Tracfone Reviews

My problem, as noted previously, was amicably resolved after I called TracFone Headquarters in Miami (TracFone Wireless, Inc. 9700 NW 112 Ave, Miami, FL33178-1504). I looked them up on one of the free telephone search sites and got their phone number. The receptionist answered and asked where to direct my call. I said "Customer Service". I got someone who spoke understandable English and they got me my minutes back.

I started out to transfer my minutes and phone number on time to a new phone I got for my birthday. I was transferring everything. They said the SIM card was deactivated and couldn't transfer and that it would need a new phone number. I had 435 minutes, and it was good till 6/12/2012. I spoke to 3 people - one lady and 2 gentlemen. They have Indian accent, so I could barely understand most of what they said. It made things a little harder to do the call. Well, it turned out I went to add more minutes, because my minutes weren't transferred. Imagine that. From that time, I was told the SIM card had to be sent and would take 7 days. So now, I wait for my SIM to activate my same number and missing 435 minutes. The first lady was speaking Chinese to another on another line while I listened to her personal phone call to someone else in Chinese.

My phone service was cut off last week because, according to the company "rules and regulations," the country I was calling was not on their approved list. Plus, I was paying too little for the service. This is my phone and I pay for the minutes I use so what does it matter to them how much money I pay? To add further insult to injury, over 300 minutes of time purchased would not be given back to me. This was a family emergency - my father was ill and my parents needed a way to contact me and I, them. Melissa refused to turn my phone back with the same rules and regulation rigmarole. I told them I have used TracFone for many years and would do all in my power to prevent my family and friends from purchasing their product. Heaven forbid they have a family emergency!

I received a TracFone for Christmas in 2008. I activated it in January 2009. I lost the phone in Louisiana in April 2009. I reported the phone lost and had my account on the phone turned off. The phone was a double minute plan. I asked customer service if the double minute plan would be transferred to my new TracFone. I was told it would be. TracFone did not honor what they said they would do.

I attempted to upgrade my phone and I discovered after a few days that I couldn't get incoming calls. I can call out just fine, but my incoming calls go into a voice mail that I cannot access. I have spoken to at least 6 people using their customer service line. Like others here, I've been told several times that the problem would clear up in 24 hours. It never happened. Finally, I filed a complaint with the Georgia Public Service Commission, and I got my first return call from them, telling me they'd fix everything. They were supposed to call back two days later and I never heard from them again. Their people are always polite, but this is just an endless runaround. Now, they're not just jerking me around, they're also jerking the Public Service Commission. I use this phone for business. I've easily lost $500 from this mess.

I had a TracFone for years. I added some minutes too and TracFone stole 1,480 minutes from me.

I have had no problems with my TracFone until two weeks ago. We transferred from Branson, MO to Ft Lauderdale, FL. I called to change the area code on our phone. After being on hold for 75 minutes, the operator said (in bad English), "No one is answering the phone tonight. Please call tomorrow." So the next night, I called. Same thing. After about 65 minutes, "No one is answering the phone tonight. Please call tomorrow." Same thing the next night, and the next night.

They deleted all my minutes. Customer service (George) kept putting me on hold for one minute while he talked to his supervisor. This went on for over an hour. Then, he said to call back in a week. Everyone should call corporate headquarters to complain. The number is: (305) 640-2000. They hate this!

I purchased an LG255 TracFone from Kmart back on July 28th. I called to activate that day after failing to activate online. After 90 minutes, I was told to wait 24 hours and it would activate. Twenty four hours later, I called back and get the same treatment - pulling SIM card, doing master reset and turning on and off many times. Still no luck and another 90 plus minutes wasted. Again, I was told to call back in 24 hours and they would send a new SIM card. I called back in 10 minutes and insisted they send a new SIM.

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

Sometime in December, my phone was taken out of service with approximately five months service left on contract and 1,000 minutes. It took us eight hours to get it reconnected because they had transferred the minutes to another phone and my phone number to a phone in West Virginia. We eventually got approximately 1,000 minutes back with a new phone number. We did not get all of the service time back.

I tried to use my TracFone on Friday, August 14, 2009; but the screen showed that I had an unregistered SIM. I called TracFone on Saturday, August 15, to get this issue resolved. After an hour on the phone, not only did I not have this issue resolved, but the phone number I had transferred from Verizon in December 2007 has been removed and the original phone number was back.

The problem I thought to be a simple one: transfer minutes from my wife's phone to my phone and then purchase a smaller amount of minutes for her phone. The representative made me repeat my credit card # three different times stating that there was an error in the numbers I gave her. There was no error! The time elapsed to complete this transaction was one hour and 52 minutes. When I finished with the call, I actually felt that I should cancel my credit card. I've done this same transaction before and it took less than 30 minutes. I was also cheated out of 239 minutes that was still on my phone. How do I get my minutes back without spending another two hours on the phone with these people? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Two attempts to add 60 minutes phone time to my phone and also two emails to TracFone customer service website that were unsuccessful. My last message from TracFone advises that we need to talk to you personally. This is ridiculous! No one should have to jump through these hoops to add 60 minutes to a phone. Receipt from Family Dollar indicates "no refunds" on TracFone purchases, which shows to me TracFone and Family Dollar is aware of problems with adding minutes. Otherwise, why would the receipt tell you no refunds on TracFone purchases? By the way, message on my phone said the pin I put in had already been used. I still have no money on my phone even though I got this message. I choose not to deal with you people anymore. This phone is not a convenience and TracFone steals from consumers.

I am so frustrated with this company. We have had these phones for almost 3 years and decided to upgrade to new ones. My son just bought a Samsung T301G TracFone. We cannot use the web browser; it keeps telling him he isn't authorized to use it. I have spent countless hours on the phone, only to be told I needed to wait another 24 to 48 hours and that they were going to expedite my problem and someone should be calling me shortly. Well, no one called and my son still can't use the web browser. Then for the heck of it, I checked my hubby's new TracFone he got 3 weeks ago, and guess what? He can't access the browser either, but my phone is about 2 years old and I can.

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

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

I was cut off the first time. He gave all the info and it took over an hour's time. I waited, listening to the music playing. Then on the second time, same info. Sure, same Japanese man. He was nice to me, but the same info again. It's been 3 days and still, no activation. I dialed the code, he told me it is not yet activated. I got online and it still said not activated. I read online that said TracFone's line is out of order? Good grief, I had my old minutes added to my new one to be activated. I had trouble calling in Northern KY.

We have had a TracFone for 2 years, and I used to recommend it to people, who only needed phones for traveling and emergencies. Not anymore. Recently, our phone went to roaming and wouldn't let us make calls with 1331 minutes and a new 1-year fee. When we called the company, they said we needed a new phone because we didn't purchase a 3-year warranty. What! So, we purchased a new phone the next day, and while transferring minutes, they claimed we only had 1050 left. What!

I ordered a "refurbished" Motorola 376 from their website. Half of the features did not work. I could not send pictures or text messages to my friends. There was no protective covering on the inside and there were scratches on the back of the phone! I could not download ringtones either. I called them a week after trying to get the phone to work. I got people with very strong foreign accents (three, after being transferred twice). They kept telling me to go to the "code entry mode" and add a series of letter and numbers for 50 minutes! Then, I was told to wait for 72 hours and it should be working. It didn't. I asked for a refund. They insisted I send it back via FedEx (another $6.00).

I have a defective phone and have had tech support six to seven times. They tried to fix it, but when I hang up, it still does not work. I was told last week that it would take one day, then three days. I sent them an email that I wanted a new phone and they called while I had the dog out. I called them back but no one will help me.

This month's minutes have not yet been activated as well as I had my mother to purchase some minutes and my phone won't access them either. It says that the system is not available. So what am I to do now?

I am missing minutes on my phone. I would like a copy of my phone records, incoming and outgoing, if any way possible. If you could please email me my phone records. Thank you.

TracFone deducts over twice the time that a phone call takes from a customer's airtime. Accordingly, you only get half the time for phone calls that your airtime should buy.

I called to reactivate 2 TracFone cell phones. After 30 minutes of questioning, I was told I needed a new SIM card. The new SIM cards came, and I installed them. I then called to reactivate the phones and add minutes, now that the card was installed. Well, 40 minutes later after putting code upon code into the phone, she finally added the minutes. I was told to wait 1 hour for the phone to activate. It never happened, and I called back again. Once again, it's 35/40 minutes of putting in 16-digit number after 16-digit number trying to activate. Then I was told that my phone could not be activated and that I needed to buy a new phone! Why didn't they know that from the beginning! Then another 30 minutes on the phone putting codes in to get my refund. OMG!

I have been using the TracFone with no problems for the past five months, and last week, my minutes dropped from 19 to 9, with one 21-second phone call. I called the customer service line, and I was told over and over that the correct amount of minutes has been deducted. I then asked to speak to someone else, and five minutes later, spoke to someone else, who sounded exactly like the same person. After being told the same thing again, I asked to speak to a supervisor, and I was then told that all of the representatives were busy, and that it was not possible. Frustrated, I hung up, and contacted TracFone via email. Guess what? They said the same thing: "All of your minutes have been detected correctly, and please call customer service." Ha! Why would I make up 10 minutes? I wouldn't but I would like them back, as I did pay for them! I think it's only fair to get what you pay for, and for no one to even attempt to solve the problem is ridiculous. I would like to keep the phone as we do have four small children, and it's used when we are not home and in case of emergencies.

I lost my phone a month ago. I was told, upon purchasing another phone, that I could transfer my number and minutes. When I tried to activate the phone, I was told I would have to wait an extra period of time to transfer the number and minutes. The minutes showed up with a different number. I called again and was informed I would have to wait for a new SIM card to arrive in the mail.

I have had TracFone for about three years. I recently got a new phone and tried to transfer my number to the new phone and was unsuccessful, so I called customer service but was told to wait 72 hours, which turned into one week. After being without a phone for that week, they decided to send me a new SIM card by FedEx, which worked for a little while until today that they decided to turn my phone off. It wouldn't be so bad, but I have a daughter who suffers from seizures and I am a cancer patient so I do need my phone service. I will never recommend this prepaid service to anyone. Because of this, I can't reach my daughter who stays ill.

My annual renewal with TracFone was due by July 25, 2009. On the 24th, I sent an e-mail complaining about a software glitch with the phone. I can only turn the phone on while it is connected to the battery charger plugged into an electrical outlet. Once it is turned on, the battery lasts for several days, so the problem is not the battery. Once I turn the phone off, it will never turn on again until it's plugged in. I discovered this after a plane flight when I had to turn the phone off for the flight. I couldn't turn it on again. In my e-mail, I told them I could go back to Verizon, they could fix my phone, or I could file a complaint. I wanted a response prior to my renewal date. No one ever got back to me. Today, I called and spoke with Adriana at TracFone’s customer service center (in India) after I renewed for 30 days just so I could have service while the problem was being resolved.

TracFone is a terrible product but with nice customer service (although they were unable to fix the problem with my phone). I am unable to hear the other person on the phone. Repeated attempts to fix the said issue with their tech support has me out a good sum of money that's why I am very upset.

I purchased a 120-minute card they refused to recognize. I had the worst runaround of my life. I sent the corporate office by fax my receipt and TracFone minutes card and spent over five hours attempting to resolve this mess. I finally cancelled my service. TracFone service is terrible and not honest. Do not use TracFone, for you will get screwed.

Starting on June 9th 2009, we called TracFone to ask if they still provided batteries for their phones. They do not and suggested that we buy batteries at Radio Shack or better yet, since our old batteries would not hold a charge, that we should buy new phone, which we did. They would then transfer all our minutes to the new phones and then inform us that we needed to buy more minute cards to get the new phone activated, which again we did. Then they tell us that by activating the new phone, that we would lose our $99 double minute cards that we had for life. They then suggested that we keep our old phones and just replace the new batteries out of the new phones, and that they would activate our old phones. My husband finally got his old phone activated and lost his double minutes anyway.

I first transferred to TracFone in Jan. 2007, when AT&T went away. They said they could port my number, fine. In fact, the number never was truly ported until July 17, 2009! During the intervening years, people could call me using my supposedly ported number, but that number did not appear on my phone. I always had to call up tech support to get purchased time added and explain ad nauseam that no, the number that appeared on my phone was not my "real" number. Also, I could not get voice mail set up, but I had decided I could live without that feature.

We have been faithful TracFone customers for about six years. We have never received this much trouble from them. Back in April of this year, my daughter began to experience problems with her phone. She could receive calls; however, she had to make calls twice. If she made a call, she could not hear it ring, nor could she hear the person answer on the other line. We called to have the problem fixed and we were given a reset code. The code failed and TracFone actually sent us a refurbished version of the same phone. We encountered the same problem with the replacement phone. Once again, we called TracFone to fix the problem. We were given the same reset code that had not worked last time. We tried to reset it 3 times.

I have spent 2 hours with TracFone tech services trying to get my 600 minutes back on my phone, which TracFone deleted last Wednesday, 8-15-09. I labored hard for 2 hours of coding while trying to interpret their heavy accents. I still do not have my minutes back or any resolution to my problem. Like everyone else, I have had service problems with TracFone for the 8 years I have been a customer, but nothing compared to this. I want my 600 minutes back and I don’t want another song and dance for 2 hours on the phone attempting to decipher very heavy accents. Can anyone help me?

I had difficulty buying air time on my computer so I tried at work and during the transaction my Kaspersky anti-virus alerted me that the site was trying to insert a Trojan horse at which time I disconnected without completing the transaction. I went home and tried again, purchased the time but now that computer is warning me of a Trojan horse. I will no longer use your website because I think it's contaminated. I'll pass this along to others I know who own a TracFone too.

My wife and I have been TracFone customers for about 5 years. In the last year, on at least three occasions (it happened prior to those three, but I wasn't absolutely sure it was happening and, therefore, hadn't document them), all (yes, all) of the minutes that I had pre-purchased simply disappeared from the display on my phone. Calling TracFone tech support was a disaster. The tech support people couldn't speak understandable English and did not give me back the minutes they said they would, which by the way was only a portion of the time that had been stolen. I don't know what to do about this. Someone please help! The lost minutes have cost me about a hundred bucks so far.

Don't be fooled by promise of double minutes and don't expect much help from "technical" support. Twice they dropped my call and once, quite creatively, suggested I call back. I did about 5 minutes later only to find that the call center had closed. When I finally got an alien to listen to my complaint, he referred to his supervisor, who anonymously declined to help me. Don't buy TracFone.

My name is James **. I had 164 minutes on the phone. Then I bought a 600min card and you took off the minutes that I already had on the phone. My IMEI# is ** and my number is **. I have two other TracFones. But if this is the way you do business, I will go back to Verizon Wireless and do all of my business. Besides, they gave me a free LG-VX8360 camera flip phone for a price of $239.99. You need to take better care of your customers. So far, as I was treated, I wouldn't recommend you to no one. I used to like you but you're not worth the time. You have my number if you want to get a hold of me. How long does it usually take to hear from you?

I bought two TracFones for vacation. I added minutes to my phone upon return. I didn't receive minutes, so I looked on the website. I had a message that there was a problem with my phone. I spent about two hours, following the directions. Finally, it said to call customer service. I called; they were not open. I called today. I spoke with a gentleman for an hour! He was difficult to understand, because he spoke Spanish and there was a lot of noise in the background.

I had a TracFone for five years that worked fine, bought a new reconditioned w376r. It did not work. They have sent three more; none of them work. They said they couldn't reactivate my old phone. So stupid me buys a new lg600g to try to activate. It didn't work. They said the SIM card is bad. I have $70 into the phones. They said they could not refund my money. I also have 490 min that I'll lose if this new phone doesn't work. I have spent over 20 hours on the phone with TracFone, 8 hrs in one day and lost my phone #. Please do not make the same mistake I made. TracFone, bad business.

In 2006, I purchased a TracFone from Target, to be used with family and family friends visiting me or as an alternate, prepaid (pay-as-you-go) number. The phone hadn't been used and was deactivated. In July 2009, I wished to reactivate the phone for use with family friends visiting us. On July 7th, 2009, I went to the online TracFone store and followed their instructions to purchase air time and reactivate the phone. However, re-activation failed. I called their 800 number (800-867-7183) and was told that reactivation failed because my Sim card had expired and that I needed a new Sim card. The customer care technician created a case number.

In three tries I've spend 2 1/2 hours on the phone (land line) trying to get my cell phone to work. It worked two months ago when I had Wal-mart call to activate it. I've kept it charged, but on the last two weeks, it won't send or receive calls. I know this because the first two of the three calls, they had me try to call and receive one. Each time I was asked to do the same thing, checking sim card #s, serial #s, etc. All led to the same place...nowhere. After the second call, I was told that someone higher up would call me within 48 hours about possibly sending me a new phone. After a week and no call, I made the third and final call just now. I explained and described the two previous calls, and I asked for some way to talk to the aforementioned "higher ups". He said that I should buy another cell phone. He refused to check on my previous request. I'll avoid using words to describe what he probably wanted to say to me. I'll, also avoid doing it myself! I cannot imagine how this company can stay in business, unless maybe other customers are lucky and their cheap TracFones work. I do wish them luck!

Tracfone claims to be the best pay-as-you-go cellphone provider. However, they don't tell you that airtime is used up for unsent messages or calls due to loss of signal. I had purchased a few phones from this company. The most recent was a TracFone with a camera in Dec 2008. My previous phone was a cheap basic phone that I could use anywhere without any problem. I decided to upgrade to a camera phone for personal reasons. Since I have had the phone, I have lost over 400 minutes due to dropped calls or unsent messages due to loss of signal within minutes of sending messages or making calls. I have also had problems with sending pictures from my phone even when I have a signal. TracFone is a joke. I would not recommend these phones to anybody I know. Buying this new phone was a mistake I now regret making.

April 2009, I purchased a TracFone to save money and attempted to have an existing number transferred to our new phone. After 10 days, I called TracFone only to be told to wait another 72 hours. Three times I was told to wait another 72 hours. We called the current provider, Sprint, which indicated TracFone made no attempt to port the number. After 3 weeks, I received a call from TracFone that they had closed my case. Meanwhile, the existing Sprint number had been cancelled. We were advised by Sprint that TracFone cannot port numbers from an account in a business name. After hearing this, I activated the phone with a new number. This happened on April 24. I purchased 800 minutes and had been using the phone until July 2, when we discovered the phone had been deactivated.

Was I receiving double min. for life? I purchased 450 min., did not receive double min. I was told that I purchased a 1-yr double min. card, but have been getting double min. since 2007. I'm pretty sure a supervisor gave me double for life because I canceled 2 online purchases because the bonus changed at the bottom of form. Money was taken out of my account and no minutes put on phone either, so I was given double min. for life for taking money out of the acct. and the hassle I went through. I told the gentleman I'd buy one double for life today if I got the double min, even though I was supposed to get them anyway. He would not give me the double min. even though I just added them 2 min. before I tried to call before adding them, because I saw a promotional code on the computer. I also wanted to ask about the new phone. I was happy; now, not so happy.

My LG 230 TracFone was destroyed and I purchased a new TracFone over the internet, an LG 600. It was an absolute nightmare and "daymare". I spoke with rep #1 who told me it would take 5 min. to activate, transfer my old # and my minutes. Then, rep #2 told me it would take 72 hours. Nothing happened. I emailed them for no response. Rep #3, finally after a zillion codes later, activated it to find it doesn't even work in the area we live in. Go figure! TracFone has seen the last of me and we went to a landline. Poor, poor, poor. It is a shame for people to be able to stay in business who have no pride in their job!

Everyone should be aware that if they use TracFone, your number will be given away or sold (I am not sure which) so that advertisers can call you and eat up your minutes. I found this out today - my second day of having this phone, before I could give the new number to anyone. Fortunately, I am in a position to keep the phone off most of the time. It would be a real issue if I had to keep it on and my minutes were consumed by callers trying to sell me things! I am planning to put the number on the do-not call list, but had not thought to do this, as the number had not been given out.

On June 19, I ordered a TracFone in error (as my daughter wanted T-Mobile). I called back 2 hours later, and they said it was already shipped and to just refuse it and that upon return, they would credit my account. I refused the item on June 19, and it was returned to TracFone on June 23 by FedEx. I have been e-mailing daily, calling, getting passed around, and kept on hold on July 1; and again on July 6 (for 30 minutes, my entire lunch break). They are now saying it will be 30 days before I can get a refund after several e-mails back and forth and phone calls, stating they would not do the refund if I did not call and talk to a rep and give my original card number, which I did on three occasions.

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

I had upgraded to a new TracFone from an old model. Transferring my phone minutes should have only taken a few hours in that. I was told that it would take 72 hours/3 days or longer, to receive the minutes on my new phone. I have already paid for this time 2 weeks ago, and they removed it automatically from my old phone, so this has left me with no emergency phone. At this time, neither the old nor the new phone works. In 3 days time, any emergency can arise and being without that emergency cell phone can prove dangerous.

TracFone customer service representatives are very difficult to understand and shuttle you from one person to another only to explain the same thing over again. A replacement phone was sent out. After the first replacement, it would not hold a charge. It was with an incompatible charger. The plugs did not match. The phones are of very poor quality and not in working order. I will seek another service even if it costs me more. This company is not worth the hassle.

I bought a TracFone (Pay As You Go) approximately 5 years ago to use when we travel in the United States (mainly traveling to Florida). The cell phone still has 672 minutes (units) left on it. In June '09, we received a call from the Florida police telling us that someone had vandalized our home in Zephyrhills, Florida. Thus, on June 22nd, we left our home in Canada to travel to Florida to assess the damages. When we got to the state of Maine, I tried to use my cell phone, but it would not work. I called TracFone and was told that my phone had been deactivated and since it was a Sunday, I would have to call back the day after to find out why. I called the day after at least 3 times, waited on the line while they were checking with another department to find out why my cell was de-activated. They finally told me that I had used my phone in Canada the year before (July ‘08) and they had deactivated it then. They gave me a warning as not do this anymore; if so, they would have to deactivate again.

If you cannot help, please credit my account. Thank you.

My daughter gave me a TracFone LG200 for Father’s Day and activated it on 6/21 and added 90 minutes. It will receive calls but all cannot make calls. We get a Verizon Wireless message "sorry we cannot authenticate your phone". My daughter spent over an hour in a fruitless attempt to get their customer service to solve the problem, passed from one person to another and repeating the same assurances over and over. I sent a complaint via email will all relevant information and received a phone call from a non-English speaker who clearly could not cope and tried to get me to duplicate the exercises my daughter was subjected to. I am 74 and hard of hearing and cannot cope with TracFone's refusal to provide the promised service.

My mom who has never put time on her phone before wanted to do it and accidentally pressed enter before she could enter the airtime card code. I had to call back a 2nd time about 30 minutes after the first time because the first person I spoke to was so rude and abrasive. Now, you want a faxed copy of the 60-minute card that came with the W376 refurb bundle I purchased my mom last month. I don't have a copier or a fax machine and don't have a Kinko's or UPS store to go to do anything like this like Alberto was telling me to do to. If it had been my mom calling, she wouldn't have had any idea what you were asking her to do when it comes to all the faxing and copying particular things. Your policies make no sense and just like every other business now as long as you've already gotten our money, you don't really care. You are holding the minutes I already paid for my mom's phone hostage. The only thing you all could find out of sort was that one bonus code going through. You could at least let the phone be used until the minutes run out and then kill it.

I had bought a TracFone in 2007 for my son to use on a trip. Well, it never was able to work on his trip, so although it had minutes on it, it sat idle. Later in 2007, I let my stepson use the phone, so we had to get a new minutes card for it. When we turned it on and added the minutes, there was a large number of minutes on it. I thought perhaps it was a promotion of some sort. The phone worked fine, so he used it up until he moved, then it sat idle again for about six months. I recently decided to let my other son use the phone and when we charged it, it still had the minutes on it. I went ahead and added another air time card to it to give him a larger timeframe to use the phone. Everything went fine for several weeks, and then the phone stopped working, even though it had a month of time left on it and over 6000 minutes. I finally got a chance to call in and see how we could get the phone working and add more air time to it, only to be told that I would need to get another phone. I was, however, assured that the minutes (still over 6000) would transfer over to the new phone. I went out and bought a new phone and an air time card to activate it within a day or so. Once it was activated, I called the tech folks only to be repeatedly put on hold.

I made a online purchase for additional minutes for my TracFone. I typed in a wrong serial # which the website said was in correct. However, I was charged $60.59 for this purchase anyway. I called several times and TracFone reps said I would have to resolve it with my credit card company.

I bought a TracFone and 200 minutes from a store in Longview, Texas, around 12/2008. I have been getting the run around from then until now on getting another phone and transferring the minutes over. I took the phone back to the store, got another phone and another 200 minutes on Jan. 11, 2009. Since then, I've got nothing but the run around from TracFone. I am out $100.00. I have been told three times that they were sending me a new phone, but it never happened! I have been on the phone with their tech support people several times, adding codes to the phone and never getting it to work. I have several emails on this subject. All I want is to get my money back on this problem.

I tried on 3 different occasions to get through to customer service. As a result, I was not able to purchase additional minutes during an emergency when I need to speak extensively with relatives. Each time after waiting over 1 hour and still no response, I gave up. I am stuck temporarily with them, but I advise no one to adopt this service.

Many, many calls and emails to customer service, all I want to do is call Canada. No one can fix this. I really doubt this phone can ever call international phones. Don’t waste your time and money here. It’s just a big joke to them, they made their money, now go away. Lip service and downright lies are what you can expect. Big waste of time and money. Giving people my number only to tell they don’t even bother calling me. Useless.

I wanted to buy 2 TracFones. The online attempt didn't work, so I called them. The first one went through, then when I went to buy the second one, the lady told me that it didn't accept my credit card. So...what any red-blooded American does, I pulled out my other card. It didn't approve that one either, so she kept saying, “Let me try it again,” and after 5 attempts, I decided to go shopping elsewhere for the second one.

I have spent literally hours and hours on the phone trying to get my double minutes transferred to the new number for my TracFone and now they tell me time has expired and I won't be able to get the double minutes. What a lousy joke. I will never use them again and will do all I can to turn people away from doing business with them as they saw fit to waste so much of my time.

I have had the Motorola phone from 2004. It has been a good phone and I always had 100 miles before it went. Roaming worked good. I got a new one-year time card and tried to put the number in and my phone locked up. I went to Radio shack and they said your phone is too old. I would have to call in to have the number put in. I asked about a new phone and they said this one would work in its place. So I got it had everything transferred to it. I got home 13 miles from town and it don't work, not even a bar. I called and TracFone said, "We need to send you a new SIM card." So okay, I waited for that and put it in. I spent several more hours on the phone and they said I have to wait a day or two for things to work.

When I purchased this TracFone, they charged me units to set up my phone. I talked with them about that problem because they used up almost half of the units. Locally, for 7 miles, I have to pay for long distance. I have to dial 1, area code, the number, which cost me twice as much. When I talked to them about that, I got a nasty rep, and she overtalks you. She hangs up constantly. When I turn the phone on to look up old #, it eats up my units. I have been using TracFone for years, and never had this problem. It never cost me double, per minute. This phone is a Motorola #W175g. I have bought, promoted, gave many of these phones to a lot of people over the years, but not anymore, if they have raised rates that high. The back on the phone is very, very hard to get off.

I bought a TracFone 3weeks ago. I couldn't get it to work so I called tech support. They gave me a new number which worked but it was a different number than the original so when I tried to add minutes, it wouldn't work. I wasted my remaining minutes talking to tech support. The first person I talked to said she could not help me. The second one said my minutes would be added and I made sure he understood that the number was different. He said he had my account on screen and it was correct. Evidently, not the cause no minutes was added. I called back and asked for the manager. I got the runaround and finally, he said the minutes I talked to him about would be reimbursed. It was not done. If they had the correct number, maybe they could have but it must have been too difficult. It's not done. So I am now down to approximately 10 minutes with no help, no minutes and I am very upset.

I had a TracFone and wanted to replace it with a new model TracFone. I wanted to keep the old TracFone number and called in to have it activated and the old number put on the new TracFone. After over an hour, it was supposed to be done. However, the new TracFone had a different phone number than the one from my old TracFone. I called to get it corrected and was put on hold for hours! Then I called back several times more and the same thing happened. Every few minutes someone came on the phone and told me just a few more minutes while they talked to a supervisor. Nothing was done and I had to keep calling them back. Finally, someone told me after I gave them the serial numbers to my new phone that I had just bought in the store that the phone had been reported stolen! Now the phone will not work and has been deactivated. I tried calling TracFone back again and got a recording that the office is now closed. I also had extra minutes put on the new phone and I think that they too will not be able to be used. I want to make a formal complaint against this company!

Net 10 advertises 10 cents per minute. I have 162.5 minutes on a phone that they deactivated for non-usage within 60 days. I requested a refund and they told me I need to spend $30.00 to reactivate the phone. I have spent hours on the phone with numerous persons, most who don't understand English (foreign call centers), who just repeat themselves and say they don't have supervisors. I have asked for a refund of my $16.50 that is left on the phone and they told me I have to pay the postage to return the phone, and then maybe they will refund my $16.50 that is left on the phone. I have lost $16.50 for minutes on the phone that I cannot use because they will not reactive the phone without spending another $30.00.

I have a Motorola TracFone and have had it for several years. A year or so ago, I bought a card for 1 year of service, 800 minutes, doubled to 1600 min. and a Double Minutes for Lifetime card.

The screen of my TracFone went off. I can still receive calls but I can't see my screen to even see my menu. All of a sudden, it just would not show up. Thanks.

I purchased a Motorola C261 TracFone and double minutes for the life of the phone. I have been attempting to get my double minutes for life and have been unsuccessful. After emailing several times, I called. I was on the phone for 40 minutes and finally talked to a supervisor. He told me that I did have double minutes for the life of the phone; however, the plan was too costly so it had expired. I have a copy of the ad and the receipt for my purchase. No one has been interested in seeing this documentation. The same plan is advertised online today for $139.99. I would like to have my double minutes for life of the phone honored and have any laws TracFone is breaking enforced. There does not seem to be any penalty to TracFone. We, the consumers, are tired of getting cheated. Somebody file a class action suit.

I had gotten a new phone - having my old minutes and number transferred. 3 weeks after I had this phone activated, it was shut off. When I called the company, it took me forever to get through and once I did, I was put on hold 13 times while tests were done on my phone. No one spoke English. I was told the phone wasn't properly working and had been shut off by them. I was also told that I couldn't have this number transferred to a new phone and I would lose the 200 plus minutes I had on this phone. I was given the runaround for over 55 minutes and no satisfaction. This was a phone number I had been using on resumes for over 3 years. Now the number and all the contacts are lost due to the company refusing to reactivate the number, let alone the phone

I received a renew code on my phone from TracFone. The message was as follows: "Get 30 bonus min. by adding a TracFone 120 min. card. Use promo code 261128." I bought a 120 min. card and went to add it and they gave me the 120 min. but refused to give me the 30 min. bonus. When I called them, they told me that there was nothing they could or would do about it. Our state attorney said they would look into it but that was the last we heard of it.

I am adding to the complaint by Sanya in Farmville, NC. I just had the exact same experience with Tracfone. I purchased a Double Minutes for the Life of the phone card with my first Tracfone. That was Dec. 06. I have had no problems with the minutes doubling since then until now. A few months ago I put a value min plan on my phone and my husband’s as well. When this month’s minutes went two days ago - they did not double. I was sent an email response to my claim - identical to what Sanya was told that there was a glitch in their system and it was supposed to have expired a year ago.

Two days ago I purchased a (CRACK) TracFone because it had a camera. Upon taking two pictures, the cell phone would not give me access to the built-in camera. I then looked throughout the instruction manual only to find that the camera that was built into the phone did not have anything typed or written about the camera in the phone. I am considering a class action lawsuit against the BUNCH OF LYING THIEVES!!!!!!!!!

My husband and I have been customers of TracFone Wireless for several years. We have been pleased with the Pay-as-you-go method. We were so pleased we purchased an additional TracFone for my son. For Christmas this year, I decided to upgrade my husband's TracFone to a newer model with more features. Before deciding to make the purchase, I researched online the TracFone official website to find out if they were like other similar wireless companies that state in their ads that you can transfer your existing phone number to a new model (or phone). Everything on their website stated that you could transfer your existing phone number and it was easy and simple. It stated all you needed to do was go online and find the link to transfer your number and activate your new TracFone.

I bought a phone online paid to have it shipped 3 day. I GOT IT 2 WEEKS later. After 2 weeks of trying to get it activated they said I had a defective phone and would send me a new 1. After I got the first phone I had to wait on a new SIM card after about I still don’t have a phone.

Last August they advised us that they would upgrade our phone free of charge. Since then I had to purchase a new phone in Massena New York. I have so many case numbers too long to list. All together I have spent at least 50 hours on the phone and spoke to 34 people which I have all the names and dates. On Jan 7 2009, I contacted them to transfer minutes from one phone to the other. They could not even do this properly. I had 1778 units on one phone to be transferred to another which I had 97 units. All they transferred was 1093 units.

Purchased a double minute for life program and a family plan which I pay $23.50 per month for. I receive 100 minutes for my phone and my sons' two phones get 30 minutes. I have been receiving 100 minutes for the past two years. December minutes credited to my phone were only 50 minutes. Upon calling TracFone I was told over and over that I did not have a DMFL plan and that my double minutes had expired. I was told they expired in November of 07 and that for all of 2008 it was a system glitch that I received double minutes. This company is ripping off the consumer. They refused to do anything about it and politely said, "Tough." After looking at this consumer website, I realized that there are many other people out there that the same thing has happened too and they have been given the same excuses. There has to be something that can be done. I'm contacting the BBB on Friday and the Attorney General if necessary. I think we need a class action suit against these people. Times are hard enough without a company like this making it harder. Enough is Enough.

I purchased a TracFone for my personal use about 2 months ago. After I activated it, I noticed it was roaming. After several attempts to have the customer service representative at TracFone work with me to fix it, I ended up sending the phone back and received a new phone (same type) and it worked. Later after changing jobs I encouraged my employer to use TracFone do to the cost effectiveness and great service. When I purchased the phone and had it activated, I noticed that the minutes from my "personal" phone were gone and that the "work" phone had more minutes than I had originally purchased.

Be extremely cautious of purchasing a Tracfone from the Tracfone website. The phones listed based on the zip code question they ask often will not work for your area. I spent more than 10 hours on the phone with customer support over 10 days to find out the phone I purchased will not accept a local phone number due to the technology of the phone not supported by the service providers in our 608 area code whom Tracfone contracts with.

I purchase a 1-year extension and 650 minutes air time from TracFone over the web. When the purchase did not show up on my phone, I called TracFone; they told me my transaction did not appear on their computer. I waited a couple of days and contacted my credit card to find out that TracFone had made a $103 charge. On the phone again to TracFone. After being transferred from one person to another, I found that they had credited another phone for the purchase and there was nothing they were willing to do about it. I have filed a complaint with the FCC (www.fcc.gov) on form 2000B and encourage others to do the same.

My daughter lost her phone in the house, so we didn't call to cancel it knowing it would turn up. We registered for the 50-minute, $10 a month plan through the website and figured she'd have over 100 minutes by the time we found it. We were charged on the 8th of Nov. and Dec. and found it finally around 12/25. We turned the phone on after charging and found out there were 0.0 units of time on the phone. I contacted their customer service on 12/28/08 and was told that because my credit card was charged a month ago, I should have called then or because my daughter lost the phone. I should have called to cancel it. I told her I knew it was in the house and ASSUMED the minutes would be there. Can you tell me the balance of my minutes? She said no, to do better parenting and read the agreement and too bad for me. I said it was theft by deception, cancel my subscription to their service and I would go to Verizon. She at least did that for me.

I bought a TracFone from Target and after several months and many, many calls to their Customer Service I still have never been able to either make or receive a call. I cannot fully describe the frustration of calling the tech support folks in India who have put me through through the same routine over and over and over....Sometimes they have decided that the problem needed the help of one of their experts and I've had to wait a long time to get to speak to them. The expert has given me the same routine as the regular tech people and the upshot has been that they decided I need a new SIM card.

I purchased the TracFone for my mother. Two months ago, we had problems with the phone after I had loaded minutes via their website. The phone would not accept the minutes. I contacted TracFone, the customer service rep talked me through the situation, about 10 min worth of codes and stuff, then it worked. Two months later, the same thing happen, the phone is not worth the problems. To make things worse, the website I had register now seems like it doesn't have my account number. This is totally frustrating and I would not recommend that anyone use this service or phone. I am not going out the door to find a better product. My mother relies on the phone for contact, she has medical issues, diabetic, needs to be able to contact someone when a situation arises.

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