TracFone Wireless
Reviews and Complaints

On Tuesday, August 13th 2019 I began the process of upgrading my old Tracfone to a newer Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. What I thought would be an easy process turned into over a week of messages, phone calls and chats.

I took a screen shot (THANK GOD!) of my minutes, texts and data prior to the upgrade.

We never did get the new phone working (after 3 DAYS AND NEARLY 10 CHAT SESSIONS). They like to tell you to reboot your phone, sometimes telling you to wait an hour while the system updates.

For days I had no working phone! Tired of it all I finally asked to just reinstate my old phone.

They did...but, different reps gave me different lines about all my minutes transfered over, another would say I had zero, another would say check online.

I did. Get this. Prior, I had nearly 5, 500 minutes, 20 MB data, 15, 000 texts.

After: 13 minutes, 14 texts and 14.65 data!

I contacted them AGAIN and was told they had to call another department to 'verify' this, that they were closed and I had to contact them AGAIN!

I said this was a terrible way to treat a 'valued customer' and surely they must have record right there of my minutes from August 13th. No matter what I said, they returned with the pat, scripted answers.

They spew apologies, excuses, and outright lies. I have been a customer for years and being a customer now disgusts me. I am disabled on a pittance of an income and this wretched company is what I can afford. I hate this [censored].

I have filed a complaint with the BBB since dealing with them straight doesn't work AT ALL.

If you have the resources, go with another provider with better ratings. Tracfone sucks. They will have you fill out survey after survey and make huge excuses on their Facebook page, but they don't care. If they did, they wouldn't have so many horrible reviews.

If you have to deal with them record EVERYTHING, I MEAN EVERYTHING. They will cheat you. It's not a matter of if, but when.

We followed the instructions of unlocking the LG Fiesta 2 Tracfone provided in a link by the FCC. Found out our phone was available and received an email from Tracfone giving codes to unlock. Tracfone also deleted all of our minutes, texts and data. Literally after an hour on the phone, the put back about a third of what they deleted. No info at all of why it was deleted. This may be done to others and if so, please send a complaint to the FCC. They should not be able to get away with this. By the way, I did a screen snip the day before I checked on the unlocking so I do have proof of what we had. Made no difference to Tracfone at all.

Bought an airtime card from a dollar general store where you don't get a card you get a receipt with pin number on it. Phone declined the pin and said to call the company. After talking to the first person who said I could only add my airtime to a new update phone i ask for a manager. Manager gave me the same line that I would have to purchase a new phone or take my receipt back and buy another card that the store does not carry. After explaining the fact that I am disabled in a wheelchair and would have to drive miles back to town and from there 30 miles to a Walmart to purchase a green tracfone card this guy telling me to buy an update phone. So I asked for a person higher up then him. Got the same bull from the third person I talked to. They could not simply add the equal amount of airtime to my phone unless I buy a new phone. My situation was never addressed and they took my airtime if my phone for the call to THEM. Loading and unloading my wheelchair, my time and gasoline to drive back into town and to a Walmart was my problem, and totally unable to fix this situation without it costing me time, gasoline, energy, and the undo anxiety was all them trying to buy a new phone has me feeling forced into something I couldn't afford and did not want.

I purchased a smart phone from trac-fone. When it arrived I charged it up, turned it on and surprise... It was in chinese... At least I think it was chinese... Could have been another asian language... I called customer service and unfortunately the rep I got was very difficult to understand.. I finally got another rep who I could understand but after hanging on for over an hour he could not fix the phone... It was still in a foreign language...in any event... The phone could not be fixed remotely so trac-fone sent me a box with prepaid mailing to
Return the phone... And then upon receipt of that phone they would issue me a new phone... So two weeks with no phone... Finally I get the new phone... And the volume was not working correctly... Even my wife had trouble even hearing the rep... So after much back and forth... And I am talking hours spent trying to resolve this trac-fone told me they would e mail me a return label... That was monday... July 1... So far... Three more calls to customer service... And no label... The problem was that trac-fone couldn't get my email address correctly... Now... They finally have it down properly and I still have to wait 24-48 hours for a label... To be sent by e-mail!
Ridiculous horrible service!

I have been a Tracfone customer since July 2010 and have kept the same personal information in my account ever since. Same cell phone number, same home phone number, same e-mail address and same mailing address. The only thing that has changed is the phone since I've had 5 or 6 different phones over the years. Last year I bought a new smart phone directly from Tracfone and it seems that they decided to change my account and not allow me access to my account information. I spent the last 2 days trying to get several Tracfone Reps to correct their mistake but their accents are so heavy and difficult to understand and they were not able to fix things. I tried speaking to a supervisor and it was just as bad...I had to spell my name and e-mail address at least 20 times but they still screwed things up. A room full of chimps with loaded 38's would do a better job and provide a hell of allot more entertainment. This is not the way to run a company but Tracfone does not give a [censored]!

I was told I needed a new phone because it would be out of date by the end of the year. That was fine because the phone was a piece of junk-not working, hard to use. On June 11 2019 I picked out a new phone, tried to buy, but the price kept changing. Chatted and called numerous time. Representatives were useless. Did not know what they were doing or what they should do. Told me the price I was seeing on my screen did not exist. I was not hallucinating or lying. I have a screenshot. Wrote to corporate, no response. If they do not want my business they can refund my money. I have never dealt with a company that is as rude and incompetent as tracfone. Someone needs to take responsibility. Should be something more I can do.

I've had Tracfone for over a year. We have 5 accounts/lines in my family. A week ago my outgoing texting stopped working after an update. I could send texts but not receive. Plenty of balance on the account so not a billing issue. I opened a support ticket with Tracfone's totally clueless support service. I went on for ONE WEEK, 9 CHAT SESSIONS and 5 PHONE CALLS (each of over 1/2 hr) with their support pretty much repeating the same troubleshooting steps that didn't fix the issue. They even closed my ticket at some point 'by mistake' and reopened it after I complained. It felt like every person I talked to had no clue about the previous call and/or the open ticket. They pointed the finger at Verizon, since they get their service from them. Said in several occasions the issue was escalated to Verizon. It never happened. My phone was never fixed day after day and it started affecting my wotk. After a week of aggravation, I decided to stop by a Verizon store and begged for help. Kindly a sales person there took my phone, and in LESS THAN 10 MINUTES texting was working again. Remember, I'm not a Verizon customer. They did this out of their good heart. The Verizon tech told me it was a SIMPLE setting that was missing and he couldn't understand how Tracfone couldn't resolve it in a week. I contacted Tracfone to close the open ticket. Explained my frustration and I kindly asked for a credit because their non-sense tech support made me use my own minutes and my texts for their incompetent troubleshooting. The girl told me she couldn't credit me at all but was 'happy that the issue was resolved'. Guess what. I just switched all five lines to Verizon. It's not worse the aggravation with Tracfone. I've NEVER experience such incompetent personnel. They truly don't care.

Have had Tracfone accounts for over 15 years, over 5 accounts. Last account was for my mother in law up to end of service 10/20/18. Wanted to transfer remaining phone minutes from her account to our cousin, since mother in law died. Tried to transfer on online account today. No go. Tried to transfer via telephone conversation with Tracfone. Took up over 40 minutes, including 10 minute wait time. Gave service representative all information needed. VERY 'computer animated' voice. phone number [protected]. SIM number [protected]. IMEI number [protected]. Model TFC139B, a 2G model now 'retired, which is okay, except for rest of this CRAP. Said could find NOTHING (just like my online effort) and handing off to 'specialist unit' and they could not recover over 2400 residual minutes, the last time I'd updated her account for full one-year coverage. NO FRICKING reason why this account information was not available. Only that it was 'too old'. Totally unacceptable. I want my money back or my minutes converted to my cousin's account. Further details: Newest phone number [protected]. Online Account [protected]. End service 10/30/18. Prior Tracfone account [protected] ending 5/4/14 (phone upgrade required). COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE THEFT OF VALUE OF CELL PHONE CONNECTION MINUTES. Will forward to State of Maine Atty Gen. office, next.

AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE IT WAS YOUR WORST PLAGUE!

I purchased a trackphone iPhone 6S from trackphone because they sent me a notice that the service was changing and they were going to make it better by selling a new phone my old phone works great they sold me the new phone new phone did not work at my house I tried to reactivate my old phone with her good it wouldn't work trackphone didn't wanna take their new phone back I'm waiting for the shipping now to send it back they tried to re-energize my old phone of course it wouldn't reenergized so I had to go to Walmart and buy a new phone to put my time and my days in So trackphone wouldn't lose it I now have a crappy flip phone that does not work at my house and my girlfriend got the same notice from trackphone and now her phone will be subject to I have no clue what will happen but I have to drive 15 miles to make the phone that they sold well the new phone they gave me that I bought work

I purchased a TracFone phone package that included a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime 5.0 Android Smartphone bundled with a 1 year of airtime service plan for 1350 minutes/text/data tripled for life. When I attempted to activate the phone on the Tracfone website, I received the following message:

Our partners are upgrading their network to provide you with the highest quality service. As per our systems, your phone is not compatible with the new technology. But don't worry; we have you covered with a FREE phone replacement for you!

Please call us at [protected] to learn more.

I called the above number and a customer service representative confirmed the information in the above message and that they would send me a free replacement phone. I was concerned that I had waited too long to activate my phone, but was assured that there was no activation deadline with my original phone purchase.

When I asked if I had a choice in what phone I would receive, the response was no, the warehouse would send whatever phone is available for my service area. The representative stated that they do not have the capability to communicate directly with the warehouse and cannot provide any information on what replacement phone I would receive, advising that I could return it if not satisfied. I thought to myself, and then what happens, will I be left without a phone I can use? At this point, I was beginning to have doubts in the level of customer I was receiving.

I called the next day to see if another representative could provide more specific information on the replacement phone I would be receiving. Initially, the representative was unable to provide additional information, but when I persisted, she put me on hold to investigate. When she returned, she told me the replacement phone would be a Samsung Model: S902L. After I got off the phone, I checked my phone that was being replaced and it was the same model number! Still not knowing what phone I would be receiving, all I could do was wait and hope for a satisfactory resolution.

I trusted and expected that I would receive a Samsung Smartphone with comparable specifications to the phone I purchased. Instead, much to my disappointment, I received a significant downgrade, a RECONDITIONED ZTE flip phone with a 2.8" screen that retails for $19.99 online with a 52% 1 star rating on Amazon! I haven't seen anyone using a flip phone in 20 years! There is NO comparison to the quality and advanced technology of the phone I purchased, a NEW Samsung 5.0 Android Smartphone with a retail value of $145.99 at the time of purchase.

I contacted customer service to explain the situation and ask if my original phone purchase could be replaced with a comparable phone or refunded. I spoke to several representatives, enduring hours on the phone as I was put through multiple transfers, without the courtesy of a warm transfer, having to explain my situation again and again. The inconsistent answers I was receiving prompted escalation to more than one supervisor and further escalation to corporate management, with no acceptable resolution. I was eventually directed to a "corporate manager" at the main headquarters in Florida and after having to explain the situation once again, I was offered a refund. While in the process of discussing the details of the refund, the call was disconnected or conveniently dropped. I received no call back or follow up, even though I was initially given a ticket# [protected] and my contact information was obtained. Any reputable company would have followed up!

I attempted to get back to the person I was speaking with at the corporate office headquarters, but doubted that would happen due to the ineptness I had already experienced. I ended up in the "refund department." Once again I explained my situation, and the individual I spoke with, claiming to be a manager, stated a refund was not an option and that the person I was speaking with previously "a corporate manager" was incorrect in telling me that. He stated the only recourse was to accept the replacement phone they sent me or purchase a new phone and a new service plan.

When I didn't think the situation could get any worse, I was informed that the airtime plan that was bundled with my original phone purchase was not transferable to a replacement phone.

I'm now left with a phone that is locked into a TracFone service plan that can no longer provide service for my phone. I spent $129.99 excluding tax and shipping and have nothing to show for it but loss and disappointment. I've never experienced anything as deceitful and underhanded as TracFone's handling of this situation and can honestly say, I feel SCAMMED!

The issue is due to an upgrade in TracFone's partnering network, rendering my phone incompatible with the new technology.

TracFone's resolution of providing a significantly inferior replacement phone without the original airtime plan I purchased included is UNacceptable. My expectation is a full refund as the only satisfactory resolution.

Hello,
Help me...

I have a problem with one of the customer service operator changed my telephone number without asking and he also make me lose my minutes and now I still have the same problems I supposed to retrieve my minutes they didn't give me all the minutes I have in my old phone
My telephone number the one with the problem is area code [protected]
And also have a case number one 20958 9 0 3
My original minutes on my old phone is 5820 minutes and also I have a 2.10 data
Plus the minutes I get from my new phone was 1200 minutes
Handy make me a boy minutes worth of $10 out of my credit card
I will try to call back again and see if I could find somebody to get to the bottom of this by the way I don't know who to talk, the same people answer and tell me the same
And they're not helping, or try to find what happiness
Thanks
Sam
You could reach me at this number [protected]

Jose from tracfone calls my phone asking for my information, name, cell number, ext. I asked why. Jose said I had a complaint about my service which I do. But I explain I don't have tracfone and ask for a manager. Jose continues to ask for my information after I explain this is fraud. Jose transfers me to what he says is corporate office in Miami but it's Richard in the same call center who again tries to get my information again after they called me, my phone. Richard said he was transferring me to the CEO of tracfone then hung up on me. These are Fraudulent calls.. Jose called on 4/18/19 at 1:01pm from 800-992-1346 both Jose and Richard were very rude.

TracFone has been giving me the business for close to 3 years. I started to get text messages from I assumed TracFone. They wanted me to update the software. I agreed to something without knowing what I was agreeing to, because I was afraid not to. Never understanding what the unintended consequences would be. Even if I'd asked them they wouldn't have told me the truth. I'm supposed to get 1-2 gb of data. Then after the update there was a message on the screen say I'd exceeded the maximum feed. I hadn't even reached the 1 gb limit before I lost complete access. I don't know what they did or how they pulled it off, but once again they screwed me over. Then they started to harass me to update the software again. I had no choice, they control the phone, and they did it again. When you contact someone by text message and don't identify yourself and more importantly your intentions, and dupe into accepting what they want to do, that is deceptive and unethical. I agreed to something without or understanding what they intended. If they already did the update why was it necessary for them to do it a second time? I know I'm probably being tracked, so what are their motives. I don't trust them.

Tracfone has linked other phone numbers to my email account. I have had to call several times to make the correction. I have the emails to prove it. As of the other day, I had well over 100 minutes talk time, and I don't get good cell service while at home (We have a land line-due to snow storms I have been home since Friday-today is Monday. I just checked my minutes and it shows 18 minutes. There is a problem on your end, and I am ready to file a Federal fraud complaint against Tracfone because this a repetitive problem that we are experiencing. Overseas customer service is also a joke. My son had to get a new SIM card and phone number because of employee error.

I purchased a new phone from Tracfone and transferred my service to the new hardware. My period of service transferred, but none of my minutes, data, or texts. I had no luck trying to resolve the issue with Tracfone Customer Service or Tracfone technical help. I all but gave up but decided to write a letter and mail it to them. Two weeks later, I received a courtesy call from Tracfone to see if my problem was resolved. I checked my balance, and was pleasantly surprised to see that my minutes, data, and texts were all restored! Thanks!~

Even though all information was written down for what was just paid for and was showing as a current balance, I was ripped off 1gb data, 3500 texts and over 300 minutes! Tracfone would not transfer everything I had. Love paying for something that they will not transfer over after spending even more money to upgrade a phone! Besides having to call 3 times to get anyone to even do this much. Worst experience ever, won't be going back to Tracfone when everything expires. Won't recommend it to ANYONE.

Bought new. Camera doesn"t work. I called customer service, could not understand them half the time (I do not have patience for people not learning how to speak). Said they would send out envelope to return it in. They did and put the wrong tracking number on it so FedEx wouldn"t take it. They said a new one would be sent out and be here by the 28th Dec. I have to leave town on the 29 th and the pkge will not be here in time. They will not send a new one out to were I will be for next 3 months. They really suck. Will never buy from them again.

I transferred a phone number away from TracFone to Verizon but wanted to keep on TracFone active. I was told that I needed a new SIM card and I would retain my minutes and service time. When I reactivated my TracFone with the new SIM card they removed all of my minutes that I have already purchased 2, 225. What a scam!
I called several times and they would not do anything for me. I have been a customer for about 10 years.

On November 28, 2018, Tracfone send an email asking me to take advantage of a $15 Off Promo, Code No. 97162 by reactivating back my Mobile Phone [protected] which was out of service since June 2018 as shown on the Tracfone's email. The end period of the promo period is 12/19/2018.
On early December 2018, I decided to grab the offer thru the Tracfone website, however, the online system won't allow me to continue after entering the phone number for reason unknown. Several attempts to log in to my Tracfone account have failed, though despite having provided all the info necessary for resetting a password, yet no link was sent that should complete the process.
After several attempts, the reactivation of my mobile service was somehow completed by telephoning [protected] thru an automated process and the payment of which was done by Credit Visa Card. What is appalling, however, the Plan of $25.00 a month (Refill) was never credited to my device [protected], and therefore the outgoing and incoming calls cannot get through which I find it very disgusting, pestering, and annoying.
Have called the attention of the Tracfone customer service on many instances' day and night but proved in vain. The customer service staff seem not to know their function(s) to resolve the problem and only to find out later that mobile number [protected] had already been assigned to another person as declared by the so-called higher department of the company.
On December 7, 2018, I demanded a refund of the payment I made and was directed to a lady who claimed to be a department manager. I reiterated the circumstances about what happened and asked her to confirm the payment I made earlier for a $25 a month service plan of which she readily affirmed it appeared in their system based from the financial information I provided her for confirmation purposes. What is more appalling is the fact that she had launched at that time an automated collection of $25.61 using my credit card information without my knowledge which I discovered only on December 10, 2018. All these communication exchanges can be traced on the Tracfone's system, prerecorded conversation.
Having noted later from Tracfone's customer technical support (from the so-called higher department level) that mobile phone [protected] is now assigned and owned by another subscriber, and whereby I was asked to contact the LPD Dept. to provide my MEID Serial number and explain the circumstances behind because of an issue of fraud violation committed. The big questions are:
1. Who committed the fraud?
2. Why Tracfone customer service have not known of the new owner of [protected] and a new mobile number [protected] was assigned as a replacement, but later canceled and reverted to [protected]?
3. Why the Tracfone email of 11/28/2018 indicated that [protected] is active and still available for my reactivation, and therefore, no person actually owns this number.
4. Why did the lady department manager affirm on 12/07/2018 phone call that a payment for the $25.00 a month service plan was indeed made on 12/04/2018 and yet without my prior consent had launched an automated collection from my Visa Credit Card amounting to $25.61?
The foregoing questions warrant a detail explanation from Tracfone.

For two days, Sat 11/10 and Sun 11/11, I had no service on my Tracfone. I called customer service 4 times, and wound up with nothing but disgust for Tracfone. I got a different person each time, but same script! No matter what I was told: supervisor, technical dept. or just an operator, I got the same script and no results. I think it's just a way to pretend to have customer service, but actually, only wear you out and buy some time.