Cricket Wireless
Reviews and Complaints

I bought the cricket broadband for wireless internet. It let you choose your prepaid plan. I payed $150 for a $65 monthly pre paid heavy user plan. They promise massive amounts of g's with youtube, pandora, gaming, video, hulu, and up to 5 devices can conect. It says no hidden fees. After I pay my $150, I had about 2 weeks of internet before they said I ran out. My usage was not real heavy. I put $70 on my account that lasted a little over a week. I put another $70 on my account that lasted less then 24 hours! I called customer service, the lady was very rude she raised her voice and would talk over me. That same lady said " we can do whatever we want, including stopping or slowing down your service" they want bank info to just take money out to.

The latest Cricket scam involves the cricket cell phone company committing fraud by Illegally shutting off the phone service to people's phone after the bill has clearly been paid in full!
This has happened to me twice now since the 1st of march & it's now march 11!
The 1st time I called Cricket to find out why my service was disconnected, The UNEDUCATED ### that answered my call attempted to FLAT OUT LIE & tell me theat I hadn't paid my bill even theough I made it known that I had proof that I had paid it on the 1st of the month as I always do and that I had PROOF!
She then called me a liar & attempted to make me pay my bill a 2nd time even after I both informed and educated her that my bank statement was proof that my bill was paid up to date!
After reviewing my account, she even admitted that my payment was received, but then tried to feed me a load of crap claiming that cricket couldn't receive the payment and that my original payment which had already been taken out and posted to my bank account would be refunded in 3 business days!
NO REFUND WAS EVER ISSUED!
The payment had already cleared with my bank so there was nothing to be refunded!
Here it is, now March 11th and Cricket has again Illegally disconnected my service!
They're in for a very rude awakening when I visit the Cricket store today and proceed to viciously educate the ### behind the register and make it known theat I will take legal action against Cricket for FRAUD if they don't restore my service and/or attempt to pull this scam on me again!
Working for Cricket is like working at a fast food joint... NEITHER EDUCATION NOR INTELLIGENCE IS REQUIRED!
The other SCAM that Cricket pulls on people has to do with thier garbage prepaid phones, They advertise that after 90 days of service, a customer can switch from prepaid service to regular service but when someone attempts to make the switch, Crickett tells them that it can't be done or that they have to purchase a new phone, This is an ILLEGAL BAIT & SWITCH kinda SCAM that Cricket has been pulling on unsuspecting customers in recent years!
This company needs to be put in their damn place!

This is a copy of an email (edited to remove personal content) that I sent to: [protected]@cricketcommunications.com

Note: the email was returned as "undeliverable" with the following message:
"Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
[protected]@cricketcommunications.com
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted."

Cricket,

This is regarding phone # [protected].

In the fall of 2012 I signed up for the $25 Paygo plan and enrolled in the AutoTopUp service. The phone is a dedicated emergency/roadside assistance communications unit which lives in my vehicle and is only turned on or used while the vehicle is in active. All proceeded well until the date 2/21/2013 whenn a 10 year old checked the phone after we got back from a trip and found a text message:

"ALERT! Your Cricket PAYgo account expired yesterday. Top-up now to restart your service. You have 60 days to top-up, or your account will be cancelled."

A check of my banking records revealed that no recurring payment had been recorded since December of 2012.

An online check of my Cricket account revealed that I was still enrolled in Auto Top-up.

I called the 800 Cricket number and there were no options to address my specific situation. There was an option to make a payment but I chose not to do so as although it would "restart" the service it would not deal with the problem of how this happened in the first place.

I called Cricket location whenre I initially signed up for the services and the customer rep said that she couldn't provide an answer/solution to my problem as it was in her view a "billing" problem.

I called another Cricket customer service/billing Number and spoke with:

"Kay" Rep # 0178- Payment Supervisor at the "Payment Processing Center"

Her recommended course of action was to "make a Payment" and then "re-Enroll" in the auto Top-up program. I chose not to do so as it would not provide any answers as to how the auto system failed in the first place nor would it ensure that the service would continue uninterrupted.

"Kay" was at a loss for explaining how the failure occurred or how to prevent it from happening again. She suggested that I contact Cricket "customer Service again even though I had made her aware that the previous contact with the automated menu system had no options to deal with my specific problem. I had made her aware that the "customer service" department of Cricket was directing me to "billing" department and vice versa. This is a perfect example of a "circular" service path that fails to provide genuine results or good customer service.

Now for the part that I demand that Cricket take steps to resolve:

Like I said before, I checked my online Cricket account and verified that I was indeed enrolled in the auto Top-up service. (see attached Pdf file)

After speaking with Kay (Rep# 0178 at the Payment Processing Center...), I received another text message on my phone:

"ALERT! At your request, you have been unenrolled from Cricket Auto Top-up. If you did not make this request, or to re-enroll, call 800-CRICKET."

Most assuredly I did NOT make this request nor take any online actions to make this occur. I checked online again and found that according to the web page I was NOT enrolled in Auto Top-up. (see second attachment)

The focus of my communication exchanges with all the Cricket personnel was to find out how the original auto top-up service had failed and to get that original service working instead of just making a payment (additional processing fee...) or "re-enrolling" in a service that fails without warning or with unexplainable/unpredictable causes.

Yet someone took the action of unenrolling me in the auto top-up service without my permission/consent and also without informing me beforehand that it would be done.

I consider this action to be a breach of faith and also quite possibly a breach of the contract between myself and "Cricket". Whomever took this action should be disciplined, sent for "re-training", and I should be contacted/informed by the Cricket administrative staff these disciplinary actions have been taken as I am the victim of the aforementioned "unapproved/unsanctionable" actions made by the "rogue" Cricket employee.

On my end I have (as of the sending of this email) contacted another service provider and made arrangements to have that "emergency services" phone/service to protect myself and my family when we are in our vehicle.

You may consider any "contract" or "partnership" between "Cricket" and me to be effectively terminated for just cause and with prejudice.

I will keep an eye out for any "class action suits/settlements" regarding Cricket and will not fail to add my name whennever applicable. I will also be filing an official complaint with the appropriate oversight agencies in the event I am not "satisfied" with your response/actions.

I expect to hear within 10 business days your confirmation that the administrative disciplinary investigation/measures have been initiated.

Former Customer,

I purchased (online) a handset from Cricket. Order Date: 2012-11-29 Order Number: [protected] I have not been able to use my Cricket handset since 12/6/12 and still not able to. They sent me a DEFECTIVE handset, it stopped working not even one week after purchase. All day yesterday I spent time on the phone with customer service, the escalation department (#CR1004038), tech support and visited a corporate Cricket store to be told that my insurance did not cover the it (I WAS NEVER TOLD WHAT IS DIDN'T COVER - REQUEST A COPY OF THE CHAT TRANSCRIPT). EVERY rep tells me I need to pay MORE MONEY to get a new handset! I'M NOT GIVING THEM A DIME! I was promised a call back all day yesterday - NOTHING! I call all morning today EST and got no answer at the escalation dept [protected]), no way to leave a second message and a NEVER ENDING LOOP of the same automated prompts. I call Cricket's customer service (saying that with a laugh) and get Yen ID# 9591 who tells me I need to talk to tech support. Tech support sent me to the insurance company who told me I can't file an insurance claim because it is still covered by Cricket (IT IS TOO SOON) and the insurance with them does not kick in UNTIL AFTER 12/14/12. CRICKET IS TRYING TO DRAG THIS OUT SO I WILL HAVE TO PAY THE INSURANCE TO GET A NEW HANDSET AND THEY GET MORE MONEY. I spoke with Jacob at Esecuritel (insurance company claim number 3569-[protected]) and he also mentioned Cricket has a 30 no questions asked return policy. This is the second time I have heard this AND NO ONE IS HONORING IT! Now I'm on the phone with April (ID#9569AA6272)she sent me back to the online purchase dept (Melvin ID#9591) AGAIN! She said it would and should be replaced since it is less than 30 days! I have spent in two days so far over 7 hours trying to get Cricket to do the right thing! I put a ticket in to Cricket's Facebook Help tab as per their direct post to my comment on their page. I have contacted Consumer Affairs as well. 2ND TICKET #TKT78277

eSecuritel Handset Claim Information - Please Read * 11:34 AM (2 hours ago)
from [protected]@esecuritel.com

Your Claim Has Not Been Accepted
Dear P.Brown,
Your claim has not been accepted.
This means that you claim did not pass our claim criteria If you have questions about claim eligibility, please visit us at http://esecuritel.com/mycricket for a copy of your complete certificate of coverage.
You can also contact us by calling eSecuritel Customer Care at [protected]. When calling, you will need to know either your Claim ID or Claim Date to access the status of your existing claim. This information is listed below for your reference.
Thank You,
eSecuritel Customer Care Group
The eSecuritel Promise | Privacy Statement
________________________________________
Your Device Information:
Account Information For: P. Brown
Handset Make and Model: Huawei M865 Ascend II
Serial Number: [protected]
Claim ID: 3569-[protected]
Claim Date: 12/7/2012 12:00:00 AM
Please do not reply to this email; this mailbox is not monitored.

I have been a Cricket customer for almost 8 years. I have a very basic Kyocera phone. It seems every six months I have to replace this phone.
The latest problem is that I can't get into my voice mail when I press "1", can't punch in a number option when I'm dialing a company to get to the right department, and can't even get into my voice mail options to change my greeting to let people know I can't get into my voice mail and to please call back if I don't pick up.
When I press the numbers nothing happens.
I went to the Cricket store on the Southside of Pittsburgh yesterday to get help and the sales rep there couldn't get it to work either.
I found out a couple of weeks ago these Kyocera phones are being sold to people for TEN DOLLARS and I have been paying FIFTY DOLLARS to replace it on an average of every six months as I mentioned above. The sales rep was very rude and unhelpful. He told me I had to go to downtown Pittsburgh to a location on Smithfield Street to get help. I work during the day and can't take time off work to take care of what I thought would be a simple problem to solve. They sell phones at the Southside location, and even though I'm replacing this piece of crap every 6 months I WAS willing to pay $10 to replace it yesterday.
Excuse me Cricket for being one of the many middle class masses that does not have the funds right now to spend $200 on a new phone full of gadgets I do not need. Its a holiday weekend, I can't pay my bills cause the phone does not work properly, etc. When I call 611 to try to get help that works. (Why would the number options work for that but not to access my voicemail, etc.?)
I have 3 children, I'm a single mom, and I'm trying to do the best I can. I'm not looking for a handout. I just want to have a working phone no fancier than the one I already have. After all these years of being a customer I would think Cricket would work with me on this and come up with a reasonable solution to my problem. Just sayin'..

Getting through to a person at Cricket is next to impossible, it is an aweful experience. Their IVR is hopeless. People need their phones, I paid my bill on 11/03 and have a text msg from them confirming that I did, it shows up on my bank statement as well. I cannot make a call because they claim that I haven't paid the bill.
I'm done with them.

For the past two years I have been cyber stalked, cyber bullied, receive denial of service, unauthorized access to email accounts, sending spam from my Internet account. Each time I set up and email account on Google cyber bullies have unauthorized access to my Google accounts and sending spam from the Google accounts. Although the Virtual Private Network is disabled in the setting, there are three cyber stalking Virtual Private Networks continues to connect and to have unauthorized access on my broad band service slowing the service to a crawl. Cricket denies that I am being cyber stalked and cyber bullied with a Trojan horse connection, in files the installation files, all firewalls are disabled during installation breaching the security of the device. the device automatically connects to a Trojan horse after installation so that the victim will always download scare ware, viruses, routed to high jacked web sites delivering scam ware, malware, key loggers and continuous drive-by attacks to the computer system. The installation files are malware and spy-ware files allowing backdoor access to the victims computer system When you call and complain to customer service always deny cyber stalking, cyber bulling, and cyber espionage, or hang up the telephone on the customer. I have collected forensics evidence from the system and the cricket directory proving cyber crimes by Cricket broadband services for the past two years. Cricket log file proves cyber crimes.

Thank you, cricket, for making it so darn easy to switch to another internet provider.

I was a loyal cricket customer for three years. I live in st. Louis, missouri, and believe it or not, three years ago high speed internet was not available in south st. Louis, where I live. Even att had dial-up only. Seems that companies here do not want to pay for underground internet/cable set-ups.

Everything was okay at first. I knew that cricket was not broadband or high speed as they claimed. It was dial-up, and I was fine with that. Set up was quick and easy. I was working weird hours and I couldn't stay home to wait for the charter communications tech. Cricket was unlimited. I had no problems with that. The service was reliable enough. I did not experience the problems i'm having now.

All of that changed this year. Cricket still advertises itself as unlimited high speed internet, but i've been told that the $45 plan i'm on is now 3g. If I want to upgrade to 4g I have to pay $65 a month. Talk about robbery without a gun, fellas. I'd feel better if you put on a ski mask and held me at gunpoint.

Apparently this month I exceeded my 3g data limit. I suspect it's not really 3g, probably half that. Cricket has programmed their remote computer to completely drop the link for my telephone number. Whoever programmed this thing has a wicked sense of humor: the signal will drop without warning, many times every other minute. When I re-connect there's no guarantee the connection will be stable. I have to re-connect five or six times. As a matter of fact, the connection has dropped three times while i'm typing this complaint here. Other times the icon will stay green, but there's no signal. Pages take forever to load. Since I use the internet for job hunting and to stay connected with the world, this is totally unacceptable. Make no mistake, folks, that remote computer is only doing what cricket wireless tells it to. I waste a lot of time reconnecting and waiting for pages to load.

I smile each time that happens. The countdown clock is running, fellas. Next month I will no longer need your services. Goodbye cricket, hello charter. 29.00 a month for true high speed internet beats crappy 45 dollars each time. I figure that even if charter goes up after a year, that still beats cricket's lousy service.

Not that losing my business makes that much difference now, cricket, since you still have all those suckers paying for crappy internet and cell phone service, but your day is coming.

And the day I see that your company has gone belly up, I will raise a glass of champagne and toast your certain demise.

Although i've been with cricket for two years this month, i'm at a point now where I am really starting to hate their service. For one, unlike any of their other competitors in the mobile phone services industry, cricket's service coverage really sucks. I understand that they are mainly based in metropolitan areas, but i've had so many times where I have had calls drop or my signal strength just vanishes that i've lost count. I get tired of talking to family and being told that they cannot hear me, and it sounds like i'm really far away. And this is well within their coverage area, no less. I wish cricket would address that problem, but they've yet to act on that for the last several years.

Second, trying to get in touch with a live human being instead of an automated machine is a nightmare. Even when I cave in and go to one of their corporate offices, there have been times where I have waited longer than I normally do at the dmv here in colorado springs! All for a simple question about something on my bill or in my service package, and often their people have been rude to me with just the tone in their voice!

Last but not least... Bill payment. While it's easy to do through their website, god help you if you don't have any money at all to give them for your bill when that comes around.In my case, this entire last month was a nightmare as far as my finances are concerned. I contacted cricket twice about this matter, and asked them if they could please keep my phone on until at least the 13th (Which would be tomorrow). I patiently explained that I would not have the money for even a bridge pay - all of my money on my last check went towards rent, and my pay dates had been bumped way up. I explained that I needed to have my phone on in case of a family emergency, work and my internship with the sheriff's office. Their response? If I can pay $20, they'll keep my phone on for an extra whopping seven days. How come it is that every other phone company besides cricket will work with you if you won't have any money for at least a two week period, but with cricket, it's either cough up at least $20 or forget about phone service?

Overall, my experience with cricket has been extremely frustrating. I would not be one bit surprised if this company goes bottom up because of how it's ran and what their policies are.In the near future, i'm bailing and going on with sprint. At least they're willing to work with you to a good extent if you end up having to pay your bill late. Cricket just fails at everything.

Have paid the bill for several years with the same card all of a sudden this processing company wants me to email them my bank statement they have put a hold on my several accounts after taking money out of my bank account for several days at a time

Though my bill wasnt due until the 19th of may, cricket cut off my service. I called and made the payment as usual, using my mastercard. I authorized cricket to take $113.41 out of my account. That morning I checked my bank account because I was informed that a debit was declined., and discovered that cricket had overcharged my account, and charged me $278.00.

I am currently unemployed and have no extra money at this time. I have called cricket 3 times and have wrote cricket and faxed them each time I have been given different info regarding my refund. It took them 4 seconds to take my money and today I am being told it will be 30 more days before I get a refund. Why am I without money due to their error, and they are extremely rude regarding my situation.

I have been a cricket communications client for over two years.
Months ago all three cell phone lines started having issues with the text messaging as well as the data. After 8 months of calls, tickets, emails, taking the phones to stores the texting was resolved.
For the last month I have attempted to no avail to resolve the data portion and was told by the technician who finally fixed the texting it was probably an equipment issue. I spoke with mr. Ojeda national sales operations manager at cricket regional customer operations manager at cricket communications on friday 12/9/11 and with the usual condescending attitude of the san diego office and similar accusatory voice I had received previously he stated our phones were in actuality not having any issues. I ended the conversation with him offering to meet him to show him the error messages two of the phones continue to receive and in hopes we could resolve this problem once and for all. He called me back and set up an appointment the next morning.

I met with the pete ojeda that saturday at one of the stores and provided him a detail list of site we attempted to go on both phones the day before, times and error messages. As we stood there, I also showed him on the spot the problems we were encountering just hear him say & ldquo;it seems you expect a 3g service when you have a 1g”, I explained that no, we simply wanted a service that did not have multiple daily messages when attempting to log on yahoo, hotmail ect. And he proceeded to amongst other things to inform my husband and I that and I quote:”you are receiving the service that you pay for and for the kind of phone that you have, this kind of issues are expected, you will not be able to get on many sites'

According to him even his wife had the same model phone [msgm8] with similar issues and all though there are pre-set settings one should not expect to actually access it.In his normal accusatory tone he scolded me for "my behavior by contacting his higher ups" after he stipulated your company would not do any further attempts to resolve this situation and he had received the okay from all his superiors to cancel our service and send us a letter of termination.

Today 12 days before christmas my daughter, husband and I awake to find that this kind of bulling strong arm tactics and intimidation are not rare with cricket communications a subsidiary of leap, as easily planted on every sight you go on when you goggle the company information. My phones all have been disconnected, this morning I made a $135 payment just to find out that the month they credited has been reversed and now I am being charged more than that and a full cancelation notice appears on the screen when you speak with customer service.

I have been sending emails to the corporate offices as well as executive team to no avail. 2 of the phones that still have issues were provided by the company when we continued to have issues with the texting and data in july 2011 and I purchased my android for $99.99 that same month which removed the data problem only. Up until november 2011 the texting had not been working properly on any of the three lines.

Sadly as with many clients who have worked hard for their phone service we are being bullied because yet again this corporation seems to believe that they can do as they please without any accountability virtually saying that you and your family do not deserve a reliable service with customer care. Help me and others say & ldquo;no more” to such practices and telling big corporations to remember that we are the reason they are so big, customer service is a right not a privilege!
Free to contact: pete ojeda regional customer operations manager at cricket at [protected] his cell [you will hear a sublime song but it is his cell] or stephanie at [protected] office number both work for the corporate office

I payed for a warranty on my phone. The phone screen went black on me and when I went to get phone warrantied they told me that I had to pay $20 to send back to manufacture. Now with that said why did I pay for a warranty that doesn't do anything . Now I have no phone. I need something done about this, this is ridiculous why pay for something and then have to pay more when something goes wrong. Customer service don't even help out they are a joke along with the warranty company they said it's all on Cricket to get the phone warrantied. HELP

My service and business account was terminated in less than a month after I paid the small monthly service fee due (A long time customer since they opened). My phone account number [protected] was terminated and given to a lady who stays in beaumont texas. The corporate division wants me to get a new number and I disagree but decided to move to a different service company. I did not request for this to happen to my previous listed number and the bill I pay on time at my local store. I paid for lost phones I purchased at this company and they are lost and have not been returned to claim at the store I registered my phone number to use them for. I paid a deposit for the phones and no issue was resolved.

Okay it's Thanksgiving and I didn't use the phone to call anyone but everyone has text me but i still have $1.70 on the acct. For some reason i text my son and told him to call me and i'l pick him up, Around 9pm no call so i got worried and tried calling out and the phone is off. What is going on? So i called the representative and explain the dilemma and they credited me a $1.00 but an Hr later they cut my phone off cause i called the 1-800-cricket number so i'm puzzled and upset, They don't want to credit my acct now so what can i do, I spend $150.00 on a prepaid phone, I'm tired of Cricket!

We just purchased a Cricket ZTE Score and when it arrived yesterday we fully charged it as recommended. When I tried to activate it I could not do anything on the screen and the screen kept going blank and powering down. Called customer service and they after going through several steps with them they told us that they had had several complaints about this particular phone. So why is it still on the market? Now they tell us we have to send it back and it will cost us for the shipping, which will not be reimbursed...I am NOT a happy camper! Considering stay with Verizon!