TracFone

I had my phone number and minutes transferred from my old Samsung to a new LG. The transfer went smoothly and after two days of use, the phone read SIMS unregistered. After 72 minutes of entering codes and testing with Tracfone, my phone does not work at all. I have a blank screen now. Tracefone now wants to change my number. I would like the phone back to the service I had yesterday until about 12:00 pm. Any assistance you can suggest will be greatly appreciated.

I bought a TracFone, and called to activate it, and transfer my number from a different carrier. The tech I talked to, said it would take a maximum of 24 hours. I called again after 24 hours, and was told they needed 2 more hours. I called again, and was told they needed 3 more hours. I called again, and was told that they still needed an additional 48 hours to transfer the number. I told them in no uncertain terms to cancel the activation, release my number, and forget I ever tried to do business with them.

I gave up, and bought a different phone to activate, with a different carrier. they tried to port in my old cell number, and found that TracFone has it locked up, which means that I've lost my cell phone number, which I have had for about 20 years. Tracfone called again, and I told them I had already activated with another company. I also requested that they release my old number. They claim they don't have it locked, but both my old and new carriers state that it is indeed TracFone, who hasn't cancelled the transaction and released the number, and that's in spite of the fact that I have three separate emails stating that they did.

Now, it's four days later. I've expressed my displeasure to them, in language that would make a drunk sailor blush, but they still keep calling, trying to get me to activate their phone. I'm guessing that the only way I'm going to stop them, is to block their number.

I am disgusted beyond belief. I've been a TracFone customer for probably 10 years, but they have apparently put customer service to sleep. In mid-December, before my Straightalk (TracFone unlimited) ran out for the month, I "started" calling TracFone to get off the unlimited, and go back to a regular TracFone. I should have just gone to another company, but who knew. They had a phone listed online, that I thought would be good for me (they constantly change). I spent all day on the phone with TracFone customer service for two days (my stupidity), before they found out that they didn't have the phone they were advertising in stock. So, they sent me an alternative phone, which is terrible.

It makes calls on it's own, even when it's locked, and in a separate room from people. It forgets to ring on incoming calls. It dials the wrong number. I've written and called them several times since mid-January, and have had promises of a new phone being sent, then told it was too late to get a refund, then promised a refund, then promised the phone in two to 5 days, then promised the phone in one to 2 days, and nothing! I spent a hundred dollars on minutes for the phone, a bunch of which I've wasted on calling them. Yesterday, I talked to them again, with a promise of an email, telling me tracking info on the new phone. There was no email, but what else is new.

I'm so upset, I just want to stomp the phone to pieces, but I do have that $150 invested in it, plus all the hours of my life wasted (and I am a senior citizen). I'm not sure if you can do anything about this, but thanks for being there to listen to me complain.

They have two buttons, Angry and Dissatisfied. I couldn't select both, which is a bummer. I bought a new TracFone four days ago, LG501C, not the most expensive but still a pretty good looking phone, a gift for being the top of my class. So I went to activate it online, but a brief millisecond power outage came and turned my computer off (you know what I mean).

I couldn't get back onto my account to finish my phone activation, so I thought: "No problem, I'll just call and activate it over my old TracFone." It took four days of contently imputing codes into my phone (I'm now wearing a brace to support my wrist) and the blasted thing still was having problems. Apparently, the phone is activated but the number I have service for the phone, i.e. the one they have on record, and the number they actually gave me did not match.

I don't say this often, and I'm sorry for doing so, but **! I couldn't make calls nor receive any. Of the four days I was on the phone, 32 hours approximately, according to the number of minutes I've lost on my old TracFone, years of accumulated minutes gone! And most of the time I was on hold, the rest I couldn't understand what the heck they were saying! They apparently reactivated it twice in this period, of which I waited calmly. When they said to make test calls, I thought, "Finally, this is finished."

I called my landline, got the operator, "If you want to make a collect call to a mobile phone or a landline, press one," etc. My test call to my new phone said, "This phone is not in service." The people at consumer service, of which I probably talked to a couple grunts and half a dozen managers and supervisors, said they couldn't figure out why this is happening. A tech guy said it may be a glitch in the system, a rare error, etc. Good thing is, eventually they started calling me by my name since I was on the phone for so long, bad new is that I wanted to punch a ** hole in my wall. Not to mention they gave me a ticket to call them back in another 24 hours, of which I did, but it apparently closed 12 hours after I got it.

Yeah, thanks. They said we'll call you back and asked for what time is best, I said Thursday, anytime afternoon. They called me Wednesday during a ** exam! People who have gone to college know what that means. Now, here is the funny bit. On the main screen, in my apartment, after its first activation, it said home. Wednesday it turned to roaming, meaning I lost three minutes for every second of a test call.

I never had one problem with my older TracFone. I didn't plan to transfer my number and minutes because my father wanted to use it since he travels the world programming most of the machines you see in big-time factories. Here is another thing, my old phone doesn't have the roaming thing, it was designed to travel the world, and has. It's a reliable phone, really ugly. To face all these frustrations and I'd like to say criminal wait periods, I think I'm going to deter any of my friends who asks me if they should switch to TracFone.

I eventually solved the problem myself by buying a whole new phone, demanded compensation for my time wasted for their incompetence. They did more harm to me than helping me, and there isn't a rating low enough for me to describe. This may be the most unprofessional thing I have ever written, but so is TracFone's customer service. They better step up their game, or else they will likely go out of business for unsatisfied customers.

You cannot check your voicemail on this phone! The phone will "lock up" and by the time you unlock it, it's too late to retrieve messages. The "touch screen" is not built to handle the "unlock" key in a timely manner! I've been on the phone for days with TracFone, (the main number being 1-800-). A "so called" supervisor, Inarlifred, told me, on 01/14/2012, the phone is not "built" to access voice mail due to the touch screen. The LG800G is defective, and yes, they've had many complaints on this.

The only solution he offered me was to send the phone back and eventually get a refund on my money. I've been a TracFone customer for eight years and never had an issue until I upgraded and bought the LG800G. Friends, it's not worth it to buy the phone and waste your money. I also am filing a complaint with the BBB. Buyer Beware, do not buy this LG800G!

I wanted to upgrade my TracFone to a qwerty TracFone and transfer my minutes and keep my old number. After three days and talking to at least three people, who were very difficult to understand, my minutes were transferred. But the next day, my phone stated that the SIM number was not registered, and I could not use it. So, again I waited on hold, a half hour to talk to someone, and again, he was difficult to understand, but he told me that I could not transfer my old number now, and he really could not tell me why.

After years of being with TracFone, I have never had this problem and have kept my old number when I upgraded to a new phone in the past, but not this time. I am very disillusioned with TracFone, and am not pleased with the service I received, after being a loyal TracFone user for over ten years or more. I ended up having to take the new number they offered me, which resulted in my having to contact countless people, businesses and friends to inform them of the change. I am not happy.

The minimum rating option is 1. I would say minus 10. The chief executive officer of TracFone, F. J. Pollak, made $16.6 million (according to Bloomberg) and TracFone cannot handle a $100 online internet transaction. By the way, the corporate office phone number is 305-640-2000 or 800-876-5753 or 800-339-9345. I ordered a free phone and three months prepaid usage card on the StraightTalk.com website on January 5, 2012. I checked the status everyday (in process) and finally on January 10, the status was changed to cancel.

I called on Jan. 10 and got the runaround like many others have experienced, first Philippines then Guatemala. I found the TracFone corporate in Miami and asked the three levels of "managers" in Guatemala to talk to someone in the USA. After informing them that I was going to file a complaint with the FCC at www.fcc.gov and call Mr. Pollak, I finally got them to investigate. I have also had troubles with Cricket, and it took hours to activate my phone with Boost Mobile. By the way, one employee in the Philippines said his name was Wendell and a woman in Guatemala said her name was Wendella (coincidence or probably fictitious like Peggy). Make sure that you get their employee or contact number for your next complaint.

All complaints listed on this site have merit. No use for me to go into details of my experience with TracFone. The feds should shut them down. They want you to get so mad you will just give up and they can steal the minutes and time you have bought. Beware of scammers like these folks!

Why would I rate my overall experience? TracFone doesn't deserve any stars. I would rate it -99,999. Tracfone has the worst service around. The only reason I have them is because my parents say they are the cheapest. Okay, so this is what happened to me, I turned off my cell phone one day because I was trying to concentrate on my school work, and I couldn't with everybody texting me. So the next day I went to turn on my phone and it wouldn't turn on. So I called TracFone and they sent me a new phone.

I also asked them to have the new cell phone have the old number. Then in the mail I got the new cell phone, and I called up to activate the cell phone and transfer the minutes. They said they couldn't transfer the minutes. They said I had over 300 units left over. So a couple of weeks later I called again and they said I couldn't get the minutes transferred because I didn't have any left. So how come 2 weeks before they said I had over 300 units left over, then 2 weeks after, they're telling me there's nothing left on the old phone.

Oh, and have you noticed that all the customer service people are foreign and you can hardly ever understand them? TracFone is a piece of **.

I bought a tracphone for $17.99 3 years ago because it was advertised as "free text messaging." I contacted the company "tracphone" about the phone. There is no phone number in the phone. I haven't activated it yet but they are telling me there is no such feature free texting. Well, when I bought it, there was advertising on the package with "free texting." This is false advertising. It's the only reason I bought the phone.

I purchased minutes online for my TracFone and the transmission failed on my computer. Before I reentered the information, I decided to check my bank account to see if the charge went through and sure enough it did. I waited a few days to see if my charge would reverse itself on my account, but it did not.

I called TracfOne and explained what happened and they created a ticket number for me and said I should have a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours. I never heard from them. I called again, in fact called 4 separate times and had to tell my story to someone in another part of the world and had three more ticket nos. created. I still got no results. My bank confirmed that the charge went through and was processed. My bank even tried to call on my behalf--still no results. TracFone agreed that the charge went through, but for some reason they didn't seem to know how to reverse the charge and put it back on my account or send me a check.

It's funny how they can take your money at the click of a button, but can't give it back. I paid for 200 minutes and got no minutes and I'm out $43. Lesson learned--don't use your bank card for this type of purchase. If I would have used my credit card, I could have contested the charge and the credit card company would have had to do the work for me. I was very disgusted with customer service. No one seems to know what is going on in the refund department. After 4 attempts and countless hours spent on the phone trying to get a measly $43 bucks back, I decided to keep my sanity and learned a lesson at the same time.

Bought Tracfone from home shopping and called to activate and keep my old Tracfone # and minutes transferred to new phone. Old phone now is dead. Waited 5 hours and phone beeped. It said activated. I checked for the min transfer and it not theirs or the old number--its a new number. I called customer service (English is their 3rd language) and told them that wrong # was in the phone. They said it was pre programmed according to shipping zip code.

Wrong, zip code is a 561 area code. Area code for phone was 954. So, that don't fly. They would have to send a new Sim card. How long I ask. 10 days they say. Then they send me to tech support and I have to repeat all the info again. I've burned up 134 min on a friends cell by now. I don't have a phone, so I ask them to send me an e-mail with the tracking # for FedEx so that I will be home to sign. 3 days and I'm still waiting for it. The worst CS in the industry. Oh and by the way Home shopping was no help either.

The Customer Service Department is horrid! I bought a new phone and asked to activate the phone as it was not able to do it via phone. I had to keep repeating the information. My phone was not activated so I called again then it became active and was able to use. All of a sudden, a new phone arrives from Tracfone - addressed to a name that was obvious there was a language barrier. I returned the phone - unopened.

The phone that was working was inactivated. So now, the phone that I purchased and is on a monthly plan, that is charged to my credit card, cannot be used. I called the customer service again and after speaking to five people, I was told that it would take 5-7 days to resend a new sim card. This means phone is not operable for more than a week even though we are paying for the service. At least every other month, I am on the phone with customer service due to issues with minutes not being issued per our plan and each call takes at least 30 minutes.

I would expect to be compensated for my time on the phone dealing with the latest issue of getting a new phone activated as well as the lost airtime due to their error. I have asked for the replacement sim card; they said I needed to reactivate this phone on a rush order but they said it would take 3-5 days additional time!

I bought a new TracFone over the web in September of 2011. After I received it, I called to activate it, asking for my old number and minutes from my old phone. After being on my land line for hours, still no progress. Finally I gave up. Just short of the return time for the new phone, and returned the new phone, asking for a refund and contacted TracFone to reactivate my old phone, and transfer those minutes. Oh sure, I could do that! They would have to send a new SIM card.

Over the past three months, I have spent countless hours and minutes, trying to transfer my old minutes back to my old phone. It is now December, and I called today, and still, no SIM card in the mail, even though they said it was sent and received. I feel like throwing the phone into a lake and giving up, but to be safe on the road, I need a phone, and don't want a contract phone. I am tired of the whole deal. Someone needs to do something. Oh, and I tried the corporate officers, sending letters to about four of them. Guess what? I got all four letters back, unopened. No such person as stated on the envelopes.

I bought a TracFone. It was defective. The SIM connector had a broken pin, so the SIM wouldn't work and I couldn't complete activation. Since online activation wouldn't work, I called support, none of which spoke intelligible English.

First call: I was repeatedly asked what my phone number was by someone who couldn't seem understand English either since she couldn't understand that I had no phone number since I couldn't complete activation. She hung up on me. Second call: I repeatedly had to explain that the SIM card was installed but didn't work no matter how many times I tried. I had wasted 1/2 hour on the phone and had to go to a meeting. While I was gone, another tech looked at my phone and noticed a broken pin on the SIM connector so it would never work.

Third call: the person I talked to was very difficult to understand and kept insisting that I needed to install my SIM card. He also wanted to know if I had purchased the warranty for the phone, which was not offered and said they couldn't help since I didn't have a warranty. I asked to talk to a supervisor. I couldn't understand either. She insisted that I go, yet again, and repeatedly, through charging and removing and installing the SIM. Finally, she said they would send another phone in 3 to 5 business days. I bought this because I needed a portable phone when I went out of town tomorrow. Never get a TracFone unless you don't need itand then why bother? I have paid for a phone I can't use. I will either buy a second phone or go without one.

I bought a TracFone last month and the reception is so bad that nobody can hear me on the other end. I have spent most of my minutes repeating myself when I use the phone. I phoned "customer service" which is a total joke. None of the people can speak English and I was transferred all over the place. They told me to return the phone to the store where I bought it and the minutes were not refundable! They need to be reported to the FTC, BBB, and sued! I intend on filing complaints with the appropriate state and federal agencies.

The advertised price is not the price. Nowhere did I see that there is a $4.99 "processing charge," thus the consumer should add $5.00 to the price of the phone. This unwelcome surprise does not come until the end of the time-consuming process. Also they tried to charge for shipping when the first thing you see on the TracFone website is that shipping is free for orders over $20.00. I almost cancelled the order but had invested so much time on the phone that I told them to go ahead with the order. The phone tech was good enough but the accent sometimes left me wondering.

I have used Tracfone for approximately three years. Over that time I've had issues with buying airtime cards and not seeing the minutes show up, having to call customer service and spend upwards of an hour or more and go through an overly complicated process of adding codes to the phone in order for it to process the airtime and work. I've not had this issue for more than a year.

Approximately three months ago, I purchased an airtime card for 120 minutes at a cost of $30--expensive for minutes, but I have a program on my phone that doubles those minutes, so I wound up with 240 minutes. I rarely use more than 30-60 minutes a month, if that and never had issues with "service dates" running out. Yesterday I received a notice from Tracfone that I was due to run out of service days (only 10 days left) and I would lose service on my phone, including my paid-for-minutes, if I did not purchase another airtime card.

As I still have plenty of minutes left that I've not used, I don't want to spend another $20 or so to purchase minutes I don't need right now. I wrote to Tracfone and explained this--that if they can't extend "service days" while I still have paid minutes on the phone, I want a refund for the minutes remaining (over 100) and I'll switch to another service. If, on the other hand, they can extend the service days, I'd keep with their program. Please note: I do not text. The only ones I receive are from them (and I have to pay to read them!) and I've long had trouble using the voice mail feature and I'm rarely left messages.

This is the response I received. Sorry, I got a headache reading it: "Please be informed that our airtime cards provide both minutes and service days. Your phone will be using the minutes to make and receive calls, and also to make and receive text messages. Your phone will also use minutes every time you use its voicemail feature. The service days, on the other hand, keeps the phone active. If you ran out of service days without redeeming airtime, your phone will be deactivated and you will lose your phone number. Even if there are minutes on your phone, your phone will still be deactivated if your phone will ran out of service days. Similarly, even if your phone is still active, you will not be able to make and receive calls if you ran out of minutes.

"We are sorry to inform you that we can not extend your service days without you purchasing an airtime card. Moreover, any unused minutes are non-refundable. For additional information regarding TracFone terms and conditions, please visit our website at www.tracfone.com. If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact one of our customer care representatives at 1-888-251-8164. For your convenience, our representatives are available Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 10:45 PM EST."

Customer service is something Tracfone does not have the first clue about. It took over an hour to move minutes from my lost phone to my replacement phone and while now I can make calls out, I still can't receive calls and no one to talk to. What a joke they are.

I'm almost certain this is a waste of time, but I have had a few TracFones in the past with little problems, but now I had reactivated a phone I had used before ( not broken, in good condition ).The phone would not work, but would eat up my units when I tried to use it, and I was always on roam while at home. I reported this problem a few times online (could never actually speak to a real person).

I was given several apologies, but not reimbursed for my units that I paid for and were wasted and told after each report that the issue would be resolved. The problem was never resolved even after I was told it was fixed several times. So, now I have trashed that phone thinking it might have been the phone. I now have a new Safelink Tracfone. It is still on roam while I sit in my house. I don't want anymore apologies. I want my phone to work.

For over a month, I have tried and tried to resolve issues with these idiots. I can't access my voice mail and the instructions are **! The customer service is located in the Philippines and all are idiots, none have a clue. You have to have 2 phones to set your voice mail up! They keep saying, "We will fix it," but they don't do anything. Don't buy a TracFone as they are liars and are committing fraud as we speak. Here is what I had to say to them to get a response from management, which still was worthless!

Luis, you may want to research this: According to United States Code Title 18 > Part I > Chapter 47 > 1038 Prev | Next 1038. False information and hoaxes. How current is this? (a) Criminal Violation. In general, whoever engages in any conduct with intent to convey false or misleading information under circumstances where such information may reasonably be believed and where such information indicates that an activity has taken, is taking, or will take place that would constitute a violation of chapter 2, 10, 11B, 39, 40, 44, 111, will be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

Title 15 > Chapter 2 > Sub Chapter I > 53 Prev | Next 53. False advertisements; injunctions and restraining orders How Current is This? (a) Power of Commission; jurisdiction of courts. Whenever the Commission has reason to believe (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is engaged in or is about to engage in, the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of any advertisement in violation of section 52 of this title and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission under section 45 of this title, and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review or the order of the Commission to cease and desist made thereon has become final within the meaning of section 45 of this title, would be to the interest of the public, the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States or in the United States court of any territory to enjoin the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of such advertisement,

Upon proper showing a temporary injunction or restraining order shall be granted without bond. Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found.

(b) Temporary restraining orders; preliminary injunctions. Whenever the Commission has reason to believe (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is violating, or is about to violate, any provision of law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review, or until the order of the Commission made thereon has become final, would be in the interest of the public the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States to enjoin any such act or practice.

Upon a proper showing that, weighing the equities and considering the Commissions likelihood of ultimate success, such action would be in the public interest, and after notice to the defendant, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction may be granted without bond: Provided, however, That if a complaint is not filed within such period (not exceeding 20 days) as may be specified by the court after issuance of the temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, the order or injunction shall be dissolved by the court and be of no further force and effect; provided further, that in proper cases the Commission may seek, and after proper proof, the court may issue, a permanent injunction.

Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business, or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found.

(c) Service of process; proof of service. Any process of the Commission under this section may be served by any person duly authorized by the Commission (1) by delivering a copy of such process to the person to be served, to a member of the partnership to be served, or to the president, secretary, or other executive officer or a director of the corporation to be served; (2) by leaving a copy of such process at the residence or the principal office or place of business of such person, partnership, or corporation; or (3) by mailing a copy of such process by registered mail or certified mail addressed to such person, partnership, or corporation at his, or her, or its residence, principal office, or principal place or business. The verified return by the person serving such process setting forth the manner of such service shall be proof of the same.

(d) Exception of periodical publications. Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the court in the case of a newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication, published at regular intervals (1) that restraining the dissemination of a false advertisement in any particular issue of such publication would delay the delivery of such issue after the regular time therefore, and (2) that such delay would be due to the method by which the manufacture and distribution of such publication is customarily conducted by the publisher in accordance with sound business practice, and not to any method or device adopted for the evasion of this section or to prevent or delay the issuance of an injunction or restraining order with respect to such false advertisement or any other advertisement.

It goes on and on and on, much like my attempts to fully utilize the services advertised by your company! It still does not work! I missed 2 important messages this morning and can't access them either! Your employees are poorly trained. I have heard the following from each, my password is, my entire phone number is the default password, the last 6 digits of my phone number is the password, the last 4 digits is my password, press the 1 key to set up my password. I have heard that 6 times. It's all **! As without a password, you can't gain access! I tried over and over and it never worked. In my attempts to access my hotmail on the phone, it wont work either.

Do you require employees to be trained? Do you use individuals outside the USA to save money or generate lawsuits against TracFone? I see you are in Miami. Do I send the subpoena to you to appear in court? It's a long flight from Florida to Seattle, and then a nice drive to the court house. For the cost of all that, I suggest you simply send me another matching phone with free service as I have wasted over 400 minutes talking to those idiots in the Philippines who obviously have no correct training and refused to connect me to any manager.

As a consumer who read your advertising on the internet and at Walmart for your services and read the advertising on the box that the phone is shipped in, it was my belief that I had access to voice mail when in fact, without having 2 phones, I cannot access any voice mail.That is fraud. I have no intention of wasting any more minutes on my monthly service, trying to resolve this. I have several options to fully resolve this to my satisfaction: 1.) Create a video showing my attempts to gain access to my voice mail and post it on YouTube for the entire world to view and decide on not buying your phones or falling for your false advertising. My last video on that service got thousands of hits. 2.) Just calling my friends at KING5 Investigates our local news in Seattle and let Jessie expose you on CBS news so all consumers can avoid being ripped off by Tracfone and StraightTalk 3.) Allow you to communicate to me and see if it is actually possible without me buying another phone or finding a payphone and racking up another $20 in fees to gain access or flagging down some fool on the highway to see if they are willing to allow a long distance call to the Philippines to try to resolve this.

Personally, I would never help anyone whom I don't know this way as there are so many frauds out there trying to pull a scam on you, like TracFone, StraightTalk, etc. Therefore, I demand replacement of all costs associated with the utilization of this cellphone and/or costs associated with the purchase of a similar phone with another carrier that works in my area and full reimbursement of all monthly fees at treble the damages of my expenses to communicate with your company and loss of time in minutes, internet, etc. as a majority has been spent trying to set up this service. It's entirely possible that I picked up a defective unit simply by chance still since it's impossible to set up voice mail without a second phone. Your still guilty of consumer and wire fraud.

Who wants to be held responsible? Just supply me with that person's name and business license information, so I can ask the Department of Licensing in Washington State to suspend or revoke permissions to advertise, display, promote, or sell all TracFones or StraightTalk services in our state. May I suggest you forward this to the CEO of your company to resolve it as you did not even bother calling me? It shows you could care less. You'd rather have consumers file suit than provide customer services. Better yet, I think I'll do some research and find the corporate officers and forward this to them and post this up at Boeing's main building (largest by volume in the world) in Everett so all the 26,000 employees who pass the complaint board each day can avoid this mistake I made by choosing your product and ** services!

It looks like I can communicate directly with Mr. F. J. Pollak, Chief Executive Officer and President, Mr. Kevin **, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Mr. Steve**, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Do you suppose they will be upset to learn that your employees caused all this or that you took no effort to resolve it?

Have used TracFone for many years without problem. Purchased a new phone and was unable to activate online or by telephone. Telephone call noted that due to high volume of calls they were unable to activate phone at this time. I was told to use the Web-site. Tried at least eight times before I gave up. E-mails to the above were unable to be completed. I've had a phone for four days that I'm unable to use. This is unacceptable and must be addressed!

This is only allowing me to complain about Activation Problems, but there is so much more to this story! The bottom line is, "Buyer Beware! " Straight Talk owns TracFone so what you get for one, you also get for both. If you are looking for a way to spend $200.00 for a phone that turns out to be a total piece of junk, weeks of lost time without service while waiting for your piece of junk to be replaced by yet another piece of junk. Absolutely no customer service representation or straying from the "script" they are trained to follow, then you have found your dream service provider.

This has to be the worst company I personally have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Once my brand new Nokia was in use past there precious 45 day deadline, there was no going back to a new replacement. I had this phone less than a year, and by the Third replacement and months of begging for what I felt I should receive, which was a new phone, given it should have been under a one year warranty from Nokia, I gave up and had to go back to Verizon. This given the fact that the phone's electronics went awry within 45 days out of the box. Do Not, and I cannot emphasize the word. Not enough here, sign up with either company, or you are asking for one of the most frustrating experiences of your life.

They are a "Scripted" customer service department based out of the Philippines, and will not budge from their trained response of ship and replace with refurbished phones. Do yourself a favor and run far and fast before considering this company. Yes, you may be one of the "lucky One's" and everything will run as smooth as glass, but what if it turns out you aren't, are you willing to take the chance. Food for thought. This is a Hit-and- Run company!

Poor service. Last time, I purchased an airtime. They called me back to thank me three times at $1 a piece. Then, I get multiple numbers on my missed call list. I don't know who they are so when I press view, it charges me $0.50 per number to see. Then, if I call the number to find out who it is, a phone solicitor charges me for that too. It seems that it takes several pushes of the button to end calls--it takes 3 to 10 seconds each time. It adds up. Then, to complain or try and fix a problem on 611, they charge by the minute. They nickle and dime you to death, and I wouldn't be surprised if they sell my number to solicitors.

I have a replacement Straight Talk phone and the screen just went white. When I called the customer service, they said that I can send the phone back. They will send the replacement once they receive the broken one. After a week, I got the replacement an it had a SIM card. I called to get phone on. To make a long story short, I can't use my SIM card in the replacement phone. All the information I had is now lost! Straight Talk just said, "We don't have a way to transfer your information." Now, all of my information is lost and I have no way to retrieve them--no phone number, no pictures. I am sending the phone back because it is of no use to me. This is a rip-off service/business. Someone needs to file a class action complaint because I am sure that I am not the only person this have happened to. This is the kicker--I have the phone number on my resume because I am out of work. This all I need. No phone, no information, no job.

I got a new Tracfone (same style, the old one died) and had number and minutes transferred over. I asked 'Joan' if the double minutes for life would be transferred and she said yes. I also recorded the conversation as well. The next day, I bought extra minutes and no double minutes. I called Tracfone, was on call for 37 minutes, the CSR's reason for the wait was her "program was not coming up, please give me one more minute". That was continuous until the call was dropped. I called back and I was on the phone with "Jason", it has been 23 minutes with him. The reason: I am looking for your pin on your phone for the double minute life. I asked him to just look on the computer and the info will be right there. He said, "Oh no ma'am, I have to go through each transaction to find the pin". Like ** he does. I am a Network Admin, give me a break!

Now, he transferred me to a different department because "they will be able to deal better with your issue". What!? What has he been doing for 27 minutes? Thank God I was on Gmail phone and it's free! Now, the other department was busy. They will talk to me in 10 minutes. **! Now, he said I have to call back in 2 hours because the supervisor's phones and systems were down. Then he said that they were updating. Dude, you can't update if you're down! Which is it? 41 minutes and still on hold! The supervisor got on the phone after 44 minutes! After 1 hour and 50 minutes, I finally got the double minutes. Talk about inadequate! Tracfone should be ashamed of themselves for sucking up the money and not caring one bit about the people who are making them richer!

I tried to transfer one number to a cell phone. They advertise that they can do this without problems. Wrong! I had to get a new cell number first - of course this starts your service date. Then I tried to transfer the number - "No problem." Wrong! The new cell number disconnected immediately. The home number rings busy, and I cannot call out either. The cell could call out with the transferred number, but no one can call in. I called customer service and had the new SIM card mailed - called back 24 hours, and 24 hours later, it was air-mailed. Called back in two days. Finally, seven days later, there's an email at 12:03 AM from AT&T which said that the number has been ported in and that it was good to go. Wrong! It worked until 8:30 AM that morning. Everything was fine, then I tried to email and it said, "Unregistered SIM." Their customer service is useless - all she kept saying was "however" every two words. Seven days then, now another seven days, and then 30 days.

I've been sitting without phone service at home or my cell phone. There's a new phone system at home to tie in with cell Bluetooth, but it needs a working cell. Five phone calls later, and no one will tell me where the SIM card is, when it was or if it was actually shipped. I was told to track the shipment! With what? Give me a tracking number and I will track it! I was telling my whole family to switch to TracFone with the new home phone system (which is positively great) only if you have a working cell phone. I have told them all to stay with whatever carrier they have and just buy the home phone system. I cannot see another carrier being this terrible.

By all means, do not buy a TracFone! Unfortunately, I bought three of them. First thing I noticed is that the owner's manual is useless. Second, although the point-of-sale literature clearly stated that the per-minute cost was .10 (and therefore .05 with the double minutes for life feature), I have never seen a minutes card that costs less than .067 per minute, even after all possible bonuses have been applied. Third, I noticed that I was charged minutes even to set up voice mail, the contact list, and speed dialing, even though the actions didn't involve making a call.

Fourth, on an occasion when I did call customer service (thankfully, I had the presence of mind to use my landline), it took 15 minutes for the nice young Filipina lady to guide me through a procedure (the wrong way twice, then finally the right way after a suggestion from me). Then, it took her 35 minutes to guide me incorrectly through procedures to get a distinctive ring for certain calls, until she authoritatively announced that distinctive ring was not available. Then, I spent 1 hour 10 minutes with the involvement of two supervisory levels to buy a 1,500 minute/1 year card with 200 bonus minutes.

I also requested a phone number for corporate offices, **, wherein I spoke with a young man with a thick accent of indeterminate origin, who insisted that he was in Miramar, FL, and his supervisor who spoke a little more English. Her final offer was 50 extra minutes for my trouble, and I thought Verizon was ** up! ABT = Anything But TracFone.

I am beyond frustrated and just down right pissed! I have spent 14 hours total in three days to get absolutely nowhere. It's a simple request. I purchased a new TracFone and want to transfer my number and over 1,000 minutes from my old TracFone to the new one, only to have them say "I'm sorry, that appears to be a Straight Talk serial number." Okay, just how stupid do they think I am? I know enough not to buy a different carrier's phone (actually, TracFone owns Straight Talk). But this is a TracFone!

It has the TracFone logo on the outside of the phone and when you turn it on, it displays the TracFone logo on screen. According to them, I'm wrong. They keep repeating "that serial number is a Straight Talk phone." Then why doesn't Straight Talk logos appear anywhere? And since they own both companies, you would think there's something they could do about it. So, now, I'm out the $59.99 I paid, and stuck with a useless new phone. I can't even sell it. What would I say? A "bi-TracFone" for sale with a Straight Talk serial number? It's obviously a factory default or it's been refurbished--either way, it's their fault! Even if the phone would work with Straight Talk, I don't want a monthly bill!

I bought Double Minutes Card which cannot be used on my phone. I was going to give it to a friend to use, but the pin is not a registered number according to a TracFone rep. The store I bought the card from said this has happened several times recently! I have called TracFone as well as the manager, and I was told to fax everything. I have not heard a word by phone or email.

It sounds like there may have been a problem when printing some cards, but TracFone would never admit that! The rep at TracFone said the card was not scanned properly at store!

We have ordered phones from TracFone and have purchased them in a store. They never work! After spending hours on the phone with them, reviewing address, phone number, SIM number, serial number (which can never be repeated correctly) we will finally get another phone mailed to us. Good luck if that one works. Something that should be so simple as setting up a phone takes many hours, many phone calls to people you cannot understand and give you loads of frustration.

I paid for a $20 minute card, which I purchased at a 7 Eleven store. When I scratched off the strip on the back of the card to reveal the numbers, to add minutes to my phone, the numbers themselves scratched off and became unreadable. I spoke with TracFone and was instructed to fax the receipt from 7 Eleven and the card to them, which I did. They never gave me my minutes and said I had to fax it again. I spent over an hour total on the phone with them and still haven't received my minutes, which I purchased almost 2 weeks ago.

Bought airtime minutes for one month. I was unable to activate phone and therefore got no service time from Tracfone. Many efforts were made to activate the service through service calls, inserting a special code, and including a phone call to a representative, who insisted that the phone service was active although I told her it was not.

I had a very poor experience. I cannot get my voice mail to work. I had been on the phone for two days and I keep getting put on hold or hung up on. One technician that I spoke with kept asking me if I "activated my phone 15 minutes ago." I kept saying, "No, I activated it last week." After the fifth time of him asking, I hung up. I told him to go to **. So far, with all the testing, I have lost 30 minutes on the cell phone and hours on my home phone. I still don't have voice mail and I want my money back if this is the way they're going to be!

I have been on the phone for more than 4 hours at this time and still have not talked to anyone. I'm trying to activate my new phone and transfer the number from my old phone. Something is very wrong here. It makes me wonder if they are on the phone with there friends and ignoring the customer. Maybe they do this to try and run people's minutes out on their TracFone so they will have to buy more. No matter what, there is no way that they can be that busy. Apparently, the upper management does not care much about customer satisfaction. If they did, they would not let this continue.

I purchased a new phone last week. I am not happy with it so I want my number and service switched back to my old TracFone. After spending 2 hours of talking, they tell me I needed a new SIM card, even though I'd been using the old phone up until 3-4 days ago. When I got the new phone, they also had to send me a new SIM card and that was after 3 hours on the phone on one day and over an hour on 2 other days.

When giving my phone number and shipping information that time, they told me the number was wrong and the address was wrong. Was I sure of that? Hello? I know my number and where I live. The new phone came here so, yes! It took over a half hour just for that alone. I explained that I have a new SIM card that had to be put into the phone that I want to use, and they still told me I have to provide shipping information and they'll send me a new SIM card. Again, it seems that they don't listen or don't understand and it's always a big run around when you need their customer service. I'm steaming mad and frustrated.

TracFone does not have international service to Mexico nor can you send a text message to Mexico. I'm a longtime customer, upgraded my phone and I am told that I have international service. I followed the directions without luck, registered online for international service and got the message that it would be activated within 48 hours. It wasn't, I called TracFone and they said I had to follow directions exactly. I did and the response is the same recording "we cannot process your call".

I purchased upgraded phone to my older TracFone and ever since, every week I have to call TracFone to reactivate my new phone because the phone keeps deactivating and I am unable to make or receive calls. Every call to TracFone lasts over an hour, the last one for almost two hours. This results in phone back in working condition, but I am unable to add any minutes to it. Currently, I have 18 minutes left on the phone and TracFone site will not accept my number to add minutes onto my phone. I submitted complaint to TracFone customer service and so far, no response.

I purchased phones on their website on 8/24. They were mailed through FedEx to us. I received the phones on 8/30. On the same day, I tried to port numbers from AT&T. Wrong SIM cards were sent in the phones (they were for TMobile not AT&T). I spent many hours on the phone, trying to get the issue fixed. I was told that we needed new SIM cards programmed with our ported numbers. The new SIM cards arrived, wrong numbers on SIM cards, and the phones still did not work. These were the only phones we had by the way.

Straight Talk makes people jump through hoops and you get nowhere with their customer service agents who put you on hold a million times so they can "get help from other departments to resolve this issue". They barely speak English. They are not rude, but they're not helpful. One hand does not know what the other is doing. I was told again that I would have to get new SIM cards. I took my service and my numbers back to AT&T. Now, I want to return the phones and ST's web site has no return information. I went to Walmart because they are ST's retailer. The girl who helped me at Walmart was amazing! She stayed on the phone like a pitbull to get the proper information for me. Their return process is horrible and I am going to begin that now and see where it gets me.

So, the return address for Straight Talk phones is: Straight Talk Return Center, Bright Point Reverse Logistics, 1251 South Perry Rd, Plainfield, IN 46168. You have to pay for your FedEx or UPS back to them. Get your tracking number and call ST back with that number. First, you have to call them and get what's called a return authorization number and that has to be on the address label to them.

I simply tried today to switch my old TracFone number to my new TracFone. What a joke. Five hours on the phone with a bunch of people who don't speak English. If I hear "Thank you, ma'am" or "Thank you for waiting patiently, ma'am" one more time, I'm going to choke someone.

I can't tell you how many times I had to recite serial numbers. I was told the number would be switched in one hour, one day, two days, one to two days, one to three days, and three to five days. At this time, neither phone works. They deactivated my old phone then they told me I had to add minutes to my old phone and reactivate it in order to switch the number.

My old phone has a SIM card, the new phone does not. It appears they are incapable of working with that. I doubt they will be able to complete the transfer. I guess I'll just have to wait one hour to five days to find out.

It's the second time I have had to deal with this company; the results were unsatisfactory. This call was to activate my voicemail. On August 15th, I have one phone call which lasted for 50 minutes. I was told after four hours that my account would be activated and that they would refund maximum of 30 minutes wasted on the call. The following afternoon, there was still no voicemail or refunded minutes. Today, another call lasting 45 minutes with two supervisors resulted in no voicemail and no refund of lost minutes.

I have never dealt with such poor customer service and I wish I had never spent the money for the phone or the card minutes. This is a total ripoff and I am investigating further ramifications with another source.

I have lost minutes from the phone and all the time spent waiting for customer service to try to resource how to help with the problem. I have lost messages from family because of the lack of voicemail messaging I purposely purchased the phone for.

I bought TracFone LG220C and a card for 400 minutes yesterday. I have tried and tried to activate it online and by phone but it won't activate. How do you even get a phone number to talk to someone about it? I'm so tired of getting ripped off.

Bought a tracfone in June. 1 July transferred current phone # Tracfone. Tracphone would not work. Talked to customer support (800-867-7183) was sent new sim card-phone worked but didnot have trasferred phone number. Have talked to many representatives, have been sent 5 sim cards-last one was Friday (22 July) now have no phone number,cannot use phone. Tracphone tech support representatives are in Guatamala, Belieze and Hondrous, their supervisors are in the Phillipines. They work from a check list and donot, cannot, handle a problem that is not on the checklist-not their problem but the company has not trained them at that level. Tracfone is a subsidary of AMERICA MOVIL- A MEXICAN OWNED COMPANY. Maybe americans should buy american.

I lost my original TracFone. I purchased this with the intent of keeping my original phone number. Six days and four hours later, I have a new phone number (no service for the whole week), and I was "rewarded" with extra twenty minutes calling time. I have spoken to Mexico, Philippines, and Goiania, and when asked to speak to someone in the US, I was told that I could not be guaranteed without losing the call. Each call entailed waiting for the research of the serial number, SIM number and phone numbers, and only to have the response on the phone that "the phone has been discharged." One of the calls tonight was from a supervisor with an attitude that I called her out on. She apologized only to tell me that, in one hour, I will have service. One hour later, and a call to another manager got me the new phone number and I lost four hours of my time. "Thank you sir and it has been a pleasure to speak with you." Arrr!

I purchased a $124.88 ,one-year double-minutes (includes 800 minutes) card at 08:07:49 pm on June 30, 2011 at my local Wal-Mart store. (That's what the receipt says.) I got home and tried to add my service. I received a text telling me I had entered an invalid PIN number. So I tried again. Same response.

I dialed the 1-800 number for assistance. I got to hear a lot of elevator music (same song actually ) and listened to a woman's voice repeating, "Your call is very important. Please stay on the line...blah blah blah...www.tracfone.com for faster service."

So, I headed to the computer and thought, I will try for the faster service while still holding the phone to my ear. Good thing I can multitask. So I entered all necessary info and hit submit. What? Invalid PIN? Try again. What? Invalid promo code.

I tried to contact someone from customer service via email. Mind you, my neck is now hurting because I am still on the phone listening to how important my call is, and typing at the same time. I sent my concerns and received an email that told me that someone will get back to me in 24-48 hours. OK, I am now taking deep breaths and counting to three, holding for three and breathing out for three.

Thirty minutes later, I spoke to a gentleman on the phone, who I had a difficult time understanding. I was so excited because I just knew he would be able to help me since my service ends tomorrow. I was told to go to the Prepaid Menu, Code Entry Mode and was told to enter *#0. Very happily I complied. He asked me what I saw. I told him, "Parameter 00 and then a 6 in the middle of the screen." He said OK. Go to the Prepaid Menu and check your minutes. Very excitedly I did. Hmmmm... still have the same 87 minutes. He has me repeat the above steps with no success. Tells me to turn off the phone and then turn back on. I did. Nothing happened. He told me that he will have to transfer me to someone else who can help.

So I waited and waited and waited. Finally, after one-and-a-half hours, I hung up and called back. I then got a message that customer service is closed and to please call back during business hours. I then sent another email to customer service letting them know my concerns.

i purchase a tracfone,i connected service for activation to turn phone on,it cost me only $9.99 plus tax. at a seven eleven store with 20 free minutes,i was happy with that. until i can purchase more minutes or by using my coupons codes promotion. the problem with my tracfone is, that when activation was service to my tracfone the twenty minutes were added."now the real problem is that it stole minutes when incoming call's from real people were made to my tracfone it stole my minutes,that's not all, now its really upsetting that I'm receiving text messages to my tracfone Its stole minutes when incoming calls and text messages where sent and receive to my tracfone .

the calls and text messages are real people why cause when i first notice the first call I answered my phone i said hello they response looking for someone,I Said wrong number, that's when i knew not to accept incoming calls" "cause its deducting the minutes and either way some how pressing any button on the tracfone not necessarily pressing the accept button,it took units or minutes cause i notice it.doing the same thing with the incoming text messages" " if you view them or not it will take away units or minutes."

so like i said i had only twenty minutes starting on my phone free after the activation ok,my tracfone number was only given to my son only him and I myself. I realize when this was happening like i said again from 20.00min. It took 3 units so now it look like 19.80 then 18.70 so thats how it stole unit and minutes away from me being able to use them myself,i was not so happy with that.i notice after the first couple times when incoming calls or the incoming text messages that my TracFone was receiving and all the stolen minutes i watch out for those and i started to exit or pressing the end button so i wont loose any more minutes. My TracFone number is **.i hope this is understandable. than you

While trying to Switch Airtime, Service Tine, and Transfer Phone Number from One Tracfone to another Tracfone... First they said the Phone was listed under a diferent Phone Number and NOW they're saying I have to get a WHOLE NEW Sim Card in order to do the Whole Transfer!!! You can't get someone who can speak clear English, Which makes the WHOLE Process MORE Difficulf!!!!

I purchased a TracFone last week and made several calls to activate and add minutes. I had to keep calling back as I kept getting recordings and needed to talk to someone to resolve problems. Finally, by the grace of God, I did get a person after explaining all the hassle I went through. I was able to register ph, min cards and dbl min card--the very nice lady informed me that for my inconvenience, she would issue me 180 minutes. As of this date, I have not received them and cannot get anything but recordings. I do not know her name; she had a Spanish accent. I just want to know if this is just a fluke or if I will be able to get the courtesy minutes.

After being a TracFone customer for over 5 years, my husband's TracFone had a message that says unregistered SIM. I tried to reactivate his phone on the website. After not being able to, TracFone stated that they would send me a new SIM. I received it 3 days later and installed it and went back on the website to reactivate the phone. This was a double minute phone and I had just added time the day before all this happened. I had to purchase more airtime to activate the new SIM and then found out that I had lost my phone number, the minutes I had on the phone, and the service date which was up to 2018! The airtime I was forced to purchase on activation did not double when added to the phone. Needless to say, to find out that the number was given to someone else after only 3 days was enough for me to decide to find another service!

When I purchased additional airtime for my Tracfone on which the service time has expired the previous day, I was never told that the number would be changed. Since I depend upon the phone for business, a new number was useless. Because of this, I lost one day of business since I did not know the number had changed.

My 16-year old daughter purchased online a phone with a plan on March 15, 2010 for $40 which includes a $30 service card. We received the phone on March 22, 2010. We spent 3 hours bouncing from one representative to another representative over the course of 48 hours who repeatedly telling us to call back each time. No one could get the phone activated. Finally, a representative ordered a new SIM card. We received the new SIM card on March 28, 2010 and spent another hour with a representative on the phone. This one could not answer the questions. The representative could not provide us the credit due for one week without service after the service card was activated and told us to call back again.

The representative attached an out-of-state phone number to the phone from another customer who is still using that number. The other customer called to ask how and when they will receive the number. He was in the midst of using his phone when it was disconnected. We received foul language texts, calls and notifications from other customers' contacts over the next five days. We sent an email to complain to the company which the email response told us to call back. Five days later, the phone doesn't work again. We spent over two hours with another representative on April 3, 2010. We then requested, afterwards we demanded the refund for failure to supply the service. They denied majority of the refund yet they failed to activate the phone again. We already filed a dispute with the Credit Card/Bank regarding charges. We received a welcome email from Straight Talk/Tracphone on Monday, the 4th. The phone still does not work.

I originally purchased a TracFOne in 2007. I have had issues with them over the last couple of years on deactivating my service for no apparent reason. Up until March 2001, I have been able to work through those problems--eventually. That is after endless hours of discussing/arguing with multiple representatives over the phone. However, they deactivated my phone once again on March 2011. I have again spent endless hours, extended over a two-week period with multiple representatives on the phone in an attempt to get my service restored.

On March 7th 2011, I was told that it showed in their system that the phone was permanently deactivated at the request of the customer. After several more hours of relentless stress, I was finally able to make a representative understand that I am the customer and I never requested from my phone to be deactivated. However, they insisted that due to the way the phone was deactivated in their system, it was permanent and they could not re-activate. I was told that I would need to obtain another TracFone and they could transfer my unused airtime. When I called back with the information for the other TracFone, I was told that I had to purchase an airtime card for them to activate this phone and then they could transfer my unused airtime from my old phone.

After purchasing the airtime card, I called them back and was able to get the new phone activated. However, they completely refuse to transfer my unused airtime from my original phone. I have spent an exorbitant amount of time being transferred from one representative to another, and one department to another. I have done everything they requested and they are breaching their agreement. This is totally wrong! I should not be having this experience.

I purchased a TracFone and kept it active for nearly four years except for when the service was interrupted due to a problem in their system. Now, I am out even more money for another phone, additional airtime card that I shouldn't have needed to purchase in the first place as I am entitled to my airtime from my original phone!

As of March 14th 2011, I was informed that they will not give me any credit from my original phone/account and when I requested to speak to their Legal Department to file a formal complaint and request arbitration, I was told by Floor Supervisor Vanessa, ID number **, that the Loss Prevention Department said I am not permitted to file a complaint nor request arbitration! How can they over-ride my legal rights? My original phone still shows 7591.5 of airtime with an expiration date of March 12th 2013. I have gotten one runaround after another with this company.

I have had to spend more money out-of-pocket in an attempt to meet their additional requests. I spent an exorbitant, endless amount of time only to continue to get a runaround. I experienced extreme emotional distress, all because they don't live up to their responsibilities!

I ordered a new phone and received it the next day. I tried to activate it, was on the phone for exactly 1 1/2 hours only to find out that they sent a wrong SIM card, they said they needed to send out a new SIM card. I had to call back because I have a SafeLink phone and they cut that off in the process, again another 1 1/2 hours exactly on the phone with them.

They threatened to take my minutes from me after fighting with them. They put the minutes on the SafeLink phone but now it's roaming. Day two on the phone from 1:30 to 10:30 trying to get everything correct. Yesterday they said they would send new SIM again with my old number and to call back today and they would give me the status. I am calling now and she keeps putting me on hold to update status. I just want my money back for the phone and my minutes at this point because they are giving me the runaround on this phone. The SafeLink phone is still in roaming minutes so it's taking all my minutes. I have a special needs son and need that SafeLink phone active and working.

I have had a Tracfone for while and wanted to get a different one. I purchased one at Wal-Mart, went to activate it, change my number and transfer my 98 minutes to the new phone. I got some person in Belize that tried to do this but when after a hour, it was stuck on roaming and I couldn't call long distance without having to use a credit card to make calls. This is why I have a Tracfone to call long distance. No one could help as I called again and spent a hour to get the roaming turned off. It didn't work. I went and bought a different phone and a phone card. I lost my 88 min. doing this. I used 10 minutes messing around.

My main complaint is, why do you outsource? My new phone is working fine now but I wanted you to know I was upset.

I recently purchased a 120 minute card for my TracFone. When I tried to activate it, it said the number was invalid. I called customer service for help. That was a joke! First, I talked with someone whom I could barely understand. Then, I had to give the serial number. Then, the PIN number. She told me it was invalid and then began asking for numbers under the barcode. I gave her the numbers and was told I had a 750 minute Net 10 card. She asked me if I was sure I had a Tracfone card. I practically read the whole card to her.

We went through number after number with no avail. She still tried to tell me I had a Net 10 card even though I had read everything to her from the Tracfone card. She finally told me to go to the store where I purchased the card and have them call TracFone. I called the store and was told they had nothing to do with it and could not refund or give me another card. I felt like I was being called a thief! I called customer service again. I talked with Miguel this time. Again, gave all the numbers and received the same response. I have a Net 10 card.

I explained once again that I had a TracFone card not a Net 10. He asked if I would mind being put on hold for 2-3 minutes while he contacted another department. I had no problem with that. After a few minutes, he came back and said he was unable to reach that department and asked if I would wait another 2-3 minutes. I agreed. I never heard from him again! I have spent $30 and wasted more time than I care to count and have nothing to show for it. No refund, no minutes, no patience! Very poor business! Now I am afraid to purchase another card. I can't keep spending money with nothing to show. I think this is some kind of scam TracFone has come up with. I would not recommend this company to anyone!

I received a replacement phone for one lost, from Safe Link wireless. The first day, we tried to get the new phone activated. We spent nearly an hour on the phone with Safe Link. I could not continue the phone call anymore. Next day, I called Safe Link and spent another 2+ hours on the phone to get the new one activated again, got it activated this time.

Now, thanks to our government we have these free phones for I'm disabled. I was on the phone for 3+ hours to activate the new phone. They kept going over information several times and I had to repeat my information more than once, and being on hold for a good amount of time. I was talking to customer rep Joy, that was located in the Philippines,

Our government is paying for this service, and I feel that someone is taking advantage of our government kindness and billing. Lots of hours that should not be. Why are not these jobs in good ol' USA?

I purchased a new phone and ported my number for Tracfrone to Straight Talk. After 12 hours, my old phone had already quit working and the Straight talk phone was not working as well. I called customer service and spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with them on Monday. Most of that time I was on hold. They told me that my number was ported successfully and that my phone is active and I should be able to make and receive calls. My phone is not active. It still says, "activation required" on the screen. I have multiple text messages and multiple voice mails, and I cannot check them to see who they are from. When I try to do so it says activation is required.

The only thing I can do on the phone is add contacts. Anything else I try to do I get the activation required message. Straight talk customer service told me to wait 24 hours for activation. On Tuesday, I contacted them through their Facebook page on their discussion board. After about 3 hours of corresponding with them on Facebook, they asked me for a landline number and called me. I was on the phone with them about 1 1/2 hours when they called me. Once again I spent most of the time on hold. They told me that my phone should be active and that their records showed that my phone was activated and programmed properly. However, my phone still shows activation required. They supposedly created a trouble ticket and told me to wait another 24 hours to see if it works and if it doesn't to call them back.

On Wednesday they called my landline. I was on the phone with them about an hour spending most of the time on hold. They told me that my phone should be active and told me to give them another 24 to 48 hours for activation. My phone is still not active. It still says activation required. On Wednesday evening I called the Executive Resolution Department and was on the phone about an hour and they still did not fix the issue. I also spent most of this time on hold. They said that they were going to refer it to a supervisor and told me to wait another 24 to 48 hours. I feel like I am getting the runaround from their customer service department and with no results. Their customer service doesn't speak English very well and is very hard to understand. You have to repeat things multiple times and also get them to repeat themselves multiple times.

Most of the time you spend on the phone with them you are on hold no matter what time of the day or evening you call. I paid $40 to get the phone and the airtime card was $45. I am still unable to use my new phone. At 2 a.m it will be 96 hours that I have been trying to get my phone activated with the response every time I call to wait 24 to 48 hours. I feel like they are not taking any steps to remedy the situation at all. I have not been able to use the phone at all and have lost my $85 that I paid for my phone and airtime.

About a month ago, I put in an order for a new sim card to change my home phone number to my cell. They said it would be mailed out to me at my home address on November 1 of this year. I received a note on my door that an attempt was made to deliver; but I have not been able to find it. My cell has been deactivated and I am without a phone. I am angry and since I can't use the phone, I want my cell phone minutes back in cash. I have over a thousand minutes on that phone, do I have redress?

I received my new Tracfone but there was no sim card. Therefore, I cannot activate my new phone.

Phone broke. Purchased new one. When I tried to activate it, they said sim card was defective waited a week while trying to transfer number and minutes. They said I had no minutes but i had 496.5 minutes and airtime till 2012. I got nothing but 4 hours on phone for naught.

Here is a recap of my correspondence with Tracfone for whatever interest it may have for the executives of the company and for the people who go to websites that complain about the service. I can no longer stand the stress that this company has caused me. I have blanked out with X's whatever personal information was involved. On or about 2:45 PM CST on September 16, 2010, I called Tracfone and spoke with Sharla. The call ended at 3:48. My current Tracfone plan was the Value Lifeline plan which I have had since March of 2008. The monthly renewal date was scheduled to be September 24, 2010 and there were 31 minutes left on the airtime. I wanted to keep the plan until September 24 and have it cancelled then but Sharla indicated that if she cancelled the plan it would be as of today, September 16 and that the minutes would remain on the inactive phone until I re-enrolled.

Since I had purchased another phone and wanted a new number, Sharla suggested that I transfer the minutes, 36 minutes, from the old phone to the new one and I agreed. She then went through the activation process where by I entered codes and the activation was completed. I also had a bonus code from the Tracfone savings book that added an additional 50 minutes if I purchased over 200 minutes. When she tried to enter the Purchase minutes' information for the $119.99 and 800 minutes for 365 days promotion, the system would not accept it. She told me that because of the double minutes, I would receive 1600 minutes to be used over 365 days plus the remaining 36 minutes and the bonus 50 minutes. The offer is good for the month of September. According to this, she told me that I would receive a confirmation within 72 hours of the entire procedure. My old cell phone now has 0 minutes. The old phone, IMEI **** with telephone number **** which is a Lifeline value plan will end on September 24, 2010 with 35.1 minutes remaining. The new phone which is a Samsung T105G with IMEI ****.

According to Sharla, I should receive 1600 minutes for the doubled 800 minutes, 50 minutes bonus and 36 minutes from the Nokia phone which would total 1686 minutes. I believe the intent was to have 886 minutes but she insisted that the 800 minutes would be doubled. I went through the credit approval sequence for about 3 or possibly 4 times, giving the same information over and over again when she received an error in the add minutes sequence'. She also had me use the phone to input a number of codes which apparently were successful. The bill to my credit account was to be $119.99 plus tax of about nine dollars bringing the total bill to just under $129. I agreed to the charges and she said the minutes would be added and the account will be charged within 72 hours. That's the status as of 4 PM on Thursday, September 16, 2010.

Before I got to talk with Sharla, I had been on hold for 1 hour and 30 minutes on my first call to Tracfone. I let the music play with the message repeating hundreds and hundreds of times. No one ever came to answer and the line did not disconnect. PPS 4:30, September 16, 2010, I checked new phone. It is activated but no new number. The old number **** is active on the new phone. The 36 minutes has not been transferred. The 50 minutes is shown as units remaining and the re-activation date is shown as 63 days from today or it will be on November 23, 2010. PPPS 9:00, September 17, 2010. The phone now shows a new telephone number.

The total minutes remaining are 50. I went online and the Value Lifeline Plan has been transferred to the new phone. I had requested that the plan be discontinued and was told that it had been cancelled and by buying the minutes and the 365 days of service, I would no longer need the monthly service charge. PPPPS 12:45 PM, September 19, 2010, so now, I've waited the 72 hours that Sharla said would be required to straighten out the problem. I went to the Tracfone website. The site shows the original phone as inactive and the new phone requiring verification by putting in the number I was given in the phone. The verification showed Failed' so at that point, I dialed the number on the new phone. It rang and a stranger answered. I then tried dialing my landline home phone. It rang. I have no idea what is going on.

So here I am, on Sunday, September 19, 2010, with a phone that does me no good at all and the website showing me that I am enrolled in the Lifeline Plan. Here is what I feel should resolve the situation. First, cancel the Lifeline Plan as of September 16, 2010 and if further charges are added, that they be removed. Second, add the missing 36 minutes to the new Samsung Phone. Third, complete the additional minutes that I ordered for $119.99 plus $9 tax. Since Sharla, the representative, insisted that the 800 minutes would be doubled, I trust that the company would honor this and give me the 1600 minutes that she promised. Fourth, begin the service date as of the date of first use of the phone. I have not used the phone for anything but trying to see if I could, awaiting resolution of this issue. This entire situation need not have happened.

All I wanted to do was to cancel the Lifeline Plan and activate the new phone with the 800-hour, $119.99 offer as a separate transaction. The entire problem arose when the Tracfone representative said that as soon as I canceled the Lifeline Plan to avoid continuous charges, I would no longer have access to the phone as of the date of cancellation. Since I never know what date the phone charges will be added and needed the phone, I was attempting to cancel as of the end of the month that I had paid for. It appears that there is no way to do this. It also appears that there is no way to credit the account for unused time. If this is true, this is a loophole that works to Tracfone's advantage. In simple terms, no matter how or when a customer decides to cancel, they will receive an extra month's charge. This strikes me as being wrong.

A review of my previous billing charges over the past three years will show that the service charges are not added on a specific schedule. Thus, there is no way to determine what date a customer has to cancel, in order to not to be billed. Will this nightmare continue? Will anyone ever answer me? Will this strange situation continue ad nauseum? What about of my own time and aggravation and escalation of the problem? Aha! PPPPPS 2:20 PM, September 19, 2010, as a final last try, I found a direct number for escalation service. I have been on the phone with what I assumed was a customer relations person who was going to help me. I have been on the phone with him, Jonax, with ID number **** for an hour and 25 minutes. He was nice but finally wore me out with verifying all of the details of what had happened after charging my credit account again for less service than what I had originally ordered.

And then finding out that the amount was wrong, he advised that he could not issue a credit but will then reorder the correct account number. I agreed at that point to take whatever he wanted to give me. It meant that I would lose the bonus extra 200 minutes from the bonus code and the 36 original minutes that I had lost from the first phone and the 10 free minutes that I was supposed to receive for signing up. On top of all that, the next thing I was supposed to do was to go back to the phone and enter hundreds and hundreds of numbers the way I had to in the first place when all the error codes came up. It was too much. I'm too old and obviously not smart enough to deal with Tracfone.

A total of five hours of frustration ending up with less than what I started within the first place, a company that I do not trust, that has private information on my credit card account. There was never a single, solitary word about any kind of minor compensation even maybe 10 extra minutes of free calls for the incredible inconvenience. The statement of account was updated the same day on September 19, 2010 at 2:42 PM. At 6:40 PM, same day, September 19, 2010I received a call from Tracfone in response to my email to them most of which was detailed above. The representative refused to answer any questions and spent 40 minutes interrupting me to explain' what had happened. As usual, it began with me having to answer the same questions that I had been asked over and over again even though the entire problem was laid out in my letter.

The representative Maria with ID number **** made it impossible to discuss the situation by explaining what had happened even though the problems were all occasioned by the inability of the previous representative to be able to do the simple initial request. In effect, I was being called a liar. When I repeatedly asked what would result if I continued to put in the number codes, I received the exact same canned comment. "Let me explain what happened" at which time she would try to say the mistake was mine. So now, back to the trenches, they're wearing me down. I finally had to say a pleasant goodbye. I can't imagine what the hours on the phone by the Tracfone representatives really cost the company.

Here is a recap of my correspondence with TracFone, for whatever interest it may have for the executives of the company, and for the people who go to websites that complain about the service. I can no longer stand the stress that this company has caused me. I have blanked out with X's whatever personal information was involved.

On or about 2:45 PM CST on 16 Sept 10, I called TracFone and spoke with Sharla. The call ended at 3:48. My current TracFone plan was the Value Lifeline plan, which I have had since March of 2008. The monthly renewal date was scheduled to be 24 Sept 10 and there were 31 minutes left on the airtime. I wanted to keep the plan until 24 Sept 10, and have it cancelled then. But Sharla indicated that if she cancelled the plan, it would be as of today, 16 Sept, and that the minutes would remain on the inactive phone until I re-enrolled.

Since I had purchased another phone and wanted a new number, Sharla suggested that I transfer the minutes from the old phone to the new one, and I agreed (36 minutes). She then went through the activations process, whereby I entered codes, and the activation was completed. I also had a "bonus" code from the TracFone "savings book," that added an additional 50 minutes if I purchased over 200 minutes.

When she tried to enter the "Purchase minutes" information for the $119.99 800 minutes (365 days) promotion, the system would not accept it. She told me that because of the double minutes, I would receive 1,600 minutes to be used over 365 days (plus the remaining 36 minutes and the bonus 50 minutes; the offer is good for the month of September). According to this, she told me that I would receive (within 72 hours) a confirmation of the entire procedure. My old cellphone, now has 0 minutes.

According to Sharla, I should receive 1,600 minutes (800 minutes doubled), 50 minutes bonus, and 36 minutes from the Nokia phone which would total to 1,686 minutes. I believe that the intent was to have 886 minutes, but she insisted that the 800 minutes would be doubled. I went through the credit approval sequence three times, giving the same information over and over again, when she received an "error" in the "add minutes sequence." She also had me use the phone to input a number of "codes" which apparently were successful.

The bill to my credit account was to be $119.99 plus tax of about $9 bringing the total bill to just under $129. I agreed to the charges and she said that the minutes would be added and the account charged within 72 hours. That's the status as of 4 PM on Thursday, 16 Sept 10. Before I got to talk with Sharla, I had been on "hold" for 1 hour and 30 minutes, on my first call to TracFone. I let the music play, with the message repeating hundreds and hundreds of times. No one ever came to answer, and the line did not disconnect.

When I checked the new phone, it is now activated but there was no new number. The old number is active on the new phone. The 36 minutes has not been transferred. The 50 minutes is shown as units remaining, and the re-activation date is shown as 63 days from today, or 23 Nov 10. The phone now shows a new telephone number: total minutes remaining is 50. I went online and the Value Lifeline Plan has been transferred to the new phone. I had requested that the plan be discontinued and was told that it had been cancelled.

So now, I have waited the 72 hours that Sharla said would be required to straighten out the problem. I went to the TracFone website. The site shows the original phone as being inactive, and the new phone requiring verification, by putting in the number I was given (in the phone). The verification showed "Failed," so at that point, I dialed the number on the new phone. It rang, and a stranger answered. I then tried dialing my land line home phone and it rang. I have no idea what is going on.

So, here I am on Sunday, 19 Sept 10, with a phone that does me no good at all, and the website showing me enrolled in the lifeline plan. Here is what I feel should resolve the situation:

4. Begin the service date as of the date of first use of the phone. I have not used the phone for anything but trying to see if I could, awaiting resolution of this issue.

This entire situation need not have happened. All I wanted to do was to cancel the lifeline plan and activate the new phone with the 800 hour, $119.99 offer as a separate transaction. The entire problem arose when the TracFone representative said that as soon as I canceled the lifeline plan (to avoid continuous charges), I would no longer have access to the phone as of the date of cancellation.

Since I never know what date the phone charges will be added, and needed the phone, I was attempting to cancel as of the end of the month that I had paid for. It appears that there is no way to do this. It also appears that there is no way to credit the account for unused time. If this is true, this is a loophole that works to TracFone's advantage. In simple terms, no matter how or when a customer decides to cancel, they will receive an extra month's charge. This strikes me as being wrong. A review of my previous billing charges over the past three years will show that the service charges are not added on a specific schedule. Thus, there is no way to determine what date a customer has to cancel, in order to not be billed.

Will this nightmare continue? Will anyone ever answer me? Will this strange situation continue? What of my own time and aggravation? As a final last try, I found a direct number for escalation service. I have been on the phone with what I assumed was a customer relations person who was going to help me. I have been on the phone with him, Jonax (I.D. #: **) for an hour and 25 minutes. He was nice, but finally wore me out with verifying all of the details of what had happened. After charging my credit account again, for less service than what I had originally ordered, and then finding out that the amount was wrong, he advised that he could not issue a credit and then reorder the correct account number.

I agreed at that point to take whatever he wanted to give me. It meant that I would lose the extra 200 minutes from the bonus code, the 36 original minutes that I had lost from the first phone and the 10 free minutes that I was supposed to receive for signing up. On top of all that, the next thing I was supposed to do was to go back to the phone and enter hundreds of numbers the way I had to in the first place. When all the error codes came up, it was too much. I am too old, and obviously not smart enough to deal with TracFone.

A total of five hours of frustration--I ended up with less than what I started with in the first place. A company that I do not trust has the private information on my credit card account. There was never a single, solitary word about any kind of minor compensation (maybe 10 extra minutes of free calls?) for the incredible inconvenience.

I just contacted TracFone to transfer my remaining minutes and phone number to a new phone and I was fearing the worst after reading complaints on this site. I am thankful to say that I had no problems whatsoever and I received excellent customer service.

I have had a Tracfone for several years now, I had to replace it and it took forever to get it activated. It's the same story of not understanding the person, repeating numbers over and over, been put on hold and it still is not working. They said 72 hours over 2 weeks ago. I tried emailing them, giving all my info and they answered back, but I had to call them so they could get my information. There's no way I will go through that experience again. Tracfone had worked well for me before I washed my first phone, as I don't need one except for emergencies. If they care about their customers, they certainly have a funny way of showing it. Bye Bye Tracfone. Another experience with them could cause a nervous breakdown.

On September 1, I purchased a new Tracfone. I have been a customer for about 7 years. This is my third phone from them. I followed the instructions for activation through the web interface, the phone was activated, but I did not get a telephone number right away. The web interface stated that I should have one within 4 hours. Eight hours later, I called customer service. The lady on the other end was polite, and suggested I try turning the phone off and on again (something I had repeatedly tried) and then suggested I remove the battery and put it back in (something I had tried once). Then she suggested I remove and re-insert the SIM card, but I could not for the life of me get that card out. I told her I would have to wait until I had access to tweezers to get it out.

So the call ended. Four hours after that, still no phone number. Two hours after that, it finally had a phone number and everything was peachy.

I purchased a Tracfone Slider T301G phone on August 20, 2010 which included 10 airtime minutes with unlimited double minutes at Wal-Mart in Oklahoma City, OK. I also purchased a separate card for 120 minutes to be added to the phone upon activation. At home I called on my home phone and went though the activation process and was told sometimes it would take up to an hour. I waited for 2 hours and then called from home phone again to customer service for help.

I spent approximately 1 hour with a customer service representative who kept asking me for the same information over and over, repeating the same statements over and over and having me input several codes numerous times the representative said he would recommend I be sent a new phone as the one I had was defective because when I tried to make a call restriction #34 would show up on the screen.

I then made certain he knew the exact phone I had purchased with the unlimited double minutes for the life of the phone plus 10 airtime minutes. He assured me he had that noted the correct information and the new phone would be the same and would include the 10 airtime minutes, the unlimited double minutes for the life of the phone plus the 120 additional minutes I had put on the defective phone for a total of 250 minutes. He then told me to call customer service in 72 hours and give them ticket #** and they would tell me if I would be receiving a new phone or if the one I had could be fixed.

On August 23,2010 I called from home phone again to customer service with the above ticket# and was told a replacement phone had been mailed on 8-20-10 and I would be receiving it in 3 to 5 possibly 7 days. At this time I wanted to make sure I would be receiving the same phone, unlimited double minutes and 250 minutes from the defective phone. She would only reply "you will be receiving a LG290", I repeatedly told her no that was the incorrect phone.

After being on the phone for a very long time she would only say she did not know, I would find out when it was activated and then gave me ticket #1021924769 for reference. At this point I was so frustrated with this representative evading my questions that I hung up. I then emailed Tracfone's Customer Service telling them in detail about my conversation and what I was concerned about. I asked that they make sure I would be receiving the same item that I had purchased at Wal-Mart. They replied only thanking me for my business and stating they were sending me a replacement phone and if I had any further questions to call the customer service number.

I received the phone on 8-26-10 and called customer service again from my home phone with ticket #1021924769. At this time I told the representative that I had received the LG290 without a camera and not the T301G phone with a camera. This issue was never answered in our lengthy conversation. I then told her I wanted to know before we went any further that since I did not receive the same phone would it have the unlimited double minutes and would my 250 minutes be transferred over. Again and again she would reply with something that had nothing to do with answering my direct question.

I asked why with two reference ticket #'s did she act like she had no knowledge of anything I was telling her and she could not answer my questions. She would not answer if she could pull up previous information regarding what I had been told. She said I would just have to activate the phone to find out if the 250 minutes would be transferred or not and if this phone would have the unlimited double minutes or not. I told her that was not acceptable to me. I asked why if they had the technology to activate, program, deduct money, add applications etc etc could she not tell me whether they were transferring these items over to this replacement phone?

I am sure she knew at this time, as did the previous representative I spoke with, the exact answers to my questions and were providing me with written responses that they were required to give to all customers. No response in fact by this time she had become very short and discourteous with her responses. I asked to speak to her supervisor when she came back on the phone she said I was speaking to the department that handled complaints and these types of situations. At this time she said I would have the same plan, 250 minutes, the same days of service (they would not deduct the days waiting for a functional phone and service)and unlimited double minutes would be on this phone.

I asked 3 times if she was sure and she replied yes. So she supposedly activated the phone and then thanked me for my business. I stopped her and told her my phone still did not work. She got off the phone, came back and told me I was in an area that did not have service so therefor I would be unable to access the web and it would take up to 72 hours for all the transfer to take place. So now I have LG290 phone without camera and was not capable of internet services instead of the T301G with camera and was able to access the internet. I once again hung up after getting nowhere with Tracfone's customer service.

I was not surprised when after 72 hours nothing had changed. The phone still did not work. It was activated but showed it was roaming and I could not make or receive calls and was unable to get the actual phone number for this phone. I researched the LG290 through Wal-Mart with my zip code and it showed this phone would not work in my area! I believe I bought a phone that was being marketed in an area and was sent a replacement phone that Tracfone knew would not be operable in that area. I believe they also have made their customer service process difficult and lengthy enough most customers would just grow tired of dealing with them and drop the entire issue.

I have returned the replacement LF290 phone, battery, charger and instructional material to Tracfone and will be returning the original T301G phone to Wal-Mart. The 120 minute phone card is non refundable so I'm out of luck there. At this point the money and time wasted is secondary to the fact that Tracfone is deliberately defrauding consumers regarding their product and services. Apparently they have been getting away with this for some time according to the numerous complaints involving my situation and others that closely resemble mine.

I thought there were laws to protect consumers from fraudulent advertising and businesses that are unwilling to provide working products and honest services. Is the reason nothing has been to address this because their call center is out of the United States? I simply can not believe a business such as this is allowed to operate in such a manner. I will also being be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, my representatives in Washington, D.C. and the President and CEO, Mike Duke, of Wal-Mart. I thank you for your time.

I ordered two Tracfones on August 4, 2010 from the website. Both were Samsung T101G models with double minutes for life programmed into the phone. I wanted to keep my previous cell phone numbers, so that's how I activated the new Tracfones online through their website. My phone #1 worked. The #2 phone said, "SIM not registered."

So, I called customer service (outsourced, you cannot speak to an English-speaking American) and they tried troubleshooting; then they transferred me to tech support. After many calls, taking about nine hours, and asking for a supervisor, they agreed to send me a new SIM card for phone #2. It took that long because they would hang up accidentally and/or I got a rep who didn't understand and I had to call again. Oh, and if you use your Tracfone to call them, it uses your minutes.

So, while waiting for the new SIM card, I found out that my phone #1 was not able to receive incoming calls. I decided to wait until I got the SIM card for phone #2 and call from someone else's phone (landline) to resolve both problems. The SIM card came and I installed it. You still need to call them to program the codes to get it to work. I called them and got a rep that seems to understand and speak good English. We programed phone #2 and it turns on. Yay! So far, so good.

I proceed to mention about how my phone #1 hasn't and isn't able to receive incoming calls. He "researches" and tells me I cannot keep my transferred phone number since this is the primary phone on my Sprint account and we kept the same phone number for #2 that we just fixed. I said that doesn't even make sense. I already have the number assigned to the phone and I've been making calls with it! His reply was, "Oh, you can make outgoing calls?" Was he even listening to me? Up to this point, I've been on the phone for an hour alreadyI've been patient, but I'm losing my cool.

He has tech support still waiting on his line and he puts me on hold many times to talk with them. While waiting for him, I noticed #2 phone now says "SIM not registered." Can you believe it? He comes back to me and says, "In this case, your phone #1 will not be able to get incoming calls." In what case? "The case that I transferred them online." What? Do you feel my frustration? I am not even going to start over with the #2 phone either. That was my breaking point! I said, "I give up and I'm sending these phones back. I wanted to speak with a supervisor."

The supervisor explains to me she needs the order number from the purchase order. I said I am not at home and I did not intend to send them back when I called, so I don't have it. I have worked in customer service for many years as a phone rep and I know that if she doesn't have access to the records, they can call the correct department to get it. She could at least email the request. I told her I expect her as a supervisor to be able to get that information and process my refund request. She tells me, she is not a supervisor! Sigh.

She transfers me to her "supervisor" Angelie. Angelie asks me my name and tells me I have to have the order number to process a refund request. I say that she needs to take initiative to contact whoever and get the info she needs to assist me. Isn't that customer service? So, she says she will escalate and get the order number. It will take 24 to 48 hours to process. Thank you. But now she wants to know how much I paid for the phones so that she can request the refund. I say, "I don't rememberit will be on the paperwork with the order number." She insists that she needs that info to further assist me. I asked for her supervisor; she says she's the manager and has no boss. I asked for company owner or president information; she does not give me any other contacts for Tracfone.

After realizing she was not going to give me any contact info, I gave her my summary of expectations. I wanted them to send me the instructions to send the phones back for a refund and I wanted the info sent to me by email. She asked for a phone number to call me back. I said I do not have a working number and I'm not going to put out someone else's to use their landline. She stopped talking to me and after several hellos from me, she said, "Thank you for calling Tracfone." That was her signal to say she was done. I guess their policy is to not hang up first.

After thinking about the call, when I got home, I decided to email the Tracfone customer service. I wrote about my conversation with Angelie and mentioned I didn't have confidence in her resolving my problem. The next day they replied saying they needed to speak with me to finish the process. By now, I have gone back to Sprint and renewed my contract. So I email them my phone number. I was called within the hour and what do they ask me? What are the serial numbers of the phones? I couldn't believe it! I asked them what else do they need because in my email to them I wrote at the bottom my name, address, Tracfone numbers and serial numbers. She said we need the serial numbers. I said read my email and I hung up. Yes, I was rude. I then sent an email to them and said don't call my number again.

Today, I got an email with the address to return the phones (my expense). They say it will take 30 days for refund. The 186 remaining minutes on the phones will not be refunded. I think they could have at least paid for shipping back to them, if not the minutes. I used all my minutes to call them and had to purchase more.

I said all this to say if you buy a Tracfone and it works, great! If you need customer service for any reason, prepare for frustration. They read from script and don't pass on information from one rep to another. If you get transferred, you have to tell them your name, serial numbers, and detail about what the problem is again. If they listen, you might get an appropriate response. Otherwise, you have to rephrase to get them to understand. Good luck. Oh, and I did get company contact info from the BBB. That's my next step!

I purchased a TracFone on Sat, Aug 20, 2010. I was unable to complete the change to my old number. I called some **, probably form India who couldn't speak English very well. He told me he cancelled that order and I would get a new number when I call Monday. I spoke with a computer, verified all information, added minutes to the phone. I called 2 hours later, still had no satisfaction as the old number showed up on the phone but the minutes I paid for are still not on the phone. The person I spoke with Monday night told me it would be another 18 minutes; it is now Tuesday morning, still nothing on my phone. I want some satisfaction getting this taken care of. I would never recommend TracFone to anyone after this experience.

My name is Kwasi and I purchased a TracFone to convert one phone for another TracFone on 7/12. From 7/13 to 7/21, I did not have phone service and it took me 3 hours to get my phone reactivated on 7/21. When I asked to cancel my order for the new phone, I was told that it will take another 7 days for my old phone to be reactivated and get my money back. At this time, TracFone did not even collect the refund for the phone yet. TracFone went in to my account 10 days after I got my phone. So when I asked for a refund for the new phone before 7/21, TracFone did not collect the money for the phone yet. I ended up paying $62.07 for a phone that was $24.99. Furthermore, my cell phone was a SafeLink account. When I tried to get my minutes for the phone, I was told that my phone number was not active.

In conclusion, I lost a week of work because I work in the field and I needed a phone to be in the field, overpaying for a phone. My new phone is not active with SafeLink anymore so I did not receive my free monthly minutes.

I purchased a phone for my daughter at Walmart on, or about July 3, 2010. It was a TracFone. When I returned home, my daughter tried to activate it (a Samsung phone) and there was a problem with the activation. The person that helped her to activate it changed the number 3 times. The number she ended up with was ** and it was fine until today, August 2 when her phone was turned off with no notification.

We then tried to reload her account on my MasterCard. It went through to a number that was not working. It went to what was the phone's original number. So no service was given on her current number. So first my daughter tried to get the problem resolved but the customer service rep could not understand, I then got on the phone to explain the problem. An hour later, I was still explaining with no answers. I finally got frustrated with him and asked for a supervisor. I won't even go into the incompetence of the customer service rep.

Okay, after 2hr 14min 32sec, finally they had to give me a new, because the 3rd and current number was not apparently one of theirs. Whose was it and why was it used then? That was a problem in itself due to the fact that my daughter uses virtual school and it's all tied into her phone number. She also does photo shoots and advertising has been done with the 3rd number, so at this point, it's costing me money. The next problem we had to use my T-mobile cell phone and that cost by the minutes, so more money used.

The problem was finally fixed and we agreed on a new number because there is no other choice. I can not tell you how stressed I am at this point, but it's over. Wait!-- it's not! An hour passed and my daughter came to get me, woke me up to tell me the phone was turned off again. I told her to call and give the case number. She came back into my room and here we go again. After 45min 52sec, another new number.

During the first phone call with the supervisor I asked for some restitution and I was offered 3 days' service. I said no way, then he offered 15 days. I laughed and said a month; he had to check with another department. He also asked me if I was sure I wanted to ask for a month. At this point, I was boiling ma. They owe me a year at least, and ten some.

I received a new TracFone and was told that I would need to receive a new SIM card with it, in order to transfer the minutes, and the phone number from the old TracFone to the new TracFone. I received the SIM card, and sat with customer service on the phone for a half hour reading numbers, and putting in codes. At that time, customer service told me it would take several days for the minutes and the phone number to be transferred.

A week later, the minutes got transferred, but the phone number did not. The phone number showed up in the prepaid menu as that phone number, but when you dial it, it rings on my old phone, which is now a minute-less phone. Hours on the phone with "customer service" (and I use that phrase loosely), and it turns out, it's "impossible" to transfer the number to a new phone, for a variety of reasons that seemed to differ, depending on which representative I was speaking with. But if I buy another phone card, they can transfer the minutes back to the old phone.

I asked them to front me the minutes for the old phone, transfer back my minutes then deduct the minutes they fronted me after the transfer. They can't do that because it's "not in their system". When I said that I didn't want to give them any money, on the faith that the process of transferring the minutes back would work, they told me there was nothing they could do, because it was "not in their system".

I asked for a refund. I said fine, I will send the new phone back, just give me a refund on the phone, and my minutes. They said, and I kid you not, they couldn't do that because it was "not in their system". They would not transfer me to a supervisor. They would not help me at all. I flat out asked, "what do I need to do, to either get my money back, or use my old phone number".

The only option was to buy something, over the phone, right there. They told me either I had to get a new phone number, or buy another phone card. If I did buy a phone card, and transferring the minutes back to the old phone didn't work, I know now they wouldn't issue a refund. Why would I give them another $20 that I might have to eat, along with the $30 for the phone, and the 650 unusable minutes? The whole thing was nonsensical.

I stayed at least four or five hours on the phone, with a bad phone connection on their end, and at least two of the people I talked to kept inverting the numbers I read them, which made the whole process take twice as long. They do not issue any refunds at all for anything, because their computer screens tell them not to. So if they make a ** up during any process of activating, upgrading, or transferring anything, you have to eat the cost. Nice business model.

I had paid for a year of activation on my wife's Tracfone several months ago. July 6, 2010, I added 60 minutes online and used a debit card. Tracfone deducted that amount from my checking account but never gave me the minutes and they also deactivated the phone. We use the phone when camping and in travels for emergencies and to keep in contact with the family. It became a great inconvenience because we had our grandchildren with us camping and the parents weren't able to contact us and we were waiting for the call when they were going to pick up the kids. We didn't realize that our phone had been deactivated because we still had 62.8 minutes on it plus the 60 minutes we thought we had just acquired were not on the phone.

Once my wife and I returned the children I checked my checking account and Tracfone had charged me for the minutes but I never received them and Tracfone had deactivated my phone. Once I realized that the phone was deactivated I called customer service and talked to a rep who could hardly speak English. We had a difficult time communicating, but she did say that she would reactivate the phone in a few minutes and add the 60 minutes I acquired. We had spent about 45 minutes on the phone.

The Tracfone was never reactivated and I never received the minutes. About two hrs later, I called and spoke to another service rep for almost two hrs. I told him of the situations and he said he would talk to his supervisor and to hold for 3-4 minutes. We did this about eight times during our conversation. I was sure he was not talking to a supervisor, but waiting on other customers during the times I was put on hold. He didn't realize that I could hear him during those times. He was blatantly lying to me all that time. I got fed up with him and told him that I could hear him talking to other customers while I was on hold. I asked him his name and he hung up on me. I have yet not gotten the minutes I have been charged for and my phone has not been reactivated.

I called to activate my phone this morning. After waiting 4 hours for it to activate, I called the customer support line. I have now been on hold for 63 minutes. This is ridiculous! I would hang up, but God only knows how long I would be on hold the next time. I bought this phone for my daughter, so I wouldn't get any "surprises" on my cell phone account. Maybe I screwed up by doing that. If I knew that it would have been this much trouble, I would have said ** the Tracfone and risked putting her on my phone plan. By the way, it has now been 1 hour 6 minutes and 58 seconds.

As I write this, I am on hold for the 8th time and all I asked Tracfone to do was re-activate my phone. A process that should have taken moments is taking over a half hour (I'm now being transferred to another department), 9th time on hold. I appreciate the ease of use in having a Tracfone, but the inefficiency of this company is astounding. They make government bureaucracy look good.

I bought a new phone and had my number and remaining time transferred from the old phone to the new one. I'm a very satisfied customer.

After more than 2 hours of "activating" my new phone, it still does not perform properly. Specifically, the time and date are not updated to the current. It appears that Tracfone did not activate my phone nor register the SIM card - it took over 2 hours to determine this. In the meantime, I was told that the date, time would automatically update. This has not happened. I am not happy with this phone model, which was recommended for purchase by Tracfone customer service personnel when I called to add minutes to my existing service.

My story begins on 5-2-10 when I called tracfone up to have mine & my husbands old t-mobile number transferred to my tracfone. On 5-4-10 I received my new sims card. Put it in my phone and the phone number was not right. On 5-5-10 we received my husbands sims card, put that in and they got that one right. now I called for both phones on the same day. Then I called and told them that mine was still wrong. They said they needed to send me out a new sims card. I waited about a week and a half, called them back on 5-15 they said that when I got the last sims card I was supposed to call them and not activate the card online.

So you guessed it they had to send me out a new sims card but the guy told me that when I received it I was to call him, he also told me that for compensation for my time & trouble I would get 100mins. So on 5-24-10 I received a new sims card. Did what I was supposed to do and called them to activate, went thru a bunch of malarkey, finally I talked to a supervisor, told him what was going on and after about 45min on the phone, I got my old number. when I asked about the 100min he told me that he could only authorize 30 min.

I told him that I was offered it by the person I talked to on 5-19, he said that there was no record of the csr offering me any minutes. after a little argueing back and forth I told him I would take the minutes but that he should check the taped phone conversation for that day and have a talk with the csr. he said he would, but I don't think that will happen. Every person I talked to was hard to understand. They lie to you and make promises they don't keep.

I think that upper-management (way up) should really do something about their customer service department. Now you would think that a company that is #1 in the business, would do a better job at caring about how the customers feel. I know I would.

February 10 2010 I purchased W376 Motorola cell phone to replace my old TracFone, It proved not to have battery life and rarely sufficient signal to make a call. The price was double minutes for life of the phone- transferee my former cell phone number, 450 minutes, service to 2/28/13. As a result of malfunction I purchased a Motorola w260 at WalMarton April 13, 2010. Activation went fine until it came to air time on this phone. Over 8 phone calls answer e-mails accomplish only a promise that my phone will be active in I (one) hour. Tuesday to Friday and several authorized contacts is not acceptable.

I spent three and a half hours on the phone with them this afternoon and another half an hour tonight. I was lied to about receiving a SIM card replacement via overnight mail. I reported the lie tonight after being told that the email and web status of my complaint was correct - 3 to 5 days to ship the product. This was an error on their part,sending the wrong SIM card. At one point, a customer service person told me that the phone was a model they had a lot of problems with - one that I had just purchased based on a coupon that they sent to me. I feel helpless with cell phones, absolutely helpless. This was the last straw on prepaid phones.

Tracfone promised me excellent service and seamless transfer of my old phone number (I am self-employed and use my number in my ads). The day I activated my phone, they also promised me that my old number will be transferred without interruption. A big lie! On April 10th, they cancelled my old service but the transfer was up to today not completed (4/13/10) which means, I have no phone! Every time I call, I hear a new lie. Yesterday, a service girl I hardly could understand her as all the others (India maybe?) promised my transfer would be completed today. Today, I call and I am told no, we are sending you a new SIM card, and then you can use your phone. When it will arrive? Nobody knew!

This service is bad, first the people you talk to can hardly speak English and you have constantly to ask to repeat. Second, they are not shy to lie to you. It's the worst I ever experienced and I called back my old provider T-Mobile who will get my number back for tomorrow. Lost $50 for the phone and cards. Lost 4 days of income ($1800) plus phones cannot be returned as this is Tracfone policy. They told me ($50).

I purchased a new TracFone. I called to get it activated, transfer the old number to the new phone and transfer the old minutes. They took all my info, all the phone info and said wait 72 hours. I waited for 72 hours, nothing, new phone didn't work, old phone number was gone and so were the 1,454 minutes. I called TracFone again and spoke with a "supervisor" this time.

New phone works and gave me 10 minutes. I wait an hour for the balance of 1,454 minutes to appear. Old minutes never appeared. I called a third time, old minutes appeared but then shortened 8 months on the date of service. I called a fourth time (40 minutes on the phone this time) and service date is now correct. Total time on the phone is 143 minutes. Yikes!

Purchased new phone from Tracfone on 3/12/2010. They transferred my old number, it worked for 1/2 day and no longer am I able to use it. As soon as minutes were added something went wrong. Everything restricted. Spoke to them twice so far same questions and answers. 1st time said 24 hours to resolve now 72 hours. Have had Tracfone for years but this not acceptable. Told them to reactivate old phone and they said they are unable to do that. Now it has been 4 days and I have to wait another 72 hours? In middle of jobs, use this for contact on resumes. Have young son in school.

In 2009, I bought the TracFone online. It worked well. I got the minutes I wanted. It was easy to talk with a rep. I received a lot of calls from numbers I did not know. They charge for those if you open them. I found out that they recycle the phones and the numbers. When I wanted new minutes, I called. I got a rep right away and it went smoothly. As of six months ago, things began to change. I wanted to buy new minutes and had to wait up to two hours to talk with someone. Then I could not understand their English and the interference was horrid. It came from somewhere around the world (outsourcing). The reps were always very courteous if one can understand them.

Three months ago, I was sent a new sim card with no written instruction. I thought I had to put it into my phone which I did and threw the old one out. Big mistake. I tried to get the new sim card registered (3-4 hours wait over three days) and got hold of someone (very polite again) and was told by the third person that after 24 hours the sim card would be registered. No luck. The next day came, no luck. Again, I tried to phone someone at 11 pm (only 45 min. wait with constant reminders that your call is very important to us). I gave up.

Two days ago, I got a call from the Philippines that I needed my sim card to be registered. That person had absolutely no idea about my previous debacles. He must have read the email I had sent to TracFone complaining. I told him that I had no time to talk and that they should call back. That of course never happened. It is now two days later and I am worn out. The promised new TracFone never arrived. I give up. I am now looking around for a cheap phone because I only need it for emergencies. Something must have happened to that company over time because in the beginning (last year), the service was much better. The physical damage to me was that I got so worn out at times that I started to cry out of frustration.

Tracfone concern: On March 8th, I purchased a $20, 60-minute airtime PIN from a local store. Brought it home. Tried to add the minutes to my phone. Got a message to leave the phone on while the minutes were processed. Looked like processing was taking place, then stopped. No minutes were added. I called Tracfone in an effort to rectify the situation and after a few minutes, was told the minutes had been applied to the phone.

I said they weren't on my phone, was asked questions: name, date of birth, Tracfone's number and ESN, my home phone number, home address, etc. The rep said the airtime minutes from that airtime PIN went to a phone with a different Tracfone ESN. I asked what I could do to receive my minutes or a refund and was told to take my receipt and airtime PIN slip back to the store for a refund or airtime minutes with another PIN. I called ahead to the store, explained the situation and my Tracfone rep's instructions, asked if they could take care of the store refund, was told they could and took my slips back to the store.

A clerk called Tracfone, fully explained the situation, and asked for clear directions on how she was supposed to handle the transaction. She was told the airtime had been applied to a phone with a different serial number. She said she understood that. Tracfone's rep told her there could be no customer refund and added that if the store elected to issue a refund to the customer, their store wouldn't receive credit and be reimbursed for it by Tracfone. The store manager came to the phone and tried to help.

Told the Tracfone representative that mine was the third or fourth complaint from customers who'd bought airtime PINs from their store in the past two weeks. She was told the same thing. No credit to the store if they issued a customer refund. I said that was fine, I'd accept the $20 loss and buy another airtime PIN. The manager told the Tracfone rep that she wouldn't sell any more Tracfone airtime PINs at her store. Didn't want the customers to run into the same problem and be out even more money and said she'd contact her corporate office to report the problem.

Still no compensation to me, the customer, which I understood from the store manager's perspective. She had no recourse. With the store manager's utmost apology, I left the store with my receipts. Thought over the situation, called Tracfone from home, said that my airtime inadvertently could have been applied to the phone with the other ESN and that the recipient of those minutes could be unaware of how s/he had received them. I asked if Tracfone could contact the phone customer with the other ESN, explain the error or system glitch, and transfer those 60 minutes to my phone. They couldn't/wouldn't do that. I was transferred to several different people not because I requested it, though explained the situation to each Tracfone representative, and was finally told that there would be an ongoing investigation into the problem. Was issued a reference number and was asked to call Tracfone after 24-48 hours for a follow-up on the status of the problem.

As instructed, well after the 48-hour waiting period, I called Tracfone, gave the rep my reference number, gave a full story on the situation, explained that I was told to call back for a follow-up - didn't know why, because I hadn't been promised a refund or added airtime. But that I was doing what I was told to do. Even though I'd explained the situation to that rep, he asked all the pertinent questions again. I answered each one and he informed me that those airtime PIN minutes were added to a phone with a different ESN, not mine. I told him I'm aware of that. He said he was sorry for the inconvenience and said he'd transfer me to another department where someone else might be able to help.

Another rep, same story. All the reps were extremely polite, and I was, too. It wasn't their fault any more than it was mine, but after all the same information being given repeatedly and after having several deja vu moments, and after being told that those airtime minutes with that PIN had been assigned to a phone with a different ESN from mine. Well... actually, it started to get sort of funny long before that point but I went along. Refused to hang up just because each transfer had prompted no change in the conversation.

Eventually said I was willing to fore-go the loss of $20 that I'd never had a problem with Tracfone in all the years I dealt with them. But the biggest concern I have is that if I buy another airtime PIN, I might run into the same problem and be out a $40 loss. The rep said if I buy another airtime PIN and call them to let them apply the number, there should be no problem. But I didn't feel confident in that response. I haven't made up my mind on whether or not to give it another try, especially after reading the concerns posted on this site.

I purchased a new phone and attempted to get minutes and the phone number transferred. The experience has been a nightmare and my new phone still does not have the minutes. After three lengthy phone calls involving continually repeating the same information over and over and one hang-up by a service representative, the most they have been able to do is activate the new phone without transferring my old number and without transferring the minutes. Tracfone has been great because I don't make a lot of calls but this experience has been absolutely horrible.

Time ran out on my wife's TracFone as she doesn't use it daily. About 5 days ran by. I got a card and reactivated with a computer-assisted call. After 2 hours, I called to find out why the phone did not work. I was told there was an error in the phone. I was told to wait 48 hours and to call back. I did so. I must relay that each time I call TracFone, it is a minimum of one hour of waiting, talking, being on hold, and being switched around. Then I'm being told to call back in 24 and/or 48 hours.

This went on from Tuesday to Sunday night. Sunday night, I started looking for TracFone Corporate info. I found phone numbers, fax numbers, and the old stand-by 800 number. I typed a letter (on asbestos paper, just kidding). I typed a letter, printed it out, and faxed it to TracFone's fax number. Hurray! Today, I got a call from TracFone which said they are working on the problem and will call me tomorrow. Why would I doubt their word?

I purchased a TracFone from their website and they sent me a phone without a SIM card. I could not activate the phone. I spent over eight hours in two days on the phone with customer service and they could not help me. I was told to call back later. Their call center is located in South America and the people working there do not speak good English. I am stuck with a phone that will not work and I am angry. TracFone is a horrible company and Americans need to stop giving them our hard-earned money!

I purchased a TracFone and 60 minute airtime card. I called to activate the 60 minute airtime card and followed the prompts and automated operator. At the end, the automated operator said that the minutes were added so I threw away the card. Long story short, no minutes were added to my phone. I called the company and even though I have the receipt for the minutes, they show no interest in reviewing the receipt and say that they can't help me unless I have the pin code from the card but I don't have the card! I have the receipt.

In addition, no other minutes have been added to my phone besides the free ten minutes I received with the purchase of the phone so it's not liked my receipt can be confused with another purchase of minutes. They have poor customer service and I have wasted $20.00 unless Target is good enough to understand my situation and make it right.

I am going to try to take the phone back to Target and get my money back for the minutes and for the phone. I'll never use TracFone ever again.

My experience with TracFone activations and buying minutes have also been very bad until now. Very long and tiring procedure, international call failed, etc. This time, I decided to extend my service for another year online. Previously, I have had bad experience using it online, but not this time! It went through within several minutes and my 2 phones were immediately activated for another year with bonus minutes. I could not believe it!

TracFone tried for 3 weeks to transfer my phone number that I have had for 15 years. They were never able to complete this. I am still having a problem getting my number back to my old service. I had approximately 15 phone calls to them for help, of which, about 10 were over 1 1/2 hours in length. They were not helpful. This has been a nightmare for me. At this age, I didn't need anything to be so frustrating for me.

Several years ago, my sister gave me her old phone. Then for Christmas, she bought me a phone card. I tried to get on the Internet to activate it, it kept kicking me off. Then I tried to phone it in, I was on hold for a long time. I did this for a month. My sister said that when she comes up, she will get it going for me. She finally contacted someone. They told her that they couldn't do anything about it because the card has expired. I learned my lesson and got a phone in town. A bad company. I wish the FCC would step in and help.

I spent $40 for 2 60 minute cards. I spent 1 week on the phone and on the computer. I was never able to use my TracFone. Today, I bought a new one and another $20 card. Guess what, I cannot activate my new phone. Please help. I enter the serial number and then get error messages. This is ridiculous.

I have been a TracFone customer for several years with no problems and I recently purchased a new phone to upgrade. I have spent a week both online and with customer service trying to get the new phone activated and transfer my old phone number. They deactivated my old phone, but when I tried to add minutes to the new phone, it will not take them. Whenever I contact TracFone, I am told "it will be another 24 or 48 hours" before it is activated. Obviously, this is a rip-off. The new phone was supposed to come with 20 minutes preloaded and I didn't even receive those. Currently, both phones are inactive and I am left with no phone at all.

I am basically out of pocket for the cost of the phone and the additional minutes I bought. At this point, I do not know what else to do or who to contact since I cannot get any support from either the TracFone representatives on the phone or email.

I bought minutes card for my husband's phone that expired. I had to start over again with activation. So to get my minutes, I went through the whole thing. This is the second time with his phone that this has happened. We even had to get a new sim card and still the card we bought for minutes does not work. They told me that it had already been put on another phone, but would not tell me which one. It is neither mine or my husbands. So what happened? I am so mad!

I have been a TracFone customer for years and until recently, never had any problem. Over the years, I've upgraded to new phones without difficulty. Something has happened at TracFone and their customer service has become abominable. For over a month, I have been trying to activate my new TracFone. I am now on my third SIM card and the thing still doesn't work! Each time I call, I am put through the same routine that takes about 30 minutes. Then when that fails to work, I am given a ticket number and told to wait anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. I've had lots of ticket numbers since this experience began back in January. My advice to other consumers is to avoid TracFone at all costs.

The option to call Canada did not work. I went through 5 different customer assistance people and over a week before the option was finally activated by Tracfone. I asked for a credit of minutes used to rectify a problem caused by them. I was given a credit of 30 minutes, far less than I asked for. The people I dealt with were of very little help and I was deducted a lot of minutes for time spent with customer service. It's a good phone, poor customer service. It's not recommended. I was unable to use the phone to call Canada for over one week after purchase. Upon purchase, I was advised that I could call home to Canada the first night.

Tracfone deactivated my phone without my authorization with 84 minutes left on the phone. I lost 3 hours on the phone plus the 84 minutes on the phone.

I just found this site and glad it's here to let others know what this company is doing. Like others, I read they will keep you on the phone forever to get the phones activated. Just read below what happen to me. The phone I had I lost. When I called and reported it and I had a brand new phone. I wanted everything transferred over to the new one. They told me I wasn't in the right area for the phone I had bought that I needed to send it back to them and they would send the right one. I was to keep all the accessories just return the phone.

Now this phone I lost they did the same thing when I first got it. I bought a phone right here in town. They told me it wasn't right for this area also to send it back. I returned it and they sent another one. I returned the one I bought. I would like to know why this time when I purchase a new Tracfone LG410G at Wal-Mart. They asked for the serial number then like the other time they tell me it wouldn't work in this area. I bought it in my area. I was told to return it for another one which I did.

They sent me an LG Plain Jane, no ID number other then serial number card and charger cord. When I received this exchanged one it was a recondition phone. It was stamped on the box it was shipped in. It much cheaper made then the one I had bought. None of the accessories would work. I was told I would get my same number and my 500 minutes I had on my old phone would be transferred. They transferred the minutes but when they put my old number on it wouldn't activate. It took four calls to get it activate with a different number after it was all said and done. Approximately 6 hours, 4 days off and on the phone. Why is it I get a used phone when I purchased a new one? This is the second time I have had this to happen with wrong phone when I purchase another new one. I feel like I have been taken for a ride and they end up with a better type phone than I received. I will use this until my minute expire but will not renew with them. I will also let others know what type of deal I was given, especially at WAL-MART. Dissatisfied customer.

I bought a new LG model TracFone from a local store. I live in 92386 zip code, and have talked to over six people on the phone, trying to get it to work. I already had an older TracFone Nokia model that worked great. No one at TracFone will listen. They say it is activated, but I can't receive, or make calls. My son from another city, came to the mountains with his TracFone, and it worked great. I plan on having the minutes transferred back to my old cell, and returning the new one to the store, where I bought it. I have never experienced such bad service. Give up my landline? No, never. I need the cellphone in case the landline goes out. I use the cell for emergencies as I have had a stroke in the past. I am amazed that this experience didn't give me another one.

I was previously with Verizon and their tower is 200ft from my home. I always had 5 bars here. This phone says it cannot connect with the network. I have held and punched codes till I'm blue. Any help? or just like the rest?

Previous message to you which you took no action on:

"Order# was not delivered by FedEx although they show it delivered Dec.22 at 1:56 pm. It was not. I was home and available and they did not come. I viewed the signature proof of delivery and there is no signature." The next morning, I found the box on the door of one of the out buildings near my property. Bad delivery, but worse customer service. You can bet I will advertise my experience on local and national forums. Thanks for nothing customer ignorance.

The 7 or 8 people I spoke with were nice but terribly incompetent. They could not pass simple info like name and nature of problem to the next person when they would hand me off.

I just tried to call your sales dept. and a message says that you are not accepting calls right now. I finally got on hold and have been holding now for 44 min. I really want to use this phone and would accept it if it could be fixed. For now, it does not work, I am dissatisfied with my purchase and want a refund. Tell me what you want done with your phone. I prefer an email response about what you want done with your phone since it will not work. You may call me if you (can speak English and) want to try to fix this, else I have no recourse but to dispute the bill on my credit card. I will wait until the afternoon (US mtn time) of Jan, 6 2010 for you to get back to me before filing a dispute.

I am in a rural area and a caregiver for an invalid. My transportation is broken and I am stranded without communication except the web. I let my Verizon account expire after ordering the tracfone and now have no way to communicate. I can use the neighbor phone and that is the number I have given.

It is 11:33 am Jan 4, 2010. I have been on the phone for over 39 minutes waiting for a supervisor to assist me. She has the phone line open and I hear her talking with other staff, laughing. She has not come back on the line with me. I gave her my serial number to check records of my calls in, to try to activate new phone and transfer old Tracone number to it. I keep calling out hello. No answer from supervisor. I am holding on line because it has been since Dec 27 that I tried getting this handled. It has now been 43 minutes and I am still holding and calling out. What gives? They have cost me time, cost me minutes, cost me the ability to receive calls for work, have prohibited me from hearing from my pregnant daughter in Switzerland who is past due.

My son wanted to get a cell phone for Christmas so thinking a prepaid was the way to go, I thought I would try a Tracfone. I had one in the past and had no issues with it. The first day I tried to activate this phone, I should have taken it back to Target. I spent 1 hour with a agent trying to get this phone to work. The agent stated I had to wait 24 hours for the activation to take place. 24 hours later, guess what, nothing. The phone still didn't work. I called again and a different agent stated I needed to add minutes to the phone. I spent $25 for minutes and called back. I spent another hour with an agent and was informed I had to wait 4 hours for the phone to work. I waited 24 hours just to be safe.

The next day, still the phone could not receive calls or make calls. I called again. I spent 2-1/2 hours on my phone with an agent trying to get this phone to work. I punched in so many numbers into this phone I lost count. After 2-1/2 hours, I was told I had to wait 24/48 hours for this phone to work. I asked to speak to someone higher up (thinking they would know what to do). This so called professional asked me what my issue was (that's very professional).

After I started to tell her the time I spent on the phone to get this wonderful Tracfone working, this wonderful very professional (not) agent hung up on me. I have never been treated so rude. This company needs to take a good hard look at the products they are attempting to sell and then also the so-called professionals they have working for them. I will never deal with this company again and I will also pass my story on to others.

I asked to get time on my phone and you took the money out of my account but did not put the time on my phone. I have waited more than 24 hours to get the time on my phone.

I received a tracfone for Christmas, 2009, I bought time & activated the phone, well I can receive calls but cannot make calls, tried to contact customer service, only a recording & to call back in 24 hrs. it's been 72 hrs., & I have not gotten through, tried to contact on Tracfone.com. gave all information, & no response, I am very unhappy because now I lost the money for time(min) purchased & my I cannot use the phone.

Tracfone clearly does not have trained representatives or technicians. Their reps are located outside the U.S. No one was ever able to connect me to anyone in the U.S. and I was told that there was no U.S. number for the company that they could give out. So now I've lost my access to my telephone number, I'm out $20, and I have no cell phone. 7 days with no cell phone, multiple calls from tracfone, multiple calls to tracfone and AT8T.

I am on Tracfones "SERVICE PROTECTION" PLAN and service is being disconnected. Tracfone says the problem is on their end but it has gone on for 6mo's. Customer service is of no help. I can't use the 184 units in my phone which I have paid for

I called Tracfone Company twice and they accused me of giving my number to ESPN to use. I do not even watch ESPN on TV so why would I pay for thier Text messages? I am sure that I have been scammed. What can I do about it? I am purchasing minutes on my TracFone for someone else's use that I don't even know.

First of all, I tried to transfer service and phone number from an existing TracFone to a newly purchased TracFone and the activation was not completed. TracFone issued me a Case ID number that stated "We will contact you shortly after your case is resolved to complete Activation of your TracFone." 24 hours later, still no response from TracFone in any form or fashion.

So I initiated contacting TracFone customer service only to be read common canned response phrases and to be disconnected when requesting to speak to a manager or supervisor. I made several attempts to contact them by phone and through their website/email system. Again, it's the same canned message and they request for me to call their Portability Representatives. So I did and after almost two hours, nothing!

The Portability Representative placed me on speakerphone or laid his headset down. I listened to the department converse, mostly in Spanish for over an hour with no response to my voice calls. Then guess what, disconnected again and they did not call me back. During this call I was typing an email to Elston and providing him the details as well. Every correspondence with TracFone customer service is also being forwarded to Elston email address as well. Three days have passed and no response from TracFone or Elston!

Time is very valuable to me and I have spent countless hours trying to rectify this situation with no help on TracFone's behalf. Plus, the inconvenience of having no phone service, since they deactivated my original TracFone as well. Also, while I personally speak several languages, Spanish is not one of them, so I found it very insulting that every TracFone representative that I spoke to was not fluent in English.

Here's an important part of this whole process, TracFone does not provide 24 hour technical or customer support and TracFone claims to be the number one prepaid cell phone provider in the U.S.. Nor does TracFone mention on the TracFone website that TracFone does not provide around the clock customer support and what about the TracFone motto "No Surprises." Since TracFone's website states the customer is in control and there are "No Surprises," it seems there may be a fallacy of legality or customer deception on TracFone's part.

Also, I added the following information to my email correspondence to Elston and TracFone customer support. Since no company likes bad publicity here's some information that can help in the quest of protecting consumer rights: Contact the President and Vice President of Tracfone and place a Consumer Complaint. Contact news media in Florida, Your State, and national firms such as FoxNews, CNN, MSNBC and place a Consumer Complaint. Report (Consumer Complaint) to the FCC. Report (Consumer Complaint) to the FTC. Report (Consumer Complaint) to the U.S. Government (especially if employed by them)

Report (Consumer Complaint) to the Attorney General's Office of Florida. Report (Consumer Complaint) to the Attorney General's Office of (your state). Report (Consumer Complaint) to the Better Business Bureau of Florida. Report (Consumer Complaint) to the Better Business Bureau of (your state). Report (Consumer Complaint) to WalMart, CVS, Family Dollar, Walgreens, and Radio Shack

I have spent hours and hours with customer service trying to get my new phone activated and the minutes transferred from my old phone. Their customer service is laughable. Instead of listening to your problem and helping you deal with it, they give you canned answers that waste tons of time and don't solve the problem. The phone connections are bad, their english is inadequate, and when a suggestion doesn't work they simply repeat it over and over with no opportunity to speak to a supervisor.

Was put on customer service for 3 hours. Trying to activate my phone after purchasing time on line. Which in turn told me that I had to call customer service to activate phone. I have been calling customer service for two days. My time is valuable... My phone is still not activated and have not been able to get any one on customer service.

**Finally a few days later I called back when I had time and after a few transfers. I asked for a refund. They told me they would refund the phone (as I was within 30 days of purchase)but not the minutes, even though I can never use these minutes due to their crappy service not working. They suggested I dispute the charge with my bank. They also informed me that to get the refund I will have to pay for the shipping return of the phone and equipment.

i recieved a tracfone for christmas in 2008. I acctivated it in jan 2009. I lost the phone in Louisiana April 2009. I reported the phone lost and had my account on the phone turned off.The phone was a double minute plan. I asked costomer service if the double minute plan would be transferred to my new tracfone,i was told it would be. Tracfone did not honor what they said they would do. I will never buy another tracfone again. the company is a rip off

Purchased a LG255 Tracfone from Kmart back on July 28th. Called to activate that day after failing to activate online. After 90 minutes I was told to wait 24 hours and it would activate. 24 hours later, I called back and get the same treatment,pulling Sim card, doing master reset and turning on and off many times. Still no luck and another 90 plus minutes wasted. Again told to call back in 24 hours and they would send new Sim card. Called back in 10 minutes and insisted they send new Sim. Another 60 minutes and they finally agree 2 days later, new Sim card arrives, call customer service, and after 60 plus minutes, get phone activated. Phone number is area code 610, not the 570 code we reside in or where store is located. Another 60 minutes and they say sorry and hang up. Called back, finally get a man that seems to know what he is doing and immediately tells me I need yet another Sim card, as area code cannot be changed without new card. Get card yesterday, called customer service last evening and finally get area code 570. One problem though. Cannot get incoming calls on this phone number. Don't know if I'm going to continue with this nonsense. They need to be shutdown. How long must consumers put up with such poor service?

I wanted to either add time and reactivate a phone or switch the remaining units to another phone. The phone has been inactive for over sixty days. In the past I have had no problem with this; however, this time they have cancelled my units. I currently have four other active phones, one of which is for my parents to use in case of emergency. I have used tracfones for many years. My beef is if they have my address and landline phone number to send advertisements; why can't they leave me their policy changes.

I called back later Saturday evening to tell them that nothing had changed and they told me that they could not give me my phone number back because it was no longer available. They also told me that they had never transferred my Verizon number to this phone. At this time I decided to review the calls I had sent and received on the phone and then check the call logs of the phones that were involved. Guess what, they all showed my Verizon phone number that had been transferred to my TracFone in 2007. I even found a picture that I had sent to my email address that showed my Verizon number.

Just to be complete I called Verizon and verified that the phone number I had with them had been transferred to TracFone in 2007. This prompted me to send TracFone an email explaining my issues hoping for a resolution. All I received was that this was being forwarded to customer service for review.

I sent him an email asking for help along with a copy of the email I had sent TracFone customer care. Elston call me back within an hour and had everything resolved in just a few minutes. This man deserves a raise, a big raise. Maybe he should be teaching the customer care group how to resolve issues?

Well no one calls and My son still cant use the web browser. Then for the heck of it I checked my hubby's new tracfone he got 3 weeks ago and guess what he cant access the browser either but my phone is about 2 years old and I can. I researched this problem online and it seems none of the newer phones allows you acess to the web browser. what a rip off. We switched to [competitor] and what a difference. In five min we had a fully functional phone when we walked out of the store. didnt have to go online and jump thru hoops just to get the darn phone to work. I will never buy another tracfone again. we are out 80 bucks.

My tracfone was stolen. Immediately I called Tracfone to freeze my account and I told them it was my intention to acquire a new phone to transfer my number and remaining air time and minutes to. When the new phone arrived, after hours on the phone with them and getting nowhere, they said I needed a different SIM card to get my number back, at first they weren't sure if it was available, and there were many other issues for them to sort out, most of which seemed to be out of their range of control and competency to deal with. But they they kept asking me to repeat all the various old and new identifying serial numbers for the phone and the SIM card, etc. It seemed that asking for the numbers over and over again was to create the illusion they were doing something.

When the new SIM card arrived a week later, the exact same charade was repeated over a couple of days and many hours until they determined that the replacement SIM had been invalidated because it was activated to the number attached to the phone though I had clearly requested to retain my original number. A week later they sent another SIM card and even tracking the delivery of the SIM card was a terrible ordeal.

When the new SIM card arrived, I asked to speak to a supervisor as I had begun to do for some time, and went through the same motions with specific instructions that if the phone couldn't be activated with the number I requested do not activate it since I did not want to nullify the SIM card. After over an hour on the phone, the person finally admitted in answer to a direct question that she was just repeating the same thing over and over again without hope of getting anywhere.

I asked to speak to another department or someone with other expertise and she switched me to the floor manager. This person ignored my request not to activate the new SIM card on the phone unless it was to the number I requested. He said my number was no longer available since it was deactivated for so long --I pointed out that it was not attached to another account and was therefore still available but the answer was not in the script he was reading from.

I asked how after reminding them in every one of the frequent conversations that I had with Tracfone representatives, that the most important thing to me was to preserve my number for my use --I could still lose the number. He had no direct answer just that it happened because of the length of time it had been deactivated but did not know what the length of time was.

I spent more than twenty hours on this and got nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. I don't have my phone number and I have not been offered anything remotely adequate to deal with the aggravation and time this cost me. Everyone kept saying things like "I understand" and I told them, I don't think you understand and if you do then you don't care, so stop telling me you understand.

When I signed into "my" account with my email and password, someone else's name popped up, and I noticed the site wasn't secure. They want you to put all your payment information with someone else's name on the account on an unsecured site for airtime. I think I'd better change phones and phone companies. Its a bit scary. I'm afraid my identity may have been compromised.

cut off first time gave all info took over hr. time I waited listening to music play then 2nd time same info sure same japanese man...he was nice to me but same info again..its been 3 days still no activation dialed the code he told me says not activated yet, get on line still says not activated.. read online says trac phone line out of order??? good grief i had my old min. added to my new one to be activated had troubel calling in northern ky. as said blue grass when visited..this is for my emergencies and I am 72 plus yrs. depend on this... i am wondering about this trac phone business thought be thing for me but beginning to doubt not good if out away from home depending on it driving etc. ...hey whats the answer ..how come sooooo long activating this new phone, had I known this I would kept the old and added just few min. at time or quit it completely. I was told phones bought and cards from WAlmart, Target are...blue grass some say not good idea.. just my opinions..sure like to get better service on here or I am thru pretty soon,got 2 phones no more cards bought if this is the way with it..sorry but disgusted.

This months minutes have not yet been activated as well as i had my mother to purchase some minutes and my phone won't access them eitherl. It says that the system is not available so what am i now to do?

I called to reactivate 2 tracfone cell phones. After 30 minutes of questioning I was told I needed a new SIM card. The new SIM cards came and I installed them. I then called to reactivate the phones and add minutes now that the card was installed. Well, 40 minutes later after putting code upon code into the phone she finally added the minutes. I was told to wait 1 hour for the phone to activate. It never happened and I called back again. Once again 35/40 minutes of putting in 16 digit number after 16 digit number trying to activate. Then I was told that my phone could not be activated and that I needed to buy a new phone!!! Why didn't they know that from the beginning!!! Then another 30 minutes on the phone putting codes in to get my refund. OMG!!!! NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER BUY A TRACFONE!!!!!! My children had to take my Virgin Mobile prepaid with them on vacation. Virgin mobile by contrast is excellent and so easy to use. I never make complaints but this was just outrageous and the customer service representatives are totally oblivious.

I have had tracfone for about three years,here recently got a new phone and tried to transfer my number to the new phone and was unsuccessful,so I called customer servive but was told to wait 72 hours, which turned into one week,and after being without a phone for that week they decide to send me a new SIM card by FedEx which worked a little while until today that they decided to turn my phone off. It would'nt be so bad but I have a daughter that suffers from seizures and I am cancer patient so I do need my phone service. I will never recommend this pre-paid service to anyone.

Had a Tracfone for five years worked fine. Bought a new reconditioned W376R it did not work. They have sent three more non of them work. They said could't reactivate my old phone. So stuped me buys a new LG600G try to activate it don't work they said the sim card is bad. I have $70.00 into the phones they said could not refund my money, I also have 490 min that I'll lose if this new phone don't work. I have spent over 20 hours on the phone with Tracfone 8 hr, in one day and lost my phone #. Please do not make the same mistake I made.

In 2006 I purchased a Tracfone from Target, to be used with family and family friends visiting me or as an alternate, prepaid (pay-as-you-go) number.

The phone hadn't been used and was deactivated.

I received the new sim card in the mail July 14th 2009. I then called the Tracfone 800 number again (customer/tech support), approximately 8pm ET. I gave them the phone serial number and the new sim card number, and was told that their computer system would need about an hour to process the activation codes. At that time (1hr later) I would see a new "service due date" and the phone would be ready to use following a test call which would specifically be comprised of my 4-digit zip code followed by a 10-digit phone number (the number I'd be calling). However, no automatic update happened and when I tried to call later, I discovered the customer support center was closed for the day.

On July 15th I called again. At that time it was 11:30 and I called from work. I was connected to tech support where I went through a series of inputing 10 numerical codes of approximately 15-20 digits per code to the phone. After that process, I could see the purchased air time but there was no service and when I tried to make a test call it failed. Following that, we went through a second series of code-input which again resulted in failure to activate the phone. At that point I had been on the phone with tracfone customer care for 37 minutes. The technician told me the problem was that the phone still showed the original phone-number whereas in their system they showed a new number.

I then requested to know what more was necessary to activate the phone, but all the customer care tecnhician could tell me was to stay on the phone and continue inputing codes to try and activate the phone, or to call later, or to create a new case number and wait for a few days before I call again. I explained that I had been on the phone for about 40 minutes during work time and that I needed to know exactly what more to do on my end and how much more time this would take. The customer care technician couldn't tell me that information, at which point I asked for a refund of my airtime minutes which I had paid for but had not been able to use. The customer care tecnhician transferred me to sales.

The sales person (Eder; no more information or identifying number, and no further record of conversation could be provided by Tracfone) told me that no refund is possible because that is not the company policy. He then proceeded to tell me to try a news set of numbers. I tried that, but the phone still didn't work. I went through the process a second time, and the phone still didn't work. At this point I demanded again a refund and to speak with a supervisor, only to be told that refund is not the company policy and that we should enter one more code. The conversation went for a few minutes along these lines:

I did try one more code at which time the phone still didn't work. Again, the sales/support person, Eder, could not provide me with an end to when the whole process of activation might end and as to how many more codes were necessary. By that time I was on the phone for a little over one hour, and again I said that I couldn't continue with this process in this manner and that I wanted a refund for my purchase of air time. I was again told that no refund was possible and I had the choice to continue with the process (of entering 15-20 digit numerical codes) in order to activate the phone. I then declined and ended the conversation.

The first individual I spoke to advised the SIM card was not compatible with our Zip Code. When I supposedly spoke to a supervisor, I was advised that the number had been deactivated in April and they could not tell me how or why? They sent me a new SIM card which took a full week. This is where the fun began, I spoke to 13 different people and was advised TracFone did nothing wrong and it was my problem. They advised my compensation for all the hassels was them giving me back the minutes we still had. I was lucky they did this. This took over 1 1/2 hours to only get a new number. Meanwhile, my husband being a small business owner has to get new business cards again. After we use the minutes we purchased, we will go back to AT & T.

On June 19, I ordered a tracphone in error (as my daughter wanted T-mobile). I called back 2 hours later and they said it was already shipped and to just refuse it and upon return, they would credit my acct. I refused the item on June 19 and it was returned to tracphone on 6-23 by Fed X.

I have been e-mailing daily and calling and getting passed around and kept on hold on 7-1 and again on 7-6 (for 30 minutes, my entire lunch break. They are now saying it will be 30 days before I can get a refund after several e-mails back and forth and phone calls stating they would not do the refund if I did not call and talk to rep and given my original card # which I did on three occasiona.

Basically, they have foreign, non-English speaking customer reps who do not know what they are doing. I am out the $29.37 and still had to buy my daughter a T-mobile phone. It would seem like a simple request for a credit since the package was refused, never opened and returned to them by Fed X intact.

I purchased on line a new tracfone and called in to activate. I asked if I could have my old cell phone number transferred and my minutes from my old phone transferred.They told me within 72 hours. I waited 84 hours with no results, so I called tracfone. I spoke to two supervisors,six sales people, and their final answer was to wait another 48 hours! They've got you over a barrel because there is no way you can get in touch with anyone higher, only on line with people that don't care. I finally called them back and relented from receiving my old number for a new one so I could start using my cell phone now. The same old answer, I'll have to wait longer anyhow. At the time of this writing, I'm still without a phone.

I bought a TracFone (pay as you go) approximately 5 years ago to use when we travel in the United States, mainly travelling to Florida. Cell phone which still have 672 minutes(units) left on it. In June'09, we received a call from the Florida police telling us that someone had vandalized our home in Zephyrhills, Florida. Thus, on June 22nd, we left our home in Canada to travel to Florida to assess the damages. When we got to the state of Maine, I tried to use my cell phone but it would not work. I called TracFone company and was told that my phone had been de-activated and since it was a Sunday, I would have to call back the day after to find out why.

I called the day after at least 3 times, waited on the line while they were checking with another department to find out why my cell was de-activated. They finally told me that I had used my phone in Canada the year before (July 08)and they had de-activated it then and gave me a warning as not do this anymore and if so, they would have to de-activate again. First of all, I might have TRY to use my phone in Canada but the phone would only roam as we have no tower adapted to their cell.Secondly, I was never warned that if I dare use the phone in Canada, that they would de-activate it forever. If I would have been advised of such, I would certainly not have used it.

Anyways, the last time I used the phone this year was probably around the end of April when we were travelling back home. I spoke to two different supervisors which also told me that they could not re-activate the phone and could not transfer those minutes to a new phone (even if I would have bought a new TracFone). I then sent a 3 page registered letter to the head office (the address above is the one they gave me)to the attention of the Manager in charge of service to the clientele. Today (June 30,09) someone called Lucette, apparently in charge, phoned me and again refused to re-activate my phone, or transfer my minutes to a new phone, or even to pay me back for the minutes (units) which as I told her, I feel were stolen from me. I paid a lot of money for those and certainly feel that they should be given back.

I sent a complaint via email will all relevant information and received a phone call from a non-English speaker who clearly could not cope and tried to get me to duplicate the exercises my daughter was subjected to. I am 74 and hard of hearing and cannot cope with Tracfone's refusal to provide the promised service.

My Mom who has never put time on her phone before wanted to do it and accidentally pressed enter before she could enter the airtime card code.

I had to call back a 2nd time about 30 minutes after the first time because the first person I spoke to was so rude and abrasive. Now you want a faxed copy of the 60 minute card that came with the W376 refurb bundle I purchased my Mom last month. I don't have a copier or a fax machine and don't have a Kinko's or UPS Store to go to do anything like this like Alberto was telling me to do to.

If it had been my Mom calling she wouldn't have had any idea what you were asking her to do when it comes to all the faxing and copying particular things.

Your policies make no sense and just like every other business now as long as you've already gotten our money you don't really care. You are holding the minutes I already paid for my Mom's phone hostage. The only thing you all could find out of sort was that one bonus code going through. You could at least let let the phone be used until the minutes run out and then kill it.

I tried on 3 different occasions to get through to customer service. As a result I was not able to purchase additional minutes during an emergency when I need to speak extensively with relatives

Each time after waiting over 1 hour and still no response I gave up. I am stuck temporarily with them but advise no one to adeopt this service.

From the moment we got the Tracfone, it was nothing but aggrevation. But the final straw was when I purchased additional minutes that would not register. Inspite of many calls (7) to get the issue squared away, I was always told to wait and see if they registered. In the meantime, I couldn't use my phone because I had only a few minutes left. This has been going on for days. Still no resolution. I have spent hours calling and dealing with computers and people. Always the answer is the same, check later. Also, it is always in roaming mode. I don't even want to try to get that squared away. This is the end of my relationship with this company!

when I purchased this Tracphone, they charge me units to set up my phone.I talked with them about that problem, because they used up almost half of the units. Problem #2 Locally, 7 miles I have to pay for long distance. I have to dial 1, area code, the number, which cost me twice as much. When I talk to them about that, I get a nasty rep, and she overtalk you. She hangs up constant.

When I turn the phone on, look up old #, it eats up my units.I have been using Tracphone for years, and never had this problem. It never cost me double, per minute. This phone is a Motorola #W175g. I have brought, promoted, gave many of these phones to a lot of people over the years, but not anymore if they have raised a rates that high. The back on the phone is very very hard to get off.

There is a malfunction in this phone, if, just turning it on, it uses minutes.

I had a Tracfone and wanted to replace it with a new model Tracfone. I wanted to keep the old Tracfone number and called in to have it activated and the old number put on the new Tracfone. After over an hour, it was supposed to be done. However, the new Tracfone had a different phone number than the one from my old Tracfone.

I called to get it corrected and was put on hold for hours! Then I called back several times more and the same thing happened, every few minutes someone came on the phone and told me just a few more minutes while they talked to a supervisor....nothing was done and I had to keep calling them back. Finally, someone told me after I gave them the serial numbers to my new phone that I had just bought in the store, they told me that phone had been reported stolen!

Now the phone will not work and has been deactivated. I tried calling Tracfone back again and get a recording that the office is now closed. I also had extra minutes put on the new phone and I think that they too will not be able to be used. I want to make a formal complaint against this company!

I had gotten a new phone, having my ole minutes and number transfered. 3 wks after i had thuis phone activated it was shut off. when I called the company it took me forever to get thru and once I did was was put on hold 13 times while tests were done on my phone. No one spoke english. I was told the phone wasn't properly working and had been shut off by them. I was also told that I couldn't have this number transfered to a new phone, and I would loose the 200 plus minutes I had on this phone. I was given the runaround for over 55 minutes and no satisfaction.

This was a phone number I had been uing on resumes for over 3 years. NOw the number and all the contacts are lost due to the company refusing to reactivate the number-let alone the phone

I bought a trac phone from their web site when it arrived tried to activate it on line. Did it so I could save my # from verizon. which I switched back to. After getting the phone working after speaking with various people that could not understand got phone working. But You have to dial the area code plug the number to make local calls. Spent over 2 hours on and off of hold to be told this was a new feature for their upgraded system. Makes you want to know how good it was before it was upgraded. Their lying because if you buy one from a local retailer you do not have to dial an area code first. AVOID TRACFONEiy

Called to get a authorization to send phone back have not been able to stay on hold long enough to get it yet. 30 day return policy will expire before they get it.

I had service with them. I bought a new Moto W460g and called them on the phone to activate it to my existing tel#. That was on the 19th of Feb 2009. Today is Mar 2nd and I still have no service. I have been calling almost every other day and all I get is give us another 24hrs. I asked the girl where she was located, she said in South America. Fortunately I do not need this phone every day or I would definitely be in trouble.

Do Not do business with this company. They go out of their way to make it impossible to activate or add airtime. You can never reach them, nor does their web site support inquiries.

Service was terminated while purchased airtime remained. Loss of over $300

I bought the phone as it was recommended to me as I am from New Zealand and will not be here long enough to make a contract deal viable. The reason I got it was to make International calls and text (sms) message back home. It took over a week for them to activate the international service. They kept saying it wouold be done in 24 hors and it was not. So I was spending minutes talking to them and they kept not fixing the problem. On top of this I had to purchase calling cards as my phone was not working. Also you cannot phone mobile phones from their international service nor can you text.

To summarise a complete waste of time and money. Nowhere on the box did it state you would not be able to make certain calls or sms to certain countries. The customer service was very poor also. Do not buy this phone is you are a traveler. You would be better off getting a month to month contract. Cost me minutes to fix the problem caused by them. Did not have a working phone so had to spend money on calling cards, which I was trying to avoid and the whole reason I bought the phone.

I purchased a TracFone at a Wal-Mart store on Jan. 30th. I came home and tried to activate the phone and use the purchased minutes, but I kept getting the message on the phone, Prepaid Service Disabled. So I tried to contact customer service at their 800 telephone number. The customer service recording told me they were closed. I tried calling them the next day and spent over an hour on the phone with different reps. and supervisors. After spending all this time on the phone with them, I was told it would take 24-48 hours to get the phone activated. They said they would call me back after this time period.

They didn't call, I had to call them. Naturally I was given the same run around as I had on Saturday when I called. They apologized and put me on hold over and over again. They kept giving me the same instructions, codes, promises and still no phone service or minutes. When I purchased this phone from Wal-Mart they told me the more minutes you buy the better the price on the minutes. Boy oh boy what a mistake!! I also was promised the minutes would double, how can they double when you can't even get the phone activated?

So today, after waiting another 48 hours, they didn't call and I had to call to get the same answers I had before. Needless to say, I don't have a working TracFone and I'm sitting with a totally worthless phone card with minutes that Wal-Mart won't refund me on. AVOID THIS PRODUCT AT ALL COSTS! I will add, I did get a refund on the phone itself, but now I'll have to deal with my credit card company or go to our local Better Business Bureau. I also want to add when I returned the phone to Wal-Mart, the supervisor at the customer service desk replied, NOT ANOTHER ONE OF THESE PHONES! This said it all for me when she made that comment.

Furthermore, I want to add my frustration that I experienced by having to waste my precious time on the telephone for accumulated hours that added up to over 3 hours of my time. These so called customer service people need to be trained in the USA if they are going to communicate with people who speak English. How does a company like TracFone stay in business? I can answer this, they rip the consumer off by not giving them their purchased minutes! No wonder they are a multi-million dollar company, when they treat the consumers with no care or respect at all!

I'm out $40.00 + tax if I don't get satisfaction from my major credit card company or if the Better Business Bureau can't help me.

bought this tracfone 2 months ago, and since i bought it have been dealing with there customer service dept. to set up my voice mail account and as yet no one can help me... i have emailed them twice and called them 5 times. i get the same person, the same run around and the same results

all i want and asked for is a new phone in exchange for this new phone.. and maybe start over.

This is the 3rd Tracfone that I have had. Each time I have spent hours on the phone trying to get it up and running. The first thing is I get someone that cannot speak good english. This time again they give me a number that is long distance for me to call from home. Usually after a few hours I convince them that I need another number and even tell them the prefix I need. This time the person told me that the number I had was good and that they couldn't get me a number with the prefix I wanted. I shouldn't have to pay long distance, and it was my problem. (By thier computer) Well this is the last Tracfone for me.

I have spent over 5 hours on this last phone, getting up and running and trying to get a number that would work. It has taken me away from my business and I cannot help customers while in the phone to Tracfone. I just hope I can get my money back

I have used Tracphone for several years. Every year when it has been time to review, it has been a major hurtle to renew subscription. Hours have been spent on the phone talking to different people. Today it was time again to renew. To avoid all the hurtles, we tried to renew via the web, but as usual, it ended up with a message asking us to call their 800 number. Well there, they first asked about credit card number, and after about 10 minutes of talking, we were transferred to a second person who again asked for credit card number. Just talk and waste of time and after some time asked to talk to a supervisor. No action, just talk. At that point I told them to just cancel my subscription and not bill my credit card. We have just reached a point when this Tracphone nonsence we have experienced every year is just not worth it.

When I called in I had 598 units left, and by cancelling these units I will loose them effective on January 31. This by itself is worth it to just get rid of the disastreous service Tracphone is providing. My main concern is that Tracphone will charge my credit card and that I will have to fight their charge.

My husband and I have been customers of Tracfone Wireless for several years. We have been pleased with the pay-as-you-go method. We were so pleased we purchased and additional Tracfone for my son. For Christmas this year I decided to upgrade my husband's Tracfone to a newer model with more features. Before deciding to make the purchase I researched online the Tracfone official website to find out if they were like other similiar wireless companies that state in their ads that you can transfer your existing phone number to a new model (or phone). Everything on their website stated that you could transfer your existing phone number and it was easy and simple. It stated all you needed to do was go online and find the link to transfer your number and activate your new Tracfone. Well, it was not easy at all!!

On Jan. 2nd I went online to activate and put minutes on my son's phone. Then I started the process of activating my husband's new phone and transferring the existing # from his old phone to his new phone. I had even purchased his new Tracfone online on Tracfone's website. I went through all the steps and when I got tot he submit button it would not let me go any further. I tried different avenues, but to no avail. So, since our computer is hooked up to our home phone landed line I decided I should not log out of my computer and cancel what I had already filled out online in case it would mess my Tracfone transaction up. I used my Tracfone and was using my prepaid minutes. The first sales representative I talked over the phone took down all the information I had already put down on the online form. He then said he could finish the transaction for me and I would not use the form online. In our conversation I told him we definitely wanted the same phone # and asked he repeatedly throughout our conversation if we would still get our existing #. He reassured me yes we would.

Even before ending our phone conversation I once again asked if we still had our existing # and he told me yes. He said it would take an hour for the transaction to go through and after that hour to get on the new phone and go under "Menu","Prepaid", and then scroll down to "Phone #". I did all that and much to my surpise the phone number was not the existing #. I quickly got called the Tracfone 800 number and talked to different sales representative. The first sales rep. I unfortunately did not get his name or extention #. I should have, but I thought everything was taken care of for us. I don't remember how many sales rep. I talked to, but I finally got a supervisor. All the sales reps. and sup. also told me I could not longer get our old # because it was not longer available. I felt I was not getting anywhere with the sup. and said I would like to speak to someone at corporate. She told me that could not be done. One other thing that bothered me while talking to the sup. is she must have had me on speaker phone because I was having difficulty hearing her because there was a lot of talking and laughing in the background.

Several times during our conversation I would ask her to repeat herself and it would take her awhile to say anything back to me. Sometimes I thought she might me talking to someone else. I am not sure about that. After an hour on the phone with her waisting my Tracfone minutes she said she would send me a new SIM card for the new phone with the orginal number. It would come in 7 to 8 business days. When I received it I was to take out the old card, insert the new card and go online and fill out the form I had original started on 1-2-09. So, I did just that today (1-10-09). Once again I followed the steps given on the Tracfone website and when I got to the red "Submit" button this time it stated the following: "The Serial # entered in pending a transaction. Please allow 5 min. to process the transaction." After 5 min. I tried again. After 10 min. then 15 min. and finally 15 min. tried again. It kept stating the same thing.

So...I once again used my Tracfone and called there 800 #. One thing I should explain it that even though the # is 800 on Tracfone's prepaid phones when you are on the phone you are using up your minutes, so the 800 # is really not free. I timed the phone call and it was 31.7 minutes. The sales rep. I spoke with kept coming back on the phone and said I would need to wait a minute or two while she contacted another sup. in another department. Finally, I told her my situation and I was using my Tracfone minutes for this conversation. That last time she came back from putting me on hold she said that I would need to take a reference # and check back in 24 to 48 hours to see if the transaction was completed. I took her name/extention/reference # and will check back tomorrow to see what is up! I almost hate to check back because I know I will be starting the whole process over again. I am so discouraged! Thank you so much for your time and having a site that consumers can use to get their voice(s) heard!

We purchased a Tracfone for my parents for Christmas as they don't use a cell phone very much at all but it nice to have just in case. I activated the phone and over the next 72 hours the phone was never usable. Every time we tried to use it all we got was an automated attendant in the roaming network and our phone is not registered and can't be used. I would call Tracfone and spend 10 to 15 minuted each phone call putting in new codes and they would say it should be working in the next 4 hours. IT NEVER WORKED!! I finally called and cancelled everything. I would stay away from this phone, it is a pain in the butt.

I just purchased a Tr[a]cfone and i followed the steps exactly as i was told to, and guess what? Can't make outgoing calls. I called customer service for tech. support and i could barely hear the tech. person due to all the nise in the background from other technical support people trying to resolve what sounded like hundreds of problems. they told me to call back in an hour due to problems they were having.

Sometime during the week of Dec. 1, 2008 I Lost my tracphone wireless in Florida. I called Tracfone to turn off service, I receive a conformation number. I called Tracfone on Dec. 8th to check status. I was told that the Phone number to my Phone was registered to a different name and they could not help me. I bought the phone new 4 years ago. They have the number of a person who is reg to my phone number, but they say they can not call to verify Phone number.

I will lose 300+ minutes about $60.00

The reconditioned phone I got from Tracfone when I last added airtime has become unuseable. Following the directions on their website a attempted to transfer my account back to the phone I originally transferred it from. After many attempts, the only result I got was You have entered an incorrect phone number, please try again. After a few emails, in their third message, they said I needed to buy more airtime to activate the phone before I could transfer the airtime I already had, to that phone.

Rather than throw good money after bad, I purchased a new Tracfone phone. Tried following their instructions with the new phone, with air time, but got the same results. Also every one of their email replies takes 2 days to receive. I am thoroughly convinced that their Activate my TracFone with a number transferred from one of my other TracFones procedure never works, regardless of what is entered. It is just there to placate (ex)customers.

I'm out the cost of the new phone, plus my airtime, as well as all the time I have wasted trying to resolve this issue. And I still have no cell phone service!

the other day tracfone disabled a perfectly working tracfone without cause. It was the only one I had and when I contacted them they said I had requested the airtime be transferred to my new tracfone. I didn't have a new tracfone and told them that over and over again but they did not listen nor are they willing to take care of their mistake.

I only have one tracfone and it still had unused minutes on it with no time to be added until 12-31-2008. I gave thenm the serial number and they said they didn't have a serial number in their system matching it. then they said I must have read the serial number wrong so I even sent them a good clear photo of the serial number right off the phone but they still offered no help.
More than $300.00

i purchased tracfone online for ten dollars. just recieved phone. it will not work in my area of residence. programmed phone several times still did not work. being sent same phone. 1st phone was defective according to tracfone. I have only lost time and 10 dollars so far. I am posting the executive contact info for tracfone in the hopes that if enough people complain to the corp office more will be done. i just don't understand!! all the complaints seem to be the same issue

1.poor customer support

2.lack of decent tech resolution

3.poor equipment

4.fraud

5.poor english speaking, poorly trained scripted employees.

why has nothing been done? why is the FCC and the FTC not doing anything about this?

Here is tarcfones corp numbers

Here are the people I called, please print them to help other readers:

F.J. Pollak-President

8390 NW 25th St.

Miami, FL 33122

305-640-2000

BBB lists phone numbers:

305-715-6501

800-867-7183

Fax: 305-640-2070

I bought a phon e for my mom who takes care of my handicapped daughter. She was taking a long road trip with my child who has cerebral palsy as well as other health conditions. I bought the phone right before Christmas in 2006 the phone shipped through Fed Ex however I never received the phone. I found out Fed Ex sent the phone back to tracfone and I got the tracking number showoing that a tracfone receiver signed for the phone.

I called customer service at Tracfone and explained the situation and they saw that they had received the phone back and they would issue a credit that I would see within a couple days. I never got the credit and have called them so many times to get reimbursed for the phone I never received and I always get blown off. I've spoken to managers, supervisors, anyone I could get in touch with and still never received my money back. I am not in a situation to be throwing money out the window my child now needs surgeries and I am also a single mom I can't afford to have money stolen from me and am very upset that they would do this to me as I had been a loyal customer with them as well.

All they owed me was $35.00 that's it and a company that big won't reimburse me $35.00 it is so frustrating and I feel very hurt that they would keep pushing me off. It's even more than the money it's the let down and discouragement and trust that was broken that upsets me the most. Doing this to someone in my position makes it ev en more of a disgrace they should be ahamed.

it took 12 calls to activate our phone 120 minute card

I purchased a new Tracfone and wanted to switch my current Tracfone number to the new cell phone. On July 28, 2008, I called Tracfone. The agent removed my remaining minutes from my old phone and provided me with a case number. The agent told me it would take up to 48 hours to update. The agent neglected to tell me that it is 48 business hours. On July 31, I contacted Tracfone again, and was told it would take one more day. I contacted Tracfone on August 4th and was told it would take an additional 24 hours. Again, the agent neglected to tell me that it would be 24 business hours.

I contacted Tracfone on August 7. This time the agent apologized for the delay and explained the situation to me. The old transmission tower needed to release the informaion before the new transmission tower was able to update the new cell phone. I was informed to call back on August 9th after 3pm to update the new cell phone.

On August 9th, the Tracfone agent informed me that it is not ready and would take an additional two or three days. Please call on Wednesday. August 13th, I called Tracfone after 3pm only to get the same nonsense. That it would take an additional 24 hours. I had to ask the agent if it was business hours or clock hours. The agent informed me that it was business hours. I had to ask when does the 24 business hours begin. The agent reported that business hours are 8am to 3pm and I should try calling on August 17th after 3pm.

I have been without my cell phone for 17 days. I have missed appointment calls and text messages. During this time, my mother was in the nursing center and gave them my cell phone. I had missed a phone call from the nursing home. Nothing major with my mother but I can't help think what if it was. I don't know who else called since I cannot retrieve my voice or text messages. I use this number on my resume and I was expecting a job interview. Since I cannot retrieve my messages, I cannot return phone calls.

My service was about to expire on July 5, 2008. I bought an airtime card for 60 minutes from Walmart on July 4, and added it on July 5. NEITHER The minutes nor the new service expiration date never appeared on my phone.(although the expiration date changed ONE DAY--to July 6) I finally called in, after some time of trying to get contact by Internet--and spoke to the Rep. who answered the phone. She could barely speak English--and I had a hard time even getting across that my minutes were not added.

When I finally THOUGHT I'd explained myself--she told me that I'd admitted (like I was commiting a crime!) that my service had continued past the old expiration date. I told her yes--my SERVICE had continued, but I needed the MINUTES added to my On-phone total, AND my new expiration date of October 5 put on my phone too. She informed me that she couldn't give me any minutes without purchasing a phone card! I told her I'd already done so--all I wanted was for them to be added to the total that was already on my phone, and the new expiration date to be displayed. She told me they WERE--I told her they WERE NOT; and asked to speak to her Supervisor.

After many delay tactics--during which she claimed she was talking to her Supervisor; I finally spoke to a person who CLAIMED to be her Supervisor; but sounded like the same girl. THIS person went through the same explanation with me about how I was supposed to buy another card before I could get more minutes! Finally, after I told her AGAIN that I'd been using the SERVICE and my CARRY-OVER minutes; and had NEVER had the 60 minutes I bought added to my total; NOR had the expiration date changed on my phone--she told me that they would not be able to help me at this time.

She asked if I had any other questions and I said yes--I want to know when you are going to add the 60 minutes I bought on July 4 added to my total, and also when you are going to change the expiration date on my phone? With a huff of exaspiration, she HUNG UP on me! My phone STILL reflects the 27 minutes or so I've got left from the PRIOR card, and STILL says that my service expires on July 6, 2008. I'm at a loss as to how to get my minutes added--or my date changed on my phone! (besides my aggravation!)

I don't have the use of my $20 worth of minutes; I can't refer to my phone for minutes remaining or expiration date--and I've been stressed to death! I'm on full Disability; I can't handle alot of this--I need my phone to work when I need it, especially in an emergency. Without the extra minutes I bought available, I'll run out soon. I simply can't handle a so-called Supervisor actually HANGING UP on me! I wasn't asking for a thing that they haven't done before (this happened once before) and I was respectful. THEY got rude.

services. As I'd not been told that using the Tracfone to add services would deduct from my prepay, I "lost" ca. $13.00 trying to get a Tracfone number, as advertised, in Canada which my friends and family could call without paying extra charges on either end. Assured several times that I would have the number within 24 and then within 48 hours, I never received that number which I requested in October 07.

In Canada and preparing for the May 08 trip to the States, I called Tracfone to reactivate the Tracfone. I was put on hold for 40 minutes after being given a run around by someone whose name was unintelligible, who spoke fast and very faintly. At the end of 40 minutes I was cut off. Attempts to email the Tracfone company resulted in a flurry of robot responses that had nothing to do with the original observation, request for help, or complaint. Eventually, on our second visit to the Holyoke Mall, I discovered that the reason we cannot get services, including reactivation from Canada, on our Tracfone, is because: Tracfone cannot bill a Canadian address!

If a Canadian address can't be billed for services, why were we sold this white elephant? Also charging equipment specific to the Tracfone was bought for car and home use. The Tracfone, despite following charging directions, will not keep a full charge. I returned from Canada to the Holyoke Mall in May 2008 with the defective Tracfone. The manager on duty (name on file) told me to just keep plugging it in and watch for the green light. Of course this never happened. But this was after she spent ONE HOUR of our travel time trying to reactivate it.

The manager did reactivate the phone but I used it for two 911 calls regarding others' disabled vehicles and a very few other inconsequential calls. The phone had been needed for a funeral service coordination but was so limited in what it could give a Canadian that it wasn't of any use. The economic losses amount to easily $100.00 plus the loss of at least a day total trying to get the thing to charge, to connect, to perform as advertised.

I would like to return the phone and charging equipment, get all my money back, and this time just buy a disposable prepaid cell phone. I am not blaming the Radio Shack ladies who waited on us. They were trying to be very helpful and were certainly patient in threading their way through the billing maze. But I am very disappointed in the Tracfone performance and service. We can provide names, dates, and billings should an attorney be interested.

I had been with TracFone for a few years. I bought a new cell phone (in a TracFone blister package) at a retail outlet. When I called TracFone to activate the new phone, I asked to use my existing TracFone number. TracFone immediately deactivated my old phone and sent me the wrong SIM card.

After nine more calls to the TracFone call center (in South America), I received two more bad SIM cards, lost the minutes I had previously purchased, had two dead cell phones and no service for two months--the worst service I have ever experienced from any company, ever.

I have purchased and received two Motorola phones W260G directly from TRACFONE, FOR $64.63. I have called 800- on June 13, 2008 to initiate the activation process and requested to transfer my existing phone numbers from Nextel, to Tracfone. I completed the process for both phones, I was given the case #, and I was told the process will take seven days.

As to this date, June 30, 2008 I haven't received the Simm cards the company promised and nobody contacted me by phone or email to explain the delay. I called back on June 21, 2008 and I was asked to provide the same information again for a follow-up with their IT. I have been without cell phone service since the service with my former carrier was terminated by TRACFONE and worst of all, my former cell phone numbers I asked to transfer are still up in the air.

TRACFONE WIRELESS, INC.service is worthless, and their company claim that the activating process will take seven days is not only misleading, by false. I am no longer interested in pursuing cell phone activation by TRACFONE and I would like to return their cell phones for a complete credit. I have sent an email to TRACFORE today, June 30, 2008 and also asked to start the process for the purchase refund of these two phones. I have been without cell phone service for a total of 17 days and worst of all, my two former Nextel numbers I asked TRACFONE to transfer, are in limbo.

$64.63 for the purchase of these phones and unspecified damages for the inconvenience, loss of cell phone usage, and, for the potential loss of my former cell phone numbers from Nextel.

I appreciate your help. I did finally find a man from India at Trac Fone but he spoke better English and and he really stuck with it to get the situation resolved. My complaint is resolved. I guess Trac Fone does have some good people also and I was grateful for this man. Thank you for your help!

I tried for about an hr to activate a new trac fone onlin and trasfer minutes as they promised. It did not activate. It said it was activated but was not. I tried again online then called trac fone. I could not understand the person from India nor could she understand me. The phone would turn off every few seconds so you can imagine how frustrating the whole process was. Nothing worked and she finally admitted that the phone was faulty which I tried to tell her all this time. It would not even work with the charger plug on.

Anyway she promised me a barand new phone with MP3 player FM radio and camera. I thought this sounded nuts, but she said oh no this is actually coming and that it would even be programmed for me. The phone came - a reconditioned one and of course the very cheapest phone. What she told me was false. Now I don't know what to do as have lost all my transfer minutes and the expensive phone card I put in etc as the phone was not programmed for me as promised and likely never will be activated with all the minutes from what I read here. I am so discouraged.

I am out $180 and all that time and still have no phone activated. I am especially concerned though about the ethics Companies I really appreciate anyone working for the consumer and consumer protection and better more ethical customer service. I don't have money or time for lawsuits. I simply want tracfone to make this right and not lie to customers like this. Also they need tech people that you can understand and communicate with.

we activated a tracfone and they took the remaining menutes off. when you buy this phone they promise big. no contact, no roaming charges. they put in conditions after you (the consumer) has already purchased the phone and is stuck with it. Which is basicly a contract you have to buy the cards then keep renewing them or lose the minutes that you bought. when you call about roaming charges by the time you get them taken care of you time is ran out and do you really want to deal with these people.

We lost a total of 193 minutes on the last bit when i talked to the gal about that all she would do is say its their policy to take it she didn't care that was money to me and my family that her company got under false pretense. finally i got the above phone number out of her but they do the same thing quote policy and still let your phone take roaming charges. I would take you up on the attorney but this is a company computer and they wouldn't like me taking up alot of time. thank you and i hope you can get them to stop making false clsims

money wise over $100.00 when you put in the cost of the phone and the ninutes you lose and have paid for.

I've been a TracFone customer for over six years. I bought the double minutes for the life of your phone last year, and since December 2007 the double minutes do not work. I called and put in several cases and they won't help me or fix the problem. I've lost over $600 on missing minutes with TracFone.

I've had an coount with Tracfone since 8/08/07 And every month I have had to call to ahve my units sdded to my Tracfone cause they have always told me that I didnt have enought bars..ok..I understand that... but today when I when I called they told me that I never had and account with them..whith is crap cause I have bank stamenents email letters welcoming to thier service plan on that 8/08 date Now they send me a letter of notice today that my account was cancelled today 4/22/2008 after say that I never had an account with them..if I never had an account with them, then why did they send me a letter of cancellation?? And they took the money out of my checking account two days ago..on 5/19 2008..how is that possible.. unless they had that informatiion of my bank account to begin with

Because of what Tracfone has done to me ..I now have to shut down my checking account.

My family and I have been Tracfone customers for years and found it to be a cost effective way to provide cell phone service when our 2 daughters were in college. Until recently, we have been satisfied with the company and the services they provided. Our satisfaction with Tracfone has now come to an end. Two weeks ago, I began the process of updating my wife's low end Nokia Tracfone to a Motorola W370. The process should have been simple; register phone, add minutes, present new phone to wife. It did not work out that way.

Today is May 6, 2008 and is the beginning of week three in this continuing saga. After 2 weeks and hundreds of minutes wasted on the telephone with Tracfone representatives the telephone is still inoperative. Approximately an hour ago, I finished a conversation with a Tracfone rep. and was told that my 3rd SIM card for this phone would arrive in 3-5 days and I get to start the process all over again!

I am amazed at the total lack of cooperation I have received from this company and am very disappointed that the cell phone manufacturers (mostly well known, established companies) do not step in and tell Tracfone to get their house in order. I am so tired of dealing with foreign service reps reading from prepared scripts that do not provide the opportunity for dialogue. Tracfone is ruining would could be a very good service industry.

I received a tracfone as a xmas gift in December 2005. I tried to activate it, and it was seemingly activated, but I could never use the phone--never send or receive messages. At the time, tracfone had virtually no customer service. I called and called and called...busy signals for ever. Then a friend of mine said that he had bought a tracfone and it worked fine for his needs...about $15 a month and a phone when he needed it on the road or to coordinate friends...so I thought I'd try it one more time. So I got on line and bought a year service with double minutes...so 800 minutes for $150.21 with tax and all..less than $15/month.

I thought great. But as others have noted, I could not activate the phone. I was told it was because I had changed the 'calling home' so I accepted being in the town where I supposedly first 'registered' this phone that never worked. They said it would take an hour. Of course after an hour it didn't work. They said, well 3-4 hours...I needed the phone for a family emergency, and so this delaying tactic was not appreciated. They they said well 24 hours! All of these represent up to an hour on the phone and several times to the supervisor. They said they would have to send me a phone--at first they said 2-3 days, then it was amended to 5-7 business days, which really was not acceptable. By then it was late, and, I had family issues that couldn't.

So when I returned, the phone still not working, I tried to cancel the service and got the same run around described by other customers. I would never have signed up for the service if I didn't think I could use it very quickly... As earlier writers have mentioned, I would never have added the minutes if I didn't think I could use the phone right away. The phone works, it charges, it has its messages...but for some reason the 'SIM CARD' never worked. If I had bought it orginally, I would have returned it. but it was a gift. Now I am going to throw it out.

After almost 2 hours speaking to two people in 'customer service' and two people in credit card sales, and endless dragging of feet, I got my reimbursement. You'd have to be as tenacious and as willing to waste your precious time to make a point as I am to be successful. Pleading, threats, nice, and nasty...nothing works. I must say the workers were unflappable. Repeating the same platitude...may I put you on hold for one minute while I...and then another one minute, an then they start asking for two minutes...and even when I said I wasn't going to be put on hold again...they put me on hold. And I was angry by the time I started this last call. And I yelled at the poor woman. But nothing seemed to get through. The with the phone would have been perfect for me if it had worked.

Aggravation and loss of time. I earn over $60,000 a year, so you pro-rate the loss of 5 hours, plus the loss of the phone I needed.

Attempted to reactivate a tracfone that had been idle. started on the web site. The first thing that web site asked for was teh serial number of the phone. It did not ask for the serial number of the SIM card. The web site took my money, but was not able to complete the process and referred me to an 800 number. I spent a tedious half hour on the phone trying to get activated. I described the screens, error codes, talked about how the phone had been out of service since 2006, etc. We entered the codes and I was told teh phone would be operational in an hour.

Next day no service, SIM card error. Tried to resolve with tech support. They could not, and wanted to send a new SIM card which would arrive in 5-7 days. Unacceptable. I needed the phone the next day. Asked for refund to my credit card. Was told their policy was not to issue refunds. I had to escalte several levels and after an hour and a half I got my refund.

I wasted several hours with these jokers. The serial number should have triggered a query about the SIM card and a message PRIOR to taking my money. The woman in the boiler room had no clue. I wasted several hours and now have to go out and get a phone.

I have been reading all these complaints regarding Tracfone, which I have also gone through. Practically exactly similar circumstances; ie; the long waits on hold, the foreign speaking customer service reps and the long wait for a supervisor...must take a long time from Columbia reaching a supervisor in the States. Anyway, I have my third phone I just purchased from Tracfone, but my husband's phone was due for more airtime, so I used a credit card online to order him the $19.99 card. He rarely uses his phone, so its hard to remember to get another card. Anyway, I got the information all typed in, sent it, but his phone has never accepted the time. I am beginning to feel very uneasy about having used a credit card, and wish I had read this site before I did that. But to make things even worse, suddenly their web site became unavailable...due to the heavy volume during this holiday season.

I kid you not...that is what it is saying today/last night, shortly after I paid for the time for my husband's phone. This is just horrible customer service. I also checked out their Net 10 web site, and it says its Busy. Perhaps this company just folded its tent and crept away in the middle of the night? I also read the message from the alleged employee of Tracfone, talking about how the customers scream, holler, yell. amd curse at them...well, heck yeah we do...if you were treated this badly you would too. One other thing I wanted to say, is to Len...you can understand their customer service reps? Wow...don't know how you do it...that is quite a feat!

I know what I am in store for tomorrow...making a phone call to ask why the time I purchased never went into my hubby's phone. I will take notes this time to see what ridiculous answer they give me. His time is not up until April 30th, so they can't say his phone is inactivated. I really liked the concept of not having to deal with a two year contract, and an outlandish bill, since we are both retired, and can't afford the high bills we had before with a contract company. I wish someone would look into this company and get to the bottom of their very poor customer service and the insane need to enter all those numbers when you need to activate a phone. That is just madness!

I will be out $22 this time, if hubby's minutes never get put on his phone, and will probably end up having to buy him a new phone too...his has no way to add airtime via the phone itself. We both had the same model and make of phone, but mine allowed me to add airtime through the phone. It costs more in your time and patience and sanity than I can even guess!

I moved from Washington state to Indiana. I wanted a local phone number on my cell phone. Customer service with this company is ABYSMAL. I have spent several weeks, at least 10 calls (45 to 60 minutes each), talked to numerous supervisors, had promises of a new SIM card and new phone, entered codes -- and STILL have no service! It doesn't help that the customer service people 1) speak very bad English 2) constantly have to refer to a supervisor 3) put one on hold for extended periods of time 4) constantly apologize (I am so sorry for your inconvenience). All I want is a phone that works! I had no trouble with my phone in Washington, and hoped to continue service with TracFone. Judging from complaint websites, I am far from alone in this problem.

My blood pressure has gone up 20 points. I have spent easily 5 or 6 hours on the phone when I could be doing something more useful. I do not have a working cell phone, and the 51 remaining minutes on it are a $40 (or so) loss if I do not get service. I do not trust this company and think there may be a systematic effort on their part to defraud consumers, and leave them hanging until they give up in disgust.

I purchased a tracfone(Motorola V170) to replace my previous phone that got wet and no longer functions. I have been trying to have my new phone activated and my previous number and minutes transferred to the new phone. I have been told that the phone was not scanned properly when I purchased it, so I have had to fax my receipt and serial number. I've done this 3 times to 3 different numbers and each time I call, I am told a different number. I have now faxed the information 4 times and still no active phone. This has been going on since 12/21/07. Today I called again and once again was told they have not received my information. So I have faxed it again. How can I get this resolved?

I have lost about 400 minutes of air time. Have no functioning cell phone and have spent 5 hours on the phone with TracFone reps over the course of 4 weeks.

None, other than frustration

I purchased airtime over the phone (was traveling at that time) with my Amex card. After a few weeks I got a bill from Amex of $3000; someone gave up my card number and copied the card with a different name, but my card number below, and used the card a few miles from where the Tracfone company is! I only used this card for this transaction, so I know the Tracfone employees are involved. Consumers beware. By the way my phone number was double; someone else had the same number, and it was a big confusion! I will never never never--you know the rest!

I had owned and used a cell phone from Tracfone for a couple of years and then purchased a new Model folding phone. When I called to activate I was told it would take 24 to 48 hours for the activation to be working. Each call I made to Tracfone was handled by some one different, and when I asked to speak to a supervisor I was put on hold every two to three minutes. All I have received after 10 days was a duplicate ordeal of the first day I called. Today I was told that it would be at least another 72 hours. If I did not have $150.00 invested in this phone company, I would have given up.

I have had a Tracfone for several years for emergencies while traveling. The concept is perfect for me. But, there is a change in technology. The idea of dealing with their service depart. sends chills down my spine. You must plan on at least one hour and be in a very, very patient mood. In Sept of 2007, I bought, at a local Target, a new airtime card for 1 year of service and 400 minute of air time. This brings my available minutes to almost 1200 minutes. So I called to activate my new phone. 40 minutes. You have to wait for it to work. Days go by and still no service. I finally get my nerve up and call. It still doesn't work. I wait awhile, and call again.

Eventually, after talking to at least three people, someone finally tells me that the new Motorola doesn't work in my area, although they are still selling it in my area. They will send me a new phone, I must return the old phone. OK, I have to travel for Thanksgiving without a phone. Not something I'm comfortable with. I get the new one, and send back the old one. I called again today. Over an hour later, they tell me that they can't give me back the 1175 minutes they owe me without checking with their lawyers. I'll have to keep trying back - they can't contact me with the lawyers answer. 1175 minutes is a lot of money. Of course the receipt from Target has expired, the minutes are nonrefundable and I will travel for Christmas with no phone. I don't know about the others whose emails I read, but I'm going to cut my losses and go for another company. Of course, I'm in a target age group for Tracfone, 58. This is the age group where we don't want to be without a cell phone even though we might not need daily service. I also don't want to be terrified of calling my mobile phone provider because of the aggrivation. I won't go through it again.

Financial loss of 1175 minutes, cost of a new phone, at least 4 hours of lost time since mid-Sept. 2007.

We bought a TracFone yesterday 12-13-07. We had it programed at the Wal-Mart in Lake Delton, WI. When we tried to use it it was programmed out of our district. I called the 800 number to get it straightened out. What a hassle. The person I was speaking to could not understand me and I could not understand him. I was so disgusted, I hung up. I called again later and got another foreigner. I asked for someone who could speak English that I could understand and was told that he was it. I asked where he was speaking from and he told me Columbia, Latin America. Well after a long and frustrating time, the first problem was cleared up. The other problem is that we purchased a card that was supposed to give us 150 bonus minutes, promotional code 53911. We did not get them and I would like to know why. Who do I call to find out how to get them added to the minutes already on my phone? Someone here in the USA, who speaks and understands English?

I was contacted by Tracphone and told that the older phone (which worked) was not going to work in my area anymore so they would send me an upgrade. That's when my trouble started! I didn't receive my new phone, so I had to call them and was told I had received a phone. I nicely assured them I had not and that my husband was going into the hospital for surgery and I needed my phone, I received a phone. I next had trouble with activation: it would not activate. When I called, I was told the Sim card wouldn't work in my area, and they sent another. It would not activate, either.

I called again and was told the phone itself would not work in my area, so they sent another phone. This phone (Kyocera brand) activated with difficulty, and now I can only call two numbers, and the phone shuts off after 16 seconds. I will never recommend Tracfone. I had to borrow a phone while my husband was in the hospital, which was stressful--and to think that other person was without a phone.

After I purchased and had my Tracfone five hours, and made seven calls to attempt service over a six-hour period of time, my phone is still not working. Tracfone won't even refund me the $19.95 in fees that I authorized to my credit card during the first phone call to start service. I returned to Tracfone, even though the first phone fell part after ten months of use, because Tracfone never did complete the transfer of my original Tracfone number to T-mobile service. I really wanted my original cell phone number.

I have had no cell phone for a period of 10 days since purchase. This cell phone and continuing with my same cell phone number is important to my credibility in business. My time is worth over $60 per hour, and I have spent 6 hours on the phone without being able to resume cell phone service.

I bought a new Tracphone and was told that my double-minute pre-purchased plan would transfer. After waiting 30 minutes for an operator and an additional 20 minutes for the supervisor, I was told that the double minutes would not transfer; now I am out $61.00 for a new phone and $49.99 for the plan and another $49.99 for the old phone that I should have kept in the first place. I am sure that millions of dollars are being made daily by these people, and they will lose thousand of dollars from customer dissatisfaction. By the time the consumer realizes what's happening, like many other scams, it is too late.

The damages are primarily financial and will be social, as well. I live in the mountains, and most of the cell phone signals are substandard, but I thought I could count on the economic value that Tracfone represented; unfortunately, I was wrong.

I have been a Tracfone customer for about three years. They e-mailed me to tell me your phone will become obsolete, you need to upgrade. The upgrade they offered was free, plus the old phone was due to not work, so what could I do? I asked for the upgrade. They sent a Nokia phone in about a week (reconditioned). After an hour and 55 minutes on the phone they got my old number and minutes transferred... great. But the new phone was not picking up any service. NO BARS. I called them back. 55 minutes on the phone, they tell me SIM cards will not work in your area, we will send you another phone. A week later, now the old phone doesn't work, the Nokia shows no service, I get a new in the package LG phone. I call to get it activated (after charging the battery overnight of course). Two hours to get thru to customer service. The lady tells me the minutes and number have been transferred, but it will take them 5-7 days to get the proper codes to activate my phone. I wait a week. I spend two more hours on the phone in order to hear they will have to send me a new phone. 4 days later I have a new, new LG phone. Charge overnight etc. Called and spent 2 hours on the phone. It will take 5-7 days to get the codes for your phone, they say. Forget giving me the old phone number! I say, Just give me a new number and activate this phone! Call us back in 2 hours, the supervisor said. I called back to hear, we will have to send you a new phone. I said, send me my money back, I have been without a phone now for over three weeks. We are not allowed to give refunds. they say. Right now I have FOUR cellphones: the original one, the Nokia with the SIM card, and 2 brand new LG phones. I am planning to send them all to the corporate headquarters, along with a detailed letter describing the hours spent on the phone and who I was privileged to speak with. All I heard from the Tracfone people was NO. No, they can't connect me to the tech department. No, they can't connect me to the Supervisor's manager. No, they can't give me the number of Corporate Headquarters. No, they can't make sure the phone works before sending it to me. No, they can't give me my money back. I have been without a working phone since the first of October, and I am looking at another 3-5 days before I can try a fourth time with a fifth phone.

Aside from taking a day and a half off of work (Tracfone is not open on weekends) and the sheer mental agony of repeating the same information six times in one day, I guess there is not much damage.

I have been with Tracfone for 8 years. In my wireless service area, they use U.S. Cellular as their local vendor. About 2 weeks ago, they sent me a letter and telephoned me on my landline at home that I needed to upgraded my personal cell phone to continue their service. Last Friday I received their Free Cell Phone, and it was delivered at my home by DHL. I had purchased many Tracfone cards and my prepurchase agreement assures my cell phone number with them through 2010. WHAT A NIGHTMARE to transfer my current cell phone number to a new free cell phone provided by Tracfone!

IT HAS BEEN A WEEK. Still no cell phone service. I checked online and my case has been "closed" and if problems, I was to call. I did, many times during the week, and was on hold for hours without resolution, getting only a recording. I ended up going to a different and better service but lost my prepaid Tracfone monies and minutes, plus lost my long-standing phone number and contacts for that number. My Tracfone number, however, is locked into through 2010.

I bought a new Tracfone from Dollar General. I finally got the phone activated, but the 60 minutes I purchased have never been added.

I have tried online, through Tracfone, and by regular landline, but nothing works. It says that minutes will be added shortly, but it never happens.

Yesterday I bought another regular cell phone that is paid for monthly. This is the only way to go.

Just very stressed

We purchased a Tracfone at Target on 9/9/07 and activated it that same day. It was a promotion for $99.99 which gave you a Motorola Tracfone and a 400 minute airtime card, plus 20 extra free minutes if card activation done on-line. After using just 34 minutes of airtime, per the cell phone call history of both incoming and outgoing calls, the balance of the airtime disappeared. I attempted to call the 800 number listed above at least 10 times in the last five days. I either wait or am never connected, disconnected before ever getting a live person, or told there is such high call volume that I can't even be put on hold. This is all through an automated system. Today I waited on hold for 104 minutes, after being given an expected wait time of 30 minutes, and finally gave up again. We have tried to request help on-line but we continually are confronted with server error and can't get any further. I want my 386 minutes of airtime back or a full refund. There is absolutely no customer service available.

I am without a cell phone because there are supposedly no airtime minutes left. I am also out $99.99 plus tax = $102.35.

I've had my current phone for almost a year with no problems. I recently attempted to use the TracFone to extend the service date on my phone, only to be informed that there were technology incompatibilities with the model of phone that I use and that no time/units would be added to my phone. A replacement phone was offered free of charge, and I was told that I would have to call Customer Service when the phone arrived to transfer my number and mintues. The phone arrived okay, but after being on hold for almost 30 minutes the Customer Service Rep told me that there was a problem with the SIM card and a replacement would be sent free of charge. I was approaching the end of my service and asked if I would lose my number if the SIM card didn't arrive in time. I was told that the number and remaining units would transfer because the phone upgrade was required by TracFone and was not optional. When the SIM card finally arrived, I called TracFone again to transfer the units and phone number. However, this time the Rep Sherry informed me that I had lost my number because my service had expired. Also, because my number was not active, they would not transfer the minutes from the old phone to the new phone. When I complained about being penalized for a phone upgrade that was required by TracFone, I was told that it was not a required upgrade. I then said that, since it wasn't required, I would continue to use my old phone so that I wouldn't lose my minutes. I was then told that my old phone could not be reactivated due to incompatible technology. She thanked me for calling and hung up before I could continue the conversation. I called back and, after another 30 minutes on hold, was routed to another Customer Service Rep. As I explained the problem, I was given the same responses - almost word-for-word. So, needless to say, I have lost my number and almost 700 minutes.

I've lost $100 for the airtime and a bit of my sanity.

I ordered phones, my credit card was charged, and I did not receive the phones.

I wasted hours on the phone and was charged for something I haven't received.

My son has gone through three Tracfones. The most recent phone just stopped working, says NO SERVICE.

Tracfone said wait 48 hours, turn the phone off and then back on again. Well that didn't work so we bought another phone and called the 800 number to get the minutes from the old phone transferred to the new phone, and transfer the number. Well, the call went to someone in India or someplace. Right in the middle of the transaction his "Go Home" bell must have rang because he started acting like he couldn't hear me. He just kept saying, "thank you for calling TRACFONE, this is Darren may I help you". I hung up and called back and they were closed!

It angers me that American industries outsource to foreign companies that really hold no liability. I will not purchase from companies that outsource their customer service to foreign countries.

I've had a cheapie, reconditioned Nokia Tracfone for a couple of years. It performed well, never had any problems with battery life, adding minutes and time accurately.

Stupid me, I had to have a camera phone. I got the LG 225. It arrived quickly, I sat down today to activate it and have my phone number, minutes and time transferred from the Nokia to the LG. Six hours later, I now know that I have a bad SIM card in the LG.

I need to have Tracfone send a new SIM card, was advised that in order to have my minutes and number changed, I will have no cell service (not even to check messages from a landline) for 48 hours. That's IF the new SIM card works.

I'm thinking of sending the LG back. Their customer reps obviously read from scripts and they do not have any technical training. I understand nearly every accent on earth, but the accents at Tracfone defy comprehension.

I think this company is a nightmare. I have had a prepaid phone before with AT&T, so I know how this is supposed to work.

First, I was sent a reconditioned phone, not what I ordered on their website. Second, it can take up to 24 hours to activate. My AT&T phone was activated instantly. I received 2-60 minute cards when I bought the phone. I activated one of them when I activated the phone. That was on August 20th. It is now August 24th and no minutes.

When I called customer service on August 21st, I received a 30 minute wait time, which is ludicrous. I got disconnected and when I called back, I got a message saying, sorry we are busy, call back later. I emailed them and got a message last night from someone who barely spoke English.

I am done with this company. I spent $20 for the phone and minutes and the aggravation of dealing with this company is not worth it to me.

Ordered a Tracfone on 8-17-07 with an 800 minute card and one year service. Phone arrived promptly in 3 days but would not activate. After a frustrating hour with their service dept they determined the phone was defective and would send another.

The second phone arrived in 3 days and was physically defective as the menu button would not work. Another hour on the phone with a foreign-speaking service rep, whom I could barely understand, kept me going through an endless round of holds, promises to transfer me to a supervisor, and the eventual promise of another phone after I spoke with a supervisor who mysteriously would never appear.

I finally said to cancel the process and send me a refund. Was told no refunds were allowed. I said that I didn't allow defective merchandise to be repeatedly delivered to me either, and bid the rep a pleasant day as I hung up. Thereupon I contacted my credit card company and proceeded to write them a letter outlining exactly what had happened and that I would appreciate the charges being reversed for cause.

I puchased a phone from tracfone about 4 weeks ago. When I attempted to use the phone one day I could no longer receive a call. It seems there was a problem with the assigned phone number.

when dialing the phone number you would receive dead air..no ring and no voice recording. I explained all this to cusomer support and was told to go thru several tests for the phone. I explained that this was a phone number problem. I was transferred through three departments to finally get the phone fixed. The CRT Department rep whos first name was Melody had a severe phone problem. I would constantly get static and her voice would break up when trying to explain the problem.

I requested a new phone number for the phone but they would not do this for me.

It took me about an hour to resolve this problem..a lot of needless testing to see if it was the phone.

My Phone Number was ARBITRARILY INACTIVATEDby TracFone. I've had the same phone number for about 3 years with TracFone. In May 2006 I purchased a new TracFone and asked to have my phone number transferred to the new phone. It took them nearly a month to make the transfer but it was finally done and my phone was working fine until 7/20/07 when my phone displayed Unregistered SIM.

I phoned TracFone. I was disconnected after a 10 minute wait on a first call and had to wait another 15 minutes on a second call After 2 phone calls and nearly 90 minutes, here's what I learned.

According to TracFone,

1. my phone number - that I had last used 0n 7/19/07 - has been inactive in their records since 2006.

2. my phone number is not available for transfer because it may have been given to someone else

3. my minutes are available on a different phone number - a SIM card not on my phone

4. there's nothing they can do

This has been my BUSINESS phone number on my current TracFone since May 2006. I added minutes to the phone in January, 2007 and currently have over 300 units - now unavailable - that don't expire until July 2008.

MY CLIENTS CANNOT REACH ME on my business phone! All my business cards, letterhead, promotional materials etc. have this phone number. Everything I do online has this phone number. It is a great loss of my time, money and potential business.

Received automated call that TracFone sending new phone due to upgrade in area. Said to call them for instructions. Took 4 days to get through due to heavy volume then placed on hold for 25 min. Then cut off. Repeated 6 times before getting through after 45 min wait. First rep had no clue as to why I was calling. Was on phone with her 45 min. Wouldn't allow me to speak to supervisor.

After another 10 min she put me on hold for supervisor. This took 20 min. Was told would receive phone in 3-5 days. Rec. it after 6 days; called to activate. Same problem getting in and took 3 days this time. Rep tried to activate phone but said couldn't keep existing air time or existing phone number.

During activation process, I was cut off. Called again (same time problem). Rep said other rep had actually activated the phone but yes, we could keep same number and existing air time. BUT would have to send me another SIM card. This took 5 days. Called again. They'd sent wrong SIM card. Waited 4 more days. Received SIM card today.

I pre-paid my time online via a credit card with TracFone TWICE and I can't get the cell phone to activate. The activation procedure is EXTREMELY complicated, but I'm sure I did it right. When I call their tech support line it is simply voicemail hell. After many tries, I finally found an option to speak with a live person. Surprise, surprise -- they say via a recording that they're closed and to call back during normal business hours. I'll bet a fortune I'm on hold forever tomorrow. I'm out over $42 on this, but I've learned my lesson. The only thing that's easy to arrange with them is a credit card payment online before you (don't) get the service. Never again.

I bought a new airtime card for $20 and when I went to enter it into my phone, something ive done several times before, I kept getting a message that the service was unavailable and to try again later. I tried tech support via phone and internet and got absolutely nowhere. By phone, I kept getting a message to try later and by internet, the instructions were unclear.

There seems to be no way to speak to a live person or even a spot to write them an email. To make matters worse, I must add airtime by midnight or I will lose my bank of minutes I've saved and my phone number.

I recently purchased a tracfone off of ebay. I didn't know but the model happened to be an older model from 2 years ago. When I called to activate it, I had some problems. I must of called about 5 times to activate it. The person on the phone was willing to send me another but I didn't like the models that they had offered me. I had spent 100 dollars on this phone and I was a little upset. Unfortunatly I wasn't able to get a refund.

I have used a Tracfone as my portable emergency phone for a year now. I can call out, folks can call in and in general, the service is noise free and reliable.

However, I cannot update my airtime without calling their call center. The computer addition of airtime ALWAYS leads to a "service unavailable" message on my phone. Repeated attempts always lead to this message. Their service people are very helpful and their English is fine, but this is the only way I can update my card.

My phone voicemail worked once for a few days and has never worked since. They are still working on the issue, after my most current complaint. And, text messaging has NEVER worked either. I would like to get what I pay for.

In October, 2006, Tracfone failed to notify me when my time expired. I added airtime after my phone quit working, but my number got changed. After that I could never get voice mail set up again, despite MANY, lengthy calls to them.

Each time they claimed they were resetting something, and that I should try again. I know how to set up voicemail because I did it on two Tracfones - this one before the number got changed, and one I had before. But once they changed the number on me, everything changed.

I have been trying since 1/1/07 to activate the 2 new tracfones that I had purchased online. The website states "Sorry, there seems to be a problem. We are unable to process your request at this time". It has stated this for SEVEN DAYS!

Not only am I out for the cost of the two phones and accessories I bought, but the total aggravation I have sustained these past seven days is incalcuable!

What is going on with Tracfone?! I have been complementary of Tracfone's products and (customer) services up to this point. As of Christmas 2006, however, I wonder if they're even in business.

I purchased a phone for my wife and promised I would set it up for her. Since Christmas I have gone to the website; it take me to a certain place (e.g. personal info or zip code) then it kicks me out. My experience with the 1-800 number of Tracfone has been even worse. The recording states that it doesn't understand my response and ends my call.

So I have yet to speak to a single Customer Service person since purchasing the phone. I am forced to consider that either the company has gone bankrupt and is no longer viable in 2007 or what else?

I purchased a Tracfone and a 60 unit prepaid card. After several failed attempts to activate the card, both on the Tracfone internet site, and their 800 number, I telephoned the 800 number for assistence. After trying several times, and getting nothing but recordings and disconnects, I finally talked with a real person. The person I spoke with was not fluent in English, and had obviously dealt with the same issue before. When I asked to speak with a manager she hung up on me.

During the conversation I was respectful and polite, but did not receive the same treatment. I believe Tracfone purposely cheats customers by doubling up unit charges and voiding prepaid cards. They make it impossible for customers to complain by stopping all contact at the lowest level.

I had an old Tracfone and received a new one for my birthday. The old phone had 200 minutes. I was told I could transfer my number and minutes. After 90 minutes and entering code after code after code, I still had no service. The next day Tracfone said I couldn’t keep my number, but would receive a new "SIM" card by mail. I sent an email to Tracfone explaining the situation and asked them to over-night the card, but they said NO.

On Dec 12^th, I called and explained the situation, and they quickly sent the card. After 30-40 minutes of talking to Tracfone and entering numerous codes, she said the phone was activated. I could not make a call, but did have a new phone number assigned. I asked for compensation and said there was no record of our agreement. They gave me 1 MINUTE and 2 DAYS of extra service.

As of Dec 17th, I have "no service". Tracfone's customer service is either closed or hangs up on me because they cannot take my call. I can find no reference to what the SIM card is supposed to do. When entering a number to store, I'm asked to choose SIM or phone. Neither one will save the phone number. I'm stuck with NO CELL PHONE. This is sheer frustration!

I recently misplaced my contracted cell phone and needed an immediate replacement. As a temporary solution I purchased a prepaid Tracfone. Here is my experience: 1.) It took over 24hrs for them to turn on the phone. 2.) I was never able to use the minutes I purchased. 3.) Over 3 days they NEVER responded to any of the 3 emails I sent them. 4.) It cost me minutes to call their customer service line. 5.) After speaking to 2 customer representatives who both confirmed that Tracfone had a record of my purchasing minutes, I still have not received any minutes. 6.) It cost me additional money to find that I had indeed purchased my minutes and not received them.

I purchased a Tracfone via the Internet for $99.00 which included 1-year air time card + 250 minutes. Activated the phone along with the air time and minutes just to find out that it was defective. I called Tracfone and all my minutes and the 1 year was removed from that phone to be added on the replacement phone which I received on 12/5/06. Called customer service to activate the replacement phone and was given codes to put in the replacement phone but the screen only came up with 2 months of service instead of 1 year. When I told him there was only two months of service on the phone he hung up on me.

I called all evening from 6:30 to 9:30. I was either put on hold saying they needed to speak with their supervisor or hung up on. Same thing today when I called. When I gave the guy the serial number he repeated a completely different number back to me. This has been the worst experience that I have ever had. I have filed a report with the Better Business Bureau and I am going to send both phones back and demand a refund.

Received a Tracfone as a gift. Tried several times to activate over the phone, but even with repetitious code entries and the wait 24hrs lie, phone still not working. Obviously good money was paid for this piece of worthless TracFone junk, but the company doesn't care.

I have had it 3 days and still can't get their free minutes to activate. Keeps showing no service when I try to make a call.

I have had the same tracfone for several years. Recently I added new minutes with a new card and my telephone number, formerly local, changed to something gosh knows where.

This is really inconvenient for many reasons. Why should we have to remember new numbers and communicate with our friends and family with surprise numbers? Also, I have no way, thus far, of checking my voice mail or of even recording a greeting. And I am getting all kinds of strange calls, daily, using MY minutes, from people, I guess, who were accustomed to this number I now have.

There cannot be a price put on this kind of inconvenience. Even the stupid code entry process, entering 7 or more extremely long codes just to get activated, is a pain.

Attempts to activate minutes purchased on line failed. Customer assistance determined the phone was defective. A replacement phone was sent(case #11504112 was assigned). Received phone 4/26 but without a SIM card to activate.(4/26 Spoke to Maria) A SIM card was shipped (case #11542713 was assigned). The envelope arrived without the SIM card, another SIM card was shipped.(5/03) Checked on status and spoke to Gretchen about case# 11542713 her response was that package should arrive today via DHL tracking #31700439385. Subsequent investigation revealed that this number was assigned to the shipment of the original empty package that was supposed to contain the SIMM card. The original minutes purchased indicate they not valid when I try to redeem them for another phone.

I have lost $32.00 for the purchase of time (minutes) that are invalid not to mention the loss of the use of phone. These practices skirt very close to being fraudulent and I see little recourse for complaint other than this method as Tracfone's website is useless for anything but making purchases. Their phone bank is manned by staff with accents that are barely understandable and offer no recourse for resolution.

I should have read the complaint before I ordered the tracfone online. It's a nightmare. It tried several time to activate it online abut failed then called 800 number. The responding lady has some accent but nice to me. She tried to active it several times but failed too. Eventually she told me that they could do nothing about it and didn't know what I should do the next except that she couldn't give me another phone. Read the instruction coming with the phone it says that it has 30 day money back warrenty but I have to pay shipping & handling fee and $10 for restocking.

Nothing. I have been trying to get my Tracfone activated for two weeks. It is the same story over and over. I'm told to do this, do that, wait 24 hours and all will be well. All is never well. This is the worst consumer experience I have ever had.

The consequences are TIME LOST, continual AGGRAVATION, and probably, as I'm about to give up, $99 I paid for the Tracfone

I bought a Tracfone & prepaid phone card as a 2005 Christmas gift for my mother. I purchased them from Tracfone's website. From day one it has been a nightmare trying to get it activated. It took 3 to 4 attempts and my husband getting involved to finally get it activated and a phone number issued. (They refused to give me a refund because I had purchased it in November and the 30 days were up by Christmas time.) Guess what? The phone number they issued is also the cell number to another individual. His cell and my mother's cell ring at the same time!

I once again called Tracfone and was issued another phone number and 24 hours later it isn't working either! When you dial the new number it goes directly to a voice mail and says the number isn't a working number! I am sick of dealing with them. Every time you call you reach a tech. support person employed in another country with a heavy accent who does not seem to know their right hand from their left! I would NEVER recommend Tracfone to any one!!

Bought tracfone with Motorola C155 package from Wal-Mart, activation by computer took 1/2 hr. then last page said it "failed try over", but page wouldn't let me re-register the IMEI number. Called the 800 number and they actually got it working that night, then next day phone display read "Searching,...please wait" It still reads that and none of the function/menu buttons on the phone have any affect. Cannot call out or receive calls...no way to program phone as buttons don't work.

Another 20 min. call to a foreign country and was told "we'll fix in 3-4 Hrs" Now 9 Hrs. later, no change. Called Motorola, they say bad Sim card from Tracfone. This whole system is bogus and warrants no more business or wasted time with them. Will try for refund from Wal-Mart and go with a conventional cell phone plan...maybe!!

I purchased a tracfone due to the birth of our second child. There was trouble activating the phine, so I called customer service. After being hung up on for over a week, I began emailing. The emails told me to call customer service. Once I got to speak to someone, the problems did not get solved. I was told " give it 4 to 24 hours to see if the programming worked." Well, I finally gave up, and bought a phone from their competitor. The back and forth with tracfone lasted nearly two months.

I purchased a tracfone for my father for Christmas. I tried to activate it and it didn't work so I called the customer support line. I was told this model did not work in this Zip Code and they would send me a replacement and I could send this one back to them. Received a remanufactured phone as a replacement for the new phone I had bought. Tried to activate it and it didn't work. Emailed support and was told phone didn't show as being activated and to try activating it again.

I tried to activate the phone again and waited 24 hours. After 24 hours I called the number given to me for the new cell phone from their web site in the activation process and got the voice mail message of some lady I had never heard of. The number they had given me during activation for my fathers phone was somone else's phone number! I've tried to dial out on it and get an automated message from Verizon saying the number I'm calling is not part of the Verizon service? I've emailed them twice about this and have received no response.

Was given a tracfone as a gift when I tried to activate I was told it was not comptaible in my area. I emailed tracfone and was told they would send me one and never did and that I would get instructions on how to return the other one. I have yet to receive either.

i purchased a tracfone at KMART and was advised to buy minutes on line. in order to access minutes screen and obtain special activation nuber credit card info and payment are required. i spent $97.00 for a year plan .the NOKIA phone would NOT display the enter message . i could not return to a cancel transaction screen all call for a 24 hour period to the 800 # are not answered. i retuned the phone but tracfone will not reimburse my $97.00.

I brought a new phone on 12/28/05 and as of right now the phone is not activated. Customer service if you can get through is one big joke. They give you codes to enter and the phone still does not work.I have been a customer for several yrs and have never experienced such bad service.