Jitterbug Flip Reviews

I would not recommend this phone to any of my friends or even my enemies. It takes three days for this phone to charge up and TWICE I contacted customer service and their response? Let's get you upgraded to a new phone, A SALES PITCH! Customer service also calls late at night, with a sales pitch, no offer on how to fix it or a new phone. A sales pitch. This is our second phone and what a disgrace this company is. I gave them my account number TWICE and no response. What a rip off company. Stay away. You would be better off with two tin cans and a very long string.

DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE! I bought the Jitterbug flip phone 2 for my mother for Mother's Day. This month (approximately 2-3 months after purchase), she has started received 50-55 spam and robo calls per day. She is 87 and this has caused increased paranoia and stress for her. I called Lively Customer Service, just to be told that there was nothing they could do and that they use "recycled" phone numbers. I've blocked every #, but they just call from another #, so blocking the calls does not help. I will also be reporting this to Adult Protective Services as Elder Abuse. For a company that promotes itself as a product that better and easier to use for elderly people, they should take more responsibility and ensure they are not using recycled numbers that cause this kind of harassment.

Reminders do not show on exterior screen. Reminders are important for seniors to take medication, etc. Voice call & text does not work. Wi-Fi calling fails to connect. I get a very bad signal at my location so this feature is important to me. Wi-Fi calling is why I got this phone! Seems like these phones were released with no testing!

I bought a Jitterbug Flip for my wife. We got it 3 days ago. Still trying to get a signal. Was told have great coverage in this part of TX. Bull crap. They lied. Need to send it back if it don’t work.

Up until about 6 weeks ago, the device worked great for a couple of years. Was able to access Alexa, then Lively, to make calls by voice command. This feature is essential for my elderly friend with low vision. Well, the Lively skill stopped working. Recording states that the Lively Skill is not accessible at this time. I contacted several entities about the problem. Most went thru troubleshooting with me. Still doesn’t work. Last week, I talked to someone w Lively who admitted to some sort of disconnect between Alexa & Lively. And, there was no estimation as to when issue will be resolved. Very Disappointed! My friend feels isolated because SHE can’t call someone whenever she wants. She has to rely on someone to make outgoing calls for her.

Save your money, the Flip 2 is garbage. I've had this same phone before, never had the issues I've had with this 1. The phone has stopped working on several occasions, I did a factory reset twice, the last time it never came back. I've been calling customer care 6-7 times since last Thursday. I keep being told the phone is being expedited, yet on Saturday it was canceled, no explanation. Saturday again told being expedited, Tuesday on the phone twice trying to get a resolution. I checked the FedEx tracking # it's going to the address for billing, not the address where I need it.

I am so sorry I ever got this phone from Lively. It never worked right from the time I got it, and customer support is useless; they either did or would not do anything to help me. So I am leaving, already got a new phone, and loving it. The jitterbug flip2 is a piece of crap. Customer support, like I said, was no help at all. This phone would not ring half the time, and the volume was always so low that you always had to keep turning it up. One customer service person told me that a phone was like a person; it had to be turned off sometimes to rest. That is just plain stupid. Another so-called support person told me there was nothing they could do, they could of sent me another phone, and I could of sent this one back, so I am just leaving.

Thank Raven!!!! We were able to work with our grandma (over 3-way) to get grandma’s phone activated. Raven was very patient, professional, knowledgeable and worked carefully to get the issue resolved!!!!

Severe unfixable earpiece and speaker volume issues. My mother had a Jitterbug for the past several years and until recently has had volume issues with the phone. The phone we bought late last year started having frequent episode of the volume going completely down on the earpiece and the speaker and it was impossible to hear calls. The volume is locked on max and family members couldn't get the volume to go up. Hitting the side buttons, restarting the phone and having Lively do a hard reset to factory settings did not help. Fast forward - multiple calls to Lively to troubleshoot and they were not able to resolve problem. They sent another phone under warranty and the same thing happens with this one. The phone is useless. Don't know if there is a problem with the recent lots of these phones. or there is a problem with the network for the past six weeks. Anyone else with this problem recently? In any event, bought a different flip phone and will use a different carrier.

Years ago, we purchased the jitterbug flip for my elderly mom. It was an amazing phone! Big buttons. Simple to use. Large fonts. Unfortunately, a couple of months ago it just stopped working. So, we naturally purchased a jitterbug flip 2, thinking it would be just as perfect for her. It's awful. The font and icons on the cover screen are so small, my 93-year-old mom cannot read them even with her magnifying glass. In fact, I, at 58 years old, have a difficult time reading them. The buttons on the inside are no longer as intuitive. Why change from "Yes" and "No"? The flip had just two large arrows to navigate the menu. Now there are four small ones. Everything is slightly smaller making seeing the numbers and options challenging for someone with declining vision. Whoever redesigned this phone did not do so with their demographic in mind. We couldn't be more disappointed in the flip 2. It's doesn't increase my mom's independence at all.

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction and outrage regarding the billing practices of Lively (formerly GreatCall). Three years ago, I purchased a Jitterbug phone for my mother, who, due to significant health issues, was residing in a rehabilitation facility. The purpose of this phone was to provide her with a simple means of communication.

I got this Jitterbug for my 97 year old dad. Yesterday I had to call the customer service to change it back to English because we don't speak Spanish. Unfortunately, it lost all the contacts and pictures upon resetting the phone so I had to put the contacts back again. We are so unhappy about this.

Problems with porting my phone over left me phoneless for most of the day, as both cell phones (old and new) stopped working. Then, after two hours of online "troubleshooting," the lively phone started working. Well, sort of. Until the next day, when I found out my voicemail doesn't work. Well, it sort of works...maybe... More troubleshooting until my call was disconnected.... Did Lively call back? No. No one ever tells you that a second phone is needed when you set up new service. Like my good old reliable landline....

The Jitterbug 2 Flip phones are garbage. The woman who I am a caregiver for has had two of them and despite the fact that she rarely ever uses it (and I mean like less than 10 times a year) they stop working. Lively will run you through restarting it and removing the battery and it will come back on for 15 minutes and then it doesn't work again. Have had this happen with both phones she has owned. The whole point is it is supposed to be easy to use and hassle free. She only has it in case power goes out or her landline is down but it is useless. We will be looking elsewhere.

My mom has been using the Jitterbug flip phone for years with a few bumps along the way. The reason for the style of phone for her, is that she is now legally blind. The feature of being able to speak a name after the beep when you open, the phone worked very well for her. However, with the recent change to having to use Alexa with the phone has been a disaster! We spent hours on the phone with Amazon and lively customer service and could never get that feature to work as it should. She is 99 years old and needs an EASY to maneuver device. Well- we gave up on the Jitterbug and now use the Minivision 2. Buh-bye Lively!

I do NOT recommend this phone. My mother has had nothing but problems with it which it sounds like is very common on here. It works intermittently so my mother never knows if she's going to be able to make or receive a call. When it's not working the red help button also doesn't work. We got her this phone so she would be able to call out if she needed to reach someone in her family and for emergencies she could push the red button. The Lively customer service representatives are nice but they haven't been able to help us and this is after waiting on average 25 minutes. Since I was tired of waiting so long I decided to start emailing and in a week have NOT heard back from them.

My father purchased a phone from the company. The phone was send and we transferred the old number. The number never was transferred. I was on the phone for 2 hours and never had anything done. My father had a family member that had died and we never got the news cause the number was not transferred. So I spoke to a customer service D ** and told me It’s nothing she can do. And I ask her to transfer me to a supervisor. She keep ask me questions. Then I ask her if the phone hang up please take my number and call back. So she hang up the phone and never call back. Any older person will never have the time or patience to do any procedures with the phone. I will not tell anyone about this company. They don’t help anyone. I will love for someone to contact me back, I have some suggestions for the company for training for cater towards elderly and disabled people.

Got Jitterbug Flip for my elderly mother in May 2023, by June the flip had to keep getting turned off and on several times a day to receive or make calls and they could never fix the problem. Not good when you're trying to call your mom. Just switched to someone else Sept 23. Jitterbug flip also was very confusing when you had to delete calls and also doesn't have a calendar available. I can't honestly recommend this service to anyone but the medical alert did work when the phone decided to work. (That's what the 1 star is for.)

Got the Jitterbug2 Flip Phone for my elderly aunt. Worked intermittently EXCEPT when at her apartment which is where I need it to work. Spent so much time on the phone with customer service trying to figure out why this was happening. Eventually was told perhaps their network wasn't compatible, etc. I am returning the phone and will find something else. This has been a very frustrating experience and I would NOT RECOMMEND buying this at all.

I purchased 2 Jitterbug/Lively senior phones for my parents. The phones are garbage, customer service is rude and bothered if you ask for assistance. They are not senior friendly whatsoever. It’s a total scam and they have hidden charges/fees. I switched my parents to my Verizon phone plan and they have brand new iPhones that are easier to navigate, more affordable and customer service is extremely helpful. I wish I would’ve gone with adding them to my plan in the 1st place. Oh well, lesson learned for sure!

I have had no service on my phone for four days. Here's the message at the top of the home page today: "As a result of recent network updates, select Jitterbug Flip devices may be unexpectedly displaying a “No service” message and customers may not be able to make or receive calls. We are working diligently to resolve the issue. If you or your loved one are in an emergency, contact 911 directly via another phone device. Jitterbug Flip2 phones are not affected." If the recent network updates resulted in no service then get somebody in there who can fix the problem. Working diligently means nothing to compensate for a screw up that has left customers with a dead phone and no idea when the company might get the problem resolved. According to other reviews, an "update issue" has been a repeated excuse used to address service issues.

Updated on 08/21/2022: I wrote a review on the Lively Jitterbug cell phone. After I left my contact info and account number with the company my phone became WORSE. It now freezes up and won't let me text or call all the time. The light that shows I have an incoming call or text stays on continuously and won't let me erase old ones or voicemails at all now. I can't open the back to remove battery without getting a tool to help. When I shut the phone, it starts ringing and sometimes the ring silences itself. This is the WORST cell phone I have ever owned and will be going to another company. Also, my monthly bill keeps getting higher each month and there is a high activation charge when you first use it that they don't tell you about. ($35.00)

I am once again wasting my time fighting with my credit card company about this ridiculous phone company. I canceled the phone service for my father. They kept charging him, anyway. They send threatening letters to my sister in Oregon (his address last year). When I call (again) to cancel (again) they keep me on the phone for hours and they say they’re going to cancel it, and then they don’t. Month after month. You can’t take auto pay off. I can’t get my credit card removed. I changed my credit card number and blocked the merchant and won my dispute ($247.42 on 12/29/21), only to have Lively recharge it again (3/4/22). I am spending a lot of time on the phone with my credit card company (who forgot to block them??) and I’m going to cancel that card now.

Rep lied about service and price, kept me on the phone for almost an hour giving me his (unwanted) life history and personal story. Told him we wanted only the cell phone service, definitely no texting, etc., was promised that's what we'd get for $14.95 per month for everything x2 phones. Being billed almost $50 after they put on all their unexplained charges and are charging us $.10 per unsolicited scam texts. We gave our numbers to no one else and their records prove we use the phones very little, only turned on when both not at home, once or twice a week at most.

Opened Lively Account for my mom, in July 2021. On 2/14 we decided to purchase a 2nd Lively phone for my dad and bring his number over from Verizon. 2/14 Call #1 - After holding for 20 min, explaining adding 2nd line to Lively acct, provided all the information, we were disconnected. Call #2 - Another 15 min wait time. Explained again what I wanted to do yet the rep ported my dad's number OVER my mom's #. She apologized and was submitting all the necessary documentation to correct. She informed me that I hadn't activated the new phone yet and I would need to do that, then they would be able to port the new # over to the new phone. She assured me we would NOT lose my mom's #.

Too difficult to get help. Extremely long wait times. Getting operator for Lyft was impossible. Only reason not a 1 rating was the niceness of the beleaguered help staff. The scrolling was very cumbersome.

They don't even get one star, they get zero. A scam company. The phone did not work, the customer service people could not make it work, there was no easy way to cancel, they charged my mother for a plan way higher than she ordered, and they hacked it immediately and someone else used it. They made the comment that we must have bought it from some third party, like their abuse was our fault. No, we bought it from the company and only because it was rated as good for seniors. Don't ever buy this phone or use this company. They are scam artists.

Very disappointed with this phone for my elderly mom. In order to make a phone call from contacts mom has to drill down too many times to finally be able to make a call. I've read that there are updates to add features that should have been available from the beginning such as speed dial, outer screen display time, etc. I just bought the phone today. The info re-update a is eons old, so why were brand new phones not already updated or updated as soon as the phone was activated. Also I had to troll the internet to even find out there was an update available. On top of this, even if we can get this darn thing updated, now mom will have to rely on memory who is #1, #2, etc. The makers should really have held a focus group of users 85+. They would see the phone IS NOT designed for the elderly. So, I'm dumping this phone after one month and going back to a simpler, regular phone. This phone is not useful to any elderly person.

Service personnel indifferent to customer issues...unwilling to offer assistance...overall poor phone reception...phone requests left unaddressed...probably best to acquire phone service with more reputable, prudent, reliable, known communication service.

I ordered a Jitterbug flip phone because my husband cannot manage a regular phone. I asked if the phone had speed dial because he can just press one number and is able to contact me. They mailed the phone to me and it does not have speed dial. They said they would send me a mailing label to send it back. This was two weeks ago. When the mailing label didn't come, I called and they said my request was denied. So they lied to me again. I don't think I should have to pay to send the phone back. I'm going to try calling my bank and have the charge (for the phone) refunded. I thought this was a reputable company but apparently it is not!

It's a shame the Jitterbug flip phone I'd owned since 2007 has been "shut off" and I was forced to "upgrade" to a more modern version in 2019. The old phone was very simple and had much better sound quality. Still, the new phone is handy for traveling and if the POTS landline phone is on the blink.

We recently purchased a Lively flip cell phone for my 94 yr old mother in law (03/2021). The serious problem with this phone is the position of the volume controls - they are on the right side of the phone, on the numbers pad portion (bottom) when the phone is flipped opened. The only possible way to hang on to the phone is to hold it (for most right-handed people) in one's right hand. To answer a call or make a call, one has to push the "OK" button to answer a call, or after pushing buttons to dial someone.

We have always had a landline, but in Dec. we moved to a small town without phone service. Because we had Spectrum for our phone, TV and internet we went with them for a cell phone. They have over billed us saying it's for WIFI (we don't use WIFI). It's not on. We have called them and they said it was fixed then. But they just billed us again for the service. We do not have a contract, but are paying for the LG5 phone by the month. We need to have this resolved because we can't afford this bill.

I purchased the Lively flip phone for my 90 year old father to replace the jitterbug. I expected the Lively flip phone to offer the features like the jitterbug plus the ability to block spam calls and the name of the person calling would be displayed in the window. Jitterbug phone used to show the name of the caller until a glitch in the software or so I was told. I’ve made multiple calls to see when the software glitch would be resolved. The response was always “they are working on it”. I guess the resolution was to replace with a new phone. Very disappointing since I assume the majority of your customers are elderly.

Purchased for my 91 year old Father so that he can get help if needed. When you open the Phone phone the dial tone is very loud, but once you place a call, the volume drops down so low that it can barely be heard. I tried raising the Speaker Volume with a call in progress, but nothing happens! Since he has significant hearing loss, he can't use it!

When I call my elderly Mother on her Jitterbug Flip phone, I cannot hear her answer. I speak to her and ask her to call me back. When I receive the call she initiated I can hear her voice. This is a nuisance because none of her other callers know to do this. Is there something I can do to fix it. She loves the phone for ease of use and knows how to operate it. But this cannot go on! I read a few other reviews on here with the exact same problem. What will you do?

My mother's phone will not keep photos received from text. I called and spoke to them, and was told that there is no work around. I also heard her say that she did not want to deal with this. Disgraceful.

This is unbelievable and I hope people read this because I care about the older people and I do not want the elderly to get unfair service and get drained out of their money. I had purchased the Jitterbug phone for my elderly uncle who is 91 but still getting by and I thought that it would be a good idea to get him this because it definitely does seem like some of the features like the volume control and the big numbers on the phone would be helpful as this phone does attract the elderly people.

Updated on 10/25/2020: Wished I had read the reviews about Great Call before I purchased the flip phone from Best Buy. It would have saved me well over $200.00 for a two week calling period. I complained about this rip off a few weeks back to Consumer Affairs site and never heard from this co. except Great Call to ask for a phone number so they could reach me via E'Mail..Nothing ever came of that but they just sent me my cancellation bill for $176.00 which is left after the initial amount of somewhere around $40.00 I had already paid...so they already had my info. Keep in mind this bill is for two weeks of my dementia wife calling her daughters across town. They said she called 200 times but in fact I made the calls and they were very few....I do not have Dementia...I actually placed a call to a live person at Great Call and tried to make sure I knew what was covered ....Moral of the story stay away from this co. that's my advice.

When I found Jitterbug for my husband I was hoping it would be everything we were looking for. He needed a flip phone because he’s older and has no desire for smartphones. When we received the phone, the device itself was of superb quality. However, it was never a consistent bill, it was always more than what was originally quoted. Add to that, I cancelled the service and hadn’t heard from them in 2 months, when suddenly they took $170 out of my bank account. We are on a fixed budget and that was a hard loss.