
B of Powhatan, VA on Jan. 8, 2011
Below is an email I just sent to TracFone. It seems like my problem is not uncommon--sudden deactivation of a phone. The number is suddenly not working for no reason. I got my problem fixed after about 2 1//2 hours on the phone. Writing a complaint is very easy. Since one rep did seem to care and she did fix my problem, I thought that a nice letter to give her an atta girl would be beneficial. Anyway, here is a summary of my experience.
This is to commend one of your representatives for her help last night. As records in your system will show (if you care to look), I called four times last night after I discovered that my husband's new TracFone's number had been deactivated. As I explained numerous times, the number was his previous home number, which had been ported to TracFone years ago.
After he got a new TracFone for Christmas, I activated the new phone and transferred the number to the new phone. According to the phone itself and the account online, the phone number was transferred successfully. There was no indication that there was any problem and no emails had been received indicating any issues. Last night, I discovered that he could not get incoming calls. Instead, a recording said that the number was out of service. The phone still worked for outgoing calls though.
The first three people I spoke with, while very pleasant, were of no help at all. In fact, I believe that they may have actually lied to me. The first woman I talked to gave me a code to dial, which would reactivate the phone (since the phone still made outgoing calls, I am not quite sure what needed to be reactivated). I did this after the five-minute wait that she directed, but after doing so, I discovered that the phone number had been changed.
I called back and was transferred to a supervisor when the next young woman was unable to fix the situation. I doubt if it was really a supervisor (being a supervisor myself, I know that when a customer calls with a complaint and is transferred, the next person to get that call--supervisor or not--should know what the problem is. Having to explain the problem numerous times in one call is highly annoying to a customer).
After the young man told me that the previous carrier (Verizon, in this case) sometimes will take the number back (which I found unusual and unlikely), I called Verizon to inquire how to re-activate home phone service with the number in questions. Verizon's representative told me that was not possible as the carrier to whom the number had been ported (TracFone) currently owned the number.
So, I called TracFone again. In any event, when Maria answered and I explained again the problem, I finally felt that someone got it. She not only said that it was absolutely correct that TracFone owned the number, she also worked with the tech staff to do the necessary procedures to get the number reactivated. This took no less than one hour and several times of me being on hold for long periods (which did not bother me as I sensed that Maria was going to get this fixed).
Maria assured me that TracFone still owned the number--meaning, it was in your system somewhere and could be retrieved as it was not assigned to anyone else. She and the tech staff were successful, and after plugging in all the codes, the number was reassigned to the phone.
I hope that this expression of appreciation for this employee, Maria, garners her some reward (raise, bonus) or recognition (a copy of this email, a certificate for framing, or an announcement that she is Employee of the Month). Had Maria not resolved this issue, this letter would be one of complaint and would likely be posted on the Internet on some complaint site.
I may, in fact, still post it as I am concerned about the initial problem and what I was told by several of your representatives. But my main intent here is to let you know that Maria was a pleasure to work with and she did her job in an exemplary fashion. As I told her, I have been a TracFone customer for a number of years and other than a few minor issues that were easily resolved, have had no major problems with TracFone until this occurrence.
I do want to ask several questions about this whole problem:1.) Why did this happen in the first place? The phone number transferred successfully when I activated the new phone.2.) Why was I told that I had let the service lapse? I believe that Maria said the records showed this and one of the previous representatives also said the same thing. That is simply not true. The old phone had service available until February 15 and the new one showed service until April. The service never lapsed.3.) Why did the young man with whom I spoke say that Verizon took the number back? Again, not true at all. I have the impression that he said that so he could just get me off the phone and go on to the next caller.4.) And why in the world did your records show that the phone was stolen? Maria apparently read that off the records in your computer. The phone had not been stolen and I don't know why records would show otherwise. Again, I think that one of the previous representatives made that note as it was an easy way to resolve the issue in your system rather than take the time to fix the problem.
Thank goodness that one employee, Maria, took the time and persisted to get this fixed. Had I not been determined to get this resolved and committed to doing so without losing my patience, I would have been a very dissatisfied customer. But since it was happily fixed, I intend to remain a customer and will continue to recommend TracFone to my friends as I have in the past.