Net10 Wireless review: terrible customer service! 138

I was reluctant to mention the communication problems with NET10 customer service and tech support (I didn't want to seem racist). But I agree 100% with the complaint about TERRIBLE customer service. I changed my cell no. recently and since then my voicemail has not worked. I also spent about 45 minutes with tech support trying to explain the problem to someone that I could barely understand and who refused to believe that I knew who to set up my voicemail in the first place. One tech hung up on me! It's been over a week of back and forth emails and phone calls. And I still have no voicemail. As soon as I use the minutes I have left on my phone I am finished with NET10.

Net10 has very frustrating customer service. If you try to contact via phone, you usually are on hold for 15-20 minutes, then they cut you off. "Once you do get through, the customer service reps really only read the poor instructions shown on their website. CS reps probably want to help, but they do not speak english well and are trained to repeat everything you say and talk in circles. Actual conversation "is it ok if I put you on hold? YES. Ok, so I am going to put you on hold, OK? Are you there caller? YES. Ok, then I will put you on hold, OK? YES.." and so on. Try this for more than 10 minutes and you will wish you never had a problem. I am hoping to have no other problems.

Oh, and you can't find an email address to contact them, or a US phone number. They do have a tech support form online to fill out, but after taking 10 minutes to fill this out thoroughly, and hit SEND, it errors out, and you have to start over and it errors out again. Great customer avoidance. I wish there was a way to contact their management.

I just called the net10 number and had the same sort of ### happen to me. The guys didn't speak English well enough to answer any of my questions, and even if they had spoken better english they were too stupid to have been of any use and they both hung up on me. I don't have service yet... i called to ask questions about the service... but i am glad i did before i went out and bought the phone and had my number changed over. What a nightmare... what a bunch of idiots.

I am curious to see when consumers will get so fed up with ### ### customer service like this that the business world becomes aware of it, and companies start springing up that actually spend the money to have a really good customer service department, as opposed to a "customer avoidance" dept (a genius line), because they know people will flock to them like flies on ###. has anyone ever called crutchfield, the guys that sell electronics? They spend the money, and its really something...

I give up on the English reps. They have the intelligence of 1st graders. Thank god I speak Spanish. I got transferred to Guatemala and got very good customer service.

NET10 Wireless
www.net10.com

My Net10 phone was deactivated with minutes still on it. I thought well I need to add minutes, so I went onto the computer. Input my IMEI number, which was still good and began the process of adding air time. Net10 accepted all charges but when I went to add the airtime, my IMEI number was no good. So I called NET10 to have my charge canceled or refunded. After over TWO hours of being shuffled from one IDIOT SERVICE REP to another, I got to an IDIOT SUPERVISOR that could not understand I wanted the charge refunded. He couldn't do it, but he knew who could, so he transferred me. Well another well trained (HA) supervisor could not understand what I wanted. After hours on hold, I called my credit card company and stopped the charges. This company needs to go under!

I can't believe that a company could possibly get away with this type of customer service/technical support and stay in business. My experiences with Net10 have been exactly as described by the previous complaints above. Trying to get any problem with their service resolved is an exercise in frustration and futility. I will definitely not continue purchasing any more air time from them and only wish I had read the various comments/complaints by other users before I purchased their phone and services.

Why do I bother to post my comments on this forum? Because I believe in sharing my experiences and allow inquisitive minds to make an informed decision before purchasing any type of services/goods.

I have complained about my reception to my phone numerous times. I have had no satisfaction. I am about to run out of minutes in less than two weeks and WILL NOT purchase any more minutes. I HAVE THIS NUMBER on all my business cards and other business related materials. I am VERY DISAPPOINTED in NET 10 service. MY VIEWING SCREEN HAS JUST GONE BLANK.

THE ONLY way I will CONTINUE SERVICE with NET 10 is if I AM SENT A NEW PHONE RIGHT AWAY !.
As I stated earlier my VIEWING SCREEN HAS GONE BLANK. I cannot look up any other numbers, INCLUDING my phone numbers.

My number is [protected].
My home number is [protected].

THE ONLY REMEDY I will accept at this point is a NEW PHONE (NO CHARGE, OF COURSE). WITH MY PREVIOUS NUMBER.
I also have minutes left and I would like an extension on those minutes since I obviously cannot use them at this time.

This is (at least) the third time I have contacted you about this phone without any satisfaction.

I lost 1000 min and been thru 2 sim cards and my phone stil wont work. No one at net10 can help me. It displays enter puk code. I am pissed .i aint got to use it yet!

Net10 customer services has made my account so bad, I can't believe it. Back on Dec 23rd it all started:

The old phone I had was having problems working, time for a new phone, went out to Walmart and bought my new phone, call costumer service to transfer the account over to the new phone.

First Call: Costumer Service activates the new phone first, causing a new SIM card to have to be sent to transfer my number over to the new phone since they activated the new phone first.

Second Call(Dec 29th): Have New SIM card, not able to transfer the phone number over, they think they have to have it ported.

Third Call (Dec 31th): Don't know why, but the phone number attached to the porting for the touble ticket isn't mine and their is no need to to port anyway. However they can't seem to transfer my account over to the new phone with the minutes, the departement is already closed for the day at 12:00 PST.

Forth Call (Jan 1st): Start to finally transfer the account information over, minutes taken off the old phone, then disconnected. Call back, they start over, unable to confirm with the department regarding how many minutes I had, since that department is now closed at 11:30 am PST.

Fifth Call: (Jan 2nd): Now they say the new phone isn't activated, nor do they have the new SIM card on record, unable to find out if my account balance anywhere.

So far to count: Out over $150.00, talked for over 5 hours on the phone with customer service, now have neither phone working, and it has been 11 days so far.

Never go with NET10, they don't know their own phone service and it cost you time and money!

net10 isajoke huge run around with frustrating ridicilous so called customer service who you cant even understand and who are never actually able to resolve your problems they normally keep you on the phone for hours than say to call back later because the department you need has left for the day what a huge joke.

Ditto. I know for a fact that I had clearly communicated to Net-10 that I want my old phone number ported, but instead they issued me a new, unwanted phone number. And this didn't happen just once, but twice... and after many hours of constantly repeating those #%@* twenty digit numbers! This was not a communications problem--they are deliberately refusing to honor legitimate request here. Is it about saving dollars? Convenience for them? I'm not sure, but I hope legal actions are eventually brought against them. And it is high-time that they stopped hiding behind the language differences--they need to tell us why they are refusing to honor what I believe is a legal obligation on their end!

These people are absolute idiots. The customer service is in Belize and the clerks speak broken English, at best. They are incompetent, but very calm and comfortable with their incompetence.

I ported a number from Sprint, am now without my business cell for three days. After 10, 000+ calls to customer "no service" I was told that the simm card was bad and that they would send me one in five days! I finally got in touch with a continental US Net 10 idiot who agreed to get me the simm card by overnight delivery. So, the saga continues.

I purchased this mess from HSN---which I hold responsible for all consequences of their relationship with Net 10.

If I can ever get the phone to work, I look forward to many years of "third-world" customer service, defective products, and eventual failure of this no-service provider.

On Saturday I called from my cell phone and ordered 300 minutes for $30.00. The actual total was told to me as being $32.58, to which I agreed. After speaking a very long time and repeating everything over and over with someone I could not understand (Asian accent) - sorry - that's what it sounded like to me - I ended the airtime order and hung up. No minutes came up on my phone, so I called back to ask approximately when the minutes would be added. I was told by the same (sounded the same) representative that there was NO record I had called or ordered anything. Although I was aggravated, I assumed the representative had just wiped my information (credit card #, phone, address, all my personal info) off the computer screen and my bank account would not be drafted for the $32.58. So, returning to work on Monday, I was checking my bank account to see if I had enough to purchase something from the health food store and guess what? The charge of $32.58 was drafted from my bank account - see?
04-07-2008 TWI*NET10 WIRELESS TWI*NET10 32.58
WITHDRAWAL @ TWI*NET10 WIRELESS TWI*NET10 WIRELESS [protected] FLUS Trace #6318 (eff. date 04/07/2008)
No minutes were put on my phone. So, I called the Net10 people and told what sounded like the same lady what had happened. She put her supervisor on the phone, and her story was the same - we have no record - blah blah blah. They frauded my bank account of $32.58. My bank said I have to wait 30 days to make sure they were not going to credit my account, but I told my bank that they said they do not even have a record of any of the information I gave them. So, be careful - look at Net10's advertisement accusing other cell phone companies of being 'EVIL' - they are the ones who are evil - absolute thieves. Don't make the same mistake I did...use a reputable cell phone company, or use a REAL phone.

Yesterday, I posted a complaint comment here and I also emailed Net10's corpororate office 3 times - I was so mad about what happened with their customer service department.
Today, they phoned me and made everything right and gave me the 300 minutes that I paid for.
I told them why I was so angry and I also told them I appreciated talking to someone I could understand. The customer service reps at the corporate office were very nice to me. If I had known I could have called them instead of using the customer service number that is programmed into my cell phone to buy airtime, this never would have happened. I hope they do something to change their customer service department and at the same time I wish I had not gotten so angry about what happened. Live and learn, but I am no longer angry and I am very satisfied and happy that they phoned me and made things right. ;o)

Please, don`t be so rude with Customer Service Representatives. I am one of them, and believe, being 8 hours a day, sitting down a looking the same System, repeating and reading verbatim some scripts... if we do not do that, points are deducted for us, so we can be fired... Actually, for best customer service, press option number 2 for Spanish, hold on line and a spanish rep, will assist, they also speak english, hopefully, someone in south america is going to answer your call. Honestly, is going to help you.

I ordered a new phone from Net10 on Thursday, June 26. I waited for news that it was being shipped and called back a few times only to be told that it was "in process".

Finally on Tuesday, July 2 (five days later), I hear back from them that Yes! the phone has been shipped.

So I go online to the FedEx site to check shipment and find that it was shipped with FedEX GROUND service. The Net10 website specifically says "FedEX 3-day service". Because it was shipped with FedEX Ground it will take another six days to reach me.

How is it possible they used FedEX Ground, when that isn't even one of their normal shipping options?

After a long bla, bla, bla from customer service rep they finally agree to give me 50 free minutes. Well great, but I'd rather just have the phone show up at the time they agreed.

It always takes about five minutes for them just to pull up my order. (are they using some kind of antiquated computer system?) And just as the rep was putting through the request for 50 free minutes when the call was cut off abruptly. (before that I had offered to give them my home number in case we were cut off. the rep said, "we won't be cut off". ) So I spent 22 minutes on the phone for nothing, it seems.

Of course I have empathy for the people working at these jobs. I know it isn't very much fun to talk to customers 8 hours a day, attempting to solve their problems, and probably a lot of the customers aren't very pleasant. But still Net10 should be doing something to improve their customer service, not just put a lot of insufficiently trained people in a call center and expect that somehow it will all work out.

Just some info about Net10 (which is part of Tracfone):

TracFone Wireless or TracFone (Net10) is a mobile phone provider, subsidiary of América Móvil the largest Latin American (Mexican) mobile network operator; that provides prepaid mobile phone service in the United States, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. TracFone is currently the sixth-largest mobile network operator and the largest mobile virtual network operator in the U.S. market with 9.895 million customers (as of March 2008).

Topp (Tracfone) received a major infusion of capital from Telefonos de Mexico or Telmex (NYSE: TMX), Mexico's largest telephone company. TelMex paid $57.5 million for a 55 percent controlling interest in the company.

In 2000, Telmex spun off their mobile unit, creating América Móvil, of which Topp Telecom became a subsidiary. In November 2000, Topp Telecom Inc. changed its name to TracFone Wireless Inc."

Customer service is crap. I just bought a cell and could not activate the voicemail so I called these guys and the person that answer me didn't have a clue of what to do. After asking me to repeat the same thing several times with the same result (what a surprise!) and putting me on hold for several minutes, she told me that she cannot do anything and requested a lot of personal information for other department to see the problem. What a piece of s**t. I am returning that phone and won't deal with this company again.

I had a horrible time with Net10 and came to a realization that this forum has confirmed. They stole $37.20 from me after having to buy another 300 minutes from them. I emailed them and told them that the law stipulates that consumers are entitled to goods or services for money provided, they refused to even try to give me the minutes they had deleted from the phone. Minutes from the phone seem to continually disappear. Not to mention that sending a text message that doesn't go through is still charged. They are making a mint for providing nothing. I filed a complaint with the FCC and with the Attorney General in Florida. You can do this online. If more people complain then the Attorney General and the FCC will definitely have a look at the company practices. I am also seriously considering filing a small claims court claim against them. It's about time we stood up for our rights. It sound like just on here they have managed to steal millions of dollars from people with no reprecussions.

I wish I had been aware of this site before I purchased my Net 10 phone. Although, after reading some of the problems others have faced, my experience could have been much worse.
Oct. 15 Purchased Net 10 phone with 300 minutes. Called tech support to arrange porting a number. Was informed that they would have to send me a new sim card to complete the process. Didn't sound right to me. But (being new to Net 10), I mistakenly assumed they knew what they were talking about. Was told the new sim card would arrive in 7-10 business days.
Oct. 24 (today) New sim card arrived, and I promptly installed it. Called tech support to activate phone, and spent about an hour entering strings of codes. Was told to leave the phone on for an hour and it should be ready to use.
1 hour later... checked screen to find SIM Card Registration Failed message, and 0 minutes. Called tech support and spent another hour entering codes. Actually got the 300 minutes added. Again told to wait an hour and the phone would be ready to use.
1 hour later...same message. Called tech support and was told they could test the phone right away. After 20 minutes of listening to that dreadful music, the guy came back on the line and said it appeared the sim card was defective. By this point I was getting pretty pissed. He said they would ship another card, and they would rush it to me in 3-5 days.
After I got off the phone I figured "what the heck", and re-installed the original sim card. Turned on the phone and, SUPRISE! it made and received calls!
Called tech support to tell them I wouldn't need the new sim card. Asked to speak to a supervisor, and 20 minutes later got one. She listened to me explain the entire mess, and then started to walk me through more codes!? I yelled, used a few colorful words, and told her I will not be buying any more products/services from them. She calmly asked me if there was anything else she could help me with today. I replied, "Lady you haven't helped me YET!", and hung up on her.
Also like so many others, all of these conversations were tedious due to language barriers.
Moral of this story: Save your money, and your sanity. AVOID NET 10!

I ordered a net10 phone to be sent to another state.They convinced
me that it still go to a P.O Box.But that was not true.I retrieved
the package and had it sent back to the warehouse.I then talked to them on the phone about getting my money credited back to my acct they said 10 days.Before it was 3 days.Then when I thought I
heard it all I got an e-mail telling me to wait on my bank statement
The money should be in there.They also told me my bank would put a hold on the credit issue.Now today I got another e-mail telling me I have to wait 15 days before money is credited back to my acct.
The last time I talked to them about the issue, all they did is transfer my call from one person to another.And most of them could not speak English.35 minutes on the phone and ended up getting cut off.

I ordered a net10 phone to be sent to another state.They convinced
me that it still go to a P.O Box.But that was not true.I retrieved
the package and had it sent back to the warehouse.I then talked to them on the phone about getting my money credited back to my acct they said 10 days.Before it was 3 days.Then when I thought I
heard it all I got an e-mail telling me to wait on my bank statement
The money should be in there.They also told me my bank would put a hold on the credit issue.Now today I got another e-mail telling me I have to wait 15 days before money is credited back to my acct.
The last time I talked to them about the issue, all they did is transfer my call from one person to another.And most of them could not speak English.35 minutes on the phone and ended up getting cut off.

you can fix the PUK code problem by going to net10.com. enter your IME # found on under your battery (since you can't look it up on phone when it's asking for your PUK code) then it will ask which problem you are having, pick puk code and it will give you a number to put in and a new pin code.

voila! i didn't even have to call customer service.

L

if you were just a little smart, you guys dont blocked the sim card himself, im a CS agent and I spend 8 hours listening the same stupid /(&%$%% all day, you guys dont even know how to turn a cell phone on, very sorry if the english is poor but there's no choice you have to call customer service, do not be surprise if we repeat the words back to you, the company req that we can get fired if we do not so, and it's not funny... so easy for you to call and said "this is just ridiculous" let me ask you something how much do you pay for this littles phones?

I had the Unlimited plan set up with automatic payments. In December the auto payment bounced. Oops! My bad. I called to pay over the phone three days later and had the most ridiculous, yet typical, Net10 experience.

Of course, I had the Indians who I couldn't understand to save my life. Everything they said was soooooo scripted and repetitive it was driving me insane!

OK. At this I need to place you on hold for 2 minutes. Is that OK with you? Yes? At this I will will place you on hold for 2 minutes. Thank you in advance for your patience.

I wanted to tell them to quit ###ing asking for approval to do what needs to be done to fix the situation and just do it!

There was nothing "2 minutes" about my hold time.

They would not allow me to pay over the phone to keep my phone working. I was told there was a "30 day cooling off period." Cooling off period? I'm trying to keep my phone working, not buy a gun!

All in one breath they told me my account was canceled and active. Being canceled prevented me from being able to take corrective action and so did being active. I tried to explain to them that my account is either canceled or active, but, it cannot be both. All they could do was repeat their lines like a robot.

My phone just died over this weekend and I ordered a new phone from them so I wouldn't have to change my number and now I'm kicking myself in the ### for it.

Did I mention their web site sucks? The forms frequently do not work. You have to pull teeth to find some common information.

Before I went Unlimited I remember needing to purchase airtime cards online rather than just buying airtime itself online. What's the point in having a web site if you have to perform electronic transactions via snail mail? How about if they telegraph me instead?

Every time I have any contact with Net 10, whether online or over the phone, it is always a nightmare!

Their service DID NOT GET BETTER. It's still lousy. Let's hope the bad economy shakes these leaches out of their complacency and they decide that making money is better than lousy customer service. I don't understand why they can't pay the same money to a firm that will actually get the job done for them. You cannot unsubscribe from their text messages, emails, etc. The link is broken and has been for months. You cannot tell me that's not deliberate. Trying to call them to unsubscribe means waiting for over 40 - 50 minutes even thought the recorded message states a "ten minute wait time." I lost 60 minutes of cell phone time dealing with them and never got it credited back. If all other things are equal, I'll find another company that wants to keep customers - not annoy the hell out of them!

Sim card always defective. Was told a year ago that a tower was down and that's why I had no service. LOL Then it was the sim card. Then they were going to send me another one. LOL I wen t out and bought another phone and screamed until they connected me that day with my same number (they told me I would have to wait 7 days to connect to my old number with my new phone!). The new sim card, which was being "rushed" arrived over the Christmas holidays - 4 weeks later - and while I was not there to sign for it. They kept calling me about the delivery and I just kept telling them to come back out the next day. lol Thought they would like to see what it's like to waste their time too. Never got the sim card. Didn't care. Looking for a new company - or better yet - no cell phone at all.

they state on any online shopping site they CANNOT deliver to a PO Box they cannot gurantee delivery

ITS NOT CUSTOMER SERVICE ITS THE DIP ### THAT CALL THEM BEING STUPID AND NOT WILLING TO LISTEN THE MINUTES EXPIRED BECAUSE THE SERVICE ENDED DUH! YOU PEOPLE PISS OFF ME ALONG WITH ALL OTHER NET10 CUSTOMERS THAT LOVE ITS SERVICE

not true on the PUK code it didnt work for me and i called 611 (Tracfone) and they said rarely will u beable to unlock the SIM card when the PUK code thing is up ive found that true i still have 1 try left on my SIM card to fix it by trying hte SAME PUK code 9 times

I ordered a phone which was defedctive, then returned it. I received another one of lesser value that had static in it. I returned that for a full refund and have never received my refund. That was over two months ago. I have been on the phone with net10 for approx a total of 6 hours trying to settle this (at several different times). Each time I am told something different. Today I asked the person on the phone which state he was in---he was in Guatamala! No wonder he doesn't know whats going on!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Donaldhugh47
To: Donaldhugh47
Sent: 6/1/2009 20:41:20 Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Re: Other Features (KMM3731025I16433L0KM)

In a message dated 6/1/2009 20:30:12 Eastern Daylight Time, Donaldhugh47 writes:
After speaking to net 10 today for several hours and several hang-ups and not being able to fix my new net 10 phone I was given a return authorization no # [protected] for the return and of the phone and assessories for a refund to my checking account hopefully you will return the price of the fed-ex return of $7.41. I got the phone to go on vacation next week. The first time I tried to use the phone was when my car broke down and it didn't work and I had to walk to a station ( not to happy a camper )the phone didn't work. I'm very unhappy with net 10 and the tech's that I talked with several times. Now I have to get another phone from another service all before I leave for vacation next Tuesday morning. FED-X tracking no is #[protected]

In a message dated 6/1/2009 00:53:11 Eastern Daylight Time, Custsrv@net10.com writes:
Dear Donald,

Thank you for your interest in NET10 Wireless. We are responding to your
recent inquiry.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any
inconvenience you may have experienced with our service. In order to
further assist you with this issue, we will need to speak to you
directly to check the internal settings of the phone.

Please contact one of our customer care representatives at
[protected]. For your convenience, our representatives are available
Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 9:45 PM EST. To expedite your call,
please have your NET10 handset and serial number available.

Thank you for being a NET10 Wireless customer. We appreciate your
business.

Sincerely,

NET10 Wireless

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
Fed-X tracking no is # [protected] for the return of the phone and assessories!
Issue Category:
Features
Specific Issue:
Other Features
Brief description of issue:
[Sun May 31 17:34:45 2009] [Sun May 31 17:31:42 2009] Phone don't work
wher when I dial it say's max phone numbers are reached I can't make a
call or recieve a call what's up PLEASE HELP!? this is not good as I'm
without a phone why have minutes if I can't use them
ESN or IMEI:
[protected]
NET10 phone number:
[protected]
First Name:
donald
Last Name:
mcgrath
Address Type:
Home
City:
bangor
State:
ME
Zip Code:
04401
Phone Type:
Home
Phone Number:
[protected]
e-Mail:
donaldhugh47@aol.com

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I, m glad I, m not the only one dealing with this issue. net 10 does need to be dealt with. I, m not stupid

I don't like NET10 choice of phones they suck and their prices of cell phones need to come down because they are a little pricey. I like the plain, but they need to change some things.

Is this all you people do is complain all day? I love my net10 phone, I can surf the web (news weather sports) and download ringtones, text, AND I had good custumer service. What more can you ask for? Cheap and dependable cell phone service. I'll never go to them "Big guy" companies.

JBe i fully agree with you i have never had a problem with NET10 service or Customer Service

and NET10 phones ARE NOT too costly all prepaid phones average NET10's price TRACFONE is cheaper on phone because it is 33 cents a minute

I don't know what we will do, those who rely on NO contract svc. There are no good providers. Everyone is going bad. Have had net 10 for yrs..always happy..
had reception when others didn't..now can't get it hardly anywhere. On phone with "Carlos" for 21/2 hrs. Kept putting me on hold and was surprised when I outlasted him..told me to call back in 10 days to see if it had got better..meanwhile no phone..wasted 288 min that I can't use. Don't know where to go as everyne is total fraud. I believe net has changed pro-
viders in my area. Son lives in NC and his svc is still good. Maybe they will fix it when enough quit them.

Wow, I guess I'm not the only one to have problems with them. I also got cut off when talking to a "supervisor".

Maybe I should just take this phone to my friend who owns a cell phone repair shop and see what he can do with it...

that's how they make their money by eating up the minutes you paid for by keeping you on hold or talking in circles and charging you for messages never sent.

I hate to hear of all the issues that other customers have faced, but i surprisingly had a GREAT EXPERIENCE, with Net10. I am used to being treated poorly by customer service, especially regarding prepaid services. I was enrolled in auto pay, and wasnt aware of it. I saw that I had been charged for new minutes. I called Customer service ready to have to argue my case, and demand to be refunded. To my surprise I did not have to argue, and the rep was very nice. Took my info, and i was refunded. I didnt get the lady's name, but her service was GREAT. However, I am still shocked all went so smoothly.