Straight Talk Wireless Reviews

I have a computer at both work and home and wireless setup at both and used wireless a majority of the time. I do NOT stream or download music or movies nor do I tether, so why was I cut off? I seriously feel like they have my account confused with someone else's!!! I have no idea!!! I did go on vacation for 3 days last month and did use my phone for a majority of things, but I cannot see how a higher than normal use (1 week out of 6 months) should restrict my plan. I have used my phone to check email, Facebook and sometimes the internet. I've sent pictures from my phone to my email because I could not get my phone to sync with my computer, and also sent pictures straight to Facebook. That's it!!! And it's not much at all.

Anyways, when I called Customer Service, first of all you cannot understand them. They are in India, I believe. Second, they act like they are going to help you, only to send you to a voice recording of rules and regulations that hangs up on you when done! I've called several different times and through frustration, just asked when my service would be back on. I was told once my new month started, which was June 4th. I still have no data service and this is June 13th. They wasted absolutely no time taking my money from my account. If you email them, they tell you to call. If you call, they send you to the recording. It's a vicious cycle.

I can still text, talk and access internet while in my wireless environments, but no picture, text, no 3/4G when out of my wireless area, etc. I found this email on a complaints page ST.CorpResolutionTeam@straighttalk.com and have contacted it as well. I have heard nothing. This has been so frustrating and with no one to actually contact and find out when my data service will be back on, and what I actually did to get cutoff in the first place. Anyways, I'm over a month without data service on an account that is paid in full every month on time. This is totally frustrating and I wanted to get the word out so someone else doesn't get sucked into this!

I'm a very loyal customer, pay on time and will stay with you for years if you do what you say. Data from this company is NOT unlimited. Their customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with. BUYER BEWARE!!! BTW, I'm unfortunately having to find another cell service. I'd like one that truly offers unlimited services or, at the least, lets you see your usage and honors them. If you know of one, please let me know. Thanks!

This is absurd. What company cannot tell you how much data you are allowed per month if there is a data cap? Both months I have been shut down in the first week of the month, how much data can I possible use in a week? Yet, Straight Talk has no problem accepting my $45 each month for "unlimited" service. They get around their deceptive practices by telling you that you violated terms and conditions but cannot tell you how they were violated. I would once like to call Straight Talk and get a "straight" answer by a person I can understand. They hire people from India who can't answer a question unless it is part of their script; they will apologize over and over but do nothing to rectify the situation.

I called on Tuesday because the number I was provided to call for activation said my phone could not be activated. The representative told me my phone would be activated by 3:00 p.m. EST. I called them back around 4:30 EST because my phone still would not activate. They said (after transferring 5 or 6 times at least of all my calls) that my phone would be activated at 8:34 p.m. EST. I did not even bother to try Tuesday night. On Wednesday, around 11 a.m. EST, I tried to activate, to no avail. I called them back and they began the transfer, transfer, transfer, lie, transfer, lie routine again. Finally after about 8 transfers and 2 supervisors, I was told there was a problem and it would be another 24 hours.

What was I going to do, send lightning bolts down the line and strike them dead (oh how I wish)? So I said fine. I called the activation number around 3 p.m.. Thursday - no activation. I called again and got the same run around: It will be another 24 hours. I hung up and called ClarkHoward.com's complaint line. Sara was very helpful. She told me they were getting lots of complaints. She suggested (strongly) that I call Georgia Public Service Commission first thing on Friday (this is still Thursday and I plan to call in the morning). She said she would pass my complaint on to Clark. On a whim, I decided to call ST back.

When I finally got a rep, I didn't give him a chance to talk. I told him I would be seeking legal advice and would contact Georgia's PSC first thing in the morning. I went on to say they might want to see if they could push that "damn" (excuse the language but I was very frustrated and angry by that time). She asked to place me on hold (what else in new!!!) and I said, "What choice did I have?" Within 2 minutes, my cell was activated. She never came back on the phone. I hung up and tried to call again, got a rep, told him my story again. He said (as many others had), "Let me transfer you to my floor supervisor." I left the phone on the counter for over 20 minutes and was never reconnected to anyone. This is inexcusable. This is a Walmart-supported company and they should be held accountable.

Last Thursday, which conveniently was the day that service was renewed (money sucked out of my checking account) for her phone, Straight Talk simply disconnected her internet service without warning. So I started calling 1-877-430-2355 (Straight Talk Tech Support) and got the same results after 5 calls. The reps (all different and all foreigners speaking horrible English) transferred me to a recording, stating the terms and conditions of Straight Talk service. There is no option to speak to anyone, only this recording which drones on about how the "unlimited" service that you think you're paying for is really a con. Basically, you can you use your "unlimited" data for a little bit of Facebooking. But if you venture out into the realm of YouTube, music streaming or tethering, your service will be reduced. Reduced is what the recording says. It doesn't say disconnected.

Anyway, my blood pressure is starting to climb at this point. So Saturday night I'm talking to the latest iteration of tech support from Bombay that answered. She's telling me that my service will be reconnected in 24 hours. Who's willing to bet $5 that it was? So this morning I'm on the phone with the next incarnation of tech support from Pakistan, or wherever he is. He's telling me that I have to wait a full month to have my service reconnected - after paying again that is. This guy would NOT transfer me to anyone with any kind of authority whatsoever. All he would do is ask me to be transferred to the high data usage hotline, which is the recording I was talking about earlier in this rant.

After having told him what I thought of his company and support, he continued asking me to be placed on hold to be transferred to this recording. I kept telling him no and to his credit, he was very patient but kept asking me to be transferred. I realized at this point that's their way of getting rid of you - on the tech support line that is. Basically, they open this trap door and dump you down the hole to the high data usage trash compartment that is inevitably going to start having the walls close in on you. Finally, I told him don't bother and I hung up. Would you believe he called me back and told me that we were disconnected (apologetically) and asked if I would like to be transferred to the high data usage hotline? I was spellbound, amused, irate and nauseated all at the same time.

At this point, all I can think of is changing my provider (AGAIN). I hate to go through this hassle, but Straight Talk seems to be the bigger hassle. My warning to everyone out there... If you think Straight Talk is going to be a better deal for you, READ every single piece of fine print they have buried in their terms and usage policy before making a bad decision. I would actually urge you to go through a more reputable company anyway. After all, these jerks (Straight Talk/Walmart) are outsourcing our jobs and undermining our country anyway. Hope none of this happens to any of you, but I'm fairly certain it will if you use Straight Talk. Good luck and God speed to all.

Please keep in mind, during all of this time of having an inactive phone, the days of service are dwindling down, which I already paid for. My newest phone was purchased to replace my $200 one that stopped working. They stated that the warranty was up, so I had to purchase a new one. The new one has been activated but doesn't work. It says Network error, profile can't be updated, and sorry, phone can't be authenticated.... Nice, Straight Talk. I'll just wait another 24 hours, like you've suggested for 4 days now... With no service, I am beyond frustrated at this point... This is my hard-earned money that they're stealing right out of my pocket...

I ended up getting the same answer from them that doesn't specify what I violated. I think it's such ** that they advertise unlimited this and unlimited that only to find out you actually DO have a limit. It's like giving a person a set of keys to a car but yet telling them you can't drive it. I think this is such a rip off. I never had a problem with this company until now and I think I will be switching phone companies after this.

Straight Talk then turned off the phone. I went to Walmart, purchased a phone card and asked if I gave the number on the card to them if they would turn the phone. They said yes. I gave them the number and then they refused to turn on the phone. After receiving the money from the phone card, I have told them I have children to feed and that my livelihood depends on being able to be contacted via that number because of advertising paid out listing the number. They had also cut off my Internet service before because they said I use too much. PLEASE contact Walmart and tell them how very bad a company this is!!! Also, please push for a class action lawsuit against them. They're conducting fraud! Call your Public Utilities Commission about them too!

You're supposed to read line 6 and 7 of their rules, which they can't tell you how long you've been on the cellphone: date, time, or nothing. They send you to customer service. They say go online if you have a PC. Most times, their website is down or you need a password. If I knew, I could have bought a $10 card and used just my phone instead of the $45 plus tax. If you look at the complaints on the PC, you see the scamming. A lot of popular phones come with a Straight Talk pamphlet. You think unlimited means as long as you want. I called several times, and every time I called, I get someone in the Philippines. Tech support number is 877-430-2355.

I will be changing my service before my next auto payment has been taken out. I will be sure to call and cancel the card that the payment is being made through. Thank God I did not trust them enough to use my bank card! I will also be complaining to the FTC, Federal Trade Commission and the BBB. The FTC's phone number is 877-382-4357 and the BBB already has a file of complaints for me to add mine to. It is shocking that such fraud can go unchecked. I am like the others in that there was no mention of data limits or a point in which you can review your data limits - of course, as they have been advertising themselves as "unlimited". Fraud is fraud.

What are my options? Calling customer service again to get a Roy from India next who knows nothing. I asked Richard what is the limit - days, hours, minutes? Totally clueless. Stay away from this company. I am currently working only PT, so I will have to stick with this trick or treater company for a little while longer. If someone can give any kind of suggestions of a no-contract cell phone company, I wish they would post below my comment.

Well, I did as they asked. I called and gave them the tracking number for the returned phone. I waited 24 hours and called to get the tracking number for the phone they were sending, only to find out now that they will only send the phone after they get my phone back in their warehouse. This is not what 2 other managers had told me and now I may be waiting up to 10 days to get my replacement phone. Out of 4 people I spoke with, 2 said one thing, 2 said another, and in my opinion, no one there knows what they are talking about if you can get 2 different stories 50% of the time. No matter how cheap, I would suggest carefully making a decision on using this service.

So once I had received it, I called to reactivate the new phone. All of a sudden, I had to receive a new SIM because I in fact "was not" able to reactivate the SIM. The company sent me a new SIM card and I had to go through the process of reactivating the SIM. Mind you, I only had it off for a week. So then I had to go out of town and thought that I could use my data without my Wi-Fi and have no problems. Once I had gotten home, I had noticed that I was no longer allowed to send picture messages, nor could I no longer use my data without my Wi-Fi. Straight Talk has an unlimited plan and that’s the plan that I go for every month. So why is it that I cannot use my data I asked? And I was sent to an automated line which tells you why your data will be slowed down and so forth. So once again, I waited as I was instructed for the next time that I could pay the card and I would be able to have all of my data restored. That was indeed a lie.

I still am unable to send picture messages and receive picture messages. Just this weekend, I called to find out my account number so I could change my number to a new company. I had a representative that was so kind to give it to me, but I had a family member that threw it away. Today, I called and asked for it again. They informed me that "my account" is confidential and they cannot give me the account number. Why is it my account and I cannot ask for my account number? I think Straight Talk is one of the worst companies now. They do not send you information to let you know that there are new changes, and they are very misleading with their advertising. Beware and stay away.

So now my smartphone ain't so smart. So if I cannot get browser or SMS/MMS, is it really a smart phone? The excuse is this. They cannot set the APN (access point network settings). But guess what? They can set the setting because they have them. They do not want to support BlackBerry phones right now, unless you buy their "new" BlackBerry, which is a Curve that I had in 2007. Who wants a 6-year-old model phone? In Dec they did not support iPhones. Now they sell them! Both the 4, 4S and 5! Maybe they will realize there is a certain segment of people who want buttons. I have a cognitive dysfunction. I need the tactile process of the buttons, sorry. I decided to go back to crappy LG so I could have browser function and MMS/SMS functions. I could not find SIM card (I had tech support on the line). She told me to call back when I found it and gave me a number.

Four hours later, I found the SIM and then I called tech support, only to find out my SIM was invalidated? She said it was because I could not locate it. OK. Then if that was the case, why not tell me then? Why give me a number to call when I located it? Why can't the tech people all be qualified and on the same page? OK. They are going to send a new SIM out to my house. It arrived on Sat. I was too busy. I got to it Wed morning. I inserted card and then I went to website to "activate" the idle LG... WTH? New SIM came with new phone number? No information written anywhere. What a mess. I called ST Tech support again and was put on hold 6 times. I explained my SIM had a new # and I want my original number. Oh well, they have to send me another. Yes, another SIM. OK. They gave me a ticket/case #. Oddly it is the same case number as my 1st SIM card fiasco.

Thursday 4/25 I called back. It has been one week since the second SIM card was to have been sent. Tech support tells me it went out on 4/9. I received it on 4/15. Grrrrrrr... That was the 1st SIM card. That had a new phone number. I did not want a new #. I needed new SIM only. OK. I have been working on this since 4/1. All I need is a SIM card. 30 days and about $100 and still no SIM, no browser, no SMS/MMS service. I want to like/love this company because I am out of work. I need to save money. This plan saves me $50 a month. That is $600 a year! In 2 years that is $1200. That is a tremendous savings! But I may need drugs or alcohol to get me through their terrible tech support, people who cannot speak English very well. No SIM cards. No service. I am very frustrated.

After two weeks, I finally said that I did not believe that it was going to work ever and wanted my money back. They told me that I had to pay for shipping and they would give me a refund in 30 days. Finally, they agreed to pay for shipping but they have cost me hours of time and frustration and hundreds of minutes on my old plan. Not once did anyone ever offer any compensation for my time and frustration. I will stay away from Straight Talk, TracFone and any subsidiaries of TracFone and warn others to be aware that they are terrible.

By the way, even if this method was available to me, I was told that it would take 3-5 days before they would be able to send me a new SIM card with my old phone number. And during that time, I would be without any phone service. In effect, because of ST I have lost my primary phone number that I have been using for a very long time.

In addition, my Nokia X2 phone is apparently one of potentially many in which only the service provider can change the preferred access point which is needed for internet access. However, ST is unable to change the access point. So, now I have zero access to e-mail or any data services. Finally, most of the time, the phone with ST SIM card just does not work at all and displays "temporary network problem" error message. I live in one of the most densely populated urban areas at the East coast of the US.

In summary, I cannot characterize the "services" promised by Straight Talk as anything else than a scam. I would like to warn everyone to think twice before they decide to use this company. Their technology simply does not work and produces potentially dangerous and certainly extremely unpleasant outcomes for their customers (such as lost phone service, changed phone number in my case). Their technical support is poorly trained and not equipped or ready to even start dealing with such problems. The Straight Talk advertising is completely false. I wish I have never believed optimistic reviews about ST written online by "experts" on technology.

The other phone I admit I used for email and very light web browsing and it was turned off three days after I bought my unlimited card. I will be calling the BBB Monday morning. I felt Straight Talk has to give me my $100 back so that I can use that money to pay a deposit on a contract. For starters, my LG android runs off of Sprint towers which suck anyways. Anytime, I called to ask questions. No one can tell me how much data I used. They keep telling me it is unlimited. How can I go over something unlimited? And then they send me to the hotline that just hangs up on you. I need answers, not a recording! Also, how can they change their terms and agreements without letting the customers know? And how can I violate them if my phone has been on airplane mode for the entire time it had minutes (a whopping 22 hours?). That is a huge scam. Please be aware of this. We need to all get a lawyer and take them down.

After that, everything was fine until about 17 days later when my data was suspended. I called customer service and was told that my data usage was so high that it was affecting everyone else's service. I was shocked. As a rule, I don't do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. According to them, I violated the section 6 and 7 of the TOC. My first question was what does it matter if it's unlimited? The rep just kept repeating I violated the TOC. I asked to speak to a supervisor at least 8 times before on was supposedly put on. She then began repeating what the last rep said. I told her as far as I know, I was neither deaf nor had any learning disabilities. I was pretty sure I understood but it seemed no one could tell me HOW exactly I violated them. I wanted to speak with someone above her since it was apparent that she knew nothing. I was promptly hung up on.

When I called back, I was told that my service would be renewed when I refilled and I was not allowed to speak to a supervisor. Instead, I was transferred from one department to another until I gave up. At this point, what could I do? I just paid $350+ for a phone and I was in the middle of a job hunt. I was broke so I had no choice but to continue the service. So far every month, it's the same thing with no explanation. Last month, I got tired of arguing with them so I asked if there's a store where they do service that I can take it in so we can figure it out together so that this DOESN'T keep happening. The rep said, "Well, you can take it to Wal-Mart but they probably won't know anything." Well, that was helpful!

I felt like I'm locked into this because I spent so much on a phone. I really wanted (although I can't use most of the most appealing features) and can't afford to buy another one and it can't be used with any other services. Please save yourself the money, time, effort and blood pressure! Do not use this service! The customer service is non-existent! And so is the company's sense of integrity! They should be sued for false advertisement!

I took it to email to try to get answers. All I got was a generic “You used unauthorized services” email reply back eight days after my initial email. So I called again today. First, I spoke to Mark (probably short for something I can't pronounce) who told me the reason for suspension was overusage of data on the unlimited plan. So I asked how much data I used. He said they have no tool to tell them that. So I asked what the limit is. He said there is no limit. So if there is no limit, how did I use too much? He then told me I might have watched a YouTube video, or listened to radio online, or plugged my phone to my computer to download pictures or music. Say what? I can't plug my phone into my computer ever for any reason? “No,” he said. “It is a violation. Internet is to be used only for browsing.” I asked again how much data I used and he said he would transfer me to someone who could help.

I sat on hold only a moment when a prompt came to press 1 for English and then I got a recording saying "Thank you for calling the high data use hotline." It gave me a bunch of tips for reducing my data use then I got disconnected! I called back. I got John this time. He was a little easier to understand than Mark. I asked all my questions again but told me I can hook the phone to the computer to transfer files and charge phone and that his coworker was wrong. So I told him I only check Facebook and my email a couple times a day, and that's all the browsing I do. I don't play apps. I don't look at YouTube (not that their service is fast enough to view a video) and I don't stream a radio station. So I asked what exactly did I do? He said the same thing everyone else said, they don't have that information.

So I asked for his supervisor. He said the supervisor is on break but he can transfer me to someone who can tell me my data usage. I said, "Do not transfer me back to the high data use hotline." He said, "No, I will not transfer you there" and then he transferred me there anyway. Fed up, I fought with them for a solid week and I am done. I visited their online live customer service help to get my credit card info removed and he said he could not remove my cc info. I told him he'd better take off the auto-refill and do it now, or I would be filing a complaint with my State Attorney General. He finally did agree to that, at least. I did log back in to my online account and it is no longer enrolled in auto-refill, but it will not allow me to remove my cc info altogether. I'd better not ever be billed for anything by them again. Steer clear. This is a major rip off.

Phone #1 needed a new number and we enrolled for the auto renew. We had no problem getting a phone number, activating or having the bills paid through auto pay (at least for the last 2 months).

Phone #2 needed to port a number. Total nightmare. We were charged 3 x $50+ for the unlimited plan activation and it took over 2 weeks to get the number transferred. We did receive a refund for one of the charges, but not the other. Customer service was a total nightmare and was of no help at all. I then signed up for the auto refill. The first month, this worked fine. On month 2, it showed payment as "declined" even though I had plenty of money in my account. It then turned off my auto pay. I just put the information in again, so we'll see.

Phone #3 customer service assigned a Georgia phone number even though we live in Denver. They had to mail a SIM card and then change the phone number after a few weeks. New phone number is now that of Colorado Springs are instead of Denver - sigh. Attempted to add payment gift card. The phone still shut off after 30 days. I spent hours on phone with customer services. They restored service but would only credit 26 days instead of 30. Today (48 hours later) the phone shows 3 minutes available. Really!

Stay away. Stay far, far, far away from this company. It is cheap and it is a nightmare! It is not worth saving 5 bucks a month.

Yesterday, ten days into my service, we were stuck in traffic coming home from the beach and I saw the 3g symbol missing on my phone and sure enough, they suspended my data again. Let me reiterate that I have never deviated from how much data I ever used on my phone and here it happened again. This is where my wife, who I call the pitbull from hearing her argue with others and being the antagonist in other verbal assaults, takes over. With me in the background explaining how a smart phone works and how I have an app called call recorder, she worked her magic. I believe she talked to eight or more people and kept asking for their name and employee ID number and letting them know that the call was being recorded. She also kept telling them that if they sent her to the recording, she would keep calling back because she has nothing but time on her hands.

When asking for a supervisor, it never happened but she kept telling the operator she knew he or she was over their shoulder. Apparently, if you keep saying their name and ID number, it will eventually get the point across. She even has a recording of a rep by asking them what unlimited means to them according to the dictionary and later in the conversation the same rep saying it is limited. I don't want to sound as if I have total disdain for the people answering these calls. I know they are just doing their job as they are told. No company should use false advertising to lure consumers in and the free market will always put such offenders down. I'm not sure if I will stay with this company as I am checking different options. If you want to hear any of my wife's recordings with Straight Talk, I am the only Matt ** on the planet. Thanks for reading the only rant I ever posted.

I thought it would get better when I got better at using it, so I bought 3 months of service to save a little money. But instead of getting better, it just got worse. When I tried to do anything on the phone, I kept getting error messages that I was low on memory, so I bought a 32GB memory card. I moved everything I could move to the card and the phone kept on saying that I was low on memory anyway. The memory card had over 20GB free. Every time I called tech support and finally got through to them, they weren't much help.

The last straw was when I removed the Kindle app because it wasn't working so I could reinstall it. When I tried to reinstall it, I couldn't. Then I called tech support and the woman said the reason I was having all those problems was I went over my data usage. How can you go over unlimited data usage? She did not explain that. Since tech support was of no help, I talked to some people who knew about smartphones. They told me that the phone was a lemon. So I returned it to Walmart on 3/26/13. I used about 1/2 of a month of service, so I should get a refund of $108. Even if they charged me for the whole month, I am still due a refund of $87.

Yeah, I have nothing better to do with my day, I just love calling up Straight Talk and making up **. I paid for another month and was never credited but had no more problems with that phone. Now, I have a Huawei Ascend and have not been able to get it to work right since I bought it in Jan. 2012. I will be on a page and it will return to Google search page, and now it is not working at all but my old phone is receiving phone calls and text (what the **?). I cannot make calls and guess what, I cannot get live help with Straight Talk. So now, I will have to wait and go to a friend's house tomorrow to talk to customer service. That is not all. When I got my new phone off Wal-Mart site, it said it would work in my area. Wrong. I had to go to Wal-Mart and return for another.

In the process of trying to explain what had happened to Straight Talk and get my other phone activated, they changed my number and now I have an area code from Lubbock, TX and I live 400 miles away. Go figure. They do not know what they are doing. They do not care and from my experience giving presentations on customer service, they have not seen or heard that bad customer service flies faster than one good customer service encounter! We are not going to talk much about it when satisfied but piss us off and 100 will know about it before breakfast tomorrow!

I contacted their customer service center (unreliable, unknowledgeable of their own product, unsupportive to offer a compromise even though the facts that they screwed up are in their face) and T-Mobile. I got nowhere. By that time, I need my phone back on. So I shelled out money to AT&T to reactivate my plan with them. Now, I'm out over $100, but I never got to use the service with Straight Talk. But they refused to not only refund me for the SIM card, they won't refund the money for the service plan but... but... they told me to order the right card for my phone from WalMart.com. By then I already knew the website was no longer selling the card.

In fact, only website I know that is selling the card is Amazon.com and they're selling it for four times what I paid for the T-Mobile card. Ridiculous! They can tell if I used the service but I haven't. I tried to port my number over. That in itself did not work. Straight Talk is a waste of time. I have spent hours talking and pleading with people I can barely understand, who push me to the point of cursing just about by asking me the same question several times when I could be sleeping after working my night job. Their website is full of lies. Misleading. It's not worth it. Best to stay with your original provider.

I spent 100 hours on the phone with Straight Talk customer service but nobody understands English and couldn't figure out how to put data on my iPhone. They keep taking money every month but didn't provide data since I got my new phone. For the entire month, I don't have internet which I really need for my job. Again, I called customer service everyday for my data but then they cancelled my data because they don't know what they're doing. They said I violated their terms and condition for over usage of data which I didn't receive. They made up stories that my phone is not iPhone 5 and it's Samsung Android. So much things are going on with this company. I asked Straight Talk to provide me a proof that I violated their terms and conditions and how much data I used but they can't give me anything.

Straight Talk is the worst phone company ever. This company should not be in there. They take money and don't provide services as they advertise. If it's easy to unlock phone and go to other companies, I already left Straight Talk the next day but I put much money on the phone alone which is $700 outright. I can't unlock it. I wasted my time and money. I couldn't get internet on my job. I'm so pissed with this company. I'd rather pay more on my phone service than to be with Straight Talk. I hope they will be fined for doing this to consumers, who work hard for their money to get a good phone and good service but it has become the worst nightmare.

My family had just lost our home in a fire and we needed a way to keep connected and in touch while we were in the transitional period. So I went ahead and bought a Samsung Android smart phone. I went back to the hotel to activate it and that should have been all the warning I needed not to deal with these folks. It took an hour to activate my phone, and in the process, their customer "care" center reps took out their aggression on both me and my wife because we could not understand 80% of what they were saying, and the other 20% was made more difficult because the rep would string together 20-30 words to say something as simple as yes or no. This is only the beginning folks, and as I said, it should have been the warning.

Up till the morning of March 18, I had no real issues, downloaded apps, checked my mail, got some music, browsed the web, and watched some videos. I did all the stuff my "Unlimited" plan said I should. I came back from a concert in Atlanta on the morning of the 18th, picked up our kid from parents’ house, dropped her at school, and went back to hotel. When I lied down, I was able to use my phone like I had been able to - no problems. I woke up 4 hours later and had no 3G/Data. I didn't think anything about it figuring that maybe clouds, interference, or something. Well, as the day wears on, I discover I'm having trouble making and receiving phone calls, text messages. I can’t get into voice mail and have no access (of course) to anything data related.

I read the manual, shut down the phone and restart it, and do what I can trying to figure it out. After 30 hours, I still have not gained functionality. I do what I can and hold out thinking maybe a dropped tower or something. After 4 days and still nothing, and mind you, still retaining 4-5 bar signal strength, I finally break down and call Customer Care. I get the same kind of aggression I did with the activation call over understanding the rep, and we go through a programming prompt with the phone, and then they have me restore my factory settings, completely screwing me out of my paid for apps and items. It fixed nothing.

3 more phone calls between March 24 to March 30 and I get worse customer service with each call, getting ignored, no questions answered, and then (everyone pay attention from here on) getting redirected to Tech support, which turns out to be an automated message stating, "As of March 1, 2013, users with an AT&T SIM chips will have service restricted to 1.5gb of data and service will be suspended if you go over." Well, my phone pops up as Verizon and is technically Trac phone. I don't see how this applies to me.

After the 3rd time being shunted off to listen to that message with no option other than to re-hear the message or hang up, I go to the website and try and get some help/direction/satisfaction. Well, their site is as helpful as a sieve in a flood. With some digging, I finally found their updated TOS. I urge everyone to go read it - this is not BS. They now have the right to shut your phone off for any reason. They failed to give warning to the consumer about this change, and the reasons they give are ridiculous, up to and including simply using your phone and plan is a violation of the TOS. The limit stated on the automated message is mentioned nowhere in the TOS, and they are supposed to send you a warning mention when you are close to the supposed violation to warn you, but they do not.

So after going through all this, I decide to give it one more shot. I go and get another airtime card and refill my account 2 days early. Nothing! 2 days go by and I send 2 emails to the address listed on the website (which I have still yet to get answers to) and am about to send yet a third angry scathing email when I look over and my service is back on and the phone is back to working like normal. 24 hours later and a 2.23mb song, my service is disconnected again. I send that 3rd email - still unanswered - then I do their online live help and speak with someone named Iris, as if that was her real name, who feeds me the same line and then finally gives me a new phone number and a pin to have my service reinstated. Guess what? Didn't happen.

The number took me to yet another department to speak with yet another individual whose name wasn’t given until after 98 minutes and then I suspect it was fake or incorrect. This phone call went on for 99 minutes, 52 sec. That was 91 minutes too long. First 10 minutes, they were dragging it out and pretending that they are going to fix the issue and return the service I had paid for. Then we delve into the same old garbage about a TOS violation for using the phone, that a 2.23mb song is a violation and that the only way to have my service returned is to spend $50 ($45 + tax) and refill early or wait for 30 days and stare at my paperweight and renew my service. 99 minutes of going back and forth with this idiot (pretending to go up through the channels), being lied to, and at one point being told that when I refill I won't have my service suspended again and then at the end of the conversation having him change it to include the disclaimer of the TOS violation.

I continuously gave 2 options, either give me the service I paid for or refund my phone. They would not answer the question other than to say they won't give a refund on the time and a drawn out process for the phone. For whatever screwed up reason, they have it tied in that once you lose data/3G, your phone goes to crap - with it, it works fine. So should I pay another $50 that would put me at $150 in just over 30 days for less than 15 actual days of service? They seem to think they are above the law and that they do not have to provide a service that has been paid for. They now have it rigged that simply using your phone is a TOS violation. I was lied to in the live help. I have had my money taken with nothing to show for it, and the original call where they had me do a factory reset was just someone thinking they were funny since obviously they knew what they were doing.

The rep on the phone when asked if he would allow this to be done to him and put up with it or pay for something and get nothing in return, he answered no. It was the only time I got something out of him other than a lie or a fake apology followed up with asking for more money and then told I'd lose service for using the phone. After almost 100 minutes on the phone, I was done. I had had more than enough, saved our convo and saved the one from the live help into a file. I have sent emails to both regional and corporate Walmart since they sell these scam artists product and are just as liable. I will be contacting the BBB today and making my trip to Walmart to get my money back and getting a service with a company that actually gives you what you paid for and is upfront about its chicanery because I need a service that I can stay connected with to deal with all I have to deal with right now, not vague promises of service or a company with its hand out and cares absolutely nothing about its customer and think rules and laws do not apply to it.

I had thought that they had completely disconnected my phone until I finally got a call this morning. Turns out the rest just got worse. Telling the customer that the only way to resolve the issue is to give them more money is not a solution nor is it apologizing, and following it up with using your service will be a violation, and then you'll have to repeat the process all over. If you were dumb enough to follow this logic in the span of a month, you could potentially pay them in excess of $600 just to keep the service you paid for, for the 45$ + tax unlimited card. Not worth it by a long shot. I used my cheap little flip phone for way more than a 2.23mb song and couldn't do 1/10 what my Android phone could. This is beyond unacceptable. As of right now, including the phone and the SD card, I am out close to $500 - for the moment.

Be aware. Do not deal them. Do not believe them. Unlimited is not unlimited when there is a limit. It is not reliable when at any moment and with no notice they can shut you off, and it is ridiculous that when you lose 3G/data, you end up with a practical paperweight because the rest of your services become almost non-existent. I gave these clowns 91 minutes more of my time than I should have to resolve the issue properly, and the only thing they could do was demand more money and lie to my face. Avoid at all costs. If you have them, beware. It may happen to you as it has to me and many others.

It arrived on March 4 and was activated. On March 14, the same problem occurred; my daughter could not use the phone to call out. I contacted S.T. tech support again. After more troubleshooting, S.T. manager determined that this phone (LG Optimus Zip) was not the correct model (an Android phone) for this postal ZIP code 83467, even though the Straight Talk Web site recommended it. She said that she would replace it with another LG but a different model (511C), which was not an Android model, but would allow my daughter to do everything (talk, text , access the Internet and run apps). Since she was the expert, I agreed to go with a replacement model.

The phone was shipped the next day and received on March 18. After it was activated by my daughter, she could not use this model to do what she had previously been able to do. (She wasn't able to download "apps" that I was told she would be able to do when I agreed to allow them to send this model.) I called S.T. corporate headquarters (305-640-2000) to ask if there was another manufacturer's (Samsung instead of LG) model that would work in the area that she lives in and that would allow her to do what the original phone had. I was told that since this was a non-Android phone, that they could not now send an Android phone even though the original model had been. The only compensation offered was to add 30 days to her plan.

Yesterday, March 25, the replacement phone that she had been using failed and she is not able to call out again. I contacted Straight Talk again and asked that since this phone has also failed, that they refund the purchase price. At this time I was told that I only had 30 days from the purchase date to receive a refund and no refund could be granted. I tried to explain that the phone and the service had never been satisfactory for 30 days. They said no refund. I've contacted my credit card company to see if they can get my refund.

Although this did not make me happy, losing the receipt is my own fault. On top of all this, I discovered that while in the process of activating my phone, Straight Talk started charging me for their service ($46.50 approximately). Today, I talked to several different customer service representatives trying to recover my money for service that I could not receive. Despite having a record of calls and emails of my efforts to activate my phone and failing, they refused to return my money. They only offered to give me a credit. I have since moved on to a different carrier and have no desire to use Straight Talk since they were not able to activate my phone, nor did I have a reception in my house even if they had been able to activate my phone. I have since contacted my credit card company and am awaiting an answer to my claim.

Visa says that Straight Talk has to give information to authorize a refund. I tried calling a Straight talk manager back but was put on hold for 20 minutes till I finally had to hang up and go to work. I'll try again tomorrow for another "boiled in oil" experience and hope I can somehow get a refund. On one occasion Straight Talk actually lost my phone number. I was on the phone with tech support and the fellow says, "I lost your number." That's right. I was forced to get another phone number. They need to totally change management or some desperate measure. Your experience could be okay, but that was mine. Good luck.

So I am out all my pics, numbers, and all on that SIM card, $45 and they did not credit me service days. Now who is the liar? I am going on Facebook and tell my story. I have hundreds of friends and when they tell 2 friends and so on ... I do not appreciate the service and the lies. I would really like to talk to a live person who can speak English. I believe I have been treated so horribly that when this phone dies, I will not go back with Straight Talk. I may save money, but it is truly not worth the hassle. To say I am upset is a real understatement. Now your phone number is no longer in service. Straight Talk, you are wrong!

About 15 seconds later, the phone received a text message showing a phone number had been assigned to the phone. I called customer service (it's actually customer dis-service). I spent the next 45 minutes on the phone with a woman who couldn't (or wouldn't) resolve the issue. She kept telling me it was my fault, that they had nothing to do with it. It's Straight Talk's website, but Straight Talk's Customer Service has nothing to do with it? I had to get very belligerent with her to get her off the "nothing to do with it" record. She said she couldn't activate the SIM with any other number.

Apparently, once a phone number is assigned to a SIM, the SIM can't be changed. She said she could deactivate the SIM, but I would have to purchase a replacement SIM card & start over. But she said that her system didn't give her an option to select a particular type of SIM card (remember I need a micro SIM). She was only able to submit the order which would go to some warehouse. I've already dealt with receiving a replacement SIM from the warehouse on a previous issue - the warehouse shipped a standard SIM, not a micro - but that's another story. When I told her that I was not purchasing anything else and that Straight Talk has become more of a problem than they're worth and that first thing tomorrow morning I'm contacting the Better Business Bureau, she decided to transfer me to a manager.

It took another 45 minutes, but the manager confirmed they could not change a SIM card once a number has been assigned to it. She deactivated the card & said she would order a replacement SIM card. I questioned her multiple times about ordering a micro SIM card, & she confirmed that she does have the capability to order a micro SIM card like the one I currently have. And I didn't have to purchase this replacement SIM card, contrary to what the first person claimed. She gave me the manager's line number, 866-277-4089, & said to call this number to activate the replacement SIM. I told her that if anything goes wrong with activating the replacement SIM card, anything at all, I'm filing a complaint with the BBB.

The lesson from this for anyone out there contemplating using Straight Talk, don't even think about activating a SIM card via the Straight Talk website - the site has some serious problems. Call the number on the package. I will use Straight Talk for 1 month. Any further problem & I will pay the higher cost of AT&T or Verizon.

Frustrated, I called Straight Talk back and was told by Julienne ** that I have to cut the sim card! She was not helpful and was very arrogant. I said I was never told I would have to cut the sim card. I wanted to return my sim card and not use the monthly plan and get a refund. She said the website clearly states no returns. I said, well, it does not say anywhere on the website that I need to cut a sim card to work. Furthermore, I said I was told by an agent at your company to buy this sim card and was not told I needed to cut it. She stated that they have no way to verify that I was told this, basically insinuating I am lying.

I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told the supervisor will just tell me the same thing. I insisted to speak with one, but after 15 minutes of repeatedly being told I have to hold, I gave up! Beware of this Google company online; they have a very bad reputation and an awful customer service! I've lost $70 to this company due to their false information and the consumer loses, I guess. I feel bad for people who cannot afford bigger better cell phone service. They get treated like nobodies by this company while spending what little money they have on a company that pretends to be of quality and have the ability to save them money; they are deceitful and have poor customer service. If you just Google Straight Talk customer service, you will see all the complaints. I’m just another unhappy Straight Talk customer. I am, I guess.

This time, the representative looked into what had happened and what they could do. She found that since my new phone number had two numbers that matched the wrong phones number, that it went against the company's policies to refund me for their representative's mistake. She told me that I would have to be transferred to the refund department to work things out. I sat on hold for over an hour and wasn't able to talk to anyone. I tried again the next day and I was stuck on hold again! I had bought the phone and the card at the same time with my debit card and purchased both at Wal-Mart.

To help others, here is what I learned: In order to fix technical issues beyond your phone; you have to call with a different phone (otherwise you will have to call again and be on hold again). Ask to speak with the "office of management." This is located in Miami at the corporate office. You will wait on hold likely for over an hour, but if you call in the morning, it may go faster. Explain that you are able to connect with other services. Also, that with the access number that you can't connect to other phone numbers in that area (otherwise they will tell you they don't resolve problems with connections to individual numbers). Be prepared to give them examples. They will have you test call them while you are on the phone. Be persistent and keep track of your ticket number. Don't give up. It took me a month, but hopefully this will help you to fix it sooner.

Here are all their contact info: Straight Talk Wireless USA Corporate Office Headquarters HQ; Address: 9700 NW 112th Avenue Miami, FL 33178 / Straight Talk customer service number: 1-877-430-2355. Hopefully this is helpful.

I borrowed a phone and called Straight Talk again. Of course, they told me I must go to a Wal-Mart store and speak with someone there. What a joke! The Wal-mart person had to do the same as myself and wait on hold for 35 minutes before someone picked up the line. They then told me they couldn't help it if I did not know how to use my phone, and I had run over on my web browsing. I requested they take another look as I had never used the browser with my tiny flip phone; why, when I have a 17-inch computer sitting in my home office which I pay for a separate internet service.

They then told me I must purchase a $45 card for some odd reasoning. I requested a refund for my January billing cycle as they cut me off. What a waste of time. I had to pay the $45 in order to be in touch with anyone. I then went and purchased an iPhone and service from Sprint. Stay away from Straight Talk. This is a big scam which cost me a lot of time, money and aggravation. I had to drive many miles to the nearest Wal-Mart. Pick another service.

At this point, I was told I would be transferred to talk with someone else about this problem and I was promptly disconnected. I tried to start the process again, but they do make it too time consuming for people who are too busy to waste time holding on the phone for 15, 20, 30+ minutes then disconnect so you must choose to waste more time hoping you will get someone who can help, only to repeat the exact same frustrating process again and again until you give up. I would have been happy with, "We understand your problem and will replace the standard sim with the correct micro sim you ordered." But now I do not even want to use Straight Talk's service for anything.

I just would like this company to be held responsible to provide the products and services that they say they do. I'm amazed that companies in the United States can still operate in this manner - false advertising, customer manipulation and horrid customer service. If I ran my small mom and pop business the way Straight Talk runs their business, I would be inundated with all kinds of officials knocking on my business door going through every piece of my business to make sure I was complying with all the state and federal guidelines set up to run a legal business in the US.

Not only will I file this complaint, but one will be filed with the BBB and every other business that handles complaints and especially with Wal-Mart since they support Straight Talk and sell their items, and then they should be held accountable also! Next stop I will be making is going on TV and getting with other people to have petitions signed for something to be done or for Straight Talk to go out of business. Once I found another company, I'm leaving. And everyone that reads this might want to do the same and find another carrier, perhaps Page Plus or AT&T. And if you haven’t noticed, I'm very upset! It doesn’t make any sense for a company’s' customer service to be so bad. And why aren’t there any local offices to go into to speak to someone? I know, someone might go postal on them!

I know that people don't get a lot of money from class action cases, maybe nothing, but often companies are forced to make changes. AT&T changed their unlimited data when sued. As a result, they no longer offer except to existing accounts already provisioned. I want Straight Talk forced to either change their advertising, packages and disclosures no longer saying unlimited data or change their service to match the advertising by actually providing unlimited data which would include streaming. I am not happy to learn after canceling my AT&T account with unlimited data that the small print only available inside a booklet in the already purchased service package or online buried in a multiple page agreement discloses the agreement which when reached must be agreed to or you lose what you have spent for a new SIM card and plan; neither is refundable.

I want to find out who sued AT&T forcing their change because I wish to force Straight Talk to change. I know Wal-Mart as a reputable company and as the world's largest retailer and can and has bankrupted several companies simply by no longer selling their products, I think they would pressure Straight Talk for change if I make and get others to make enough calls. Do you know who I would need to talk to (position or name) at Wal-Mart and/or a phone number? Please provide any information you can about a Wal-Mart contact or other method of making Straight Talk at least feel irritation.

This had been ongoing and frustrating for 3 years of service. I consider this a rip off money-wise to the consumer, me and others I know having that same experience. I did look into the iPhones and Android phones they had to offer. People, please save your money! Not all is what it seems and, yes, there are prepaid carriers out there that offer full service iPhones/Android phones without restrictions at the cost per month that Straight Talk offers. I might add the upgrade phones they have are very generic in screen size, speed, and limited use.

It took 3 hours with Straight Talk to get them to accept that I am demanding a refund of both the phone and card since neither can be used at all. But yet, I have to spend money to insure it and mail it to another state and wait at least 30 days for a manual refund. How is it legal for Straight Talk to say "nationwide service" when a phone won't even work in your immediate area? That is false advertising, misleading, and they should be taken off of every shelf in the nation. I informed Walmart that I intend to shop elsewhere since their customer service dept. already knew all about the Straight Talk phone issues not working but yet they are still selling them. I asked them, “Why don't you take them off the shelves since you know this?” Their response was, "We will have to look into that I guess."

Great going, Walmart and Tracfone. I'm telling everyone about my issues and they will tell others. I am sending in complaints to consumer protection, BBB and more. I better get my refund back from Straight Talk; I will give them exactly 30 days and I will call them every single one of those days and ask about the status of my refund. Walmart should learn that cheap items that don't work cost them money because the $5,000 per year I spend there will be going elsewhere!

The customer care service of Straight Talk, it's really a pain to discuss with them. I have tried to inform them this issue for the last 5 days and everyday, they say that they are just escalating to higher level and at the end, they say these numbers are ISD restricted numbers. When I asked how it is able to connect from calling card, the support team says this is what their process document states. They can't do anything. They are just good for nothing. Now, I am helpless. I'm paying the money but not getting the service. Though I have taken unlimited international plan, still I have to take additional calling card to call my country which as per the Straight Talk site is covered within the plan. Can anyone help me in finding out the proper forum to raise complaint about this cheating and fraudulent activity by Straight Talk?

When you call customer service, all you get is recorded messages and you’re told to press numerous buttons to numerous depts. This is the worst service I have ever had, and I will never recommend it to anyone. My family has 4 cell phones with Sprint, and as each one expired, we were planning on switching to Straight Talk. Not now! Not ever! Plus when I call, I can't understand their customer service. When I'm prompted to pick English, I get a foreigner who speaks English as a second language. I'm totally disappointed with Wal-Mart for providing this service.

For 12 months, I paid Straight Talk $50 a month and used a phone that wasn't capable of using a significant amount of data. All I would have needed for my low tech phone would have been the $30 plan. So right off the bat, I overpaid them $240. In early December 2012, I bought an LG Optimus L35G, a "smart phone" in hopes of finally using the "unlimited data" that I had been paying for in vain the 12 months prior. The problems began ... After seven days of great data speeds, suddenly, the data slowed way down and, randomly, it would cut off for up to 10 hours. There were seven more days of slow or no data. Then we called ST Tech Support for the 1st time.

#1 call to ST Tech Support was 3 hours of being on hold or having to start over on hold after being cut off during transfer to tech. My question was, "Why is our data cutting off constantly or worthlessly slow when it is on?" The ST answer: "Because your account's zip code doesn't match your area of usage (we had moved from AL to CA)." ST Resolution was that they sent out a new SIM card, supposedly a zip code change and a new local area code would somehow help with our data speeds.

Five days later, our new SIM card arrived. We called Tech support again. #2 call to ST Tech support was 4 hours of hold/re-hold time. We went through the activation process (another painstaking hour). At the end of the process, the Tech Support person gave us our "new" number - it was another out-of-state number! Even worse, they hadn't ever changed our account's zip code. Immediately, we pointed out that the whole reason we had spent the last five hours on the phone was for a new number with a local area code and zip. They transferred us to a supervisor and hung up.

#3 call to ST Tech support was three hours on hold and with various tech people trying to explain what had happened. Eventually, they said they "couldn't" give us a local number because of the still unchanged zip code in our account. We decided that we would just wait for our service to run out and the next refill we bought, we would just register a new account locally. In the meantime, we called; we still had 20 something days left on our prepaid month. We wondered if we could just get our old number back for the remainder.

#4 call to ST Tech support was two hours hold/getting cut off/re-holding, explaining my entire story each time to yet another tech person even when I was being transferred to a supervisor! The tech people apparently don't start support tickets or record any information! My question was, "Could we get our old number back?" Answer was, "Yes, let me transfer you to a supervisor, whoops I hung up on you (this happened four times)!"

#5 call to ST Tech support was three hours more (another full day gone). Finally I got a hold of a tech person who seemed to actually understand what we were saying, and said he can give us our old number back, but it may take up to 24 hours for the "number to come back". We waited 24 hours, turned on our phone and now there is a third out-of-state number! To make matters worse, there is no data connection at all.

#6 call to ST Tech Support was two hours. Three tech people advised us to "take our battery out" and take our SIM card out and reinsert it. Of course none of it worked and no one could get us our old number back, and we still had no data! Now it was Christmas and the phone number we had for a year, the one that all of our family and friends knew was gone.

#7 call to ST Tech Support was two hours of wait. My question was, "Why don't we have a data connection?" The answer was, "Because you recently changed your phone number! Wait another 24 hours for the data connection." 24 hours later, was #8 call to ST Tech Support with two hours wait. My question was, "Why don't we have a data connection?" The answer was, "Because your account zip code doesn't match your usage area, and so on ..." This went on for weeks. We managed to get ST to give us 8 extra days to make up for the 8 days total we were without a phone. During this time, we decide that we would pretend that calling ST Tech support was our part time job, and we were determined to get that data!

#9, #10, #11, #12, #13 and #14 calls to ST Tech Support were twelve hours of holding over a five-day period. We finally got a Tech Support person to admit that they cur off our data because we had exceeded our data limit. So after that whole ordeal, they could have just told us that in the first place! We asked this particular Tech Support person these questions: "What is our data limit?" There was no answer. "How do we monitor our data usage?" - no answer. "Can you warn us when we are approaching our limit?" - no answer; "How can you legally advertise unlimited data?" - no answer.

After our litany of calls and a total of about 34 hours on hold and with tech support, we figured that it was useless to pursue trying to get a data connection. Our new plan was to let our Straight Talk expire and switch our phone to a T-Mobile prepaid, a company that was more upfront about data limits. When we had one day left of our ST service, we called T-Mobile gave them our IMEI# and they assured us that our LG Optimus L35G would work on T-Mobile as long as we used their SIM card. They sent us a SIM, activated it, turned the phone on, got the message, "Service provider blocked."

#15 call to ST Tech support was one hour hold; ST "won't unlock" my phone because it is a Straight Talk phone and I can only use Straight Talk with it. Even though I had no contract, I purchased the phone and the prepaid separately, still, they insist that I don't own my device, they do. #16 and final call to ST Tech support was one hour on hold. I asked again if they would give me the unlock code for my phone or release it. This time they said they "weren't capable" of releasing a phone. That they "didn't have the tools." For once, I believed them.

Here is the phone number for complaining to the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, Office of Consumer Protection: 877-382-4357 and there is a complaint form for the Better Business Bureau on bbb.org. To all the hundreds who complain about Straight Talk on forums, take five minutes to file a complaint with these agencies.

Later when the listings of 2 orders for SIM cards appeared on my email, I attempted to cancel; however, Straight Talk said I needed to refuse shipment as the only means to not pay twice for the order. The iPhone 5s and cables arrived in 5 packages the same day, while the 2 Straight Talk packages arrived a day earlier than specified. In the confusion, my wife signed for the second Straight Talk SIM cards. I also learned these were micro, not the nano, SIM cards I need for iPhone 5. I attempted to return these to Straight Talk, but they refused any refund.

Mistakes were made on both sides. It was never clear from Straight Talk's website that they did not support iPhone 5. Straight Talk's absolute policy of refusal to refund resulted in a loss to me of over $200. My advice to anyone wishing to save money by purchasing a Straight Talk service is to carefully consider all the negative reviews for this provider and very carefully read the fine print. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I decided to go to the forums and try my luck there. I made my account and made my post, which being my first time on the forum requires me to make a total of 5 separate posts to unlock the ability to reply to a personal message from someone who can help me (same system as the Tracfone forums). I did get a PM from one of the employees, asking for my serial number so they can help me further. I replied with the information. 2 days later, still no response from the person. I also bumped my post asking for someone who was online to help. I guess no one was.

I tried my luck with the email contact. I sent an email with my serial number, phone number and an explanation of my problem. I got an auto reply email stating my email was received. A little later, I decided to try my luck again with the customer service phone number. I got the recording again, but I tried a second time and finally made it through to being on hold for a representative. I was on hold for about an hour before I was finally able to talk to someone and get my voicemail password reset.

Later on, I got a call from Straight Talk about my email I sent. The guy on the voicemail (yay, I can finally get into my voicemail) said they apologized for the problem and that I should call their customer service number so they can help me with my problem. What the hell is the point of having an email contact for customer service if I'm just going to be told to call the phone number anyway?

I rated 3/5 because the phone works good, just kinda annoying of always having a low system memory notification from having 4 other installed apps besides the ones that come preloaded. The customer service is a pain to deal with. If you have the patience to deal with issues like this, great. But if not, either switch to someone else or get your phone replaced.

This morning, December 17, 2012, I got up to have no service. Of course when trying to make a call, it takes me directly to Straight Talk's system (at least it does that much). After 7 different customer service reps and counting, this issue is still not resolved. Now, I have purchased 3 refills but can't use any of them. I paid $200 for the phone. And now $150 for three months of service and have nothing to show for it. The folks in India are hard to understand and do not understand the problem. Every person wants to do something different. And two want me to hang up and have them call me on another line. I have no other line. Thank goodness I have internet and can email friends to see about going to someone's home to try this from there. This is extremely frustrating and has taken 4 hours of my time so far and counting. Buyers beware!

Though, both they and I have FedEx tracking numbers, phone serial numbers, and relevant info that agree, they can't determine that a replacement is due! Apparently, having received 2 returns from a customer within a week is more than they can handle! I will be writing, and sending documentation to their Executive Resolution Dept. in Miami to see if that will help resolve the issue!

Well I decided to talk to a supervisor and cancel the order. He put me on hold. I was on hold for 38 minutes and no one came on the line. So I hung up and decided to contact my credit card company for the incident. Transaction was pending so they can't do anything on it either. The order came in today and my mother received it. So I called Straight Talk and want them to cancel the order. They want me to send it back. I told them I am out of town and my mother doesn't drive, so kindly cancel the order and refund my money. But they refused to do that until I send the kit back. I told them to send me a return tag and schedule a pick up since that's their fault. He kept insisting this is my fault, so I have to pay shipping.

That supervisor was very rude and refused to return my money. I will never tackle with that company. He was very brave to give me his name and ID (in other words, telling me "Do whatever you want to do. You are not getting your money back and I don't care who you contact.") His name is Alexander and number is **.

Although Straight Talk/TracFone Wireless, Inc ads boast of no hidden fees, cut your cell phone bill in half, feel richer, no coverage charges, unlimited $45 monthly plan talk, text and data - these claims are misleading, false and purposefully deceptive. According to the many customer service agents I spoke with about my phone being cut off from the internet, I was in violation of codes, terms and regulations. I demanded to have my service restored and it finally was restored with a warning about my usage. I had to threaten the company with petitions and to take my service to another wireless carrier. In addition, during this incident not only was internet slowed but my Gmail email account was also slowed. My email was somehow filtered and many emails were lost and never recovered. I was informed that companies and friends sent emails to me that I never read, saw or received. I have no idea if these two events/issues/incidents are connected or somehow associated by other Privacy Rights against American citizens.

I hate to think that cell phone companies have the power to not only control phone data usage and connectivity but also control/deny/pull the plug on connected apps usage and connectivity in this way. Consumers have a right to know! Terms should be outlined, communicated through texts, emails, correspondence by Straight Talk/TracFone Wireless Inc to its customers prior to violation of terms and agreements resulting in termination of internet connectivity or slowdown of internet, etc. Even marketing unlimited data with no information on hard cap limits of warning thresholds, in their terms and agreements they say (referring to their unlimited data services) Straight Talk unlimited plans cannot be used for (1) access to the internet, intranets, or other data networks except as the devices native applications and capabilities permit. Selling data plans and then saying that you can't use them to access the internet is false marketing and scamming the customers.

As with their new BYOD plans, which allows you to buy a SIM card and use in any GSM compatible and unlocked device, in that same terms and conditions, it says data can't be used except as the devices native applications and capabilities permit. Many smartphones nowadays, which they allow customers to use, have native applications for video and music streaming services, and web browsers for internet browsing, as prohibited in part 7 in the Terms and Agreements. The Straight Talk unlimited plans may not be used for any other purpose.

Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous mobile to mobile or mobile to landline voice calls; (ii) automated text or picture messaging to another mobile device or e-mail address; (iii) uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (iv) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; or (v) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted; but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses may have his/her service terminated without notice or a refund.

File your FCC complaint against Straight Talk/TracFone Wireless: Form 2000A - Deceptive or Unlawful Advertising and Promotion Complaint www.fcc.gov/complaints or by phone, Consumer & Mediation Specialists are available Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm ET to answer questions and assist in filing a complaint. Call toll-free at 1- 888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or 1-888-TELL- FCC (1- 888-835-5322). By postal: Federal Communications Commission Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Consumer Complaints, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20554.

December 22 rolled around and my sister-in-law emailed me wanting to know why our phone is disconnected. I contacted customer support, was told there is a 3-hour wait. While on hold, I emailed them too. The customer support I finally got through to was of no help. The email was returned with a phone call. She created a ticket, reactivated my phone and told me to follow up with the ticket in 24-48 hours. I logged in and checked the ticket on December 23 and 24 but the system cannot find it. I figure I needed to wait. December 25 rolled around; I have to work a 24-hour shift away from the house. The phone is deactivated again, leaving my wife and children at home without a phone. I called support and they were not able to fix it. The best they can do is to send me a new SIM in 3-5 days. They were not able to resolve it.

Do not depend on Straight Talk for a phone. Their customer support cannot operate outside the box to resolve an issue. If you think about it, selling me service at over $140 for 3 months and not providing it (hopefully) for 10 days, if they do. This is fraud at the minimum. It is plain and simply just wrong. Five calls and six emails to customer support and I still do not have phone service that I already paid for over 2 weeks ago! So what caused this? System glitch is what they are saying. Maybe I did, maybe a network connection, who knows. In my opinion, even an error in the system or user error, they should be able to resolve it in 30 minutes, not 10 days and multiple calls into the support line.

She repeated the information I gave her back to me. She stated that she was going to send me a return address with my new phone and that I was to send my old phone back to them. I told them I understood. She then gave me a tracking number so I could track the package. I asked her, would I get it before Christmas. She stated you should. She stated to check on my email tomorrow and it should be on there. The next morning I checked my email. There was nothing from them. I waited to the afternoon and still nothing. I called Straight Talk back. I talked to someone again in support unit. She asked me what was going on. I told her. I gave her the tracking number (**), she stated to me that they were not going to send me a new phone until I send them my phone.

I explained to her what the other lady told me yesterday. She stated that that was not their policy and I was to send them my phone. I stated it was the holidays and I need my phone. I asked to talk to a supervisor. I talked to another lady. She stated that they were not going to send me a phone unless I sent them mine. I asked where I was to send it. She stated she would send the information to my email. It’s 12/26/12 and I still haven't received anything yet. I could see why their ratings are so low. Thanks for listening.

I was trying very hard not to throw any f-bombs around and kindly asked, "How could the system actually assign someone a number that still belongs to someone else?" I am sure that the CSR had the "deer in the headlights" look and said that the numbers are automatically assigned by the system - that they have no control over it. Who is the moron that designed a system that would commit such stupidity? Trained dolphins and dogs jump through hoops. We, as customers, shouldn't have to!

Since the beginning I had been on the auto refill plan. But when they changed over to my replacement phone, they did not keep it on auto refill so it got deactivated. So again with another 65 minutes on the phone with them, I was back to auto refill. But I just found out that when they put it back on auto refill, they changed the plan from the previous $30.00 per month to $45 per month. So I’m about to once again call in and be prepared to spend another hour to get this corrected. This unfortunately happens each and every time any phone changes have taken place. They are horrible and they all do not speak good English. The price you pay to go on the cheap!

I was then instructed to call back in 24 hours. I followed instructions and called back on Saturday, 12/1/12, whereby the representative proceeded to troubleshoot the phone again with the exact same steps as on Friday. Before getting too far, I insisted on speaking with a manager and was transferred. I then went through the same troubleshooting steps as before and had to step outside to try and program my phone with 5 codes that were given to me. After an hour I was instructed, no joke, to hang up, drive to the nearest cell tower and put in the 5 codes when I was right next to the cell tower.

Like an idiot, I did as instructed again and the phone still did not work and would not be programmed. I called Straight Talk on Sunday, 12/2/12, and again the representative started to "troubleshoot" the phone with the exact same instructions as on Friday and Saturday. Before the "troubleshooting" got too far, I asked what country the Straight Talk rep was stationed in and was informed that it was the Philippines. I immediately asked for a phone number in the USA and was given a number for the Executive Resolutions Department.

On Monday, 12/3/12, the representative at the Executive Resolutions Department, after troubleshooting the phone again for the the 7th time, made the admission that it was a defective phone and needed to be returned. The representative stated that he would email me shipping instructions and that a separate email would be sent by FedEx with the label and once the defective phone was in the mail, then a working phone would be sent to me. The shipping instructions were sent on 12/4/12, but no shipping label from FedEx.

I called Straight Talk Executive Resolutions Department again on 12/5/12 when no shipping label showed up and was told that another shipping label would be sent out to me today. I was informed that his manager was on the phone with FedEx and that the line was "busy" and she couldn't get through to see why a shipping label wasn't sent. Again, I got the shipping instruction on 12/5/12, but had no FedEx shipping label. I called and was informed by a different representative that a physical shipping label would have to be sent to me via the mail and that it would take 3-5 business days and a phone would not be expedited to me. So now I'm out a work phone for a week plus probably another week. I informed the Straight Talk rep that I was finished dealing with them and that complaints would be filed. On 12/7/12, I finally got 2 FedEx shipping labels in my email and the phone was returned to them on Monday, 12/10/12.

I cancelled my Straight Talk service via email on 12/6/12 and went to MetroPCS to get a phone. On 12/10/12, I received a phone call with a voice message left to contact Straight Talk about cancelling my service. I returned the call and was notified that my account was inactive and the service cancelled. When I asked about the credit to my credit card for the 8 days I didn't have cell service, I was told that no credit would be given and that no manager was going to give me a credit for the 8 days of no service. The only way I was going to get credit for those 8 days was to get another phone and sign up for service with Straight Talk. I proceeded to ask the representative, "If you were me, would you buy another Straight Talk phone and sign up for new service?" There was silence on the other end of the line. I stated that I would call the BBB and my credit card company.

I have since put both the cellphone and the 8 days of no service on dispute with my credit card and have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Do not sign up with Straight Talk, which is owned by TracFone. NET10 is also owned by TracFone. To sign up with these guys is just asking for problems.

Meanwhile, I would go without a cell phone, so every month I would have to add minutes to a TracPhone for the days I would go without my other phone. This was so damn frustrating, and like clockwork, same thing month after month. And by the way, "TracPhone, Cricket, etc." is all the same company. Walmart just puts "Straight Talk" on the phone which is owned by Walmart but the service is operated from India. It’s a scam! Do not fall for it. You will waste so much time dealing with these people over the phone (and not your phone that isn't working).

You do not get to talk to anyone who has any actual technical skills that can assist you. In spite of sometimes being put on hold for up to an hour, I would then be disconnected and have to start all over again. You never talk to the same person twice. At the end of the day, all they can do is keep repeating the same steps that do not the fix the problem. I paid $45 for the phone card and $179 for a Straight Talk phone which you have to purchase to the service. The phone has now quit working and Straight Talk does not provide any technical assistance to assist customers nor any resolutions for their customers' problems. I thought I would be saving money going with this service but instead, I got taken to the cleaners.

We were told that our refunds were processed and our service to our phone was immediately ended. The voice mail on our phone immediately indicated that # was no longer in service. After 2 days, we realized our refunds were never sent. So, we called S.T. once again who stated they had "no record of our previous conversations" and no refund could be given. When asked about ending service, their customer service rep stated service was ended 2 nights ago at our request but they had no record of us calling in. Needless to say, we'll never have any future service nor refund. They owe us over $300 but will not respond to our calls since we are no longer their customers. Complete Deception!

If your life is boring and you need more stress and aggravation, by all means, purchase a Straight Talk phone. But you will be sorry! Any savings will be eaten up by your precious time and increased stress. I tell everyone do not get involved with this company! Deal with a provider where you can walk into their service centers for assistance. This company steals good, honest customers' money!

Today, November 12, 2012, I haven't had internet services on my phone since early morning. Around 8:30AM PST, I called technical support and I was with a tech support representative for over 90 minutes on the call trying to have the internet fixed. Tech support representative did not resolve the case. I still had no internet. He gave me a fake case number ** (later on when I called and talked to supposedly a supervisor to inquire about the case, the supervisor told me that there is no case created). Tech support rep in the morning misinformed me, saying that he is going to escalate the issue to a higher level tech support and that it should be fixed in about 4 hours.

After 5 hours of waiting/having on internet, I called the number he provided me 1877-222-2355 (he said it's a direct number for tech support). The number does not exist and does not take calls! He gave me a fake phone number. At 2:30PM I called a regular number and spoke with another tech support rep. She was clueless and started leading me through the same steps I was doing in the morning for over 90 minutes. She was really slow and unhappy with her job. I asked for a supervisor. Another woman with a rude, slow voice introduced herself as a supervisor. She said her name was Daisy. Daisy was rude since the first sentence, neglecting my complaints and leading me through basic steps that I was led through in the morning. That was scandalous.

I asked why I have to do it all over again, what I've done in the morning. I asked how come she cannot see in the system what we've done in the morning with the other customer service rep. She said, "That was another person so I don't know what you've done with him." And the supposedly supervisor said, "There is no case. Here at Straight Talk, we don't make cases." Then she put me on hold without warning me that she will put me on hold. So I was sitting with a silent phone for 10 minutes or more. I was calling her name, checking if she's there and what happened? She was not responding, put me on forever hold! I tried calling back in at the regular Straight Talk phone 1855-222-2355 and the Straight Talk phone was hanging up on me, call after call. It was saying, "Due to high call volume, we have to disconnect with you" or something like that. Scandalous!

If Straight Talk does not resolve my issue with the internet (no internet all day) and if Straight Talk does not reimburse me for not having internet all day and wasting almost 2 hours of my time with a rude and clueless technical support, and for going through so much stress with the rudest and unhelpful supervisor Daisy, this is my first month with Straight Talk and it will be surely my last month with Straight Talk.

We both hate contract phones. They give no service either, and you get locked in. But this is beyond belief! We are now waiting for the "box" to come, and reviews I've read sound as if two weeks to new phone is common. This is so not acceptable. And I don't know the last time both of us were so angry, because this endangers her life!

I've called them about this matter more than 10 times, but all I seem to get is that the amount will be put back into my account and that they’re sorry and that it won’t happen again. I wait one month in between, and then the following month at around the same date, they again take out $48.81. They wait another day or so and take out another $49.36. That’s not all. I waited a few days and I get charges added on to my account. Thanks to Straight Talk, I got NSF with my bank.

I called them again but they refused to pay the NSF that they caused. They speak to me as if I wanted more from them after they've already put the money back into the account. I kept telling them that I didn't have an account with them in the first place, but they told me that I did, etc. They asked me to take down this toll-free or fax number for me to send them my bank statements, but I don’t think I will. They have my credit card number now and each time they say it won’t happen again, it does anyway. Now they want my bank statements. Remember: I don’t have a Straight Talk account, a cell phone, or any signed agreement with them, but they keep taking money out of my account. I could close my bank account, but why should I have to do all of that? Straight Talk, you are wrong and I am not.

They want my bank statements because they think I’m lying, but I have proof of this. We have been dealing with this issue the whole year; they take money out of my account and say it won’t happen again, but in the end I am in the hole because of Straight Talk. They made me have NSF and they have given me a bad name when paying my bills. I now have over $100 worth in NSF. My bank has also been transferring money from my savings account, and now I have no savings because of Straight Talk. You want me to trust you and send in my bank statement? I think Not.

Straight Talk, you are in the wrong. You took money out of my account, causing me to have NSF charges. My savings have been transferred into my account because of the money you keep taking. You had no right to do that. Stand up for what is right. I didn't authorize you to take money from my account in the first place. You caused all of this and you need to fix it. Thanks so much for putting me in the NSF and cleaning out my savings account.

My goal now is to see if the company will ever send me a phone that works. Also, I have never given up my existing cell phone and, at this state of affairs, may not; even though it costs 33% more and gives less service than the Straight Talk plan I selected. At least it works after almost two years. I guess I will continue to beta test their phones while FedEx handles the shipments. I will give the company credit for the patient and polite helpdesk people. They do take their time to do as much as they can to fix my continuing phone problem. I have only once had a manager try to force me to go with Verizon rather than AT&T, but my problem was never the bars or service, just the physical phones have been bad. When I can call, the phone service is okay. I now hope they don't send me my former phone which didn't work.

On 10/6/2012, I attempted to purchase Straight Talk Minutes cards through walmart.com, orders were cancelled. I contacted Walmart customer service and was told that Straight Talk (again) had cancelled my transactions. I do not understand how valid transactions are being routinely denied by this wireless company! In all cases, my financial institutions (bank, credit card, PayPal) had approved my transactions and held funds pending completion of transaction. In all cases, the transactions were cancelled by the supplier, Straight Talk. Similar transactions by family and friends have also been cancelled.

So, we called on the third day after adding the $30 card to the phone and were told we had to call Customer Service back from a different phone line so as to troubleshoot my daughter's phone. Needless to say, we were kept on the phone for exactly 47 minutes, yet the problem was not fixed after this amount of time! A return call was made to us on my line from the technical team. Again, we were engaged in troubleshooting for an additional 38 minutes! There may be some customers who have that kind of time to sit and spend troubleshooting a phone, but I do not.

The sad part is that after all this wasted time troubleshooting, the phone started doing the same thing exactly two days later. However, I was repeatedly told that the problem was fixed and the phone reset to receive/ send 1000 calls/1,000 texts after calling into Customer Service for the third time. It was a big fat lie! To date, I have not been able to send/receive calls or texts on this phone since I reduced from a $45 card to a $30 card. This is intentional on Straight Talk's behalf to coerce consumers into buying the more expensive card although they claim either will work. Do not believe this. It is false advertising! And this is the second time it happened!

So I'm requesting for the service "Straight Talk" to please be right and not scam people. You cannot write that we get unlimited data if you slow it down after 2 weeks. Even though it's unlimited, we cannot use it because to go on Straight Talk's website takes about 15-20 seconds, so forget about watching a video. And I would like to add that anyone who wants to switch to Straight Talk, please do not because you're going really hungry after that. Be smart and get T-Mobile even though it's Edge because the T-Mobile Edge goes a lot faster than the 3G Straight Talk. I hope Straight Talk is going to make a good decision and stop lying to people.

Honestly, the price isn't that great. There are a lot of other prepaid, contract free providers out right now. Don't get Straight Talk to just save $10 a month. They are a joke. My wife and I are both unable to make or receive texts and calls over 50% of the time and we have both been mistreated and ran in circles for about 2 months with them. Buyer beware and good luck.

Remember to read the Terms and Conditions which seems like the only place to find it is on their website. It seems a little illegal to me, no contract. I've had 5 of their phones, none of which had a copy of these terms and conditions and everything on their $45 monthly plan says Unlimited all over it with no mention of not being able to stream (Pandora, Netflix, YouTube, any streaming service).

She kept repeating that the account had been denied for insufficient funds. Then, I asked why the payment was going in earlier than usual as I found this strange. She told me that I could sign up for a new auto refill plan but I kept saying that I did not need a plan. We already had a plan. She told me that the computer said that I no longer had a plan. Then, I asked to speak to a manager, but finally gave up waiting. Next, I went online to investigate and saw that every payment for a year had gone through but all of a sudden the charge was denied. Also, the charge went through early even though this was not really the issue.

I signed up a different credit card but then found this website and became worried about my personal information. Then, I tried to cancel auto refill online, and couldn't. I found it strange that you cannot cancel a service from a private, signed in account. So, I called ST back and had the auto refill removed from my account, got a bit angry even though I know the poor rep did not have any more information than I did. They were still trying to sell me a plan but I said "no," a definite "no." If my daughter still wants this phone, she can buy the cards. The phone works fine, but customer service is minimal and I wouldn't trust this company with your bank or credit card information. I'm so tired of robot phone reps and big company methods, so here I am.

After days of calling them and being on the phone with them for hours and hours and hours, they said both phones needed new SIM cards. Once the SIM cards came three days later, only my phone started working. Again my husband's phone would not work. Finally, after hours and hours and about 20 codes later, my husband’s phone started working. And now, my phone stopped working again. This is the worst service ever. You just get passed from person to person and each person starts over again completely. When you call, you are pretty much guaranteed to be on the phone with them for over an hour, every single time if not much, much longer. When I spoke with them about getting my money back for the third month, I had to pay to get my old phone working again.

The guy told me I should not have reactivated the phone and that if both our other phones were not working, then I should have gone to a pay phone or Walmart in order to contact them! They did not even want to refund my money for that month (I only used it for three days to call them about the phone problem!). If you never have phone problems with more than $30 for service is great. But if anything goes wrong, the service is worthless. This is only a summary of all the problems we have had! I still do not have a working phone!

I went without service for a day of so, then I went to Wal-Mart and asked an Electronics associate if he could call Straight Talk to unlock my phone. He did. Straight did their troubleshooting routine and still the phone would not unlock. Three times Straight Talk directed the Wal-Mart associate through the process without any success. The Straight Talk customer service representative told us that since they could not unlock the phone, they would send me a replacement phone in 3 to 5 days. I said okay but asked if in the meantime I could transfer the number to an older Straight Talk phone until the replacement arrived. Straight Talk said yes. I went home to retrieve the older phone. The next day, I used a friend's phone to call Straight Talk back and was horrified at the way they responded.

First, the representative wanted to troubleshoot the phone again, and since it would not turn on by this time, said he could not do anything. After about ten minutes of trying to get some type of resolution, I asked for a supervisor, which seemed to tick him off. Someone claiming to be a supervisor came on the line after a few moments, during which I feel they had already decided that their friendly relationship with each other was more important than this customer service stuff. The supervisor came on the line and continued to say that there had been no documentation that I would receive a replacement phone. After about 20 minutes of discussion, the supervisor told me that only if I sent them back the old phone first, would they send me a refurbished phone. I asked why, since the phone was still under warranty after only three month of use, I could not get a new phone. He became belligerent, and I suspected that things would get worse. I was right. I soon just decided that I would just first handle the matter of transferring the number to the older Straight Talk phone so at least I would have phone service.

Next when giving the supervisor the serial number and the MEID DEC numbers, he claimed the numbers were another Straight Talk customer's number, to which I disagreed, telling him that I had the phone right there and it had never gone from my ownership. He tried to say that I was wrong. But here I was, holding the phone with the numbers right in my hand. Finally he said, "Well yes, that is a part of your old account." Duh-h-h! After he failed several times to be able to get the numbers right, he finally said he did. He said that it would be a few minutes to a few hours before the older Straight Talk phone was activated. It is now several hours later and still the phone is not active. I feel he put a hold on following through with the activation just because he could.

I tell you, I have never been so frustrated with customer service or dealt with anyone who seemed to know less about what they were doing. I am not going to give up at this time on getting a new phone since they said they would not refund me a portion of the cost of the new phone, if I got a refurbished phone. I will call the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. And I will tell everyone who will listen about the horrible service I got when I called Straight Talk today, and how they have yet to do anything about my new phone or activate the old one. I do not know if this had anything to do with it, but the customer service, or lack of service, was from overseas. All I got today was attitude.

A supervisor came on the phone and told me that they can give me an unlimited plan for 20 days, which I accepted. Before the supervisor hangs up the phone, he told me that he will transfer me to a another person to finish the transaction. However, when the lady came on the other line, she said that they can't do it. What? Really? Apparently, they had changed their mind and I was then placed on hold for another 45 minutes. I will definitely call the BBB and will tell my lawyer about this false marketing that just screwed me up! Straight Talk will definitely hear from my lawyer unless they do something to fix this problem.