Tracfone Reviews See All Tracfone News

Company Overview: TracFone is a prepaid wireless provider. The company is a subsidiary of América Móvil, and also operates Net10 Wireless.

Network Benefits: TracFone does not operate its own network, but operates as an MVNO reselling service from over 30 other providers.

Special Plan Features: Prepaid services only; Remaining minutes balanced tracked on handset.

Unique Features: Refer-a-Friend offers free service minutes in exchange for referring a friend who purchases service.

Pros: Flexible service options without contract commitment; Inexpensive handsets (often refurbished); Phones and service available direct from Website and at stores nationwide; Choice between many networks and technologies.

Cons: More expensive than contracted service from national carriers.

Technology Used: GSM, TDMA, and CDMA.

Primary Coverage Area: Nationwide.

Customer Service: TracFone's service is both very popular and widely complained about with regard to phone activation and other technical problems, call quality, customer service, and general business practices.

Show me:

Average user reviews

 

Based on 272 Reviews

Overall
2.3
Service Quality
2.35
Customer Service
1.8
Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10, THIS COMPANY IS A 0

Posted on: August 20th, 2009 by HAROLD HILL

The good: OK PHONE COVERAGEThe bad: TRYING TO GET A NEW PHONE TO WORKSummary: When our phone stopped working we needed to buy a new phone. Had lots of minutes and time on the old phone.Had two sessions with technical staff and was assured in the first case my phone would be working in less than 72 hours. In 72 hours no success and called again and they had no record of previous work. This call lasted hours and they were having difficulty in documenting that I had valid time on the old phone. Finally they said everything was ok and now I have the time and minutes but Tracfone does not recognize our phone.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

Worst customer service on the planet

Posted on: August 18th, 2009 by AJ Settlemyer

The good: Service is good all over the country.The bad: The phones are junk.The customer service is appauling to say the least.Summary: I've been a tracfone user for 9 years. I'm now trying to be on my third phone, which might not be too bad in 9 years. But every time I went from one phone to a new phone I had to jump through hoops to get my number, minutes and expiration date changed over. What really burns me is that the phones have SIM cards in them that you can store your phonebook numbers too, but when you change phones, these people aren't smart enough to transfer your SIM from your old phone to your new phone. They have to ask you for the SIM number of your new phone to program it anyhow so why can't they just bring it from one to the other? But I digress. I bought a new phone a week ago, I tried to activate it and change it online like so many others, and after a day or two of waiting and it still didn't go through I tried calling them. I was on the phone for 4 hours, made 6 calls, got put on hold and hung up on 5 times, and each time got some different ignoramus I could barely understadn that asked me for my name, serial number of both phones, SIM numbers of both phones which are entirely too long, over and over again. And even though I had the persons name I could never get that person back so it was the sam scripted crap over and over again. It's like they don't keep account information. Regarless, this is my last tracfone and we're reporting them to the BBB. Good luck if you decide to go with them.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
3
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
2
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

TRACFONE ACTIVATION

Posted on: August 12th, 2009 by ROBERT FRISA

The good: NONEThe bad: LONG, ARDUOUS PROCESSSummary: I RECENTLY PURCHASED A TRACFONE FROM THEIR WEBSITE. I TRIED TO ACTIVATE ONLINE, BUT COULD NOT DO SO. I THEN CALLED TRACFONE. AFTER ONE HOUR AND FOUR DIFFERENT AGENTS, I WAS ABLE TO ACTIVATE. WITH EACH AGENT I HAD TO PROVIDE THE PURCHASE NUMBER, SERIAL NUMBER EMI NUMBER, MY NAME, MY ADDRESS, MY PHONE NUMBER AND THE USUAL LANGUAGE BARRIERS. IT WAS A GRUELING EXPERIENCE.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

Junk

Posted on: July 20th, 2009 by JOHN BELLATTI

The good: Advertisements are falseThe bad: False advertisement of double minutesSummary: Don't be fooled by promise of double minutes, and don't expect much help from "technical" support. Twice they dropped my call, and once, quite creatively, suggested I call back. I did about 5 minutes later only to find that the call center had closed.When I finally got an alien to listen to my complaint. He deffered to his supervisor, who anonymously declined to help me.DON'T BUY TRACFONE

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

customer 1-800-867-7183 wait time initally 10 min. hung up after 120 min.

Posted on: July 3rd, 2009 by Jan McIntyre

The good: Prior to the last few times of adding air time minutes thought Tracfone was good. 6 months ago same seniaro but after 60 plus minutes some employee actually added an extra 30 day airtime as I complained alot about the long wait - (asked to speak with a supervisor for some sort of compensation and he was able to do this without transferring)The bad: No person on customer phone. Had recently suggested to a friend to purchase a Tracfone for her teenager but will advise differently now.Summary: 07-03-09 unable to do prompts on Nokia (had since Tracfone 1st came out 2003) so dialed 1-800-867-7183 prompts stated estimated wait time 10 min.; contunied to hold hopeing to speak with a person (made mac. salad and 2 batches of brownies for the busy 4th of July) landline phone has minutes listed. What a waste of time! Very upsetting not to have some sort of compensation regaurding my time and hopefullness of speaking with a rep. since I heard hundreds of times how important this phone call was to Tracfone. Would appreciate if an employee were to read these and contact customers that have problems - I will never do phone prompts again.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

TOTAL RIP

Posted on: July 1st, 2009 by Nun YA

The good: Pretty new phone that doesn't workThe bad: "0" STARSSummary: "0" STARS4 Hours on the phone and still no transfer of existing number to new phone which was purchased through Tracfone...Looks to me like they make they're money by taking peoples minutes...Definitely would not invest in company...Two phones sent...Resending one phone..Postage they're problem....Sent a new sim card priority expresss fedex...Wonder what that cost...???..Like I said from the reviews it looks like they make they're money by ripping people off of minutes...With all the high postage they are paying they have to make money some way...

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
1
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

TRACFONE Service Stinks, there is none.

Posted on: June 24th, 2009 by Dale Murrell

The good: Very few if any.The bad: Can not get problem fixes or changed. Do not use this service, if your life depends on it go elsewhere. Summary: Bought 90 days by mistake, they said they couldn't change it. I use less than 30 min. per year, why would I buy 900 min for 90 days? DUH!

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
4
Customer Service:
4
Overall:
5
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Recommend to a friend.

Verizon Convert ...Tracfone Service less than half the cost!

Posted on: June 23rd, 2009 by Katrina Richardson

The good: Value, customer serviceThe bad: If you're looking for the latest/greatest this probably isn't it.Summary: At our historical usage level our monthly bill will go from $90 with Verizon (2 phones -700 minutes which we never come near to using) to around $50 with Tracfone. We've been with Verizon (including other wireless providers they gobbled up) for at least 12 years. Though we've found the charges outrageous and their customer service lacking for sometime (especially in Verizon Stores - nearly always long waits, non existent follow through or problem resolution) we've been reluctant to venture out - like the dog that stays with his master who mistreats him. My parents have used Tracfone for years now and have been pleased - so we finally decided to make the leap. We've not used the service much so I can't comment on signal strength except to say my parents have had signal strength with their Tracfones in places where I have not with Verizon. One hesitation to the switch was all the complaints about customer service, poor english speakers etc... All I can say is that I've been very impressed with the reps I've talked with and throughout the porting process when I've called several times, I've not waited on hold to speak with a live person for more than a minute (very unlike Verizon). My husband is the texter in our family so we had a text upcharge fee on Verizon to cover but since I never text I didn't have a package and would get charged .25 every time someone sent me an unsolicited text (typically bad group forward emails - ugh). I've have to call and say, please don't text me. Now our average text cost will be around 3 cents! 3 cents Tracfone ... 25 Verizon. Let me think about that one for a minute! Just one example. So far my only beef (minor) is that I didn't feel Tracfone was clear that you could be out of service for a while when the switch is made. The site says it will take 7-10 days to port your number (which I assumed I'd have my other carrier working until then) but then I lost Verizon and when I called they told me I could be without service for up to a week! I ended up being without any service for a bout a day and a half which was not a big deal. My husband was out of service for less than 24 hours. If that's the worst we experience and I can save $500 a year on wireless I'm thrilled. I think my parents have been with them for about 5 years and in all that time my father said he received one bad phone but when he called about it they sent him a replacement without having him wait to ship the other phone back. That's good customer service. I'll post again if the service takes a turn for the worst but based on our experience so far - I'm kicking myself for having waited so long to make the switch.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
2
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

Please wait 24 hrs...

Posted on: June 4th, 2009 by sandra m

The good: NoneThe bad: EverythingSummary: I had received my 2nd tracfone in December 2008,and from the start the picture messaging and web browsing did not work. I called them a total of 9 times to have this problem fixed (4 of them just this last week). Every single time I called them, they would tell me they are going to send updates to my phone and to wait 24 hours. It finally got to where I told them I will NOT wait the 24 hours and I want someone to help me right now. On one of those calls I was transferred to 6 different people and on the phone for 124 minutes and they were still unhelpful. Out of all the reps I spoke to, none of them could speak decent English. Finally after the 9th call to them and a lot of bad language and anger, one rep finally offered to send me a new phone which I gladly agreed to. I asked if I could still use the current phone until the new one arrived and she said yes. The day before the new phone arrived my old one was shut off without warning. When I had them reactvate the old one, all my minutes were erased. It took 6 months, 9 calls, and 20+ reps before I finally had the problem fixed

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

Service Quality:
2
Customer Service:
1
Overall:
1
Overall:
Review Rating: 
0

Would Not Recommend to a friend.

I'm Mixed

Posted on: May 14th, 2009 by Will Wellek

The good: Cheap for what I need it for and so far I haven't had much of a problem getting a signal.The bad: Customer service, customer service, customer service!!!Summary: I'm on my third tracfone in the last five or six years. They work...after spending half of your day on the phone with the customer service representatives and supervisors. Most recently I wanted to deprogram my old phones and send them to the soldiers (like they need any more problems) and I discovered I still had alot of minutes on one of the phones. I tried to get the minutes transferred to my current phone and NO WAY. I should have done it a long time ago...which I'm sure I did...but, the customer service representative didn't do her part in transferring the minutes. The customer service rep barely understood english and the supervisor must have majored in rudeness at the Tracfone school of management. He said there was no proof that they were my minutes and blew me off. I wrote an email to customer service explaining that I'm sure a local newspaper or television station would be glad to hear about a company not helping getting used phones to soldiers. I got an phone call the next day and they were happy to help me take my old information out of the two older phones and getting them started up again nice and new. However...they weren't budging on my minutes. I didn't see any of those back. Anyways...not a terrible product...but, they have alot of work to do with their Human Relations people.

This review is the subjective opinion of the user and not of PhoneDog.com

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