View All TracFone Reviews

To have the phone activated, it was a terrible ordeal. They trying to get to a representative that I could understand was very challenging. If I knew I had to go all through this ordeal just to activate a phone, I would have never purchased the phone.

I've had a Trakfone for two years and just got the unpleasant surprise after buying $37 worth of airtimethat I have to buy again in 60 days. I'm sure it wasn'tlike that when I first used the phone. I won't have used those minutes by then–;I only have this phone for emergencies. Why is Trakfone acting like a pay-per-month service all of a sudden? Who can I complain to? The employee I asked about this ridiculous new system was very polite, but of course she couldn't help me.

I tried their service the phone sucks, the customer service is basically non existant. If you want real cell service buy Simple Freedom.

Unless you like getting ripped off don't purchase their phones or buy their minutes. Stick with the tried and true – Verizon or Simple Freedom. What do we expect when we ask for support from folks from India who don't know our language and aren't able to communicate with us. Shame on TracFone and all other countries who send American jobs to India, China, Central and South America and anyplace they can find slave labor.

It is a waste of money and definitely a waste of your time. I went online to purchase via credit card a one year card with 250 minutes plus 250 bonus minutes. They gave me an invalid code. I called and spent the next 4 hours talking to Non-English speaking folks from India who couldn't help me. Now I am out $100. and they won't refund my money. They say their policy is no refunds but yet they won't or can't provide me with the service I purchased so why should they get to keep the $100. Guys, we are in the wrong business. We need to get into the cell phone business, apparently they can take your money and don't have to give you anything in return. I have better things to do than to stay on the phone 4 hrs to try to get cell phone working and still don't get it. I wish I had never heard of TracFone or outsourcing of American jobs. Maybe if they would have their call centers in the US for their US customers, perhaps we could get better service but TracFone is not going to do that they believe in slave labor because it helps to make them millionaires.

This is a case of not getting what you pay for customer service or phone service. I was also scammed by TracFone, took my money but didn't give me the service. I had better luck using a tin can with a string.

I waste alot of minutes with hitting buttons when phone is in my pocket and it dials. Customer service does stink, and they dont speak english. I was on hold over and over with them for over 45 min.but they did eventually fix it. My husband loves his phone other than its hard to know when you get a call and miss it. great for emergencies.

Waste of time. Service stinks. save your money.

Dont waste your time. I have been stuck on roaming in my own area code for 6 months. I have called many times and been held on the phone for over an hour each time before hanging up. I have over 600 minutes i cant use unless i leave my calling area and pay roaming charges!

I believe tracfone is a decent service. I have had it for 2 years and there has been no dropped calls, and there rates (10 cents a minute) are very reasonable. My only complaints are: get better customer service and better phones with better features, even if they are expensive.

Let me just say that my first experience was a great one. In fact I recommended the phone service to everyone. It gave me the convience of having a cell phone service without paying high monthly costs. I only needed it for emergencies or minor things. Well needless to say now I would recommend it to NO ONE. I agree with one review hands down they have the worst customer service. I bought a new phone to upgrade from my old one. That is when the troubles began. I called to have my number transferred, units and prepaid year transferred, and activiate my new phone. After 24 hours I was still not activated so I called again. You might as well know you will be on the phone for AT LEAST 30 mins each time you have to call customer service. Each time I was given a case number and told to wait 24-48 hours. Don't bother calling after 24 hours, they say that but won't do any thing. They may give you a new case number and make you wait another 48 hours from that call. After 3 times I was told to call back in 24 hours and they would send me a replacement phone. It was over the weekend so I waited till monday which made it almost 48 hours. By now I was pretty upset and told her just try to keep putting me through to the next department to get the replacement. By now it's been at least 30 mins talking to her and 30 mins of her trying to put me through the next department. Well about 10 mins into her trying to put me through she had the nerve to tell me to call back in 10 mins due to high volume of calls she couldn't put me through. What difference would 10 mins make when I hadn't gotten through yet. I figured if I stayed on I would have better luck since i had been trying for so long already. Knowing all to well that if I called back in 10 mins it would be another 30 mins until I got where I was at this point. Each time you talk to a different person. Well after 20 more minutes she started to say that she could not help me because I didn't wait the full 48 hours(which was only 3 hours away) and she couldn't do anything. Her story changed now and I really believe she was just trying to put me on hold hoping I would give up. I finally told her my feelings and hung up. I had to call back in 3 hours for the full 48 hours to be up. All because the company was to cheap to send out a new phone that only cost 40.00 retail. This last lady finally got me a replacement phone sent out. Well she told me 5 – 10 business(which I think is ridiculous) days but low and behold it came the next day. They expressed it. Well, I thought to myself, at least they did one good thing for me. Only to my dismay, I opened the phone which was poorly packaged and a reconditioned phone. By now this was a slap in the face. The phone I bought orginally was brand new from a local store and they send me a reconditioned one. My husband plans on making the next phone call. This compnay has ruined me for any future service or recommending it to anyone. It has been over 2 weeks and everyday I am out money because I dont have service and I have prepaid for a year.

Tracfones are great if you don't use a fone alot you get 10 cents per minute if you get the double min card and then a 400 min card for $80. For one year after the double min card all additional cards are doubled, so an $80 400min card is really $80 for 800min=10 cents per min.

This Tracfone is by far the most non-user friendly of anything I have EVER purchased in my life!! In trying to add minutes it is a total frustrating joke, no operators who even speak English, or are so VERY hard to understand….and saying that one can add minutes on line is a bigger joke yet…I went all the way, scrolling down many times, only to get to the end and have it say it couldn't be processed at this time!! I am shaking all over every single time I have to add minutes on, and my husband leaves the house because he also tried it and absolutely found it impossible. so can't be here when I attempt to do it. I gave one of my Tracfones to my Daughter and she has had the exact same experiences. I am going to throw mine away soon.

i like my motorolac139 but i need to sign up with good plan instead of doing the pay as you go

I just got the motorolaC261 and its the best.Well some people say that they get dropped calls,the not true because this is my third tracfone and I have never had a dropped call.I hope that in the company tracfone gets razrs,now that would be really great.

My previous tracfone was ok until it started charging me 2 minutes for failed calls. And every call I made failed the first 2 times, thought it was the phone so I got a new one and they gave me a long distance phone number. Just FYI, I waited on the 1-800 for 1 hour and they hung up on me. currently still waiting on the phone as we speak.. 2 hours and counting. Good luck getting a refund, you have to get someone on the phone for that… RIPOFF! Dont do it!!

i hate them they suck they have the highest rates and there is almost no custumer service and i have been fone less for over 3 months and i decided to go to simple freedom and they have custumer service every time i callso ill stay there go to simple freedom u will have better service.

i just got a tracfone and i absoulutly love it!!! i even slept with it by my side!! buy a prepaid card and add min. for nothing!!! it's great!

Apparently, people who have been making comments about it and calling it a ‘crapfone', ‘I'm running it over with my van' should grow up. And people who say the customer service stinks and the phone stinks, then why did you have it for 2-3 years?

Icalled Tracfone 11-22-06 to report my phone being inoperative. I was promised a replacement within 5 business days. today 12-26-06 I still haven't received it despite 2 followup calls. Service Stinks

My wife and I both have the Nokia 1100. We've had them for a year now. We have not found a prepaid or monthly cellphone plan from any other provider that would make us want to switch from Tracfone.

I like Tracfone because I do not need to use my cell phone except for emergency and ordering pizza to pick up. My Sprint plan was $40 per month with taxes and fees and I never used it. I bought tracfone one year plan with double minutes (because it came with a neat free phone) BUT when I went to add minutes THEY DID NOT DOUBLE and I could get no help from TracFone.Because I got a nice phone free I just let the double minute rip off go. I hate trying to talk to customer service and trying to get my double minutes by e-mail was hopeless.

This company has the WORST customer service hands down. I had an issue with my phone. They deactivated it despite the fact that I had 34 minutes on my phone and close to a month left to add more minutes. They said they only way they could fix my problem is if I BOUGHT MORE MINUTES! I don't think so. Don't buy their crap if you don't want to get cheated out of your money.

Tracfone had great coverage in my area, but I didn't use the phone enough to justify 120 minute card @ $0.25 cents a minute ($29.99), or a 60 minute card @ $0.33 a minute ($19.99), every 2 months. Also adding minutes is a little bit of a nuisance. I've switched to Virgin Mobile, which has good reception in my area and I only have to add minutes every 3 months @ $0.18 a minute. A $20 (111 minutes) card is enough for me, which is less than $7 a month. Tracfone is good though, mainly for reception and roaming, which Virgin Mobile doesn't have. If Tracfone ever comes down to a reasonable price per minute plan or give you 90 days instead of 60 to add minutes I'd probably come back.

For the second time in a row Crapfone has taken my money and not given me my minutes. Since they are in India-‘I am understanding that you are having a problem. Your case number is….' Why does the customer service close at all??Luckily my credit card company cgave me a credit and will leave it there until I call and tell them I got the minutes. The phone does work OK-but I won't use it again-If I ever get my minutes when they run out I'm running the Crapfone over with my van.

tracfones are the biggest disappointment, not only do they suck, but people litterally laugh at you! its like a wanna be cellphone!

ive had my phone for seven years b4 it gave out! i love it!!!!!

I just got the phone. The phone fail to activate when I activate using the web site. So I had to call customer service. I had no problem with customer service. Now the phone is working after I enter some codes into the phone.

Service sucks, I have had three tracphones since they came about, up grading to a newer each time.Everytime I ve had to call customer service, (more often than not), I had to talk to someone , who, on the other end sounds as though they would pronounce their name using 1/2lb. of flem/mucus mix to pronounce their name, and never get anything straightened out till they use thirty minutes of your time,that's just to hold for the next available rep.. Just like the thirteen days ago I called to get a replacement battery . I was told ‘we will send that out to you , it will arrive in 5-10 business days,' give me a break T.P. pony express went out with cowboys.

The pay scheme is easy to understand, and minutes are easy to buy and add. While unused minutes carry over when you renew, that's still a lot of wasted money if you don't use your phone all that often. The one-year card is a much better deal, but requires having a hundred bucks in your pocket to spend at one time. The onscreen airtime display is wonderful; you can easily see when you're running low. The selection of phones is OK but not great – most are very small, most are candy-bar style, and many are short on features, but the prices are reasonable. Coverage could be better; it's provided mainly near cities or major highways. While driving down through Indiana on a major highway, I was sent right to the national roaming service, which requires a credit card for use. I didn't get a non-roaming signal until I hit Kentucky. Call quality is good when the phone is new. The website is helpful for buying/browsing phones or answering FAQs, but comes up short in the tech support department. Customer service in general is LOUSY. Several times I emailed them with a tech support issue or just a service question, and the responses were obviously canned answers that I had already read on the website. That's annoying enough, but the canned responses didn't even answer my question most of the time, and I often had to write back 2 or 3 times requesting more specific information before I finally got a real answer. (And usually the real answer was along the lines of ‘No, sorry, it's not possible at this time.') This had me tearing my hair out more than once. In short, if you use your phone a moderate amount and don't ever need help with it, TracFone could work for you. I personally would go with a company that has better customer service.

I used to be a sprint customer but because I move internationally so often and hate 2-year contract, I chose Tracfone (CDMA). So far I've been using for 3 months. I had some problems about the auto-pay program, and had to make more than five calls to fix them. I lost more than 10 dollars and could not get back. Customer rep is sucks, but the service itself is okay. I'm currently living in Washington and think that the coverage is pretty good. Calls are clear and it does not drop more than others do. Especially concerning about prepaid phones back in my home country, Japan, tracfone is providing awesome service with very reasonable rate. Compared with Australian prepaid phones, the rate of trafone is bit higher because they charge for all calls including 800 and voice mail. Overall, I'm satisfied with them.

Whack but nice minutes NOT REALLYWhack as in the phones

AWW THE WORST PHONE AS FAR AS MINS AND TEXTING. IF YOU WANT A GOOD PHONE GO TO SIMPLE FREEDOM YOU GET YOUR MONEYS WORTH AND A WHOLE LOT MORE. GO SIMPLE FREEDOM AND YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND MORE. DONT GO FOR THE GO PHONE EITHER ITS STINKS AS BAD AS THIS ONE.

The Tracfone GSM phone has a wide service area, even working in many areas Cust Service will tell you it does not. Spotty customer service, some are nice and some are very rude and one even ripped me off for two months time and a 60 minute promotional code on a refer-a-friend deal (it works if you can use the automated system, not if you get the wrong CSR, evidently). I use them for the coverage, and the cheaper monthly rate for minimal usage. The phones may be dated, but are solid phones that take the abuse they are usually given well. Customer Care — poorCoverage — excellentWebsite — very good

This was the first Pre-paid service I used and also the worst.It had bad service and bad customer service so I cancelled it after two years and moved to another and better company.I got sick of: the dropped calls, I for some odd reason could make calls but not receive them, and the customer service people don't know what they're doing.Don't use Tracphone. It's a bad service.

I have had my phone for 1 year, and it is worthless as a phone, but makes a pretty good pocket watch. Always drops calls, never connects, beeps and hangs up. Have had no luck with this phone whatsoever. I discourage anyone from buying a Tracfone. Unless you just need to tell the time.

I think that as far as tracfone is concerned, it is a great thing coming in second only to net10, it's sister company. It is hard to get ahold of a customer service rep and the many times that I have (I work for Wal-Mart and activate these phones all the time) they speak something other than English. But that aside, the coverage is better than some of the contract phones and I have fewer angry customers with the Tracfones than any of the other prepaid.

I have had a tracfone for a year and a half and i love them. i just bought the c261 and it has better applications than other phones i have had. keep it up!!!!

As far as prepaid options gon Tracfone is as simple to understand as it gets. You get what you pay for. Other companies will advertize 10 cents per minute but then charge you 1 dollar per day of usage or other hiden fees. Their spinof brand Net10 offers 10 cents per minute all the time no matter how many minutes you buy.I haven't ever had to call their customer service.

They are the worst company. Poor service, cheap phones and the highest rates.

I've had Tracfone since the first candybar model (which I can't bring myself to get rid of due to the kitsch factor), and the current one, which BTW, is a camera phone. I wouldn't have anything else–why wreck a good thing.As for the customer service, I haven't called them once yet though I admit, I haven't HAD to. But that's not such a bad thing, either, now that I think about it!

These people need to learn a bit about customer service. I have used tracfone for a year or more now and only just had my first problem. My phone said my minutes were expiring, but I knew there were still minutes on there. After three calls to customer service and 20 minutes in hold time, I finally got the issue fixed. Great service, great phones… they simply need to up the customer statisfaction process. I have been thinking of possibly switching to Cingular in case I ever seriously need quick help customer service wise as I'm doubtful of tracfone's ability to provide it.

I've had a Tracfone for about a year and have never experienced any problems with it. However, I agree with the editors above, it is hard to figure out how to actually get a HUMAN on the phone. If they could do a little better at customer service, I would be rating them even higher. But, I get my money worth and they have really inexpensive phones compared to a lot of other companies.

Tracfone has been wonderful! No dropped calls and great signal strength everywhere! My wife and I have been loyal customers for years and now we are giving our oldest daughter her first Tracfone. The new Motorola W370 is wonderful and is identical in design to the KRZR (Razor) and has great reception (my daughter is getting the Motorola C139 to start with). We are very pleased with Tracfone, especially with the double your minutes for life year long card. Also, contrary to the editor's review, the service extends off the end of your due date, so in my case, I have until March 2009 before I am required to put a new card on. Plus, international long distance is now free (except regular minutes used of course) by dialing a 1-800 number and then the international number you wish to call from your Tracfone. You can also sign up for the value plan that cost $4.95 if you forget to add service to keep your number (only charges you when used). In short, Tracfone has been great and I look forward to many more years as a customer, and now my family as customers too! Highly recommended prepaid option!

I have a trac phone C261 GSM. I am fairly happy with it. However, I want to buy one of those AA battery back up (like a turbo charge), but I can find nothing compatible with mine. I called tracphone and they couldn't even tell me what size the connector tip is (I would have thought it would be on the AC charger – NOT!!!)Anyone have any ideas?????These phones don't seem to be too easy to ACCESSORIZE – toooooo bad!

I have a Tracfone Motorola C139 (the cheap, tiny one), and it is perfectly satisfactory for what it is. If you want the latest Treo with an unlimited calling plan and a gazillion-megapixel camera, then Tracfone is not for you. If you want a no-frills phone and do not anticipate using it heavily, then Tracfone could be a good deal for you.I had an easy enough time setting up my Tracfone. The process for activating it over their Web site was a bit of a bother, but not insurmountable, and it is something that you have to do only once per phone. Adding minutes is easy. Call quality is fine, at least for those of us who live in major metropolitan areas.I have never had to call customer service, but I have encountered one glitch that makes me hesitate to give Tracfone five stars. I got an email with a promotional code that turned out to be invalid.

All I can say is, if you're even considering giving this dishonest, deceptive company your money, do yourself a favor & Google ‘TracFone Customer Reviews' before you let these clowns rip you off. Believe ALL the horror stories from the legions of dis-satisfide EX-customers about their terrible customer service- note to Danielle – the complaints are NOT unfair or in any way a sign of prejudice – the customer service reps I dealt with were not ‘people not havinif our exact accent' – they were people who were obviously citizens of another country (India would be my guess) who could neither speak nor understand English – & it's NOT about luck – it's about a company not giving a damn about their customers & outsourcing their customer service to the lowest bidder.TracFone took the money from my bank account, could not (or, more likely purposely DID not) transfer the minutes to my phone. This is NOT a complex technological task, which is why I call them THIEVES. After less than a week of their terrible service, outrageous charges, & inability to deliver the service I have ALREADY paid for, I am contacting the State Atty. General, the B.B.B., & possibly an attorney in an effort to get the money that these dishonest scam artists STOLE from my bank account. Avoid this sorry company at all costs – you'd do better with two tin cans & a string. I only wish this site provided a negative stars/awful rating, because that's what these scam-artists trying to pass themselves off as a legit company would get from me.

I've been sitting here on hold for over 2 hrs and 20 minutes, and I'm getting sick of hearing how important my call is. My wife wanted to save money on cell phone bills, so she got off our Sprint plan. The low price, the affiliation with Target, not being required to have a contract with Sprint, and the ability to transfer my old cellphone number were my reasons for switching to Tracfone — what a mistake! Now, I've been without my home telephone, which I never intended to switch, for the past two weeks, and I still do not have any cellphone service. I've spent, conservatively, over 5 to 6 hours of time trying to resolve this issue, most of it, waiting on hold listening to a recording. The process of transferring telephone numbers has been a nightmare from the very beginning, and your system that allows customers to make multiple transfer requests is flawed, and allowed me to accidentally request two separate transfers to the same cell phone IMEI#. Also, after my cell phone was initially activated, my call to stop the disconnecting of my home telephone number obviously fell on deaf ears. I've now been on hold for over 2 hrs and 30 minutes and I'm ready to give up on my friendly attempts to get my telephone service corrected. I don't have a home telephone, I don't have a cellphone, and I'm left with no alternative but to call the FCC, the state corporation commission, and Target to complain about the horrible customer service I've received from Tracfone.

See my other review. I hate Tracfone. I didn't see the rating, and would give them a zero if I could.

True, the wait is long depending on when you call customer service. But, I have never had a problem they couldn't solve in the 5+ years I have used Tracfone. I have had no problem getting a human after a wait, which, if you know it may be 15 minutes, then plan accordingly and be patient. I just updated my phone, and don't regard them as substandard by any means. My friend was actually impressed with the $49 price of the W370. My last one was a V170, which was cheap (free with a year card), but had great reception.The only gripe I have is that with the new phone (W370), I have to pay to read text messages, which was free on the V170.All in all, I reccomend Tracfone, and I think that the cust service is slightly better now (June 2007) than a year or two ago.

Just wanted to affirm everything my husband said concerning Tracfone. The customer service did take a little time to get to, but they were wonderful with us and even gave us the minutes that didn't show up from a promotional code we entered PLUS extra for our trouble. You can't ask for more then that! Thanks Tracfone!!!!

I have had 2 Tracfones for about 8 years. I have been completely satisfied. I have had some issues with putting time on them, but was always able to get it straightened out. I recently up graded to new phones and had no trouble transferring the phone numbers and minutes. I agree that customer service could be a little better but I have had good luck with them. We use our phones basically as an emergency phones and they seam to work anywhere I've need them.

Good coverage, Miserable customer service. I ordered a card and phone online. Then in the email confirmation, they indicate that the package needs to be signed for. Gee, I work and no one will be home to sign for it. So I want to cancel the order. The customer rep and their supervisor indicated that no one in the TracFone company was trusted enough to cancel the order. Instead, the phone needs to be sent across the U.S. to my house and then back to them. After that , the order will cancel. So, not only can they not proficiently speak American English, but like the rest of us, even they don't trust themselves.

If you want anything other than a cheap phone from a cheap company to use for emergency purposes, then this is not your phone. If you want a phone from a company who hires people who can speak English, this is not your phone. If you remotely want a phone from a company that has any standard of customer service, this is not your phone. However….if you are fed up with the price gouging by Sprint, AT&T , Cingular and all the brand boys- and only want a phone to toss in the car dash for emergency and infrequent calling- fairly reliable connections, then this phone is fine. I've had mine two years and average about $9 a month in costs after buying the phone cards on an annual basis.

tracfone service is on a scale from 1 to 10 a minus -10,transfering my number from my old phone to my new one took 16 days and rite at 3hours and 15 minutes on hold with customer service

If there were option for 0 Starts that is what I would give them. Watch their so called ‘Special Offers' they are rip offs and very deceiving. Go with another plan!!!!

My turn:I bought my first tracfone locally and really had no problem with it. My contract did run out and I made the mistake of calling Customer Service.The short story is that the replacement phone didn't work. So I canned it.Now I have bought my second Tracfone (C139). It was even easier to set up than the Nokia 1100.When my fone said it was activated I simply used it to call my home phone. I hung up as soon as I heard the ring. I read the caller ID on my phone and dialed it.My Tracfone rang and I hung up quickly. This was all the confirmation I needed.Setting up the directory seems simple. I plan to use this for emergencies and convenience only and will not give out the number to anyone.It cost me $10 and came with 20 units. What cheaper throw-away can you find?

Great phone, great service!!! I got 3-4 bars where AT&T only got 1.

Tracfone is good. I like them because the minutes carry over. I dislike them because of no service in Canada. Also, the phones they offer are just not modern enough to please me. Hoping they improve soon. No reason that they can't offer more bells and whistles on the phones like other carriers.

Tracfone has done nothing but screw my family over we bought 3 phones they didn't work in our area so we called and complained after telling some incompitant women what was wrong and quickly getting angry with her stupidity I told her to give me her boss he was a bit smarter, so it seemed, till he sent the same phone that wouldn't work in our coverage area not only that but we told him we needed 3 phones and he sent one finally we got one that worked in our area and are awaiting the second two. But now my own phone number is long distance to my calling area. I had it ‘fixed' once and it still was long distance. We called again and after being told it would be a 15 min wait we. waited 1 hour and 45 mins. They are annoying and They suck at life and they need to use americans so they can understand what the hell you want. If you want anything done go to the B.B.B. or at least threaten to. Believe me they know what that means. Tracfone is why Americans hate Arabs not Sadam.

For what I wanted a cell phone for, to have for possible emergencies (knock on wood), the Tracfone offered a near-perfect solution. Even after reading the bad reviews here I decided to go ahead with the purchase. I bought the Motorola C139-4 for under $15 at Walmart (no great loss if the naysayers were correct) and went home and started the activation process via the Tracfone website. My phone was assigned a phone number relatively quickly but the 20 minutes air time never showed up. The next morning same thing, no air time. I called the 800 number geared up for the long wait that many here warned about but was only on hold for about 7 minutes before a customer service rep came on the line. And yes, she had some kind of accent but was very understandable, and friendly! Within several minutes after hanging up my 20 minutes air time showed up. I then went back to the website to order 120 additional minutes and within seconds I had them plus the extra 90 days extension. So all-in-all it was a very good experience. I've received much worse customer service on items that I've paid a couple of thousand dollars for than I did for this $14 Tracfone.