Jitterbug Smart Reviews

This company and its phone are probably the worst on the market for seniors, or anyone who is considering them. We've had two Jitterbug Smart phones since 2017. The first phone lasted a year, then just died. So, we called and asked if there were any discounts on new phones and they gave us a hefty discount on a Smart 2. 97 days later it gave us a message that it was "Corrupted". GreatCall said it was 7 days out of warranty so they could not provide another phone unless we purchased another. All the so-called technical help would not get the phone working again. 97 days!!! To top it off, because we cancelled the account only days after making a payment, they do not provide a credit for the 20+ days we have left in the payment period (you pay ahead for future service, not for past service). So, crappy phones and they steal your money if you cancel. Not a "Great" company.

Bought a Jitterbug smart phone for my Mother-In-Law Xmas 2017. She was intimidated but we finally got her to agree to try it. Called Greatcall and they said they no longer service this phone and transferred us to the sales dept to buy a new one! What in the??? Feels like you are taking advantage of Senior Citizens. No other phone company would not service a phone that is less than 2 years old! Bought the phone through Amazon so we can't return at this point. My hope is that Greatcall will make this right!

Looking for an inexpensive alternative to upgrade my mom's phone from the traditional flip-style to a smartphone, I opted to find the Smart model for a reasonable price on eBay in October 2019. I am not referring to the "Smart 2" model that is apparently the ONLY alternative in late 2019. When calling Greatcall upon attempted activation, I was told that the phone I had could no longer be activated.

This phone has been a complete nightmare for my 86 year old mother and our entire family. I call her and it goes straight to her voicemail. She can't hear what I am saying half the time and it will cut off during a conversation. I set it up to her wifi and then it was not using her wifi. I am extremely tech savvy and I can tell you to NOT EVER purchase this phone. WE are cancelling her service. This company is ripping off senior citizens. I called once to the customer service and the guy was the rudest representative I have EVER talked to in my ENTIRE life. I finally started talking tech talk back to him in a complicated way to shut him down. When he realized I knew what I was talking about, he changed his tune. Why would ANYONE want their mother dealing with such people as this. BUYER BEWARE and run as fast as you can in another direction!!!!

We saw the Jitterbug in the July/Aug. edition of AARP. They had an entire page advertisement with plans as low at $17.48/month the first month was free with 200 min and 40mb data if purchased before Aug. 31st (which we did) and activated before Sept. 30 (which we did). We purchased the phone from BestBuy and on the box, it said the plan was also $17.48/mth with 200 min and 40mb data.

Several points: You FIRST need to know this: a brief press of the power button puts the device into what PC’s call “sleep mode”, whereas holding it down for the right amount of time turns it off, but holding it down for too long seems to turn it off and turn it on again. If this is the first device you have used that has a touch screen, getting accustomed to the device will take some time. Battery needs more frequent recharging than a dumb phone (e.g., the LG-470). I like the device and its tech support. It does well its intended purposes: phone calls, texts, receiving emails, taking pictures and sending them. If you want to surf the internet or construct documents, no smartphone on earth will work, you need a tablet, Chromebook or PC.

Bought this cell for ease of use. I am a senior, not tech smart, mostly I text. Nothing wrong with my hearing, and this cell the sounds for texts only work very seldom. When it does I can hear it 30 feet away! 90% of time phone next to me on stand will go to text and see I have 2-3 messages - no sound telling me. I have all volumes 100%. It's easy cell for seniors but sounds/alerts very poor. $144 I paid for this phone. Sad to say quality of it not worth that much. Beware.

I am infuriated with this phone. When I call someone that has a landline, a man's name comes up, not mine. Was told that in order to remove his name I have to call each person that I call and get the date it started, their name and address, telephone number, carrier. Really, I'm 85 years old. Have a ton of doctors and people I depend on. Then, they reportedly will take care of it and it can take 3 to 7 days to complete. Shouldn't I assume with purchase of this phone that my name would appear not someone else's. They also said that all cellphones can have this happen. The people I spoke with tried to help but obviously no help that I can.

I was afraid to use a Smartphone until I saw the Jitterbug Smart Phone 2 in action. I had a screen protector installed at Staples and haven't missed a beat. Although I'm admittedly ignorant when it come to technology, I'd recommend Jitterbug Smartphone 2, to people of all ages... It does everything I need and much, much more. The screen is huge and instructions are user friendly. I bought mine from Best Buy for only $74.95...

I have been a Greatcall customer for many years. Started when all they had were flip phones and then got a smartphone 1 when they 1st came out. I now have the smartphone 2 and it's a total piece of crap phone. If my screen on my smart one was not cracked I would still be using it. I have no internet connection. It saves all photos even the ones that are texted making me go into the photos and delete them after every text with photos attached. When having a text conversation it will delete the conversation at random. You cannot start a group text. You can be in one if someone else starts one but you can't start one yourself. In a group text it doesn't tell you what other person is texting. My last greatcall smartphone used to have the persons name or number to let you know how is texting in the group.

what either party is saying. I called customer service and they said they were having a software issue with the cell tower. Why in the world would a legitimate company sell a phone that doesn’t work. It’s a shame cause mom really likes the big numbers and ease of use.

Don’t Buy this phone. This phone is impossible to use, and just as impossible to figure out. A senior citizen will be completely lost with this phone. Going from an iPhone to this phone is like trying to learn a new language.

The Jitterbug Smartphone was the worst purchase I have made for my 87-year-old mother. She needed a phone to make and receive simple calls and maybe snap a picture. The amount of decisions she needs to make on this phone to place a phone call to a stored contact is too much! She is already having issues, why could Jitterbug not come up with a simple button to call with and then maybe a choice from a 'favorite contact' list or even provide a simple keypad? Cancelling after 3 months of Mom not touching it due to too many complications in trying to answer a simple phone call--omg do some research on what seniors need and what they are capable of using as they enter various phases of dementia--at last look at the Apple and android models and use these as a baseline!

Do not get the Jitterbug or GreatCall service. Set it up for my grandmother and when we initially tested, we thought she was holding it too close to her mouth because the sound quality was distorted and cut off the ends of sentences. Turns out, no matter how she holds it, the voice quality is horrible. Not sure if it's a GreatCall network problem or a problem with the mic on the phone itself. But it makes it absolutely impossible to hold a conversation. Very very bad. I'd say bordering on elder fraud. Much better off with one of the large carriers, and not much price difference if you end up adding their 5Star option.

Phone sounds very garbled to anyone who is called with it. Was purchased 2 days ago for my 92 year old mother & nobody can understand her. I call the 611 # and found out that these phones have an "issue" and that there should be a software upgrade in the next few weeks to correct this. Was very disappointed to hear this as a product being sold is "defective" in a way. If it's not corrected within a month we will cancel & go back to the old flip phone.

While I was in a casino at 4:00 a.m. 5Star woke my nephew who lives across town and told him told him there was an emergency at my apartment and a fire truck was on the way to my apartment. My neighbor was awakened and told me the firemen were about to break down my door. There was NO emergency. I had inadvertently hit the 5Star icon while at the casino, waited, and told 5Star it was a mistake.

We bought a Jitterbug Smart Phone got my mother-in-law. We understood the cost per month would be around $25. The bills were around 35-40 for a person who doesn’t text, use the internet or send pictures. The phone was very confusing for the 84 year old. She was getting calls around 6:30 in the evening but they didn’t show up in her recent calls until around 6 or 7 the next morning. We finally gave up and switched her back to ATT. The Great Calls company had just drafted her account and won’t issue any refunds. Their phones are not intuitive and cannot be switched to a different carrier because they have no place for a SIM card. I recommend avoiding Great Calls. I recommend avoiding them.

Updated on 03/28/2019: I wrote a review yesterday giving the phone 3 stars, that was before I discovered customer service lied to my 78-year-old mother on the amount of refund, I bought her a phone for her birthday on March 5 of this yr, paid 176.47, that was for the 600-minute plan plus first months usage. We canceled the phone with only using it less than 2 weeks and 55 minutes later because whenever my mother called anyone, no one could hear her because the phone was distorted. When my mother canceled they told her there would be a 10 restocking fee and 10 dollars for something else.

I purchased two phones. The first phone had three design problems: 1) moderately poor quality sound, 2) the charger is "sided" so that older people with poor eyesight can easily plug it in wrong and damage the connector (ruining the phone); and 3) If you are right handed, it is almost unavoidable to accidentally press the volume control and turn down the phone. This affects the ringer volume and an older person may not be able to hear the phone ring. Then I purchased a second phone because the first would no longer charge due to issue #1. AND it somehow also lost the capability to be charged from the cradle. As an aside when you set the phone into the cradle to charge, the phone does not seat very well, and it is easy to miss seat the phone - which moves around.

When I get a call in the car, I cannot hear the caller very well because the volume is so low. I tried raising the volume on the radio (which worked great with the Jitterbug flip phone) but to no avail. I also raised the volume all the way up on the phone volume control (again, no luck). Please help!

We had to change service because Verizon towers do not cover our area adequately. The coverage maps are not detailed enough. We thought it was just at our house, but it was also in our whole area--50-60 miles. We had a few times when it was okay, but most of the time, parts of sentences in conversations were dropped. We have now changed to **, and they use the AT&T network and towers. The service is so much better and cheaper. We are sorry we did not change sooner. The CS Representative said she was aware of the spotty connections because of the fact we live near the Sierra Nevadas. It's too bad they did not tell us that when we signed up.

Updated on 02/25/2019: I had tried what they recommended many times including clearing cache, force stopping. Finally I did reach someone from the company and he had to speak to 2 supervisors over 2 hours of time before it was finally resolved by resetting the entire phone back to factory settings. However, when I requested him to at least give me credit for the time he used in fixing my phone due to his inexperience or to pay back the neighbor for her minutes of 120 who lent me her phone, he had no response and couldn't help me. I guess it's on the customer to "suck it up" every time they have a problem on their own end! Sorry I have had such miserable experience with them.

My husband and I both had Jitterburg Smart Phones. After 2 years we started having trouble and my husband's phone 'died.' My husband purchased the new Smart 2 for us at Best Buy. When he called to activate new phone, they disconnected my number and gave it to him and eliminated his number altogether. This was when he was at Best Buy for the transfer of contacts. In the meanwhile, I was without communication for 3 hours, unknowing why. It was scary and frustrating. My husband came home and was on the phone with Great Call for over an hour trying to fix this problem. We finally got our respective numbers back, but could not access our contacts.

Updated on 02/10/2019: My Jitterbug Smart phone 2 continued to self delete messages so I called the number that the Jitterbug employee suggested in response to my last review. The number ended up being just one more person that was trying to resolve the issue that I was having. After that attempt to fix it, within two hours my phone was still self deleting text messages. I called and spoke to someone else and she continued to try to fix the phone.

A little over a year ago I purchased A Jitterbug Smart Phone. The sound quality on the phone was terrible. Everyone I talked to said they had difficulty hearing me and that I sounded like I was in a tunnel. I called Great Call Customer Service and was told that the poor sound quality was probably due to my location and the fact that I lived in a brick apartment building. This was not accurate as everywhere I called from I experienced the same sound quality problem. I am not a tech savvy individual, which is why I chose Great Call as they claimed to have great customer service. I did not find this to be the case. Sometimes the service representatives were patient and helpful, but more often they were short and impatient, sometimes even downright rude.

I was initially excited to get the Jitterbug Smart phone, planning after long last to upgrade from my flip phone. The process of buying the phone took way too long, and in hindsight I now see that should have raised a red flag about Great Call. The day prior to my plan beginning I set up in a quiet room in the public library to begin what I presumed would be a quick and painless procedure. After all, the phone is advertised as easy to use. Almost two hours, and three very frustrating calls to the "customer service" line, I was out $10.00, which the Service Manager, a totally unhelpful Maria refused to refund to me, claiming that a "restocking fee" is an industry standard.

My mom bought a Jitterbug Smartphone because she has a hard time with things that are too complicated, she liked the bigger icons and layout of the Jitterbug Smartphone. She had problems from day 1 of using the phone. The sound was terrible, the functions weren't helpful and they were never able to set up her voicemail. I did some research to find that she was paying more than she needed to for services she wasn't using. I researched other companies and found a better fit for her. When I called GreatCall to cancel her service the employee asked me why I canceling the service. I was very honest with her and told her I felt like they were taking advantage of seniors and those who are disabled by charging them for things that weren't necessary and claiming that their rates are low. Compared to Verizon or Sprint they might be low but not compared to Straight Talk.

Jitterbug Smart: touching a button often brings no response; other times it works as expected with a light touch. Other times it takes a very hard strike to obtain ANY response. Phone will self-activate a call. Twitchy!

We got the Jitterbug 2 for my grandfather. He uses an iPad and Apple TV already. He is learning the phone and seems to like it. However he keeps accidentally dialing 911. Is there a way to turn this off?

Purchased as a gift for my mom who is a long-time Jitterbug user. Visual Voicemail does not work and the company will NOT provide its customer service personnel with any insight as to when and if this issue will be corrected. Since the Phone and Voicemail are the most critical functions for seniors, the phone is of essentially no use at the moment and should not be sold to the public. I strongly recommend any potential buyer, call Jitterbug and confirm that this function is working before making a purchase.

In attempting to activate the phone for my elderly grandfather, I felt very rushed to approve the 'included' package. Since every added feature is an additional cost, 'included' just means more expensive, but rep was trying to stay vague and rather defensive when being asked about the final cost. Sure enough, rather than the $14.99 price advertised, the rep was trying to get my grandfather on a $30+ monthly plan. I can only imagine how many elderly people are overwhelmed and signed up to a more expensive plan than they expected.

Purchased two Jitterbug Smart phones, had issue with both transferring phone numbers over. Took two days for one and numerous calls to both companies (3 to 4 days) for the other one. For problems with phone, can't do online, can't change plan, have to call customer service for everything. Had issues after transferring number with phone still not working, had to call customer service and reset phone, had to call again for voicemail wasn't working, had to call another number to get it reset.

I bought this as an "easy to use phone for seniors". But the phone is not only not responsive, but is also so dumbed down that you cannot do simple things that you expect of "smart" phones. The interface is not intuitive. The website is terrible, with little help or information. And when I called customer support, they could not answer my question and were rude about it. In my opinion, this is probably the worst cell phone out there, hands down, even for a senior.

This phone does have some good features and customer service is very responsive and helpful. However I wish I had never bought it. If you do not need the call for help feature, and you accidentally touch the call 5* button, 911 is called immediately. If you tell them it was a mistake, they still have to send a state trooper to your home. He tried to disable it for me but it cannot be disabled. This red button is omnipresent and just a fraction below the video button. Is everywhere you are on the phone. So if you do not need LIFELINE do not get this phone. Also if you try to send a picture it is way TOO easy to send it to the wrong contact. The picture taking feature can be OK but if you do not have super steady hands it blurs and you could easily touch THE RED BUTTON. The talk text feature is too fast for means I can only say a few words. It does however call well and texts ok. Wish I had done more research. I am mid 70s and not good with tech stuff.

We were excited to sign up with GreatCall and get the Jitterbug Smart Phones in November of 2017. By today's date, December 19, 2018 we have had to have a total of 6 replacement phones. These phones work for a short while and then will not allow any calls on or out and no texts in or out. I have spent untold hours calling customer service from another phone to resolve this. Each time I am told and it shows on the screen that there is no sim card detected. I have been disconnected when talking to technical support and then have to call back and start all over again on several occasions.

and asked what happens next, they told me that there was a $10 restocking fee by Christopher. Madeline (the previous customer rep) told me that they would waive that fee. I asked to speak to a supervisor and Christopher told me he was that as well. To my shock, he told me that I would have to pay their shipping costs, which I had previously never been told. I would never recommend Great Call because they are very difficult to deal with. It was a very unpleasant experience. I just hope that my account is credited with the correct amount.

I'm legally blind and my other cellphone was just too little. I got the Jitterbug Touch and I can see it. It helped me. My friend programmed the phone numbers and told me that my phone doesn't have very much data. I called the support team because I wanted to talk to the lady that sold it to me, but they made me talk to a tech support man. The tech told me that it only has 6 Gigabyte and if I go on Facebook, it will use up my data right away. I was disappointed in that because the gal that sold it to me that kept calling me, acted like everything was great. So, I felt she misrepresented it when selling me the phone. The phone itself is really nice. It's big, and it's for a person like me that has trouble seeing. I can see it with my magnifying glass, so in that way it's easy. I just need somebody to sit with me to show me a couple things. I've referred people to Jitterbug, but I wanna change phone carriers to see if I could get more data.

People spend a lot of money on cell phones now but I got mine next to nothing. I’m not gonna spend $1,000 for a phone. I know that the Jitterbug’s are sold at Best Buy right ahead and a couple other places so I went down a little for a ride and explored. There’s this Jitterbug for 150 bucks. I had the salesman on the phone who said, “If you actually wanna do it today, instead of waiting to make up your mind I’ll sell it to you for 75 bucks." So I got my phone for $75 and this phone could do a lot of stuff.

My wife wanted me to upgrade, so she got me some Jitterbug. I play games on it. And because I’m a landlord I got to have a phone because my renters call me. I gotta have a phone so I’d see what they want. Sometimes, when I’m trying to hang my phone up, it won’t hang up, or it dials somebody else’s number, and that really makes me mad. Nevertheless, I would recommend Jitterbug.

I’m a senior citizen and I didn’t have any knowledge at all about smartphones. Jitterbug advertises that it's one of the easiest, and my husband went to Best Buy and spoke to them. They concurred that it would be the easiest one to learn on. However, I had trouble in the beginning as I kept getting calls. I'm in an area code 631 and they gave me a 516. There was some person's name that took up the whole screen across, and when I would call my grandchildren, the customer ID would come up as this name so they didn't know it was me.