View All TracFone Reviews

oh my gosh where do i begin,well it all started on Aug 23rd 2010 and so i purchased a trac fone from a local store,rep from store was awesome ..kmart.. and she was very helpful she called tracfone for me and had phone activated,awesome cant wait to use my new phone.. yeah right went home and phone did not work.. .. contacted support,said phone was not activated,,ok so why did kmart rep on phone for 1 hour.. grrr .so anyhow he activated phone, ok great.. tried phone did not work,called customer service again.. everything is ok they said all should be working fine.. yeah right,why cant i make calls? they replied it must be your phone ,so they checked .and it was a bad sim card.. ok bad sim card..no such thing,truth of the matter was my sim card that they gave me did not work in my area so they had to re program the phone .. oh my gosh what horrible service recied 4 phone calls from auto matic service saying everything is good ..and emails after emails all should be well.well guess what it is Aug 30th 2010 and still no phone and waiting for email for status of my sim card shipped to me.to make matters worse after kmart rep activated phone for me..i bought 1 year plan.so its been a complete night mare..and all what i just rote above happened in 1 day of getting the phone and the rest of the week was a nightmare… worst customer service

hey its me again.just contacted tracfone via tech support online through a so called confirmation tracking info.. yeah right,heres the error messege ..Current Status: We are unable to get the status of your case at this time. Please contact our Customer Care Center, at 1-800-867-7183 , and provide your case number. come on 1 week and you dont know the status of my situation.. give me a break.. again tracfone horrible customer service,and as far as signal issues etc,have no clue,i have a brand new phone and 1 year plan and cant use phone.. wasted..but im not done yet…

If I could have given it a 0 for stars I would. I have been trying to get my phone working. I have been with trakphone for a while and until recently I have been satisfied. I had to get another phone. It took a week for them to decide it was not working and that was what the problem was. They transferred my old trakfone number to my new phone. When it did not work they de-activated it twice and both times I was given a new phone number. They must have failed to note this in the tickiet numbers they gave me-and yes for some reason there had to be two. The women on the trakfone service line asked how much minutes I had on my phone and the days left. I told her. They sent me a new phone. I called to activate it and it looks like it will work except because of alledgly trakfones service screw up no put down the correct last new number and they gave me a hard time over hot getting my minutes and days. There is 669.50 minutes and as of today 289 days left. They said they would go ahead and give it to me-wait 72 hours then call back. It has been almost 72 hours and no min. or days. I was holding the phone that did not work with the new phone number and the very same sim number as when I first tried to activate it and the min. and days on it ALL TOGETHER ON THE SAME PHONE. It has been a frustrating nightmare. I have been hung up twice on. Re-connected to the wait for assistance recording. A woman who told me I need to get my area code and zip code right and tell her becuase she could not find it and still could not find it by the end of the conversation. One man who just sounded rude. And home based office here in the United States-if you are reading this the ticket numbers are: 102 184 2745 AND 102 199 1352. Maybe one of you can get it straightened out. I WAS HOLDING THE PHONE WITH ALL THE INFORMATION ON IT AND IT WAS TRAKFONE'S CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT SCREWED UP-NOT ME. CHECK THE RECORDINGS. I have explained over and over that I need this phone. It is my emergency phone. I have diabeties. I would have gone with another service if I had known just how bad it was going to be. I have had three other trakfones and never had these problems. It has been bad.

So far, my experience with TracFone has been very positive. The Tracfone family plans is so affordable, plus the service is extremely reliable. Although the plan does not come with a lot of minutes, it work for us as our family is not particularly chatty.

If you value your time and sanity do not purchase tracfone services. Their customer service is god awful. You will be stuck on the phone for over two hours with an overseas individual who sticks on script the entire time. I have given up on every being able to use my remaining 400 minutes. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I am very dissatified with the service I am getting right now. I had to get new phone and it has already been 72 hours and still no activation and they tell me it will be at least another 24 as someone closed the activation file. Your error–you should be able to correct your error someway instead of making me wait more time.

ave been with trackfone for 2 or 3 yrs If you have a computer its easy to load a new time card. you can get one on receipt at dollar general near your home. I like that you can roll over your minutes and if you let the card expire all you have to do is buy a new one. great job trackfone.

Am I the only person in the country who have just made a short and quite pleasant customer service call to Tracfone? No really, reading some of the comments on here I can hardly believe I spoke to reps of the same company. They solved my problem in no time, were VERY friendly and helpful. Three stars for good network coverage, another for cheap rates and the fifth for customer service which is definitely not as bad as I was led to believe.

Neither of the TracFones I have can have airtime added via internet. The website says ‘service temporarily unavailable, call Customer Service'. They tell me to do it over the internet or via the phone itself. I live in a dead zone & have to drive 25 miles to get a signal, so I don't consider that an option. After 6 months of the issue, with the same BS from TracFone, I cannot recommend the service.In addition, the second phone I prdered was inop, and the replacement was a cheaper unit. Complaints have gone unanswered to date…

why all the negative stuff i have a tf and it's i have double minutes and it rocks, I just use the phone the wau the phone was originally for to use, make calls, and recieve calls all the other stuff I dont need.

Just read Tracfone placed second in JD Powers & Associates's Customer Satisfaction survey. First place went to NET10 (a Tracfone subsidiary). Good going Tracfone & NET10, we already knew you were the best anyway. Happy Tracfone customer.

The very worst, The customer service is very bad, When you try to do things with your online account it will not work and you will be encouraged to ring customer service, this will cost you 30 mins min every time, You cant swap phones without ringing you guessed it, customer service, My last call to customer service the guy who could hardly speak English told me to ring him from another phone because the reception was so bad on mine,,DONT DO IT NO MATTER HOW CHEAP IT IS

It is such a relief to be finally out of my cell contract! I could not afford the ETF but my cell bill was seriously messing up my budget every month. That's the problem with those contracts. When you sign them you might be ok but who says you can manage to afford a contract for two years. Especially in these trying times. That is why I now chose Tracfone. No contract means no lengthy commitment. I can vary my usage from month to month and not get penalized with overage fees or by paying a huge bill on something I'm not using that much. Prepaid with Tracfone has been a real budget-saver for me.

Good service and low price. Nothing really to add to that except that this is a low-cost prepaid option. If you use hundreds of minutes per month don't get Tracfone. If you are an occasional user then Tracfone is probably your best choice for cell phone service. As simple as that.

I love Tracfone because they have a simple and cheap way of providing service. I can vary my usage and never get penalized by overage charges or by paying an expensive plan I'm not using to the full. If you look out for special deals you can often save HUGEly on your minutes. Something you can't do with contracts because you're signed into a plan and they tend to stick you with so many other charges on top of your bill.

I never call people, just text. TracFone's good for me. Overall, I enjoy TracFone. Buy a Double Minutes card! It's the best investment. Also, the $10/month plus the DM card will get you 100 min a month! So cheap.Check options on the official site, as well; $150 for 2000 minutes (with DM card)! Verizon wants $2000+ per year, but for me, $150 gets me service for a year. Maybe even more than a year. :DCustomer service is typical, wait periods are to be expected. Be patient and nice. They have ALWAYS helped me. Sometimes, minutes don't transfer correctly to phone; annoying, and my only complaint. However, you can go online or call customer service, and it's simple to fix.

A very good prepaid provider for light usage! In spite of some serious CS issues they get my recommendation because they do offer a low-cost, reliable prepaid service. It is the cheapest way you can own and keep active a phone in the States. Their family plans are the cheapest I have ever seen and provides a viable alternative for cash-strapped families. Don't expect this to be the kind of prepaid where you can talk all day – there are better options for high usage. If you want cheap, this is for you!

Stay away, stay away from tracfone. I just spent 3 hrs. trying to resolve a simple issue. The poorest customer service that I have ever seen. I repeat – Stay Away from tracphone.

Thanks for all the posts about this terrible company. These posts saved me money and time (especially with foreigners that don't speak english).

I did a lot of research about TRACFONE before ending my previous cell phone service. We bought two of the TV advertised LG420G tracphones with a 60 minute card for each & gave it a try. One phone worked perfectly and the activation process was simple, quick and without any problem. Setting up the voice mail also was easy. Both were done by the automated service and everything promised worked beautifully.The second phone worked well for one day and then began to shut down after about an hour in standby mode. It would not turn back on until the battery was removed and the electric contact was broken. I did a lot of switching & trouble shooting before calling the 800 Tracfone number from a landline and going thru the prompts.I first received a service Tech named BISRAM ID#55096 who walked thru step by step from his terminal with me attempting to correct the problem. I was impressed that he would continually tell me this or that process would take 2 – 3 or more minutes – in case I was using a cell phone. This was a nice advanced warning, even though I didn't need it. After the last try he told me to complete another task with the phone and if it still retained the problem to call back. He had entered all the repair efforts into a folder and gave me the Ticket # to reference if needed. I was very pleased with his services and had high hopes.I have read many horror stories about Tracfone service on the Web and was happy it didn't happen; however the problem returned with a few hours so I called again.This time the Tech assisting me was ALEJANDRA ID# 52869. She listened to my story and opened the ticket number information. Without hesitation she advised me that a new replacement phone would be sent immediately. She told me what to do upon receipt of the new phone and that when it was activated by me that the minutes, service time period and old phone number would be automatically transferred. I thanked her for the exceptional services and remembered the Web horror stories as I hung up.Exactly as promised on the third day I received a new phone by FED-EX this morning. I Activated the phone just as before and just as I was promised the minutes, service period and original phone number popped up on the screen.Iwas also please to find out that a pre-paid return envelope was provided to return the defective phone. I would not pay one penny for this problem.After reading this disertation I can only tell the reader – Tracfone provided me a most excellent, immediate and satisfying service. I am now a really ‘happy camper'!Kudos to the two service Techs Bisram & Alejandra and to Tracfone for an excellent Customer Service experience.Jim Reno, Nevada 8-20-10

Hi,Trac phone issues, service seems fine until you have a damaged or problem phone. you CANNOT switch simm cards even with the same brand/model tracphone each simm card is locked to each phone & can never be moved to another phone of any type, this also prevents you from ever purchasing a really nice phone & using it with their service. PROBLEM #2 that can retrieve data out of your old phone. I had to ship my old tracphone to Motorola for repair service before trac could retrieve any old data, I should only need one company not two for this problem which caused delay of weeks. NOT HAPPY CUSTOMER. I will say that their service is OK in general, but after the hassels I now want to change my service to Mobel PCS which in So, Cal. costs a lots less.

Ive had tracfone for almost a year now. I get 2x mins, and i've only had 2 problems and luckily I havn't had to call the foriegn speaking customer services yet! The only problems are… 1. it is very easy to hit browser and if you hit it by accident it says deducted 0.5 and you have to get out of it before it says deducted 0.5 again! It's almost like tracfone wants you to hit browser to suck up your minutes faster!2. You get a limited amount of time to use all your minutes! I don't call/text a lot so my I have to buy new cards to avoid losing all my minutes! I currently have 182 minutes but only 11 days to use all of them! Looks like I have to spend another $20 to keep my minutes another 90 days! ~If you text people like every 5 minutes than buy this phone! Otherwise get a phone that doesn't have ‘expiring minutes.'

Poor coverage, dropped calls, failure to receive calls. Phone shows message ‘check call restrictions 34' . Tech support unable to help – – apparently that message means ‘poor signal' despite being in airports and major metro areas.

I'm writing because I enjoy this phone. I don't have a need such as just talking to friends. It is a necessity for being in touch or available for someone to find me. This has been quite a love affair. Of course I only know how to charge, power it on, dial, receive calls and hangup. I need to learn more. But I am really enjoying my service.

As a small business owner trying to expand, making the switch to Tracfone has helped save my company. These phones are high quality, but low-priced. My employees love them and the best part is how affordable it is for my company. Such a fabulous deal! Great savings and great coverage come as part of the package as well 🙂

ive had nothing but trouble with tracphone.i always had to call to add miniutes as they wouldnt activate automatically like they were suppose to.went threw 3 phones and lost all my info every time.customer sevice is a joke!foriegn speaking people you cant understand that appear to know nothing,and on hold for hours.this last time they were going to send me another phone and i told them to forget it,ill start over somewere else.cant tell you what to get but DONT GET A TRACPHONE!

i have had 2 tracfones and they both broke. the one i currently have has a white screen on it and i can't see anything on my screen. I will not buy another tracfone in my life.

I feel weird recommending TF after reading all the negative reviews here, but I've had the service for about 6 years now and like it very much. My wife, 2 sons and 2 parents also have the TF. We're not in business and we don't play games etc. The phone is just for personal use. I've never had any unusual probs making calls, sending messages etc. Admittedly, the phones are cheesy. As for the CS I used to RAVE about it (as great!). The web site promises big, but rarely works. I used to get an english speaking guru on the line in 2 secs who'd fix any prob. They were knowledgeable and cheerful. I always hung up satisfied. Lately, I guess you get foreign agents. I hate this too, but guess what? EVERYONE is doing this. I called my local (in the sticks)first name basis State Farm Agent of 30 years and got . . . INDIA. I thought the guy died or something! I read that Dominoes is using INDIA to route pizza orders. Crazy right? You call your local pizza guy and expect to talk to Louigi and you get Tanisha 8000miles away.

I too.Have a problem with customer service.They do put you on hold,each time three minute's.I cannot understand them and the WORST of It,I have been on the phone with them'SAFE LINK'TRACFONE' for 2 weeks now 3.trying to get my Original phone number back,which in fact,It was a ‘NATIVE FROM SOUTH AMERICA OR??'customer that screw up the whole thing as far as transferring ALL MY INFORMATION TO MY REPLACEMENT PHONE..that Safelink sent me which is not USER FRIENDLY..When you have certain Handicaps..It is the most horrible phone LG 300..Any way it has been a NIGHTMARE WITH COSTUMER SERVICE..THEY LIE..They tell you your phone will not be DE-ACTIVE..Until the SIM CARD ARRIVES ..BS..Because I was Out And Went to use my phone 2 day's after Customer rep told me my phone would be working until I get the SIM Card And Tech Support as well.And my means of Transportation is My Legs..so when I went to use the Phone ..Guess What Not Working I was STRANDED..So hows that for felling..SAFE…WITH SAFE LINK..AND ONCE THEY DO NOT TALK GOOD ENGLISH @ALL…I just want everyone to know this about .'SAFE LINK'/TRACFONE…I hope this was helpful to you.And I AM ON THE PHONE AGAIN….Good Luck

I switched from Virgin Mobile to Tracfone 14 months ago, and I couldn't be happier. Cheap, reliable, no-frills phone service across the USA. I have used my phone from Washington DC to Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park and never had a problem.

Like most other Tracfone users, I want to free myself of a monthly charge for a regular cell phone. Tracfone does provide that, but it's definately a lesson in patience when dealing with customer service. Because of the area I live in, I can't load minutes using the phone, I have to call CS to load the minutes for me. I just about have a stoke each time I need to call because of the frustration involved with trying to talk to these foreign speaking people. It is VERY DIFFICULT to understand what they are saying. However, every so often I get a call from the company and they leave a message on my answering machine. Hmmm – I wonder why they have a sweetly speaking lady extolling the virtues of Tracfone and offering so many deals. Perhaps they should have the same people that are on the line when you need help – that way you know to STAY AWAY!!

Tracfone is a simple and cheap way to stay in touch. If you just want a phone and not some fancy handheld computer then this is your deal. Customer service is lacking but the phone and minute plans remain good value for money.

Tracfone ported my daytime phone number instead of my wireless number.Now I've lost my home land line and my DSL internet service.I'm using the library computer now since I no longer have internet service.Customer service at Tracfone is a waste of time.I can find no physical location for Tracfone where I might speak in person to a human.

I was going to order a Tracfone until I read the horrible reviews on here! Thanks for enlightening me.

Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever encountered. Their phone service is not worth the aggravation you will have to endure to activate, add minutes, etc. Waiting a very long time on hold to speak with a customer service or technical support rep. is typical. My latest dealing with the company concerned transferring a phone number and minutes after my son lost his tracfone. After more than an hour on hold, I finally got to a representative and was repeatedly put on hold ‘for 3 minutes' while the rep. consulted a supervisor and then ‘another department' about the issue. At last I was told that the department that would verify how many minutes were on the lost phone was unavailable and that it would be necessary for me to call back the following week (even though they would be operating the following day)—more than 2-1/2 hours absolutely wasted! The next call took about 1-1/2 hours on extended and ‘3 minute' hold before the representative could come to grips with the unbelievable situation that a teenager had lost his phone, and before the ‘other department' could reach a decision. I used a tracfone for a bit more than a year and suffered through a few instances of having to resolve minutes that did not load, or promotion codes that did not work. Eventually my limited need for a cell phone increased to the point where a conventional phone plan made more sense and provided a far better phone. My son inherited the tracfone for emergency purposes, but when it runs out of minutes we are done. Forget any potential cost savings: Tracfone is not worth the trouble!

My grandfather has this phone and I am quite happy he does. Since he is getting a bit up there in age, he tends to need help more often than not. With his Tracfone, he is able to call us whenever he needs anything. He used to just have a landline and when he went out, he was completely out of contact. Now, he/ we just pay $10 a month for a 30 minute card and we are able to check in on him more often and if he ever needs anything, we are a phone call away, no matter where he is. The other day, he went for a walk to the local strip mall and it started pouring and he couldn't get home. He called me and I was able to pick him up and drop him off at home. The phone is great because it is easy to use (he has the LG) and it is innexpensive to maintain. I buy the minutes for him because I know he gets frustrated with simple tasks, but it is easy to do.

tracfone has served me well up to this point, however when my old phone got wet and thus stopped working I went out and purchased a new phone, activated it and got a phone number with an area code for Florida…I live in Ohio…so I called tech support, was given a new numbe and was told it would take up to an hour to activate, an hour and 30 minutes later, cant call out, cant recieve calls, I called tech support again and was told it would take 72 hours…as a long time customer I can be forgiving for now but I will say that as long as your phone works tracfone is great…the minute you have a problem you seem to be screwed and your money is as good as gone.

For the price it's good for light use such as emergencies. But if you ever have a problem or issue with the phone you're basically screwed, because customer service is 0% help.

I love my Tracfone! I can not find any other provider that gives me a better deal. I regularly compare prices and plans 'cause I like to get a good deal. Tracfone is that deal! Great coverage, low prices, convenient service.

Have used Tracfone since late 90s. Never had a problem. A week ago my phone cracked while charging. I picked up a new one and tried to port my number on the web site. Didn't work. Told me the phone # I was trying to port was incorrect. So I called customer service. Put on hold. Turned on speaker phone and waited…and waited…30 mins passed…1 hour passed…2 hours passed…I finally hung up. Next day…same thing. Gave up after 2 hours. Next day…a robot voice told me avg. wait time was 15 min. Great I thought, I can handle that. Two hours passed…I had to use the land line so hung up. I even tried at 2am because their customer service is overseas. Same result. So after 15 years or so as a customer I will move to another provider. Too bad. I used to highly recommend them.

I admit I have had trouble with customer service but all problems were in the past and always resolved. I have used Tracfone for years and for the price you get good coverage. My phone costs around $120 a year and I have more minutes than I'll ever use, since I'm on a double minute plan and your minutes roll over to next year.

I've used a tracfone for about 7 years, and it's been just fine – not the greatest coverage, not a smart phone, but very adequate for my limited use. However, something very bad has happened to tracfone recently. IN EARLY aUGUST 2010 I had to purchase and activate a new tracfone. None of the onloine activation options worked. It took exactly five – five – different landline phone calls to tracfone tech support to get the phone activated – but I still couldn't buy additional air time, because there was no phone number assigned to my tracfone. Two requests that my problem be directed to a supervisor or what they call ‘tier two management' were not honored. The first time, Tracfone just hung up on me. The second time, after an endless wait, at least 15 minutes, I could not wait longer. On the basis of this experience, I have to say that if you have a current Tracfone account and it's working, good for you. If you need to activate a new Tracfone, buy the least expensive one you can get, because you may never get your new phone working.

This company needs to be wiped off the face of the planet with refunds given to all customers and a thousand dollars to each customer who tried to get problems resolved. Save yourself and just SAY NO to the tracphone.

I have had a tracfone for over 4 years the phone worked great but customer service is terrible. I can not understand them and they all give different answers to the same problem. I recently purchased a new tracfone and was told my old phone would work until they got the new one activated. Not so! I was out of town and did not have a phone. It took 3 phone calls and two days to get this strightened out. Wouldn't you think the company would do something about customer service.

The service is always reliable, but I don't like how they charge you so much money for so few minutes. I mean come on, if people on Cricket are paying around $30/month and getting unlimited minutes, then why in the world do we only get only SIXTY minutes for 20$???I’;m also not very fond of how they round minutes either. If you talk on two calls for less than around 10 seconds each, you somehow lose a full minute. Very unfair if you ask me….

Good simple inexpensive to use phones. I have been using tracfones for years now with no major problems. My phone use is mostly emergency, or calling home to see if we need bread, etc. My daughter wants to get a phone with a qwerty keyboard, which at this point they don't offer, so we will be looking at some alternatives.

Tracfone is the worst. Stay away from this company. Yes it is cheap, but you get what you pay for. You cannot get anything done without calling Customer service.Customer service is a nighmare. It is staffed by non native speakers and very difficult to understand them. They are annoying pretending to be polite. Most of the time you will be on hold. and keep you in holdI got the phone and was able to activate it online. But that was the end of the good experience. Although the phone was activated I could not make any phone calls or see how many minutes are available. Called Customer service and after about 62 minutes my phone appeared to be activated with minutes. I tried to make a phone call and it didnt work. Another 72 minutes with customer service and they claim I changed the sim card. After much haggling they said they will activate it and now the phone number is changed. Keep in mind, every time I test, it is deducting my minutes from my account. They ask to test, but does not give theminutes back. Once the new number is obtained, I cannot make calls and when I call it says calls cannot be connected.After three days of dealing with Customer Service, I threw the phone in trash, which is where it should stay. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY. KEEP YOUR MONEY AND SANITY. THEY ARE NOT WORTH IT

After 4 and a half years of having a tracfone I quit and will throw them in the trash. My first phone was great for over 3 years. I bought my mother a phone, Motorola folding type, and it has never worked right, battery lasted 1 day and signal strength was always very weak. After asking for it to be replaced the phollipine representatives said they could not help. Then I purchased some more mintues online for my old phone. The minutes never showed up and the phone reps said the transaction was never made. My Bamk said they withdrew the money and issued a refund and using their fraud protection. Bought another phone, Samsung T105G and the diplay is a thin line acrossed it.Tracfone, you are a RIPOFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've used Tracfone for several years and I like their their pricing and simplicity of use of their phones. I've had some problems with customer service. But the biggest complaint I have is the poor coverage area. I have no service at my house. I have to be a few blocks away to get reception. Large sections of my metro area have no Tracfone coverage. Sometimes I can be within sight of a cell tower and yet my phone will say ‘no service.' I see other people talking on their phones but mine is unusable. I've had several Tracfones over the years but it is the same with all of them. If Tracfone used a better network to match their service plans they would be a great prepaid service.

No issue. I lost my Tracfone…I waited until I had another phone so that I could keep the number. The number transfer worked great. I did lose about 130 minutes because the slime that took my phone talked for 2 hours. No issues. Lots of repeats because of the accent, but heck I get the same thing with Chase or Bank of America. It is what it is, cheap…great coverage! They do have issues with smaller cellular companies and the web, but they were up front about that. 440 minutes for $30 is what attracted me…you do have to be careful on whether you get a phone with a c or a g on the model number. Always opt for the phone with the C on the end. Otherwise you use the ATT/Tmobile networks which generally suck outside the cities…..CDMA forever!….ATT/Tmobile sux!

Customer Service is a nightmare. I can't set up my voicemail and have been on the phone with customer service for 2-3 HOURS EVERY NIGHT. Still no voice mail after 2 weeks of calling. Not worth it!!!!

This is the LAMEST customer service on the face of the planet. When I first added airtime my phone documentation said I would get 20 free minutes. When the customer service rep setup my phone she said I only get 10 minutes – sorry!! Is that false advertising or what? Then I have been unable to set up my voice mail. The system says my number is invalid. On the first call to customer service we used 30 minutes of my air time and it took 45 minutes with CS, she said my voice mail would work within 4 hours. 1 week later still no voice mail. I called CS again I was on the phone with them for 2 HOURS and used up 20 minutes of my air time. STILL NO VOICE MAIL. When I asked them to comp me some airtime they offered 10 MINUTES. Voice mail is usually a no-brainer to setup. But with their professional CS reps after almost 3 hours on the phone and using over 50 minutes of airtime I have paid for – they care so much for their customers that they are willing to give you 10 minutes of ‘free' airtime. If you need an exercise in frustration this is the company for you. I will be shopping for a new carrier ASAP.

Just got TracFone and customer service is horrible. Very difficult to talk to a human, and when you do they ask for same information over and over again, seem to take forever to enter it in their system, then they transfer you to someone who asks for all the information again ! Phone may be OK but service is horrible and of course the reps all have very strong accents so it is difficult to communicate.

I got a Tracfone because I drive a lot so I wanted to avoid coverage and roaming charge issues. I get good-best signal strength all the way from California to Michigan and standard rate charges all the way.Unless you need all the bells and whistles with fancier model phones, TF is a great way to get cheap, reliable basic cellular service.

I'm a fan of Tracfone as their family plan is so affordable and allows us to keep everyone in check especially this busy summer. I can't believe all 4 of us each have a phone and only spend $30/month. It's not an enormous amount of minutes we get, but it works for us and if need be, we can always upgrade. I also like the fact that the reception is always clear and I've never had a dropped call.

Meant to put 5 stars. Whoops!

What's with the negative reviews? I have used tracfone for years now and I keep coming back. I don't have the greatest job in the world, so my income is a bit sporadic. Since I dont have a contract, I just buy minutes when I need them/ can afford it. My friend is on a contract plan, and I normally have service when she loses it. And I pay a lot less. Also, my phone was about 1/3 the price of hers and the phones are not all that different.

Excellant customer service-My phone has double min for life-today I made airtime purchase online & supersized it.I thought there was mistake so I called & they added additional 30 min which I thought should be doubled also so I sent email-They called me shortly after to explain I had in reality purchased 2 30min instead of 1 60min 1 30min.The mistake was mine but they let me keep the additional min I had not paid for.I've had tracfone for 5+ years w/no problems of any kind.Just doesn't get any better or cheaper!

I like the freedom of the prepaid/no contract service Tracfone offers. What I hate is the abysmal customer service. I have found it necessary to transfer service to new phones 3 times over the years and have yet been able to accomplish it with one call. I am currently on hold, waiting for a manager because the rep. has informed me it will take 72 hour for my newest phone to be updated. It has been 23 hours and 4 calls to customer service since receiving the instrument in the mail. Wish me luck. oops I was just hung up on again.

Tracfone is just the phone service for me. No frills, no bells ‘n whistles. Something that is reliable and will work when I need it. And its pretty much the only time I want to use it – when I need to. For somebody like me who despise the constant yakking on cell phones – this is the best deal. Geesh, some people pay monthly bills of the same amount I pay once a year to keep my phone active!

I like my Tracfone. I don't really like dealing with customer service. I use it for just emergencies. The coverage seems good. It does everything that it says. In today's economy it's saving me money. I just reloaded online and it was fast. My phone is simple samsung, very easy to read, shows me how much minutes left. I'm a basic user and it serves it's purpose. I'm careful with my phone. I think it's a good buy for the price. Simple, Basic and thats all I need something easy. I don't use it for alot of things. Just having that peace of mind to make emergency calls and receive text store numbers etc is practical for me . So Far no problems. I do have to be careful on how many minutes I use but it's a good investment for me.

I have a couple of prepaid phones and the Tracfone one costs me the least over a long period of time. It also works in places where the other will not get any bars. What more do I need to say? If I had to choose one out of the batch it will be the Tracfone!

I now have a tracfone and find it all so easy – I dont have to worry about being locked into any montly contracts and just pay as I go. I can also se how many minutes I have left. My tracfone is very convenient and cheap to run

It's a great service! You will get nickel&dimed by anyone else. They don't add service charges and stuff like that so you pay only for minutes you use. Minutes carry over so you never lose out. Honesty from a carrier is rare these days but Tracfone treats its customers honestly.

I've had my Tracfone since Dec.'09 and I HATE it. I have no service in my house, I went to Canada for a trip and i had no service even though my phone already had a long distance plan! I made sure to leave my phone on so I could get my 250 min. today and i havent gotten them! I went to the website so i could my min. like i did one time and its trying to make me enroll for something!! Tracfone is the worst!

Month after month I save money by using Tracfone instead of some money-grabbing contract carrier. I would look at other prepaid carriers but there are no others with network coverage worth sh.. eh, worth much. 😉 I had to deal with CS only once in three years which is pretty darn neat in my books. They were friendly and helpful and even though it took some time, sorted the problem out. Heck, I've had more trouble with my bank in the last six months than with them. I dunno, I think you'll have to go far to find better, and cheaper, service.

the trac fone website for activation sucks it keeps saying session timed out when i enter the first part of my information they need 2 re do there website

Anything can go wrong with any company, at any time, even with the larger companies like AT&T and Verizon, so its not surprising that they happen with smaller companies like TracFone. Most of the posted complaints are anecdotal, which happen with most other companies as well. Whay is truly negative with TracFone is their terrible customer service and, to a lesser extent, their limited selection of phones, especially on the mid and higher end of the spectrum. Otherwise, TracFone is a reliable and most economical cell phone service. I have dealt with them on behalf of relatives who use this company; I personally use their subsidiary, Net 10, which suffers the same ills, but are reliable and economical in general. I personally would not switch.

Pretty happy with the phone service and cost. My biggest complaint is customer service. Lost a phone and called to get my service switched to a new phone. Service rep kept putting me on hold (about 7 or 8 times), probably hoping I'd give up and abandon the minutes left on my old phone. If you use your phone mostly for emergencies, go to their web site and pick one of the cheap plans (like 30 minutes) and before you get to checkout, you will get a chance to add more stuff. Add the one year option to your order. That will give you one year of service with very few minutes. If you need a new phone, I find it's cheaper to buy them locally (Target is good). They are more expensive on the TracFone web site.

Tracfone is a great way to save money. Cheapest way to own a cell as long as you don't use the phone too much, then it cost you. This is simply the best phone to use across several States, coverage is legendary! Their phones are the very basic models but most of them are very reliable – I've owned one Tracfone or another for about 6 years and will keep on using them as long as they provide such good value for money.

Do yourself a favor and look elswhere for phone service. I live in a large metro area of about 400,000 people, and reception is just terrible. Inside reception is almost non-existent. Even outside I only get about two bars, and when I am able to make a call, it is so hard to understand the other person that I usually hang up in disgust. BTW, this is my 2nd tracfone I've tried, and reception on both of them SUCK. I won't be using Tracfone anymore, and I certainly wouldn't recommend them to ANYONE.

i don't care for the phone much, I wanted to get my message from my phone when I left it at home and there is noway u can do that. I also wanted to get a printout of all the phone calls that came in or out and u can't do that either. buying the phone time is a little expensive for the little time u get. calling custmer service is a joke, they don't know what they taking about.

On July 2, this year my Tracfone service became unusable. When I tried to dial any number I would receive a message ‘Please hang up and dial 911 for an emergency'. Since my wife and I were to scheduled to leave town that night I was unable to contact customer service until we returned a week later. After numerous attempts to resolve the issue via Tracfones website (certain pages refused to display), I contacted the Customer Service 1-800 number. After nearly a 30 minute wait, I reported the issue to the customer service rep. After no less than 15-20 attempts for her to contact other departments, I was informed I would have to purchase more time to have the phone re-activated. I informed the rep that I already had 1254.8 minutes and the service was not set to expire until September, 28th, 2010. She insisted that in order to resume the service that I had already paid for I would have to buy additional minutes. After offering up my American Express number to purchase a 30 minute card she informed me the service would take effect approximately one hour later with a new expiration date in August. To require a customer whether they be an occasional customer or long term contiguous one, to purchase additional time and minutes when the previous contract has not expired, is similar to ‘extortion'. They simply are not honoring the pre-existing contract. As a result I purchased a new Motorola Razr and bought a T-Moble 1 year agreement with 1000 minutes, for the price of Tracfones one year card with only 400 minutes. I’ll be switching my wife over to T-mobile later this year when her Tracfone time expires. Tracfone has lost two customers after over 6 years. Tracfone customer service received a copy of this note. Incidentally, I switched my Tracfone number too…

I have had nothing but trouble with tracphone. I have called for 3 months and still do not have a phone that works. Worst company ever for customer services.

I haven't had a problem until today. I added minutes and later tried to make a call to a USA toll free 1-800 business number (which I have called before with no problem)and it wouldn't go through, recording said it was restricted. Not a long distance or international number.??????? And the customer care number is eastern time and I live in California so I have to call tomorrow morning.

Tracfone sucks. Your service is terrible,it is difficult to put minutes on the phone and I've been scanning all the websites I googled under Tracfone & I can't find an 800 number to call for help renewing minutes. I wouldn't recommend Tracfone to anybody & as soon as I can buy my girlfriend another make of cellphone her Tracfone is going into the nearby river. WHAT A PIECE OF USELESS JUNK!

They are total idiots to deal with if you have a problem. I've spent 3 hrs with them today and have made no progress. I have power cycled the phone at least 10 times with different people. They repeat the same steps … then transfer you to another person who has you repeat the same steps again.

Bought a Tracfone used it for about a year, it died. I transferred service using my old Tracfone. However they coudl not get it to activate properly, but I could call out. I had 140 mins on the phone but they would only give me 60 mins because since there was problem with the phone they could not give them to me. I spent over 5 hours on the phone with them and still am out my minutes. The customer service reps do not speak even close to understandable english. They spend more time apologizng for the inconvenience than they do helping the customer. I had a Tracfoen for over 5 years and everytime I tried to activate a card online it still did not work and I had to call. Save yourself a great degree of hassle and buy elsewhere.

Very happy. I just came from AT@T go phone. I got tired of paying 25 cents per minute. Thought I'd try out the Tracfone since their rates are about 2.5 times less then At&T. Went through the porting process to have my go phone transfered to my trac phone. The rep at tracfone told me it would take 7 to 10 business days. Well,it was ported in three days. Tracfone tech support even gave me a case # to check on the porting process. The female I talked to while setting up my account was very polite and professional. After the third day my tracfone automatically activated. The new phone came with ten free minutes. Today I decided to add more time and I though this may be a hassle. Well, I decided to do it on-line. I chose the $29.99 120 minute option. I did the transaction then checked the phone only to find out instead of getting 120 minutes I got 260 minutes. I did have a promo code for 20 extra minutes and only expected a total of 140 minutes to be added. Also, the LG phone I got works great with no problems. This is leaps and bounds over the expensive AT&T go phone. I'm very happy with TracFone…

My wife and I still aren't in the tech age. We are not big cell phone users. We buy the annual plan that costs $100 for about 800 minutes. That's all we need and it's been fine.

I have had TracPhone for over 10 years.I used my first analog monster clunkerfor 5. The battery would last at least3 weeks.I dropped and crushed it many times, kept on working. I do not have much to complain about. They send me text msgsand then charge me when I open it??I am a very light user, 400 minutes usually last me a year. If you want a mobile phone for only once in while then Tracphone is suitable. I can't comment on the poor service, I am sure is is very true but that seems to be everywhere. I bought a Consumer Cellular phone for my Wife. She wanted a large easy to read, easy to dial phone which we got. It arrived quickly and they mistakenly gave me an out of area number. I called and complained. They took care of it. I will monitor this cell to cell double charging. Her phone worked fine from California to Washington, good reception everywhere.Main issue with Consumer Cellular is the cheap phones DO NOT show minutes.

Just Unbelievable!Apologize for this lengthy write up, but I felt it was necessary to help others understand the pain and more importantly to warn others … Even after reading many poor reviews all over the Internet, I decided to give StraightTalk a shot. It was and has been a nightmare!I chose the $30.00 plan (1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 10 MB data). I requested to switch my number from Verizon Wireless. Depending on which customer representative I spoke with, I got different information regarding activation period. I heard ranges from few hours to 1 week! I got no e-mails regarding the status nor the process of my activation. It took 4 days of calling to finally have my number activated! They told me I could monitor my plan usage online immediately after activation, it took me over 1 week for my phone number to be registered in their system!During the 3rd week, my phone (Samsung R451) started shutting down automatically. I took it back to Walmart for replacement. During the exchange process, the phone got de-activated and so did my phone number.I stayed patiently for 4 hours at Walmart, speaking with several StraightTalk representatives over the phone. I felt like I could communicate to a fly or a rock better! I got transfered atleast 8 times and every single time they would ask for my details over and over again. Sometime the same representative would ask me the same details over and over again. It was as if these workers were not given any paper or pencil to write down details. They seemed to have no way to keep track or records of customer calls or details or ticket notes. I now understand why some jobs need to remain in the U.S! StraigtTalk (TracFone) has no sense of business etiquette or customer service. I feel like my cats and dogs are better trained!My issue has yet to be resolved. I have no cell phone and no phone now. I am probably going to loose my number, one which I have had for over 6 years! How would you like to be disconnected from the 21st century and have your clients, customers, friends or family members not be able to reach you?I wasted over 5 days by the hour, easily trying to resolve my issues. It has been over a week now since I lost my phone number, I still feel miserable on the way I have been treated. I have lost $30.00, the company has simply eaten it and I barely even got to use near 40% of my plan!I will be taking measures to report them to the Better Business Bureau. I advice everyone to think 10x before you decide to take your business to TracFone or StraighTalk! Sadly, some of us only learn from making mistakes and I happen to be one of them 🙁

I am surprised at some of the negative reviews. I saw someone mention that they waited an hour to add minutes. Normally when I have to add minutes, it takes me no more than 15 minutes. I dont mind waiting because I am saving so much money by using Tracfone. Plus, the service is great. I get reception wherever I go, as opposed to my sister, who is on a contract with Cingular, and can never get reception at our apartment. The network Tracfone runs on is top notch. No qualms about it.

The give relatively good reception and all the basic features for a very low price. But remember, you get what you pay for, perhaps the worst customer service you can experience. Lower quality phones, and always expect long phone calls of over an hour to fix problems and long waits for number transfers or phone activation. The problems I had with customer service cost me far more money than I saved in the initial price.

I had a TracPhone Nokia for five years and loved it. Wanted to upgrade the phone so I ordered an LG420 from Trac's website. VERY complicated to get number transferred and to get activation. Now it's activated but cannot get service inside my home. Have made numerous calls to support, spoken to various techs, and have spent in excess of three hours on the phone with their techs, but no luck. They finally gave me a work ‘ticket' number with instructions to wait 24 hours. I phoned back yesterday and gave the ticket number to yet another tech who still could not resolve the problem. I was told to wait 24 more hours, then try the cell again. So, after 24 hours I went to the website, entered the ticket number and now IT tells me to wait another '24 to 48 hours.' I'm done, will return the phone and get no refund of minutes or service. I'm done!

You get what you pay for. The customer service reps are polite but difficult to understand. They also had difficulty understanding me. It took over ten minutes for them to correctly enter my street address so they could replace my phone. Also I've had problems with two phones. The first time I needed a replacement, I spoke to three customer service reps and waited for over a month for the phone to be delivered. The phone I received allowed me to make calls and purchase time, but would not download ring tones even though I was charged for the ring tones. I was told by customer service the phone was defective and they would send me another. That was also over a month ago and still no replacement phone. If you want a phone service only to make calls with no extras, then this is worth the cheap price, providing the phone you receive isn't defective. Otherwise you'll have a long wait before getting a phone that actually works.Also be careful when purchasing a new phone from a retail store. I bought my Tracfone at Walmart and when I tried to activate it was told (by Tracfone customer service) the model I purchased wouldn't work in my area so it would need to be replaced. The phone they finally sent (after about a month of waiting as indicated above) was reconditioned. The package on the original phone did not indicate the phone would not work in the area where I purchased it. From my experience, this company replaces new phones with reconditioned, defective phones. If I had known about the long the wait time and poor customer service, I would have returned the phone to Walmart for my money back.

I have been a Tracfone customer for over 3 years. Reception for the most part was fine, the phone's features were simple and best of all, I wasn't spending a fortune on minutes. What I did do however, was waste a lot of time dealing with the customer service department. I could never apply new airtime minutes on my own, I could not access my voicemails–and it had nothing to do with my intelligence or abilities! It seemed that I was spending way too much time trying to resolve these issues. I should have dumped Tracfone back then, but I tolerated it so that I wouldn't have to lock myself back into a monthly plan. Last week, I purchased a new Tracfone and attempted to activate it. After several phone calls to the company, 5 hours altogether, my phone still would not work. Excuse after excuse was given. I finally asked for a refund, and was told that I could not have one. I explained that as a consumer I knew that I had rights and that there was no way I was keeping a defective phone or any of the airtime I had purchased and had not used. After 45 minutes more of requesting to be transferred to someone who could issue a refund, I snapped. The rep seemed to enjoy the game she was playing and she was followingprotocol–exactly as she had been instructed. Eventually, she realized that I wasn't backing down. Only then, did she transfer me to the ‘refund' department, where I was able to speak with someone who arranged for the refund.Not trusting them to follow through with my refund, I went back to the Walmart store where the phone was purchased to see if they would issue the refund and to my surprise, they did! (Most stores will not).In all fairness, I am certain that there must be reps within this company that do strive to provide customer satisfaction. I just have never dealt with one. I think Tracfone has the potential to be a wonderful company, but this will happen only with a complete overhaul of their customer service department. At this time, I would not recommend the Tracfone–that is, unless you have a lot of time to spend on resolving phone issues that come up. And, they will!A word to M.Cohen: I'm happy for you that you are a satisfied customer. However, you have no right to judge anyone who has taken the time to write a review of their experiences with this company. We do so because we do not want others to have to endure the incompetence and arrogence from a company that simply ignores the needs of the customer.

-5 Stars Don't Buy rating, what a mistake I made changing from my (Big Cell Phone Provider) to Tracfone. Heard thier TV ad and believed all their claims so I went and bought a cell phone with double minutes and after five days I still have no minutes. I bought my phone in the afternoon Thursday pacific standard time, but when I went to activate it, they closed at 8:00 Eastern Standard Time . Friday morning I called and started the process and they call me back a couple of hours later saying they need more information, so I gave it them, but was difficult to convey this information because they appeared to be off-shore and hard to understand. Saturday morning my big cell provider stopped my service, and no Tracfone service. Could not call Tracfone becaused they are closed after 8PM EST and on weekends. So I was out of cell phone service over the weekend. Monday morning I called and after about an hour of answering more questions and told every two minutes to please stay on the line while they put me on hold time and time again, they finally they told me all would be well in 24 hours. 24 hrs later my Tracfone phone is on network with my old number but can not call out. I called Customer Service again and got the same story except this time I asked to talk to a supervisor and was put on a longer wait and told the same story, wait another 24 hours. After an hour my phone gets calls in but I can not answer because I have no minutes and I can’t add minutes to my phone because the systems says I have an invalid number. All I keep hearing from Tracfone is wait another 24 hours and please wait while I put you on hold.My recommendation is don’t believe their claims like I did, this is a definitely a Don’t Buy. Also, after calling Tracfone Corporate office (800-876-5753) I go the same story and response to wait another 24 hours.

Have had tracphones for 6+ years. Only need to use the phone for emergencies and on travel, so this is just what I need — cheap, easy to use, nationwide coverage, and no frills. Customer service is okay most of the time; sometimes slow. Takes time to find info on the Web site; however, that was also true for other carriers when I researched new phones this year.

Tracfone is ok for those who only use their phone sparingly every month and those who don't need a lot of ‘bells and whistles' with their phone. I bought my first one around two-three years ago? I still use it, though I notice due to age (possibly?), I now have to call customer service every month to get the minutes added manually, instead of instantly. They give me a code to type in to add the minutes I purchased. (that's a little annoying) It is easy to order new minutes online or over the phone. I can barely understand some of the customer service reps I speak to due to the heavy Indian accents, but so far, all have been polite and I've had very few ‘technical' problems with my phone. So far, it still works ok, and I have coverage pretty much everywhere I go. The battery is around two to three years old now so it loses juice faster then it used to. My only real complaint as of late has been volume. It's a simple phone and I have no way to adjust it so hearing others on it can be a challenge sometimes. I'm not sure what cell phones are made of these days, but they do seem to break easily and degrade faster. My original flip-phone lasted me 13 years before I had to finally replace it. These days, it seems as if they expect you to change your phone every few years, which some of us can't afford. Anyway, Tracfone still seems fairly reliable to me, but I know others on here have had negative experiences. Do your research, before you buy.

I have had my Tracfone for a year with not a single problem. My phone came with double minutes for life which makes it very very cheap. The texting is MUCH cheaper than other pay-as-you-go companies I've used. No problems, besides that the picture messaging doesn't work (it just wastes several minutes and doesn't end up doing anything).The only thing is that none of their phones are particularly good- I am going to switch to another company when I run out of minutes solely because I want a phone with a full keyboard and picture messaging, but otherwise everything about Tracfone was great. (Although I never had to call customer service- I feel lucky for that)

Waiting on the land line for over 40 minutes then transferred then transferred again and now its past 1 hr and still ticking…Promo Code 17473 200 mins bonus 60 .. Got the 200 but not the bonus mins. Finally got the 60 mins Yes not staying with this company

You can get service just about anywhere which is convenient. On the down side TracFone screws you in every directions. I don't know how many times my airtime disappears and then when I call customer service they say i have hundreds less than I actually did. There is nothing they can do I never get all of my minutes back and they suck at customer service!

This is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. I have tried to buy minutes and cannot because they have me scheduled to buy at a store only for some reason because of a problem with their system. After spending a solid hour on the phone with tech support, I was given a ticket number and told to call back in 24 hours. It has been a week, and still no progress. My phone has been disconnected and I am unable to get it reactivated because I cannot buy minutes online or by phone, and tech support cannot figure it out. Stay away from this company! If I could give a ‘0' rating I would.

We've used Tracfones for 4 years and have had minimal problems. They are by far the cheapest route for those needing to make quick calls. I just got a new LG420 for $15 w/ lifetime double minutes meaning it's < 10 cents/minute. IF you call customer service, be prepared for a long conversation. Best is on-line service. For the price and service it's hard to beat and the kids can't surprise us with $$$ bills at the end of the month.

I have two phones and I had no problemsin over four years. I don't need all the bells and whistles so this plan is great for me. I had no problems when I bought a new Motorola with a camera and had no problems having the minutes andservice transfered to the new phone. For the money you can't go wrong, I callBrazil and had no trouble setting up long distance calling online and then entering the number into my phone, I call southern Brazil and connect everytime and it only cost me around .10a minute which isn't bad and the reception is very good. Thank you Tracfone.

i like tracfone have had it for 5 years but for the last 2 years it has stopped sending text messages overseas. I have family all over the world and i used to text all them all the time but now i can only get their texts i can not reply back because tracfone has blocked that – i hope they change that – otherwise i love it!!

tracfone people get your minutes they take minutes when u check a text my other tracfone it took 0.3 min when i send a text and zero when i check this one takes 0.30 when you check a text and they only give u 68 mins instead of more free minutes then how to wait til the end the month to get to get 68 minutes again they need to give you like 100 free minutes and don't take minutes when you check a text message and take it when u send it and dont take 0.30 just take 0.3 thats it that way people can have minutes to rollover with next minutes

It's a cheap phone to drop off with the kids when they go places. Customer Service is BAD. THIS TIME I've waited over two days for an e-mail response. Online and on the phone, they can't reactivate a phone (they say it's too old) yet it appears on their website and I can select it. I am just trying to move the minutes from one of their phones that literally melted in the car. They offered no help at all. I'm just thankful I had under 100 minutes left, what if I had 800? Very irritating!

Purachased a new phone to replace a damaged phone. I could not transfer my old number or minutes to my new phone. I have been on the phone with them for 4 days trying to get this resolved. They keep transferring you to another person. Here is their corporate # 1-800-876-5753. Maybe if everyone calls this number, they will get their act together.