Tracfone Reviews See All Tracfone News

The good: NoneThe bad: EverythingSummary: If you are considering buying a Tracfone, DON'T.It would be far easier, and certainly quicker to just flush your money down the toilet instead of giving to this bunch of fraudsters.They will gladly take your money for phones and airtime cards, but getting the service activated and operable is next to impossible.I've spent the last week trying to activate a phone, and in the end, all the Tracfone "customer service" dept (that's a joke in itself) could suggest was that I return the phone to the retailer (not possible), and to tell me that the airtime cards were non refundable.Basically they are comitting fraud by taking money, but then refusing to provide the service that was paid for.The only reason that I have rated them as poor on all counts is that there wasn't an option for abysmal.

The good: No ContractThe bad: Everything except no contract. Took over 7 hours and 34 telephone conversations to get it right!Summary: Tracfone contracts to various carriers to provide cellular service. When I purchased the phone for my parents I explained that Tracfone should not assign AT&T as the carrier because that carrier does not work in my area even if the computer shows that it does. The type phone purchased was a Motorola. Got the phone, they assigned AT&T and it didn?t work. They said it must be a defective phone because their computer shows that the carrier works in my area. (It?s important to note that my parents and I have the same zip code and live two miles apart.) They sent a second phone. Same brand, same carrier, same problem. After talking for hours to technicians with thick accents using my Verizon cell phone minutes I decided to take the next step and call the corporate headquarters in Miami.I called Miami corporate headquarters and got a person who said that the Motorola phone purchased had old technology and that what was needed in this area was an updated digital phone so they sent me an LG with different capabilities. I insisted that they assign Verizon as the carrier since AT&T does not work in this locality. I got the phone and tested it before I gave it to my parents. I set up the voice mail and thought the problems were behind us. Everything was working fine. A few days later I called my mother's Tracfone and the call went directly into her voice mail so I left a message. I called back later on their landline and made certain she had the phone turned on, which she did. I told her I would call her back on the Tracfone to test it out because something doesn't seem to be working correctly and to my surprise the phone was answered but it wasn?t my mother. It was a woman who was in a boat in the middle of a lake. She said she had a problem with the number Tracfone had assigned to her and so they gave her a new number which was my parent?s number. This disabled my parents new Tracfone! Once again I called Miami corporate headquarters. They deactivated the number of the ?woman in the boat? and reactivated my parent?s phone. Problem solved? No! Now I could call in but they still could not call out. I called Miami headquarters back. They said this was very unusual and that there must have been a computer glitch. The technician went into the computer system and corrected the problem. Finally we have an operable phone! I have documented 34 telephone conversations with Tracfone technicians, many of whom have such a thick accent I found it difficult to communicate. I?ve also spent a total of 430 airtime minutes from my own Verizon personal cell phone getting this resolved. So the bottom line is we now have a Tracfone that works but is it worth spending over seven hours talking with technicians to get these problems solved? You decide!

The good: noneThe bad: shady business practices, rip offSummary: have had tracfone for at least 5 years. recently had "no service" display on my phone. had bought double minutes for this phone and had 600+ minutes and service time for months when the "no service" message displayed. they told me a new phone was being sent and the old phone needed to be updated and that they would give me 30 minutes for my troubles. phone had worked fine. took their word discarded old phone. sent me the same phone and suddenly the "double minutes" contract that i paid lots for was not transferred to the new phone. they asked dumb ?'s like "when did you purchase the double minutes", "what's the IMEI of the old phone", i think they send out new phones to replace old ones that worked perfectly. then u lose all the benefits u have paid an arm and leg for. customer service has changed completely. difficult to understand any of the service reps. they keep you on hold forever. have spent hours dealing with them. i wish we could bring a class action against them.

The good: Low priceThe bad: Everything elseSummary: While they offer cheaply priced phones and phone cards, they are a horrible company lately. I was a Tracfone customer for roughly 10 years and just recently quit using their service. My parents are current customers of Tracfone and had to have replacement phones sent to them because of technology changes. It took Tracfone 2 months to send the phone, and another 2 months to send the correct sim card for the phone! The worse part though is that I ordered a new phone to replace the older one I had, and when I called to have everything transferred to the new phone, they messed up. They transfered the humber, but they lost all 830 minutes I had and they wouldn't give them back because there was no proof. I told them i was returning the phone I had just received and that I was done with their company. I am now a proud U.S. Cellular customer, waiting for Tracfone to refund the money for the price of the phone, I just wonder if they will or not. I would not, and will not recommend this company to anyone at all under any circumstance.