your minutes card, and a 400 minute/1 year card. I had no problem setting things up and entering the IMEI number and SIM card number. I got a Nokia 1112. It is now no longer manufactured, but who cares? I do not need to play games, or fancy ring tones. I just need a reliable, functional phone that dials out, receives calls, and works. Tracfone cannot ever replace my t-mobile monthly contract service phone, since I do use the phone a lot, but it is great as a secondary phone to have a secondary number to give out to protect privacy for my libertine pastimes. The people who complain about tracfone must be technologically illiterate. If you had it for 5 years with no problems and only now have problems, that is no reason to rate it poorly. Given the pricing schemes of the other prepaid services, I like tracfone the most.

Marcus

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
May 29, 2008

I have an older tracfone with an antenna that actually can move. With that I have incredible reception compared to newer tracfone we have purchased. Over all service has improved with addition of new cell towers, though it does depend on which phone we own, some are better than others. Note, not the cheaper ones! We like tracfone and find it very affordable compared to other plans, especially if you buy their double minute plan. You can now place international calls using a special international call number and the charge is the same as regular minutes. You don’t need a phone card, the minutes are deducted directly from your tracfone minutes from your phone.Customer service is truly awful, people barely speak english and it’s hard to hear them. I have had them become annoyed with me when asked to repeat themselves. Also Tracfone insists on keeping a record of the charge cards people use to add minutes or buy phones, especially if you do so online and they prefer you use the same card all the time. If you don’t you will receive an error message and be asked to call customer service. Over all I will continue to use tracfone. All phone companies seem to have problems and I prefer not to pay a fortune nor do I want a contract just to have the ability to own and use a cell phone.

Cathy

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 28, 2008

Even though you may still have minutes on your phone, TracFone does not allow you to maintain your service if you do not purchase minutes every 3 months. I had minutes on my phone and didn’t purchase additional ones after the ninety days and they canceled my service.

TracUser

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
May 20, 2008

I bought a W370 yesterday and love the coverage where I am. I had T mobile prepaid and coudn’t get a signal in my house. With this service, I have a strong signal in my home and the basement too. The activation didn’t go smoothly, I tried online and there were problems with the page so I called and used the automated service. The automated service was able to activate but my minutes were not added, so I called customer service. The woman was very helpful and added my minutes immediatly. I also gave her a promotional code to get 200 extra minutes on a 400 1 year card. The W370 also have double minutes for life so I got a total of 1000 minutes for $100, that works out to .10/minute. The W370 isn’t as nice as my razr or built as well but it gets the job done. Another gripe I have is that the USB has been disabled except to charge the phone so I can’t load my contacts or pics or ringtones. What i wanted was cheap service in my house and that’s what i have so overall i’m happy. I would rather have tmobile so i could use my own unlocked phone but the signal is too weak where i live.

steve

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
May 15, 2008

I had an old tracfone for many yrs. never had a problem. bought a new (cheap) phone. Had problems, went with Alltel, Will be going back to TracFone, Alltel is terrible! If I thought I had problems with my phone, nothing compares to the hassels Alltel has put me threw. I highly recommend TracFone!

Brenda

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 15, 2008

I use to love tracfone, but they made me switch phones and now I have very limited coverage. No nationwide, found that out while I was traveling and needed it.It only covers the immediate area and if you have a problem you have to call them, somehow, and maybe you can get someone that can fix it, at least until you find another place it won’t work.Now they charge you minutes while the phone is ringing, before your call is answered too.I’m looking for something else.

Jackie

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 14, 2008

I had a Nokia Tracfone for years and was very satisfied. They deactivated it for ‘upgrades to the system’July 2007 with alot of promises they never followed through on. Took 8 months and multiple emails to get the’new’ refurbished phone and they won’t roll over the 200 minutes I had on the old phone. Customer service is a joke. BBB and FCC complaints have been filed, but I haven’t heard anything. Tracfone got the 1 star because there was nothing lower I could give them. I think speaking and understanding english are two different things with this company. Not rolling over the minutes I had accumulated is nothing more than theft in my book, and they seem to be getting away with it.

Carla

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
May 13, 2008

I have been reading all these negative reviews and feel bad. I’ve had my v60 tracfone for about 5 years and it works great. My phone gets very good reception, sometimes better than the expensive contract phones that other people have, but my mom and husband have not been as happy with their tracfones as I have been. Mom had a v60 as well and had many problems with it. My husband has a v170 model and is always having reception problems and dropped calls, so it seems that the problems have more to do with the phone than the service, as we all use our phones in the same general area. The service dept is hard to understand sometimes, but I have had pretty good results with problems getting resolved. At this time, I’m planning to stay with tracfone. I cannot afford $60+ dollars a month for a cell phone, which seems to be the average cost of contract phones!!

Rita

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
May 10, 2008

I love my Tracfone. I guess you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Never had a dropped call. Minutes are easy to buy at Walgreens, CVS, Walmark, Kroger, almost anywhere and online. The ‘double your minutes is great’. Check Ebay for great deals on minutes, phones, and codes. Never had a problem, that is til I forgot it in my pocket and washed it. Darn thing won’t work now, do you believe it. Piece of crap…lol. I’m getting another Tracfone…..works for me.

Tammy

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 8, 2008

Make that negative 5 stars. My experience echoes what others have said here. Tracfone’s customer service is AWFUL! I can’t even think of all the wasted time I have spent talking to their ‘customer service’ reps without getting really irritated. I try really hard to be patient. It’s not their fault that they are poorly trained and are not native English speakers, but I just can’t take it any more. They talk from a script, can’t understand simple questions, the intercontinental phone connection is bad (where on Earth are those people?) and sometimes disconnects — great after fighting everything else for an hour or so — and after all that, they nearly always do not get things right. If you have to call them, allocate a MINIMUM of one hour clock time for something that should take no more than 5 minutes. And I’m not talking about time spent on hold. This is time spent trying to explain something to someone who doesn’t understand. It will drive you nuts the sixth or seventh time you go through all this. Been there, done that, too many times! If their website wasn’t such an abomination, you wouldn’t have to call. That would be the best solution. Bottom line: their prices are great for infrequent use — especially their value plans — but once you need their customer service, you are hosed. Believe what you read here.

WasatchBob

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
May 7, 2008

I’ve had my Tracphone for months now, and it’s never given me any problems. I’ve never had to deal with customer service, so I can’t say whether they are reliable or not, but as far as the phone and service goes, I haven’t had a problem yet. The coverage sometimes sucks, and I find the prices a little high, but then again I use my phone alot and often travel to weird places where cell phones don’t usually get reception anyway. If you need an extra phone for emergencies or as an alternate, I recommend this phone.

Jennifer

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
May 6, 2008

first time using a tracfone wonderful I use it for emergency only.

David

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 5, 2008

I made the mistake of buying a track phone. It died on me. Just died for no reason. customer service barely speaks english. Had to wait one week to get a replacement phone and the replacement phone has a faulty sim card. I now have to wait another week to get the replacement sim card.. It is now two weeks without a cell phone. As soon as my time is up on the air card. I will get another phone from another company I still have 60 min left that I can not access because the phones don’t work.

Laura

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
May 4, 2008

I have had Tracfone for a little over a year and its okay. The customer service stucks though. I upgraded my phone and had to jump through so many hoops just to talk to someone. And they were always busy and kept telling me to call back at a time where they were less busy. The coverage isn’t always the best. Some days I lose service in the middle of a texting conversation and i dont get service for another hour or two. they also dont have the biggest selection of phones. depending where you are you can get a flip-camera phone. Not the best phone selection if you’re a teenager.Also, if you want to buy a ringtone or wallpaper, its gonna cost you anywhere from 10-20 ‘units’ and it just keeps going up.

Steph.

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 2, 2008

I’ve been using Tracfones for years, and have even provided them for my elderly parents. But when it comes to customer service, it’s virtually non-existent. I’ve been getting the run-around for over three weeks. I’ve called, I’ve written, I’ve been nice, I’ve been rude…nothing has worked to resolve my issue. Over the years, I’ve had a few other similar experiences.

Miffed In Michigan

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
May 2, 2008

I’ve been with TracFone for about 3 years now. My wife and I both have a phone and update the minutes once a year with a yearly plan card. Everything was fine and we’d had no problems up until my wife accidentally dropped her phone in the toilet at Wal-Mart! Don’t ask. The phone was on because we always use them in the Supercenter to keep track of one another. I thought surely it was dead meat but took the battery out and let it dry on the heater vent on the way home and then let it sit near the heater at home for another full day before putting the battery back in. It worked!!!But a week later my wife called me from work and told me she’d left the phone on a few days and now all of her minutes were gone. The phone had dumped the memory and zapped 845 minutes and 8 months of service time. I called customer support and after about an hour and a half the minutes and service time was restored. Happy days! The service rep even added a complimentary 200 minutes for our inconvenience. That was 3 months ago. Yesterday, my wife called from work with the same problem but this time she lost over 1,000 minutes! I just went to Wal-Mart and bought another phone (Motorola C139) and started the online registering process. When I saw the option to transfer minutes from another phone I stopped and called customer service to get the minutes restored (for the second time). The long and the short of it is that I have wait 2 weeks before they’ll tell me if my wifes phone actually had over 1,000 minutes on it. Two weeks!!! The rep suggested that I buy more minutes after he transferred the number from the old phone to the new phone when he activated it. I’m sitting here scratching my chin wondering why the two weeks so I decided that wasn’t going to work and called them back. No change. I’m disgusted and suspect that those minutes are long gone but I won’t know for two weeks. Meanwhile, I’m looking for another pay as you go cell phone service just in case. My phone still has 475 minutes on it so I need to use those up on long distance calls. It made my head hurt to realize that the rep didn’t see the problem with losing $250 worth of airtime. That’s just wrong…

Max

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
May 1, 2008

Believe everything you read. I activated my phone, but could not get the SIM card to register. Customer service sent me a new SIM card, and that one won’t work either. They were impossible to understand and difficult to deal with. I’m $100 into this mess, and now I’m just giving up.

Nathan

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
April 30, 2008

Only reason I give Tracfone 1 star is because there is no option for 5 negative stars. I had Tracfone service for several years & was relatively happy with the service (never had to contact ‘customer service’ during that time.) Last year Tracfone contacted me & told me that my V60 would no longer work after Nov 07 but that they would send me a new phone with updated technology that would just make my life wonderful. Since then I have spent 4 months and literally many, many hours trying to get my service to work. I had to fight my way through their off-shore customer service where nobody understands English – they operate off of scripts. Finally demanded a number for the corporate office in FL and got somebody that understood English, but after 4 months and hours on the phone with these people, they still can’t get it right. Tracfone is much better at getting your service deactivated than getting it activated. They managed to get my service (and phone number) deactivated at least 3 times. I had to demand (unfortunately pretty obnoxiously) that they get my phone number back. Tracfone does not seem to understand the importance of keeping the same number from day-to-day. When they deactivated my number this last time, they lost it back to Allnet permanently. They offered me 200 – 300 minutes as “compensation” for my “inconveniences”. When I told them that no, I’m done with Tracfone and wanted a full refund of all unused service and minutes, I was told that company policy is that they will not refund anything against the service and minutes I paid for, even though they seem completely unable to provide that service. All in all, I would equate doing business with Tracfone customer service with simultaneously having root canals on all 32 teeth at once without benefit of anesthesia while being poked in the eye with a sharp, smoldering stick and having your fingernails yanked out with a pair of rusty pliers. If you value your blood pressure, do NOT do business with this company.

joe f

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
April 22, 2008

I am very happy with tracfone for the occasional need I have for cellphones. Once I lost my phone in another state. The person who found it kindly mailed it to me. In the mean-time tracfone deactivated the phone till I had it back with me. They re-activated it without loss of any minutes or time (date for recharge). FIVE STARS to their service. If they make it any cheaper, I guess many other cell-companies will go under water or will have to improve their offers.

Harry B

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
April 22, 2008

I have been a tracfone customer for over 6 years it has worked everywhere Alaska colorado florida new york . as to customer service it has gotten better as with all customer service it all depends on the rep .I had a problem about a year ago and their rep stayed on the phone with me for over 20 minutes until he found the glitch and resolved it a very determined young man . I was impressed enough to talk to a supervisor and complement him as with all tech. their can be problems check out horror stories with other carriers

bob

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
April 20, 2008

I bought a trac phone 11 months ago. It does not work and has 387 units on it. I have had 4 technitions try to trouble shoot with no success. I can not get a supervisor to respond. I would never buy another one.

terry

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
April 18, 2008

tracfone isn’t too bad but they should get at least a unlimited text plan

Chris

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
April 17, 2008

I bought my first TracFone three years ago. I called a CS rep and she had me all set up in about ten minutes. I have been very satisfied with the service; the only minuses are that occasionally the network goes down and ’emergency only’ appears on the screen. During stormy weather (I live on the coast of Washington State),the network goes down yet again–we had a hurricane in December and had no power for several days, and my husband’s Verizon service worked, but not TracFone. I have since upgraded my phone to a flip phone because of the random dial out calls, and have also purchased one for my husband–both activations were done on the website in a matter of minutes!! The menu is user friendly and uncomplicated. The cost of the phone(s) and minutes are very inexpensive. I highly recommend TracFone.

Jewels

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 16, 2008

I’ve had tracphone for about 5 years now. The phone was given to me for a birthday present all I wanted was a comunication device and that’s what I got. I’m satisfied with there service. I just bought a new motorola flip phone v170 becouse the phone I had before had open bottons and I would dail out every in a while and not know it and thats the only problem I’ve ever had with them

Mark

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
April 16, 2008

okaa well i have a tracfone and ive had it for about a year now. the phone was given to me as a christmas present and i loved it when i first got it. but now i HATE IT! im a teen and i like to talk on the phone and text alot. i plan on switching mt plan to another company soon becuase tracfone sucks. i have had alot of problems and if you like to talk and text alot this is not the type of company for you. im constantly out of minutes and i hate it.

amanda

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 16, 2008

Great plans.You people need to take your time and find out all you can.All of these negative reviews are B.S.Tracphone is in my opinion well worth the little money you spend.

Dave

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
April 15, 2008

had trac phones for as long as they have been out.some say they have all sorts of problems,i never have had one.i suggest that people just learn all you can about the phone you have.

rusty

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
April 12, 2008

I am very disappointed with customer service. I have received text messages from the company stating to use promo codes with my next refill, only to find out the promo code has expired before it was even sent to me. When bringing this to the customer service they were unable to assist me. After speaking to a customer service rep, customer service supervisor and then a manager I am still with out answers and full of more questions. I am very dissatified with company and will be willing to pay more in order to not deal with the customer of this company again.

Stephanie

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 12, 2008

I love tracfone alot. its my 1st cell phone and i’ve had it for three years now. the costumer service isn’t bad like how everyone says. they help you all the way and know what they are doing. i have the motorola w370 which is an excellent phone. it has everything that u could want in a phone, including internet. i can check my myspace and yahoo messages on my phone anywhere!!! also it gives real ringtones from popular up to date songs. tracfone is pretty much up to date, no one would know that you have a prepaid phone. the only thing is they dont have any blue tooth phones yet, im sure they will soon enough tho. i would definately recommend this phone to people because its not a bad company at all and your in control. plus they have double minutes. you have to try this phone to see that it really isn’t a bad idea.

Chelsea

Consumer Review

Rated 1.0 out of 5
April 10, 2008

Avoid at all costs!! Completely incompetent reps (what language do they speak?) Ive had nothing but trouble with this company,bad phone,bad sim card,bad response so as you can see a bad experience.I’ve been without a phone for 2 weeks asked twice for a remedy or refund both requests have been rejected. Save yourself some grief and avoid the ‘service’ It’s an outsourced company run by IDIOTS. Please pass this on to anyone considering a pre-paid plan!I’ve omitted any hateful and offensive language but surely would’ve like to have included it to show my true frustration.

Ugmo

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 9, 2008

I recently bought a TracFone and wanted to port my number in from my Verizon Inpulse prepay plan (inpulse was too expensive). So I logged onto the TracFone Website and looked around. Finally I found the port in button and I did what it said. After that I got a case ID number. I waited 2 days for it to clear. When it did clear it said to program my phone (activate). So I proceeded to activate my phone, I had to re-do the port in process. After that I got another case ID number. Waited two more days for that. Called TracFone and they activated it right there and asked me when I was born and all that neat stuff. Next thing I know I get a birthday card in the mail (VERY LATE birthday card) and a birthday email from TracFone! WOW! I’ve gotten perfect coverage, and everything you need in a basic cellphone! I am VERY pleased with TracFone and their service! THANKS TRACFONE!

A major cellphone buyer

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 8, 2008

had tracfone for 3 years. bought on line, purchase minutes from walmart (they install them for you)never had a dropped call or difficulty in connecting.NO MONTHLY PAYMENTSno need to talk to support on phone. just go to walmart. They are trianed and familiar with sytem.love no billing monthly.

marie

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
April 7, 2008

Adding airtime through the website never works. I have to always call customer service a minimum of 3 times to get minutes added to my phone

Seema

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
April 6, 2008

I’ve had this tracfone for about Five months now. It’s ok, but it’s not the best in the world. I recently looked on line for differant phones and found much better phones. These phone were prepaid but you pay monthly. I’m going to give them a try. Tracfone just eat up to much money. the money I spend on tracfone I can get better else where.

lelegal

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 6, 2008

Great for an emergency only phone. We did not want a contract, and bought our first tracfone for a vacation. I just upgraded to a flip-phone with dbl minutes for life. Yes their cs reps are hard to understand, but I’ve been able to do all i need from my landline with the automated system.I have dbl minutes for likf on my phone and i alwayd google for coupon codes before i purchase minutes. doing this i’ve been able to get my cost down to 10 cents a minute.If you need a phone for emergency use, this is the way to go.

smgibson

Consumer Review

Rated 4.0 out of 5
April 5, 2008

I’ve had Tracfone for almost 5 years. Overall I have been happy with them. They have decent coverage areas. I do prefer not to talk to their service reps due to the fact that it is difficult to understand them. Adding minutes is simple online.My advice, buy your phone, a double minutes for life card and a minute card. Make sure you add the double minute for life card first, then add the minute card. There is no need to buy a year service card if you do the minutes right. Buy airtime online and service time is added as well, usually 90 days at a time. You can also add service time to your phone for $4.95 for 30 days if you run out of service before your minutes are gone. Just look for ‘Bundle’ info on their website.I am looking for a different provider though. All other carriers in my area offer data services, tracfone does not. I have tried to work with them on this and they for what ever reason don’t understand or choose to care. I also am looking for nights and weekends and a national calling area without roaming. Where I live their ‘Single Rate’ is not offered.For a basic phone, I would recomend Tracfone.

SDcaller

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 5, 2008

This plan is so totally great . Like sierra I recently had the virgin mobile plan . And just a she said it sucked . I wasnt even able to activate my phone . But anyways i heard tracfones were pretty good so i decided to try it . was i in for a surpirze ! they were great and virtually have four bars everywhere .i so totally recommend it !

linda

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 4, 2008

this plan is terrific . i currently had the virgin moblile plan . totally sucked !! so my friend recommended this plan so i decided to take it i got a great phone for 13 dollars and then i got minutes for 20 . wow what a great deal and since i only use my phone about 3 times a week thiis plan is so right for me . I totaly recommend it.

sierra

Consumer Review

Rated 3.0 out of 5
April 3, 2008

tracfone has the most expensive minutes i have come accross i used tracfone for many years before i took a good look at the money i was throwing away, i have 3 and want to know what to do with the old tracfone they all still work.

connnie hollomond

Consumer Review

Rated 5.0 out of 5
April 3, 2008

I love tracphone because not one of my calls were dropped.

dasmine

Consumer Review

Rated 2.0 out of 5
April 1, 2008

Good coverage and great for minimal usage. However, if you want good rates you have do a treasure hunt for discounts. CS is is mediocre.

Pete

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