Tracfone Reviews

I have to write & say that after calling Tracfone 20 times and finally resorting to contacting the FCC and another place I could think of I finally received a call from Tracfone (a resolution specialist) they called ME.

Four days ago, I purchased minutes. I usually buy the 200 minutes package which triples to 600 because I have an android. I am not always texting or calling, so I know that with the new minutes, it will last me another 2-3 months. I called them on another phone to ask why my phone was deactivated. They told me I had exceeded my airtime and in order for me to reactivate my phone, I would have to repurchase more minutes.

I had to purchase a smartphone for use at a charity event - the phone box advertised 3X minutes, text, data and at the same time I had to extend my service agreement for another year. We normally purchase the year service plan. At a Military installation the next day, they had a card - 800 minutes - double minutes for $124.99. I bought that year agreement thinking I would also get the double minutes. When changing my service over from current phone to new phone, I was advised by TracFone that this card is not compatible with the new phone purchased. There was no mention of this on the display at the installation, or on the card. I pursued it with TracFone corp offices, and they gave me the year service (after a good 6+ total hours trying to get it resolved, and finally having to submit an email).

My TracFone Android phone was not working correctly. In a fit of exasperation I bought a simple TracFone. I then went online to read what I needed to do to transfer my minutes from the smartphone to a regular TracFone. I did not look carefully at every message, especially at a note located toward the end of the list. In that note it says that "if you transfer from a smartphone to a regular cell phone you will lose all your minutes." I had over 400 minutes. I did put in a request via the website. Nothing happened. So I called the 800 number to process the transfer. At no time during my conversation with the TracFone person was I advised about the loss of my 400+ minutes (previously I had successfully transferred my minutes and number from a regular TracFone to a TracFone Android phone). I no longer use a TracFone and will be moving my family's service to another carrier.

I will never ever get another TracFone. If your phone is stolen they are no help... They tell you one thing and do another. I am going with Boost. At least they are truthful. This company will lie to you and tell you what you want to hear but they still are no help. I talked to the supervisor who did not speak English. None of them do...

We have provided our elderly parents with a TracFone for emergencies for over 10 years without issue. Oct 2015 we added 1200 minutes giving a total of about 2400 minutes and extending their service to Nov 2016. On April 27, 2016 we purchased a new phone for our father and transferred the service. At the time the old phone showed that it still had about 2400 minutes. (Our mother had become ill and passed away and the phone had not been used.) The service transferred, however, the minutes did not! $200.00 worth of minutes- gone.

TracFone's customer service is awful. They refused to provide me a receipt for proof of purchase for a phone and misled me into believing they would send one, thereby preventing me from expensing the item on a business trip. The customer service is slow and time-consuming, and no-one I dealt with was competent or helpful. Simple requests became unfathomably complicated. Several of the English-speaking agents cannot understand you well. They offer to call back rather than keep you on hold - which they then don't actually do. The SIM coverage itself is acceptable, although certainly not good enough to compensate for the abysmal standards of their support - which you'll inevitably need to use because their website is full of bugs and the product isn't well designed on the site.

After many years of not having cell phone coverage at my home, I installed a repeater. When it was activated, I noticed that one of my TracFone’s worked and the second one didn't. Thinking the problem was with the repeater, I traveled to where I had coverage and had previously used the phone and found that it still didn't work. Thinking that TracFone had disabled my phone, I went online and established a chat session with the Tech Support people. I was informed that the "network" had been changed and that my phone was now obsolete. They claimed that I was sent an email to tell me to upgrade my phone. I pointed out that no email was received, and that they had gladly accepted my renewal for a year. I told them it was a sneaky way to get more money from me. The rep, Cherry, said that they would send me a replacement phone, and I gave them all pertinent information. That was on March 28th.

We upgraded to a new phone and wanted 4000 minutes transferred to it. First they send me a phone without any minutes which required multiple 30 minute wait time customer service call until they agreed to send another phone. Then I get the phone and it has the right minutes, and several days in, the phone stops working - "emergency calls only". Now I've been on the phone 3 times at an hour each (30 minutes waiting) and they still haven't fixed it, telling me to call back each time after waiting for 24 hours. What a crock! I went on their website and tried chatting for tech support and it says "too many chats going so try back later!" Where is a lawyer that can do a class action lawsuit?! This is total crap!

I have a TracFone. As I bought a new one the air time minutes ran out on the previous one I was carrying for emergency calls. I didn't recall seeing any warning on tracfone.com or anywhere about losing minutes. As time went on, I had to keep buying airtime minutes just to get more service days. Finally after buying over 2,200 airtime minutes I got tired of it. I hoped my minutes would still be there when I got around to re-activating (or whatever they required), buying more min. I didn't need just to get more air time service days. They were very eager to take my money.

They charge you minutes when you call to report employee errors on your account. I lost 90 minutes on the phone with 3 times in one day. All of them have heavy accents and I do not think they fully understand what you want. I demanded to talk to a manager and he was the biggest idiot of them all. DO NOT USE TRACFONE. YOU WILL REGRET IT! I feel like they stole my money!

Several weeks ago we go a letter from tracFone stating that our old phone will no longer work with tracFone in our area, and they would send us a new phone to work with 3G network. The first phone they sent was a reconditioned one with no back, battery, or cord (only the front was in the package). Alcatel Onetouch. The second phone was also reconditioned and after it was charged, tracFone could not get our minutes transferred or get that phone to get any service. Our old phone was out of service and minutes the same day the new phone was requested to get activated. Now 7 days later, after many hour long phone calls to tracFone. They lost the minutes and can't activate the new phone. They will be sending a new phone. Will that one work? And will they recover all the minutes?

I've used Tracfone for several years without issues. On Apr. 5, 2016, I paid for an additional 4500 minutes/data/texts to be added to my account. My original minutes were added to the 4500 so I had a total of 6000+ min/data/texts. On Apr. 8, I purchased a new cell phone, transferred my phone number to the new phone. Tracfone only transferred the 4500 min/data/text to my new phone. They wiped out my original roughly 2000 minutes.

This company requires up-front payment then accidentally on purpose causes you to have problems with the phone and/or minutes you purchased. They don't care to resolve your problems. It's a whack-a-mole game they're playing with the customer. Its parent company is a Mexican monopoly Americana Movil and they hook unsuspecting customers with their low rates but ever declining customer satisfaction for service and/or product.

I have been going round and round with TracFone since 2/24/16 (now 4/9/16). TracFone's website claimed my Verizon iPhone 5c was eligible and compatible with BYOP. I paid for the activation sim. TracFone sent the wrong size. While trying to convince the rep that they sent the wrong sim and send me the right size one the rep insisted I also needed a network activation code which I then purchased. I received the code but still no sim. Another bout with customer no-service and found that the rep with whom I spent over an hour with last time did not bother to record my address. Received the correct sim and the phone seemed to work great. My previous minutes transferred fine, all was good.

Received an LGL41C Ultimate 2 for Christmas (2015). At first the phone worked fine, but within 1-month I had problems with Data Mobile connections (texting/phone calls worked fine). I would repeatedly get a message stating that I had no internet connection. Finally I called Tracfone and tried every suggestion (remove battery/power off/on, dial *22890, and *22891, turn data off/on, turn WiFi off/on, etc.). Success rates were approximately 50%. I never had an issue if I was home and able to use WiFi, but regularly happened if not within WiFi range. I was told that by turning off/on phone, or dialing *22890/22891 it resets the phone and expands roaming capabilities. It got to the point that stopped working too and would tell me to go near a window. The funny part was it wouldn't even work if I went outside!

My brother who is a senior citizen and a Vietnam veteran has been charged $5000.00. Yes five thousand dollars over a year time for his service. He was charged three more times by TracFone this month over one hundred dollars. To date he has over 14,000 minutes on his phone and they will not refund any of his minutes. He is paid up until the year 2030. He will be 80 years old. He probably will not live that long. I have called the 800 number and they will not refund any of the money. They are an out of the USA call center who get more money if they keep you on the phone longer. I called a year ago. Said a supervisor would call me back. No one called. Said they would send forms. Never got anything.

Did not notice my service date expired and when I needed to use it, the phone number expired. Minutes went along with it. I had the phone for quite some time (years). One would think that I could call back to at least retrieve the thousands of minutes on the phone. But TracFone would not allow me to retrieve any of that. I even offered to simply to another account or phone. Nothing. It was within a few months of the 60 days of the service date expiring. Waste of time and money. What a shame? I never have used other services except TracFone for my daughter, but we must look for better options. The manager on the line will not allow me to speak to anyone but her. We are both holding the phone for about 15 minutes now. She will not hang up and I will not hang up.

TracFone informed me that they are discontinuing my 2G phone and will replace it with a comfortable phone. What did they send me? A flip phone! Who the heck still uses a flip phone? No QWERTY keyboard either! No triple minutes anymore! What a ripoff!

I paid automatically with a credit card for over 3 years. They cancelled my service without notice, kept my 2,456 minutes and then told me I would have to reactivate my phone, buy another phone card and minutes to start over and only then would I be re-enrolled in the auto pay program. This only 5 days past payment due date, and again, without any notice whatever. I have no credit card changes to warrant this action. I feel cheated and stolen from.

I purchased a TracFone. Tried to use the phone and it says it has been deactivated. I have contacted them 5 times for technical help and every time it works for a day then deactivates itself. I spoke to a Senior Manager today. She corrected the problem same as always and said "OK the phone is working again" which I told her they go through this process every time I call.

I am on a fix income and can no longer afford an expensive phone with a high monthly bill. I purchased a TracFone from Walmart. For the first three or so months of having the phone I added the least amount of airtime minutes which cost me approximately $11.00 a month. In February when I called to add minutes the young lady offered me a plan for 180 minutes for 3 months for a cost of $19.99. I told her I would think about it. This month, March I decided to take that plan. On March 6, 2016 I purchased 180 mins for $19.99. I was talking to my son and the call was disconnected. On March 14, I called and apparently the minutes were added to my phone. On March 17 again I was talking to my son and my call was. I called this morning March 18 and was told I had no minutes as I had used the whole 180 minutes. I have a doctor's appointment on Monday March 21. The bus cannot contact me to tell me when they will pick me up.

I mirrored Ed, Leander experience. Poor English skills made task almost impossible. Received notice in mail I needed to upgrade (free) because network changing from 2 to 3/4G. I thought calls to TracFone didn't incur minutes. Not so I was charged over 20 minutes mostly due to ineptness on part of "tech" poor English. I now wait upgrade hardware to arrive then I'll have to go through same ridiculous communication to get my old phone transferred to new one. Anyone got to the transfer stage and if so how did it go?

It's hard to accurately describe the madness that IS TracFone customer service. To date, I've spent over 3 hours on the phone and probably 15 chat sessions connected to their "customer service representatives." Everyone I talk to seems genuinely concerned about the problems I have trying to bring my unlocked AT&T iPhone 4 to their network. I have even purchased 2 of their specifically designed BYOD sim cards. However, somehow, each time...there's an issue that comes up. The insane part is, I get told something different each time. I've literally been told 4 different reasons why they can't transfer my Straight Talk number to their service. The craziest part? STRAIGHT TALK AND TRACFONE ARE THE SAME COMPANY. Ok, ok, ok...so I can forgive that.

When I was using the Android Phone, my phone would get so hot that I would need a cooling app, but the thing is... The apps are useless. They don't really cool down the phone. I would rather switch to a different phone than suffer with my suffocating heated phone. No one seems to find a better solution on TracFone Support. Goodbye Android. It was fun, but yet unsatisfied with the results. End of Line.

I tried going on the Frequent Numbers web page, but get a prompt asking me to check my TracFone number and IMEI, even though these have correctly been entered. I called TracFone twice to report the problem. The last time, the representative stated she had made a change to my account that would correct the problem. Well, it did nothing of the sort. I tried contacting TracFone again today but couldn't get through to anyone. Apart from calling or writing, there is no other way of contacting the company, e.g. e-mail, chat. I have little choice but to forget Frequent Numbers altogether.

I had call to activate my phone, very simple step to follow. The biggest problem I have was when the customer representative answer and have ask me what I need help with? I told the customer representative that I need help with reactivate or activate my phone and the customer representative told me to hold while look up my account. I got hold for couple second then the customer representative told me to keep hold on while look up the account. Couple seconds later, I got transfer to a new customer representative and then do the same thing until I got the third customer representative then I chew on them **. The third customer representative actually help me quick and go through the step to activate my phone.

I purchased a Tracfone at HSN. They advertised it as great connection and outstanding customer support. What a joke! I have to travel 5 miles from my home to get a signal. Then, if I am inside a building, I lose any signal I get. I went with Verizon, but kept the Tracfone for backup hoping reception would improve. Well it didn't. I had signed up for a 90 day, minimal minute plan on auto pay. For three months I have gone online attempting to cancel this, but for some reason, it has failed. On Feb. 29 I was again charged, but my phone did not receive any minutes or service days. After googling 1000 times, today I was able to find a phone number that actually got me to a live person.

I bought my 80-year-old mother in law a TracFone to stay connected to the family from an AFC home. I was called by my brother-in-law who was visiting her today that she has minutes but the phone doesn't work. So I called the company only to get routed to the Philippines and to two women who only kept telling me "they know how I feel." Really!! I asked them to just sell me "service days" because she already has minutes and if I buy more minutes it will just happen again. They said that I had to buy both and if I quit the service that I don't get paid back for minutes she didn't use, and can't use. Does that really seem legal? Pay for something you can't use! What a ripoff!!

Purchased this phone from Wal-Mart. Because I am on a fixed income I purchased airtime a month later. Could not activate the phone even through IT. They said they would send another phone. They said they changed the amount of airtime to 120 hours that I was supposed to receive. Now after 10 of waiting, now they tell me I have to send the old one in. In the meantime, I sent in my information for a refund and it was denied because minutes were used. I never called anyone. So if they reset the minutes to 120 why does it show there was time used??? All I want is $14.84 refunded for the phone and $21.67 for the airtime. Is that too much to ask for a junk phone?? DO NOT waste money on Tracfone. No one there knows what is going on and you can't understand half of what they say.

LG400 Tracfone - It seems like all the TracFones will dial 911 at random even with the keypad locked. This had resulted in some nasty call backs from the police department and that is never a good thing either. This company needs to fix this issue with their phones. Even though they say it's not a issue it is and should be addressed.

Bought a new smart phone. Went to activate. Got that done...waited over 24 hours no service. Was on phone forever to get things done, talked to 4 different people. Was told I have service but no. Now I was told I need a new sim card that would take 2 days. I have been with tracfone for many years but this ordeal has me so mad. Buy a new phone and it's a pile so now I go 4 to 5 days without a phone. Can't tell you how much I want. I don't want to deal with this co any longer. Was so hard to get anything done. Ready to go buy someone else service.

I purchased a TracFone with 800 minutes to start in July 2015 for calls when I was away from home, which is rarely. I was able to use 45 minutes until December. I tried to use the phone and it says it has been deactivated. I have contacted them 5 times for technical help and every time it works for a day then deactivates itself. I spoke to a Senior Manager today. She corrected the problem same as always and said "OK the phone is working again" which I told her they go through this process every time I call. I asked if they could just refund me the minutes and phone price so I can go with another carrier and she said "No the phone is working." I got her name and number and will call her tomorrow when it quits working AGAIN!!!

There're a lot of horror stories here. Maybe a similar bit of bulldog attitude on your part will prevent similar things happening to the next person, after reading this. I finally bought a smartphone at Christmas. I was hesitant to use it, not really knowing how. On Feb 24 I got up the courage to begin to learn it, called Tf and began a monthly prepaid (with discount) account. That's two calls, 12-22 and 2-24, buying and transferring from one Tfone to another.

I first tried through the TracFone website to cancel my subscription, but there was no way to do it from there. So I tried 3 different 800 numbers for TracFone, sat through menu after menu, tried the usual "0" to get a real person - that didn't work. There is nothing on their menus regarding cancelling service. I went back to the website - went to payment information and thought I could just remove my credit card information. However, it doesn't allow you to do that if you have a registered phone. So I added a new fake credit card and was able to change it to that and then delete my previous (real) credit card information. I expect I'll get notices for the rest of my life from them about non-payment! Never again, TracFone!

I have used this phone off and on primarily for emergencies for the past five years or more. Repeatedly the phone indicates "No Service" when I have a balance of more than 1,000 prepaid minutes and service until June 2016 and I am in a location where service is and has been readily available. It is frustrating and inexcusable to have no service when the cell phone is really needed and not for frivolous chatting. Even though I will have prepaid unused minutes, I will be cancelling this non-service in three months. I have read the reviews on you via Google. Phooey on you...

Even though I activated by husband's cell phone, I am still getting "unregistered SIM." I have called so many times but am told to call back after leaving phone on for 15 minutes. No one can do that. I wish I never got involved with them.

I previously (last year) had good service and no problem with connecting my phone and adding minutes. But 5 days ago I got a SIM card to bring my iPhone 4 to TracFone. I put in the to the sim card and phone said "Searching". Contacted customer service on chat and got a helpful person. I got the phone activated, got a new number, added minutes. CS person said that there was an outage and it would be 24-48 hours until my phone worked. It has now been 120 hours (5 days) and the phone still says "Searching". I see that TracFone just sent me a survey to see how things were going - I wish I could give them negative stars... What happened to your company TracFone???

They suck! I can't even get an order for a replacement phone because every time I try it just says "Sorry, at this time we are processing a transaction for this number. Please try again in 15 minutes, thank you." BOOOOLLLLEEEEE. I've had this phone for a long time and all I want is a replacement phone and I can't even get one. Like what the heck!!

There is a man called Peter ** out there who provides monthly TracFone reviews and also gives you promo codes. I am not sure if Peter works for TracFone in any way. But I am surprised he has not brought to the attention of TracFone owners or prospective customers about the UNTOLD and bad and sad surprise TracFone owners will run into if they transfer their service from a BYOD or android BACK to a regular CDMA/GSM phone. Here is what will happen if you're not comfortable using androids.

Have been a TracFone customer for over 10 years. This company has gone downhill. I had a defective smart phone, only 5 months old, was assured multiple times that it would be replaced with a new not refurbished phone (not true). Then was told that I would receive the replacement phone in 4 business days, again not true. I have been told multiple times that it will be here on a certain date. Going on day 12 now, still no phone. Hasn't been shipped yet. TracFone's warranty is garbage. Send in an almost new phone, get a refurbished phone back! Be told it's shipped when it's not!!! When you call for customer support they keep transferring you, and you never get an actual answer. Scripted answers are all you get. Save your money. DO NOT BUY TRACFONE!!!

We have had TracFone for many years and were satisfied. My husband needed a new phone and wanted to transfer his minutes and activate his new TracFone. It took 24 hours and 4 representatives. During the change over they erased his 729 minutes. They would not believe he had the minutes and said "The computer doesn't lie." He stayed calm but not even supervisors would help. We are retired and need to save. How does this pay as you go plan help us?

I have used Tracfone for years. I keep updating my phones. Just bought the smartphone. It is a horrible phone. Took forever to get it turned on. I hate it... so want to go back to the old one. Tracfone had me on the phone for over an hour. First they took away 100 minutes. Then they claimed I had that one number for 2 phones... Now they claim I have to wait 5-7 days for a new sim card. Since my Mom is elderly and not very well, being without a phone at all is a nightmare. After years with this company, I am so disappointed. This isn't fair to me, or anyone else who is going to have the same problem with the Tracfone smartphone.

I had a TracFone flip phone for about 12 years with no problems. Bought a new TracFone smartphone, big mistake. Couldn't activate it online and it took TracFone over an hour to activate it. When I tried to make calls I got a busy signal and anyone who tried to call me got a busy signal. Spent 3 hours with TracFone trying to fix the problem. I returned the phone but I can't get back the $39.88 I paid for minutes. TracFone informs me they have no record of the minutes and after 30 minutes I hung up on them. They called me back and argued with me about my minutes so I hung up again and they called back and argued with me again about my minutes. Tech support are all foreign and I couldn't understand them. I would never recommend TracFone to anyone.

I prepaid for a year which expires in April 2016. I am a snowbird & on my return end of December I had no service. After endless hours in the phone with you & three e-mails I discovered you have no network here. Is it not unethical to have a prepayment plan with no service.

Stole 313 minutes, 3000 text, and 900 data when I upgraded to a better phone. They are scamming. Cannot understand the operators either. Is that on purpose?

I have been a TracFone customer for about ten years and I recently bought my first smart phone. After struggling with their minimal-English speaking customer service agent, I learned that they would throw away my several thousand prepaid minutes when they transferred information from my old phone to my new phone. This is unacceptable.

MaxPatriot Android has got to be the winner for worst phone ever. Battery life is way too short even if not being used only just on. First one had SCREEN ISSUES RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. Customer service was helpful with replacing it. I sent It back and when I got the replacement phone my air time was not transferred. Two hours with customer service they helped with that. With the replacement I took super care as if it were irreplaceable glass. That wasn't enough care. Three days of use the screen is broke. This is two MaxPatriot Androids in less than two weeks.

We purchased the LG306G for my step-father, who is currently battling cancer, for emergencies. It is currently blizzard conditions in Virginia. We opened and tried to activate the phone. It stated that the serial number was associated with another number. We used the online activation. Our service stated FAILED. We contacted the online rep, the phone system is automated - no help at all, and they re-coded the phone to show that the phone was active online. This took 2 hours of back and forth conversation on and off...

I purchased the TracFone that was supposed to be all inclusive with easy directions to activate. Yet it kept telling me I had to purchase a service plan pin. Paperwork says the triple product is already loaded and yet I cannot find anything related to this in American English. I have just a few days left before I will have to return the fone. I cannot find anywhere in my area that will assist me with set up, including Best Buy which now owns TracFone... Solution please for newbies.

I had a previous TracFone that was LG440 with 999 min on it. I purchased a 60 day air card and called to reactivate my phone. I was told that my phones activation date expired the day before and all those minutes were no longer good. Since I had the new air card they said that I could use it. However, my old phone number was no longer available. I was told that they would send a new sim card. They were advised to send it to my location which was where we were staying at the time (Michigan). They sent the card and everything was fine. When I traveled to Florida my phone was deactivated and no service was noted on the phone. I called tech service for assistance they confirmed our location, SIP ECT and sent another sim card. That did not reactivate the service. I contacted them again and they went through the whole process again and still no service.

I called to have my phone number transferred to another phone, the phone activated, & purchase 1 yr of time with 400 minutes. My old smart phone got smashed and a friend gave me their old phone, which was not a smart phone, to use. I don't use my phone much, so this phone was fine for me. I like to buy the yearly plans & not have to worry about it for awhile. On the initial call I stressed that I wanted to keep my phone number & transfer it to this older phone. They determined I had to have a new sim card & gave me a case reference number. They FedExed the sim card & told me to call back & provide the reference number after I received it. I did that & everything went wrong. I had over 3000 mins that had rolled over, but my year time was up. That was why I was purchasing the 1 yr with 400 mins (doubled).

We have had Tracfones for years, over 10 anyway. Over time, service has been improving although there are some serious "gaps" in how they do things. I would love an opportunity to attend a board meeting of theirs to lay out in simple terms what they need to do to improve their service. Example: Last year, I needed a new Tracfone since the one I had was too old and the technology had changed. No problem. I ordered a new one and was able to transfer my phone number and minutes to the new one but ONLY after having to contact them to send me a new SIM card. Phone worked great until I decided (unconsciously) that it was dirty so put it through the laundry in my buttoned flannel shirt pocket. Moron.

Be careful if you ever need to get a new SIM card. Horrible service. We have two phones with Tracfone, one for over 10 years and the other for around 7 years. We changed our second phone from Verizon to Tracfone to get a prepaid phone. We have never had a problem, customer service was sufficient for what we needed, until we had problems with the SIM card in our smartphone. Tracfone had to send us a new SIM card. The customer service for switching the SIM card was fine, we did not have any problems with the service to switch. However once we began getting calls and texts from someone we didn't know and then we realized that we now have a different number.

Purchased device 1 week prior to Christmas, thinking it is about time to join the 21st century... What a load of **. From the 1st week I had nothing but PROBLEMS. So I figured a "Factory Reset" would solve the minor issues I was experiencing, no-no-no I was wrong. Now I am permanently locked out. Thanks TRACFONE for the lovely experience but it has been a real slice of **. If you care to check the dates it is Jan 11, 2016...

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one having a problem with TracFone, but it is disturbing to see so many complaints about my similar issue. I've been a TracFone customer for over 10 years, and just recently upgraded to newer phones. We have 2 TracFones for both my wife and myself. They are not our main phones, we have them mainly for emergency use, vacations, or road travel, so they are not frequently used. Each year, we renew with the 1-year card on both phones, so we don't have to worry about putting time in each month. There has never been a problem entering the time cards or carrying over the unused minutes from the previous year.

I have used TracFone for over 4 years. I am an occasional user, carrying the phone mostly for emergencies. Over the 4 years, with double minutes on annual extensions, I had accumulated around 1200 minutes. I never kept close tabs on them because I had plenty of cushion. A few days ago, I called TracFone to purchase a year's extension of service and new minutes. The woman with whom I dealt spoke heavily accented English and I had to ask her several times to slow down so I could understand her. She had my phone number and told me I would get triple minutes, 1200, for purchasing a year's service. We worked through the language difficulties, I got the year's extension, but the minutes did not show up.

I was shopping for a friend in need of a cell phone. He had a maximum budget of 100.00. I found a great deal, $5.00 for a TracFone cell phone. I didn't expect a lot of extras for a 5.00 phone, but my friend did not need extras. Then I saw a one year +400 minutes prepaid card. I thought my friend would have his phone for a full year without having to add more time.

The TRACFONE claim that they will transfer unused minutes to a new phone appears to be false. My original phone died and they would only transfer double my last transaction (which happened to be a small amount). Apparently TracFone can only see your expiration date and has no idea of how many minutes are actually on your device. They also only post your last transaction with them as I had to search my credit card transactions to figure out my long-term purchases with them. I spoke to two customer service operators and received contradictory information from them that I found to be misleading to put it nicely. I will stay with TracFone, but will never take the chance of making a large purchase of minutes that I could easily lose if there is a problem with my phone.

I had a monthly value plan and had accumulated over 4200 minutes and had 45 days of service left. I wasn't working and couldn't afford the monthly plan, so I figured with all those minutes and time left I would cancel the plan but add the service extension plan for $5.99 in case I couldn't reactivate in time. Yesterday, I reactivated the phone expecting to lose my old phone # but it was still there and so were my minutes but it did cost me $9.99 to reactivate because I needed to purchase minutes to do so. I was hoping to just re-subscribe to the value plan but you have to have an active phone to do so. I just bought a 30 minute card and will join the value plan next month.

TracFone has one of the worst customer service depts I've ever had the displeasure of working with. Every time I have contacted them, they have to transfer me four or five times, each with a half hour hold time. When you finally talk to the right person, they have NO idea what they are doing or talking about. I called to have service transferred between phones, and now have no service. Their suggestion for remedying it? Go buy more minutes! We have 3900 minutes and 500+ days of service, and their suggestion was we can always go buy more minutes! After they transferred the minutes to a broken phone, they will not transfer the service back to the original phone. They said only 1/4 of minutes will transfer. Then they tell me the SIM card has expired.

After years of no problems, I decided to go with a smartphone. I have had nothing but problems since. My old phone was deactivated before my new phone had any service, contrary to their claim on the website that this would not happen. After HOURS of difficult phone conversations, as well as trying to use the live chat service, and a lack of understanding with techs, no English speaking or comprehending service was to be found! I asked for the customer complaint department and also asked to speak with an English speaking supervisor--was told they don't have either.

I have been on endless calls, on hold for over an hour, and have not been able to transfer a phone number to TracFone. As a result, I now want to cancel that order and again, can't get anyone to help me... endless transfers, endless hours on hold. Impossible to understand messages they leave on my messages. What a pit of a company. Horrible customer service; I have left reviews on their call-back follow up calls but no one has ever bothered to call me to fix this problem. As a result, I now have a new smartphone with no service, no number, and no way to fix it. Really... a mess.

I decided to try their new LG TracFone since it was only $10 (on sale at Walmart) to replace my old TracFone. Last night I was on the phone with 2 support technicians for 1 and a half hour. Not able to make calls, receive call, send texts, or retrieve text. I was not able to set up my voice mail either. End result: I am without a working phone at the moment. The last brush-off story from the second technician was the towers are out in the Florida area and that now for over 4 days. It's the reason my phone is out of order although all the bars are full and the battery is charged. What up with that? I rely on this phone as a senior to be in connect with family or if I have an emergency. TracFone and support techs were not helpful, keep you on hold, and have no answers to my problems. What a mistake to have switched to this cheap LG TracFone. DO NOT BUY IT.

First of all I have been an avid Tracfone supporter. I use it, my husband has had one, and two of my four kids phones have been Tracfone. Something changed recently with their new phones where you can no longer see how many minutes you have on your phone. When I have called customer service in the past they said I could download an app and it will show me. The app never seems to work. There is always a problem with it. Customer Service always says you need to update to most recent. However it still never works. I have had my newest phone for close to two years and have not even once been able to see my minutes.

I have been a customer of TracFone for many years, using their regular cell phones. Decided to try their new LG Lucky Android phone since it was $10 at Walmart. Had it for the last four days and I am still waiting to be able to get it to show balances either on the phone or on their website. No luck with either. I have called three times their "customer service", each time reaching a dead end. Their solution, punch such a number on your phone to get the balance. Makes no difference when you ask them: "What is the use of having an app on the phone for that purpose or going to your website to get the balance and neither gives it to you?" Their solution: text 4 digits on your phone to find out. I am taking the phone back to Walmart and challenge their credit card charge for the service (no service) when I get the bill. I will keep the regular cell phone, little can go wrong with it.

I purchased the wrong airtime online and called Tracfone's customer service right away to cancel the transaction. They told me that they could not refund me, so I asked if they could please transfer the amount that I had just paid into another airtime card. I could hear the representative saying "oh my god" on the other side of the line as she was losing her patience. I said thank you and hang up, then I tried calling back to see if I would get a more helpful representative on the phone, but the second representative was just as rude as the first one. They did not do anything for me. I ended up paying $60.00 and only got 90 minutes of airtime.

I have a "dumb" cell phone for "emergencies" because I can't afford a smart one nor a plan other than Tracfone. However, when I started not getting IMPORTANT calls from family, I called CS & they said nothing was wrong. After 3 months of this I called again & when I gave my cell number they said that wasn't my number. They said my number was something else, even though my phone still registered the number they'd originally given me.

Rep said they would send a new phone out. We would receive it in 2 days. She already transferred the air time. 5 days later we received a box that DID NOT have a phone in it and instructions to send the old phone back. The first rep. we spoke to was rude and did not want to tell us what to do. The second rep. told us the above LIES!! We are sending the phone back but will now be without a phone for most likely 2 weeks or more. After this phone dies we will NEVER get another TracFone. Horrible customer service. If we could rate them in the negative we would do that. They do not deserve 1 star.

I paid for 500 minutes. 90 days of airtime. 6 days later had no minutes on my phone. Called customer service and they gave me the runaround. I am ticked. I am laid off from work right now and it's a week away from Christmas. I didn't need this. STAY AWAY FROM TRACFONE!!!

After more than 7 years as a TracFone customer, I finally had to contact their "customer service" over a very minor issue. I spoke with three different individuals, each of whom led to a dead end. Today I switched to Verizon.

I had managed to get my old phone to work and it still showed the minutes left on the phone (2850.90 minutes). I took a photo of the time and contacted Tracfone again. It took a while but I ended up getting all the minutes transferred to the new phone. As a word to the wise... Always be aware of how many minutes you have on your Tracfone as, should something happen to your and you need to transfer minutes to new phone, knowing the minutes will be very helpful.

Purchased a smartphone direct from TracFone online. Per the zip code entered the phone was supposed to work in my area. Triple minutes, phone only a little under 10 dollars, what could go wrong? They didn't send the minutes card that I purchased with the phone, the phone wouldn't activate. I was transferred from person to person and every person did the same thing. Finally got the phone to activate on my way to work, but the phone will not work in my area. Fine, went to Walmart, purchased a flip TracFone. Called and was naturally transferred again.

Tracfone deactivated the number my husband has had for 15 years. He bought a phone and minutes with Tracfone thinking it was a good deal. However, the phone they sent him stopped working suddenly. They sent him a new phone but the new phone had an entirely different number. When he attempted to put the card from his old phone into the new phone, it didn't work. He was told by customer service that his old number had been deactivated. We called them and spent an exhaustive amount of the time talking with someone we could barely understand, trying to straighten this out. We asked to speak to the supervisor and she promised that the number would be reinstated and said she would send us an email to that effect. The email she sent gave a new number not the number he's had for 15 years, as if she completely ignored our complaint.

Phone died. Number ported to new phone within 15 minutes. Cool. CS claimed that 400+ minutes would transfer within 1 hour. After 10 hours still no minutes. Their automated system says, "...your phone is in the process of being activated. Please turn it off and back on" then hangs up on me. Previous bad experience with TracFone: Phone died. They sent new phone WITH ANOTHER NUMBER. Retrieving MY number was "impossible". Please, for your own peace of mind, stay away from TracFone!

Recently 860 minutes disappeared off my TracFone several months before they were due to expire. I spent over an hour talking to a TracFone rep who could not resolve the problem and said he'd report it to be researched. I called back the following week to learn nothing had been done and spent an hour talking to several other reps, one of whom disconnected me. No one could resolve the disappearing minutes.

Called the company 3 times to get them to send a mailer to return phone then 3 more times about getting my replacement phone. Everyone has to "transfer" you somewhere else and then the last person goes through the same routine of address, etc. They keep acting like they're typing but they aren't or they put you on hold (I guess to go get another cup of coffee). Then when they do return it's to give you the same canned speech about phone NOT being in stock so they have to wait until the next week to check. But oh, the last time the phone WAS in stock so it would be sent out and expect to get it in 3-5 days, only not to get it. Called again, and voila, phone isn't in stock, but now have to wait until next business day to get track number to find out what is going to be done about phone.

I purchased an Android phone from Tracfone and quickly realized it was not the phone for me. I could not find out how many minutes were remaining in my account unless I used the "my account" app which you have to download. I don't have Wi-Fi at home so I had to use my data which uses minutes. Once I downloaded that it required me to update Google Play Services and that would require a lot more airtime! I probably wouldn't even have any minutes left if I were to proceed with that process.

I've been dealing with TracFone for years. Recently, however, my phone service goes out for no apparent reason. I have to turn the phone off and then back on. Sometimes, that works; sometimes it takes dozens of times before I get back my service, even though it tells me I have service until whatever date. Also, I get messages with pictures that I can't open. The message comes: "Unable to Retrieve" - sucks! Trying to talk to anyone at TracFone is futile. I've actually hung up on them because I can't understand them even though I apologize and ask to speak with someone who speaks better English. They just keep talking and ignore my request. They give no information to any outlet where you should be able to go for help... It's all left up to you. Really bad service. Really bad customer service. Looking for better carrier!!!

I've been helping my 77 year old, physically disabled neighbor with his new TracFone. He bought his new TracFone with a 60 minute / 90 day plan with the intention of using it as a health / safety backup device. Unfortunately the phone did not work and had to return it to TracFone for a replacement. Once received I tried to help him activate his new replacement phone with TracFone technical service but was told his plan had expired which makes no sense since he never used it. So they sent a new SIM card which did not solve the problem.

I bought airtime & 1 year of service days last week. This week I bought a new tracfone and tried to Transfer the time & service day over. Got service days but shorted me 203 minutes. Called customer service and it did no good. Bottom line DO NOT transfer or think you can transfer your minutes over to a new phone. It Does Not work. Customer service is not helpful.

I've been a Tracfone customer for years until now. I bought a LG 840G with triple minutes. I bought 60 minutes airtime online and it gave me only 60 minutes. Customer service told me that "system" indicated that my phone is simple (no double or triple minutes) and just new models have triple min. Sucks. Use simple phone means not advantages. Without notice or mail. Bad service. Please try other company and stay away from TracFone.

I am for the most part satisfied with my Tracfone and the service. Have been using it for maybe a couple years. Whenever I run low on minutes, I just pop into the store quick and buy a card to add on. Very convenient, and low cost which is a benefit to me. While I can appreciate that Tracfone does send out text messages offering promo codes for discounts on airtime -- the fact that these offers seemingly never fail to be sent literally the day AFTER I've already re-upped my minutes, seems more like a mean joke than anything else.

Bought a TracFone (Android) and minutes at the same time at Walmart. Attempted to activate the phone and the company rep said it was activated, but I was not able to unlock it to see the minutes. She sent me an email with instructions to unlock the phone. I've never had this problem before with any other phones and tried many times to unlock it, to no avail. Had my boyfriend try and he said, "Return it". I wanted another one and called around to try to find a Walmart with one... Apparently there is a problem with these phones and it was hard to even find another one. I did find one and the manager of the electronics department called TracFone to activate it for me, transfer the minutes. TracFone said I would have to BUY MORE MINUTES, that the minutes were not transferable.

Purchased a new $100 smart phone from Amazon supplier. Went online, transferred the number from old phone and it worked for ten days. Day after thanksgiving, I found out they disconnected it. Customer service could not resolve anything except telling me I needed a new phone number. Also said I needed to buy more minutes when I already had 997 left. Fortunately buying it from amazon I was able to get a return authorization so I am only out $10.99 postage. I'll never use Tracfone again. They have no customer service. Beware.

I wish I would have read these reviews before trying to activate a BYOP on TracFone. By far the most time consuming and frustrating experience I have ever had. It has taken 9 phone calls that each lasted well over an hour plus they sent me three wrong SIM cards. I am still trying to get on an auto-refill program because their system won't accept a credit card and this is the only way to pay. The website is practically worthless. DON'T DO IT! It may be a good deal financially but so not worth the trouble.

This is the second time, I ordered 90 minutes of air time, at a cost of$22.73 on 10/26/2015. The credit card bill arrived today with a charge of $22.73 and on 11/11 2015 a additional charge of $22.73. As I mentioned this is the second time. Someone please shut this business down.

My husband and I have used Tracfone for years and have had no issues - until I purchased a new phone that could not get service outside of our hometown. After spending 1 hr. and 20 minutes on the phone with a representative, during which time he tried all manner of things to get it to work, he finally told me to reset the phone. He did warn me that I would lose everything on the phone. I felt I had no choice. I lost all my contacts, all my pictures, everything. The phone still did not work. Then I was told I needed to send the phone back and they would issue a replacement.

Three times within two weeks my TracFone was deactivated while I still had lots of days and minutes left. Twice, at my request, it was reactivated by people in the Philippines who spoke very poor English and had poor comprehension as well. It was a time-consuming process and I was not given a reason why the problem occurred. When the third incident occurred, I changed to Verizon. If I have a problem I can go to a local store and have the problem resolved. More expensive, yes, but reliable.

I returned bad cell phone back to TracFone in their return package and they received it by proof of FedEx receipt. They have lied time after time for the last 8 days. First: replacement was to be sent the day of receipt but wasn't. Then they said it was to be shipped the next day, it wasn't. Then they said it was a conflict between customer service and the warehouse(???) but be shipped next day, NOPE. Now they gave me a tracking number BUT that was for their return box for bad phone and even gave me same ticket number for bad phone.

Bought 240 minutes for $30. A few weeks later, phone showing zero minutes although there had been less than 10 calls made, totaling less than 2 minutes and less than 35 very short text messages. Contacted Tracfone on a Sat. Support person couldn't help, said call back Mon. Mon, person said would be fixed in a hour. Wasn't. Called again, 3rd person refused to fix situation (reinstate missing minutes). Was given another support number. Tue, spoke to 2 people (a supervisor and a senior manager). Neither would fix situation. Requested Tracfone provide proof minutes were used as the phone's own history showed minutes weren't. Tracfone refused to provide it. Some of worst customer support I have experienced. Will change phone providers. After this experience, strongly recommend against using Tracfone.

TracFone sucks. Every call drops after 10 minutes of use. I never had dropped calls with my Verizon phone. Unfortunately I could not afford the Verizon plan but the quality was so much better. I HATE THIS STUPID TRACFONE!!!

I tried to transfer my Verizon Samsung S4 to TracFone. They said it should work but after multiple attempts they could not manage the transfer. They claimed it would be at least 24 hours before they could figure out the problem. I asked if I could put my Verizon SIM card back in so I could use my phone. They said "Yes" but then they couldn't continue with my transfer so I told them "No thanks". I wish I'd looked up reviews for these buggers before I spent $10 for their SIM card and $20 on the airtime card. After I was on the phone for over an hour my wife googled TracFone and found they are one star only because you can't give 0 stars.

I have been with TracFone for many years and have 4472 minutes and I just bought a new phone and have been trying to get them moved over to the new phone. I have spent over three hours with their service/tech department and have been given the runaround. They are only willing to move 1300 minutes so I lose the rest of my paid for minutes. I guess I'll have to return the phone and reactivate my old phone. No one there knows what they are doing and I have found there is NO customer service at TracFone.

I was trying to update my credit card information. The young man could not understand English and it was so frustrating. It sounded like a party was happening in the background, laughing and foreign voices. TracFone makes it so you cannot change your payment info. The first time I encountered the same thing and the young lady said she would be able to take my card info, TracFone prefers to have it done this way. Are you crazy? Give that over the phone to people in a foreign land??? That is why I called the second time... I only want instructions on how to do it. This fundamental thing should not require support. This makes me uncomfortable and I will need to go to another provider.

3 months ago I got a TracFone phone and added 180 minutes. The only reason I got it was I was getting Google's project Fi and I had to chose between my current phone number and my Google voice number. I did not want to lose my old number. Had it for so many years so I got TracFone as a place holder for the number. I have never used the phone for anything and kept it in a drawer. With tracfone every 90 days you have to add time. I checked and still had 180min and I added 60 min card. I should have now 240min but no. Only the date has changed and I still only have 180min. I called customer server via chat and they insisted that it's correct, that I only have 180min and refused to even take into consideration that I have never used the phone. So they refused to adjust the minutes.

My mother is 66 years old suffering with severe emphysema and COPD. She has had a TracFone for 4 years now. I always take care of her affairs for her and thank goodness I do. She does the yearly plan so I contacted TracFone to purchase a plan that fit for her. She also has the double minutes for life. I told all 7 reps I talked to what I needed. I was told about two plans, 1- a 99.99 dollar plan with 400 minutes that will double to 800 minutes. 2- a 119.99 dollar plan for 800 minutes that will double to 1600 minutes. Also TracFone sent her a text with a promo code to add 1050 extra minutes when she re-enrolls.

I am paying a average of 60.00 a month for your service and getting less for my money than what I could get with your competition. Some advertise unlimited talk, text and data for a lot less. For what you're offering I can run out of talk and data service quickly. Than end up buying more time. Which in the long run of it cost much more than your competition. Thinking of switching because of the limitations.

My phone (and number) that I had for over 5 years broke, so I bought a new one to have the old number transferred. Sounds simple. Over 3 hours and two days later I find they cancelled my number forever with no excuse whatsoever. Then when they said they would transfer my old minutes to the new phone they said I only had 37 minutes when I KNOW I had nearly 200. So in short I lost my number, got the runaround for 2 days. Losing that number is going to cost me a good percentage of my income as a salesman this year.

Bad SIM code. Reported it more than two weeks ago. Had to talk to multiple agents. Talking to them is laborious. They speak like robots. They spell every word. They do not convey or respond to humor, idle chat, or display empathy or concern. They know what you are asking but they will treat it like it’s an invalid request unless you put it into their technical jargon, e.g. "compensation" (extending the service time because you have been waiting for your SIM code for several weeks.) They got my address wrong. The SIM card never came. I called them today. No apology. Passed along to several agents. Same robotic behavior. Every 30 seconds I was told that they are still reviewing the notes. I heard this 6 times before. I told her that I remembered when she said it 30 seconds ago.

I purchased a Tracfone Unimax Patriot. Although, I like the features, it drops calls and people I call tell me there is a cracking or snapping sound on their end. I went to Walmart, and the sales person told me to call Tracfone. I called Tracfone and the person who answered the phone ask me if I had another phone she could call me back on. Obviously, she could not understand me. I called back, only to get another party who told me my phone was working perfectly. Minutes after this happened, I called my insurance agent, and she asked me if I could use another phone because I was breaking up, and she could not hear me. I called her back on my Verizon phone and she could hear me perfectly.

I've been using Tracfone prepaid for the last 2 years and amassed 2,400 saved minutes. About 2 weeks ago I decided to switch from a simple feature phone to a smartphone via BYOP program. I paid $13 to receive a SIM card from Tracfone and, once received, called them and initiated the transfer of number/minutes/time. However the SIM card didn't work in 2 different phones I tried (both unlocked GSM, both working well with any other provider I tried). Moreover, on the website my account was showing the new SIM card in permanent "activation in progress" state, whereas the old phone got deactivated right away.

Bought TracFone for elderly Mother-in-Law's emergency use in January 2014. Initial time expired in September 2014. Purchased 120 additional minutes for $74 before expiration with new expiration of December 2015. The minutes were never applied to the phone, yet the phone showed 258 minutes used with only four brief calls registered in the phone's log to test and demonstrate to the user PRIOR to the renewal date. Customer service was totally useless. I question this company's honesty. Strikes me as a scam.

LOUSY customer service.

Sunday the 10/18/15 while pulling into a fishing access site my new TracFone beeped three times, looking at it later there were no messages whatsoever. Two men were on their smartphones as I pulled in and they followed me out to the water. I suspected trouble. The phone uses too much java code out of the box for a flip phone. DUH. The double the minutes plan has nothing to do with the activation period length. This phone has ancient software and is three times more expensive than most phones. Ancient software and the internet go along together like victims to creeps. All I can do is text, I cannot hear incoming calls. Yep you need another phone to call tracfone. Offshore corporation and malware just another profit scam and cyber surveillance and new stalkers. Damn warm and fuzzy I am telling you. Looking for work?

I bought a Tracfone to replace my old one on the Tracfone website. I had to make four phone calls in one day trying to speak to someone about transferring number and minutes. When I called to have my minutes and number transferred, I was told they could not do this because the new phone had a sim card. On the fourth call I asked for a "supervisor" who created a ticket. She said she would send me the same phone minus the sim card, so I could transfer my information to it. I was told I would receive the phone on October 10th. Well, it is the 20th today, and I had to make another call and speak with a rude representative who told me it would take 10 business days, and acted like I couldn't count to ten. The customer service was absolutely awful, when I could understand what the rep was saying. Just a horrible experience overall.

I've been told by Tech Support that this is their new procedure. They are unable to troubleshoot the said issue. I need to manually re-enter the 10-digit number you are dialing without pressing send and the call should be completed successfully.

I tried calling and it was difficult so I hung up. I tried online and had more problems. I tried calling and a lady I was talking with (ASHLEY) became rude because I could not hear her. She spoke very low and noise in my home was a problem. So she asked for the number of my landline and she was going to call me which she did and I asked her to repeat again and she became less pleasant. So because I was so frustrated I told her I would have to call another time. All I wanted to know was my password on my Tracfone. I am very unhappy that everything I tried to do just didn't work out...very very annoying. So I am not going to try until my house is empty and I feel patient to try and get my password...not happy in Maine.

I purchase an Android Tracfone in August 2015 and experienced charging issues, call drops, having to unplug the charger then plug it back in to turn the phone on. Many of the icon figures did not work, very difficult to try to use the phone. I purchased another Tracfone, 10/15/15, not an Android model. During the activation ritual with Tracfone tech support, I was told the 1,100 plus minutes left on the card I purchased with the phone would not be transferable to the new phone as it isn't an Android. I asked for a refund, at least partially, as I am out the $100.00 plus I paid for the card. Initially, the tech support from Tracfone agreed to transfer the minutes, and that I would have to turn the phone off in 1 hour, then turn it back on and all would be taken care of.

Originally bought the phone with 1200 text, talk and data with 1 year service unless I went over the 1200 minutes. I activated the new plan and thought I had my minutes from my previous TracFone transferred to the smart phone. I rarely used this phone as I also have a Verizon cell just for calls. Three months later TracFone said I needed to buy more minutes after still having OVER 1200 talk, text and data left to keep my service. They said they had no record of me activating the years service and I have to pay $20 every 3 months to keep the phone activated and not lose my minutes. I bought the minutes because I was so very tired of wasting so much time and aggravation trying to get help from Customer Service.

I changed phones and had trouble changing my phone number to the new phone. They had to send me a new "sim card" after I put the new card in my phone. They still had not gave me the correct expiration date for the new phone. My old phone time expired on 6/30/2016. My new phone time expires on 12/11/2015. I have made several calls to complain, nothing gets done.

The TracFone (right out of the box) failed for voice mail service. Customer service tried having me change the way the phone dialed voice mail which was not the way the phone should work. When I said “No. I wanted it to work from the menu, not speed dial using some number other than 1,” they simply said there was nothing they could do. I asked for a new phone. After weeks of repeated calls I finally received my replacement phone. It's a refurb and not at all the same phone I purchased. They have no concept of who their customer is - phones are chosen based on customer preference. The phone they sent me works with none of my accessories. One thing I did become very aware of when calling customer service is that often the person a customer talks with does absolutely nothing at all. Then it's a waiting game to see how long it will take us to call back. We have to be the "squeaky wheel" in order to get anywhere.

I tried for one whole day and did not get anything done. They kept transferring me to different people and nothing was ever done. I got close to 800 minutes on my old phone and I cannot get them transferred. I hope that I never have anything like that again. I could transfer them myself, but they keep saying that there is an error and that I cannot finish. Wish that I knew what to do. I sure could use those minutes.

I called the toll free TracFone number to purchase an individual value plan for my TracFone. The customer service representative didn't know what needed to be done. He put me on hold several times while he checked with his supervisor. When I ended the call, I noticed that I had lost seven minutes of airtime on my TracFone. What's the point of having a 1-800 number?

My 89 year old father placed an order online with TracFone for what he thought was a smart phone and minutes package. When the order arrived, he got what he ordered and an additional phone that he was also charged for. Shortly after receiving his order he entered the hospital and subsequently went to a nursing home for 5 weeks of rehab. His wife had his new smart phone activated so he could use it while he was in rehab and also had the minutes from his old flip phone transferred to the new smart phone. He quickly learned that his shaky hands were not much use on the smart phone screen and had to transfer back to his old flip phone.

Purchased two TracFones for children over a month ago. One works just fine. The other we have yet to be able to actually use. They have had to send a new sim card which took two weeks to receive. Then the phone broke and won't hold the sim card in place. Contacted them on September 24, 2015, for a replacement. Promised the phone would be in my possession by Monday, September 28, 2015. Guess what? No phone. Been on the phone with corporate office all week and as of 10/1/15, they still have not shipped out the phone. They will not take accountability nor will they assist in making this right. Worse service period I have ever had.

I had purchase dsl several TracFone for my disabled uncle for the past three years. He either breaks them or loses them, as he is elderly! He don't have much money so TracFone is the cheapest route or so I thought. I have nothing but problems with TracFone customer service, extremely poor English, they are down right rude. I happened to find one of my uncle's phones from 2 yrs ago and thought since he lost his again, I thought I could get this order phone reactivated. Not the case.

The tragedy is that no one who will buy a TracFone will read this before buying one. Because this company is truly out of control. They can add minutes to their phones but they can't take them back. I was on their website trying to buy minutes, I filled out all the forms but never hit the purchase button. I close the browser since I didn't like the interface. I go to Walgreens and buy a phone card, and I activate over my home phone for thirty days. The phone activates and it shows its active for almost TWO YEARS. Somehow their crappy website hit the purchase button on its own.

My 344 minutes had expired and I was told three times by a person at TracFone that if I purchased more airtime I would get those minutes back. It is for a cheap old phone, so the phone has no value beyond the minutes that were on it. Finally I agreed to give my credit card number. After I purchased the airtime, the company sent a new sim card and when I installed it, the minutes disappeared. I called and talked with a regular employee, a supervisor and then manager George **. I said that I either wanted my minutes restored, as promised, or I wanted a refund on the purchase that promised the minutes to me. He flatly refused. I told him the way I was coerced into purchasing airtime was deceptive and I had been a loyal customer for 6 years (this phone has been passed down among my children as they get old enough to have a real phone), and was he really going to do this over $20? Yes, he said that he was.

I have been on the phone with customer service to try to access my online account. I couldn't remember my password and wanted to get an e-mail to reset my account. Sounds simple, right? I have done this many times with different companies. When I hit the "Forget Password" button, it didn't offer any suggestions. When I tried to call about this problem, it took over an hour with 3 different representatives to figure this out.

I had problems with the phone right out of the box. Called customer service and they never helped. I cannot make a call a telephone call from my area with this phone. It will not connect with the internet in my area. I have a internet connect with the phone company and that's how I am able to get on the internet with this phone through WiFi. I was told the phone won't work in my area due to the lack of cell towers. Other than that, the battery has to be charged every other day. Nearly impossible to send a text message. Apps continuously crash or won't load. A couple of apps running and the phone is so hot I can hardly hold it.

I called Tracfone customer service for a friend who uses their service. He was having a problem where whenever somebody would call his cell number, they'd get a recording that the voicemail was full. I tried but was unable to access his voicemail as he had lost his pin number. When I tried to change it by calling into his voicemail system, I was connected to Verizon customer service who then referred me to TracFone. The first TracFone representative hung up on me so I called the customer service number 800-867-7183 and spoke to Edna. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with her where she had me dial *22890 to reset the phone as well as *73, not sure what this last number was supposed to do but it did not fix the problem. Edna also took my address information to look for network outages in my area but there were none.

Switched from Straight Talk to a Trac. Bought new phone and a 60 min card. When I called to activate the new phone the unamerican person could not speak English very well. She put all my mins that I bought on another Trac account NOT MINE! She never activated my new phone. Called again after an hour. Can you believe that the company was blaming ME? Was very pissed off. Do not buy from TracFone. I will spread the word high and l. Straight Talk I've had for years and no trouble like this. Very very not happy and the operators that can not talk english get a new job or assist non-Americans. Shame on this company.

We bought a TracFone for my elderly, disabled mother. The number they gave us was already being used by someone else who kept getting my calls that I was making to my mom. TracFone wouldn't give us a refund.

I have a TracFone we use for backup purposes, mainly when we travel or to go a theme park and need to communicate to one another. I purchased 1200 minutes, 1200 text messages, and 1GB of data for $99. It's activated for a few more years. We used the phone off and on for several months after loading the minutes. We probably had somewhere around 1100 minutes and 1000 text messages left. We power off the phone when not in use. We were ready to head to a theme park, powered up the phone, and couldn't get service. I go online to check minutes, and everything is zero... across the board.

I am writing this review for my 83 year old father. My parents purchased the LG Android phone and over 440 minutes in their home state - upstate NY. They purchased this phone to have while they are staying with me in Maine. This phone has been deactivated 4 times in the past 6 weeks!!! At first they blamed it on the phone which they said was setup to work on TMobile network, which is not available in my area. So they sent out another phone which would operate on the version network. Needless to say this phone is constantly being deactivated. I spend countless hours on the phone with customer service!!! They eventually reactivate the phone with no explanation as to why they deactivated it in the first place. This reactivation only lasts about 10 days! Then the phone is deactivated again and I am forced to go through the process all over again! This is ridiculous. Who can I complain to??? The phone is currently deactivated, effective today...

My husband decided to try to save money by going with a pay as you go phone service and so he bought a little phone to use and tried to set up his line online, which didn't work. I recommended that he call to get it straightened out because they have different capabilities when you call in. He became very frustrated because EACH time he was asked to give 25 (or so) digit number both for the Phone and the sim card. By the 3rd transfer he'd had enough so he hung up in desperation, in addition they could barely speak English.

I paid over $60.00 to add air time and minutes to my TracFone only to have it not work when I needed to use it. Called them 3-4 times to no avail. Last time I spoke to someone they told me that my phone had been deactivated but did not know why. My phone had over 500 minutes and over a year of service time left on it. They changed my phone number and told me that it would now work... Well it did not. I tried using it and all I got was "You are roaming" and if I wanted to continue with my call or contact my provider I would need to purchase a pin card. After several attempts to correct this problem I finally gave up and went and bought a new phone somewhere else. Now I requested that they at least refund the $64.46 that I just paid them but was unable to use the phone and they have refused. BIG RIPOFF. I would just like to have that amount of my money back.

I am so frustrated with TracFone as a company and their customer service! They are telling me my number is no longer "certified". The same number that I have had with them for nine years! My phone quits working with absolutely no notice and the best that they can tell me is buy a new TracFone and that I will be forced into changing my number! I currently have 3280 minutes and service until 4/22/2016 but I do not have a phone that works. On top of that, I just bought a new phone right off the shelf and their manager Jonathan told me that it is too old already and that they cannot activate it.

I bought my android Tracfone in May of 2015 and now September 12th 2015 the screen went blank. It did not even last 4 months. I have lost everything on my phone. I lost contact info, texts I was saving. The only thing I was able to save were a few photos by attaching phone to my computer. This is ridiculous. I have been a TracFone customer for many years and I am so disappointed they decided to use inferior products. I am willing to bet money the top people at TracFone don't use their own product. Do not buy the Android phones from TracFone. They are worthless. I had trouble with the phone from the first I bought it I think but because I am new to this type of phone I did not know if it was the phone or something I was doing wrong. Now I know.

They did nothing to help me and then deactivated my telephone. Spoke to 3 people with thick Asian India accents. Couldn't understand them - asked for further assistance and was transferred to a man in Columbia who spoke with a worse accent. If you are to operate in the USA and collect money from Americans you should have help that can be understood. I currently have 3 TracFones and a 4th not activated yet. As soon as my minutes run out I will dispose of all the phones and never ever use TracFone again. I will mail a letter of complaint to corporate headquarters copies to the FCC and Better Business Bureau!! I will be glad to be rid of you.

Recently, I ordered a new Android phone from TracFone to replace my basic phone. I have had service with them for about 4 years and have been ok with the poor signal strength in my area, because the price is right and I am not a high-usage person, especially not needing much data use. The phone arrived, and AFTER transferring my number and remaining minutes to the new phone, as directed in the activation instructions, the phone would not display any apps or icons.

Trying a change back to my original TracFone. The new TracFone that I purchased did not work as expected. After many calls to customer relations I was still unable to get results. Very difficult to understand operators working for this company. I was told that if I were to transfer back to my original phone my minutes would be lost. I was never informed about this circumstance until after the fact. Have been with this company for several years. What good did that do?

I purchased an LG Sunrise phone in August as a gift for my husband as a birthday present. On August 16th, after charging the phone he was trying to set the phone up. The screen was stuck on an emergency screen to call 911 and would not go off. I called customer service. After several attempts from customer service to fix the problem. He was unable to. He told me that the new phone was defective. He took the info and stated that a voucher would be sent via e-mail to printout so I could return the phone after receiving and printing out a voucher. He also gave me a ticket number. I waited for an e-mail from TracFone, which I never did receive.

I bought my 2 teenage boys TracFones in early August 2015 and within 2 weeks 1 of them had stopped working. I called tech support on 8-11-2015 and he had me try a couple of different things which did not correct the problem so they sent me an envelope to send the phone back and they would send out a replacement phone. When I called on 8-18-2015 to see if the new phone had been shipped yet she informed me that the first work order was not correctly done. She then told me I would have the new phone Friday 8-21-2015.

My wife and I have been TracFone customers for some years. We don't use the phones much and I buy the service time about once a year and the minutes accumulate. My wife recently lost her phone with something like 5,000 minutes. I bought another cheap phone (from TracFone) and was told the service time and minutes would be transferred along with the phone number. When the phone was activated only 1,000 minutes showed. I didn't press the point since the 1,000 would probably be sufficient until the next round of time and minutes BUT within a day or two all but 7 of the 1,000 minutes vanished. Since then it's been a nightmare of hanging on the phone, first for the initial hold then as the representative goes through various motions to attempt to add the minutes. The amount of minutes is fully acknowledged by them but multiple attempts get them...nothing but failures and error messages from their system (I am told).

My airtime had expired. I received an email from TracFone offering me the following: "FOR A LIMITED TIME Get 365 Service Days instead of 90 when you add the 120 Minute Card using Promo Code 99619". I went online and found that in order to obtain the 365 service days, I had to pay $49.95 in addition to the $29.95 for the 120 minute card. I telephoned the company to see if this was indeed correct and was told that it was. In my opinion, this is an extremely misleading promotion to say the least. I will certainly not deal with companies that do this kind of thing.

Many of the services that were offered were bogus starting with parental control and tracking. It is hard to navigate the site and customer service is not very helpful. As soon as I said lost phone the only thing I heard was there is nothing that they can do, go out and buy a new one. The problem resolved.

Been with TracFone for over a decade and just currently purchased a smartphone. Just bought a new home and Cox cable unable to run the wires yet to my house. So, no WiFi for a while. Everyone in the house is purchasing data for their cell phones and everyone has different carriers. We found TracFone's data refill was the most expensive. I paid $20 for 750 megabytes (equals to 75% of 1 gigabytes) and my husband paid only $10 for 1 gigabyte with AT&T. My son and daughter-in-law also paid only $10/gigabyte with their carrier.

This phone turns itself off multiple times a day, especially when I send a text. Fails to send the text, shuts off and reboots. Try to resend, and same thing, multiple times a day since the day I got it months ago. I'm switching to something better!!!

I purchased a TracFone as an emergency home phone. I activated the serial number of the phone, then tried to scratch off the tape on the service-plan card (purchased at the same time I bought the phone) covering the PIN to add the air-time minutes. The covering material will not remove, so I scratch harder. The effort to remove the covering material destroys the tape and renders the PIN upon which it is printed unreadable. No problem, I think to myself, I will contact the company and give them the other information on the card, a thirty-digit number above the barcode on back of the card-- surely they can add the minutes for me. After all, they know that I purchased the card (the company has a record that it was scanned and purchased, or the minutes cannot be activated).

I bought phone for my husband two and a half weeks ago. I call to set it up. Three and a half hours later they still can't get it to work the data. Anyway I've begged them to just give me a new phone. They said, "No, you gotta come back tomorrow." I called back an hour and a half later, still no results. They transferred me through five different people, still could not get the data to work.

I've had the same business phone number for over 4 years with TracFone. Literally tens of thousands of people have this business phone number, and I've spent thousands of dollars on promotional material over the years that includes this specific phone number. I cannot just "get a new number". I've never owned a smartphone, but decided to upgrade before it became a problem for my work. I got a Zenfone 2 which has 2 SIM cards for 2 separate phone numbers, useful if you need a separate business line. I got a new personal number, that went smoothly. I transferred my business number, that took a long time to complete, but also appeared to go smoothly - for the first 24 hours (6 hours on the phone at this point).

The worst. I have been on the phone for an hour trying to activate a new phone, this should be simple. Still trying.

I have been a TracFone customer for over a decade and was looking for a phone upgrade. I saw that the 4G LG Sunset would work in my area (according to the TracFone website), so I purchased it along with a 60 minute card. My minute total was over 2000 minutes. I tried activating the new phone at home, but I had so much trouble and frustration that my husband took it to work the next day and spent well over an hour on the phone with them. They claimed my 60-minute card was previously used (what??). They eventually got everything to work and the husband brought it home. But it did NOT work in my home or any of the surrounding area. I called TracFone only to be told that the phone would NOT receive service in my area. So their website lied. So I kindly asked them to reactivate the old phone so I could go back to what worked.

Went from an android phone to a simpler phone. Phone number was transferred but all my minutes were not. Customer service people said I should have been informed that this was going to happen. They did NOT tell me I would lose my minutes. Further action with TracFone resulted in a that's to bad attitude. I have been a customer for over 10 years and this is the way they treat you. Very poor customer service.

Just bought a TracFone and cannot get it to work. Cannot reach a live person. Unable to obtain a phone #. Besides buying minutes, now, message insists on buying roaming minutes to use phone. Cost after cost. Would not purchase again. Have smartphone, wanted local # and phone.

I have a lot of trouble with my TracFone. The phone often will not hang up after a call is ended burning up minutes until you use it again and realize that it is still on the last call. This phone will drop calls quite often. The speaker is poor and I have trouble understanding conversations. The customer service is not good. There is no way to verify that you are being charged the correct minutes.

TracFone is the only cell phone I have ever used. Sure, I have had sessions with customer service that took awhile. I have always been a gentleman and realize that I'm dealing with someone whose first language is not US English. I have always had my problem solved - even new SIM cards sent. Never lost minutes even when transferring as many as 3000. My wife also uses TracFone and has not a complaint. I find that customer service has improved markedly since Mr. Carlos Slim purchased the company.

After reading I too had minutes disappear and no satisfaction from CS. Boycott, tell your friends, do not waste any more of your cash!