TracFone Wireless
Reviews and Complaints

have been a customer for going on 5 years I think. I have had seamless service with a high level of satisfaction. I have had the same inexpensive phone for all that time. I decided last week to buy a new TRAC Fone a LG 800. I recieved it promptly and proceeded to try to activate it and transfer my minutes. The night mare began. I have talked to three service representatives and one supervisor and have left shaking my head at the level of ignorance about what should be a seamless procedure to transfer to a new phone and transfer minutes.

The first repersentative managed to activate my new phone with my old number although w she at first said Ineeded a different phone before she could do it. It turns out she could and my new phone was activated however my old phone still worked.

I therefore called and of course got a different rep, I guess you have no proceedures in place for any continuity for related calls, and after 30 minutes which I found out I was paying for she ran upagainst the need a second phone problem. After some questions she said she would have to send me a new SIM card for my old phone which she had managed by this time to disable. After pointing out to her I didnt think i should be debited the 28.5 minutes it took her to repeatedly tell me to allow her to take more time to enter information which seems to be yuir company mantra to w extract minutes from peoples account she said I would be credited those minutes when I called back to give your next rep a chance to play with my old phone with the new SIM card. Now, as I thought then, that was a outright deception to get me off the line

I got the SIM card yesterday and installed it correctly but now the phone wont boot past the screen that gives me the date service ends . Then the screen goes blank but the phone still has 71.30 minutes onit which I wanted to transfer to my new phone.

I called back just 30 and was told by the third rep that I didnt need the SIM card and all I needed was a different phone and that that Rep#2 had outright lied to me about getting credited for the 28.5 minutes spent getting nothing done. To add to my frustration the new SIM does not appear to work. After this i asked to speak to a supervisor a Victor.who outright told me I was not getting any miuutes back no reason, no company policy, just youre not getting them back and I wasnt getting my, paid for, minutes (71.30) transferred from my old phone unless I could come up with a alternated number.

I am disabled and homebound with TRAC Fone as my lifeline. I have one phone [protected], I can just afford the minutes I buy and it is painful to see them s dissipated by a duplicitous business plan. I spent about 50 minutes with your rerex sentatives on a proceedure that should have taken not over 20 min if that and that did not includethe 8.5 minutes spent on hold before I was told there would be a 30 minute wait. I had to witness bumbling support, out right misrepresentations and arbitrary dismissal by a supervisor. This indicates poor support training, poor coordination and no system for bundling problems with the same phone or subscriber. Your Reps tried to be polite and I applaud their English but they had a tendency to mumble which made their moderate accents at times hard to decipher. Another problem was the cross talk audible onto my call from their I guess booths from other calls handled by other reps.

I am sending you this out of frustration that your company would so brazenly rip off time on service calls caused by your own employees apparent lack of training, ignorance of procedures and I would think the poor writing and composition of your protocol book in which they had trouble finding the problems I was bringing to their attention. If I were dealing with say Amazon I would expect a quick reply and rsolution to my problem and even an apology. From the attitude and behavior of Victor I donrt think I will get my minutes nor an apology but I think you should know that a satisfied customer of 5 years is now not! I trusted you with my limited income and you ripped me off. I hope it was inadvertant and you will do what is right and not charge me for your employees lack of training.

Just in case you want to do something to transfer my minutes from my old phone

Hi, this is JC with TracFone Wireless. I read your post and am sorry that you are having problems. Please send me your contact information to the following email address TF.CorpResolutionTeam@tracfone.com . My colleagues and I can help you get the problem resolved right away. Please include your name, phone serial number or cell phone number. So you don’t have to retype this information, just copy your blog concern and email it to us.

I have had a Tracfone for some years. I have not had this trouble, but I will beware if it happens.

Since 18 May 09 when for no reason my phone was deactivated I have had nothing but problems with this company. The phone was for business and was listed in advertising. When they finally reactivated the phone they had changed the number. "We're sorry for any inconvenience". Then I discovered the phone wasnt recieving calls. Again they changed the phone number on me. Customer service is basically noexistent because all they can say is "We're sorry for any inconvenience." I have no idea how much this company has cost me in lost business but my advice to anyone considering a Tracfone purchase is "DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM TRACFONE.

For over a month I have tried and tried and tried to resolve issues with these idiots.I cant access my voice mail and the instructions are ###! The customer service are located in the Philippines and all are idiots none have a clue.You have to have 2 phones to set up your voice mail! They keep saying we will fix it but dont do anything.Dont buy a tracfone as they are liars and committing fraud as we speak. Here is what I had to say to them to get a response from management-which still was worthless! Luis, You may want to research this: According to United States Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1038 Prev | Next § 1038. False information and hoaxes How Current is This? (a) Criminal Violation.— (1) In general.— Whoever engages in any conduct with intent to convey false or misleading information under circumstances where such information may reasonably be believed and where such information indicates that an activity has taken, is taking, or will take place that would constitute a violation of chapter 2, 10, 11B, 39, 40, 44, 111 (A) be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both; TITLE 15 > CHAPTER 2 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 53 Prev | Next § 53. False advertisements; injunctions and restraining orders How Current is This? (a) Power of Commission; jurisdiction of courts Whenever the Commission has reason to believe— (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is engaged in, or is about to engage in, the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of any advertisement in violation of section 52 of this title, and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission under section 45 of this title, and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review, or the order of the Commission to cease and desist made thereon has become final within the meaning of section 45 of this title, would be to the interest of the public, the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States or in the United States court of any Territory, to enjoin the dissemination or the causing of the dissemination of such advertisement. Upon proper showing a temporary injunction or restraining order shall be granted without bond. Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business, or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found. (b) Temporary restraining orders; preliminary injunctions Whenever the Commission has reason to believe— (1) that any person, partnership, or corporation is violating, or is about to violate, any provision of law enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, and (2) that the enjoining thereof pending the issuance of a complaint by the Commission and until such complaint is dismissed by the Commission or set aside by the court on review, or until the order of the Commission made thereon has become final, would be in the interest of the public— the Commission by any of its attorneys designated by it for such purpose may bring suit in a district court of the United States to enjoin any such act or practice. Upon a proper showing that, weighing the equities and considering the Commission’s likelihood of ultimate success, such action would be in the public interest, and after notice to the defendant, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction may be granted without bond: Provided, however, That if a complaint is not filed within such period (not exceeding 20 days) as may be specified by the court after issuance of the temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, the order or injunction shall be dissolved by the court and be of no further force and effect: Provided further, That in proper cases the Commission may seek, and after proper proof, the court may issue, a permanent injunction. Any suit may be brought where such person, partnership, or corporation resides or transacts business, or wherever venue is proper under section 1391 of title 28. In addition, the court may, if the court determines that the interests of justice require that any other person, partnership, or corporation should be a party in such suit, cause such other person, partnership, or corporation to be added as a party without regard to whether venue is otherwise proper in the district in which the suit is brought. In any suit under this section, process may be served on any person, partnership, or corporation wherever it may be found. (c) Service of process; proof of service Any process of the Commission under this section may be served by any person duly authorized by the Commission— (1) by delivering a copy of such process to the person to be served, to a member of the partnership to be served, or to the president, secretary, or other executive officer or a director of the corporation to be served; (2) by leaving a copy of such process at the residence or the principal office or place of business of such person, partnership, or corporation; or (3) by mailing a copy of such process by registered mail or certified mail addressed to such person, partnership, or corporation at his, or her, or its residence, principal office, or principal place or business. The verified return by the person serving such process setting forth the manner of such service shall be proof of the same. (d) Exception of periodical publications Whenever it appears to the satisfaction of the court in the case of a newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication, published at regular intervals— (1) that restraining the dissemination of a false advertisement in any particular issue of such publication would delay the delivery of such issue after the regular time therefor, and (2) that such delay would be due to the method by which the manufacture and distribution of such publication is customarily conducted by the publisher in accordance with sound business practice, and not to any method or device adopted for the evasion of this section or to prevent or delay the issuance of an injunction or restraining order with respect to such false advertisement or any other advertisement, it goes on and on and on-much like my attempts to fully utilize the services advertised by your company! It still does not work! I missed 2 important messages this am and cant access either! Your employees are poorly trained-I have heard the following from each> my password is > my entire phone # is the default password > the last 6 digits of my phone # is the password > the last 4 digits is my password > press the 1 key to set up my password-I have heard that 6 times-its all BS! as without a password you cant gain access! I tried over and over and over and it never worked. In my attempts to access my hotmail on the phone-it wont work either. Do you require employees to be trained? Do you use individuals outside the USA to save money or generate lawsuits against Tracfone? I see you are in Miami-do I send the subpena to you to appear in court? Its a long flight from Florida to Seattle-then a nice drive to the court house-for the cost of all that I suggest you simply send me another matching phone with free service as i have wasted over 400 minutes talking to those idiots in the Philippines who obviously have no correct training and refused to connect me to any manager. As a consumer who read your advertising on the internet & at Walmart for your services and read the advertising on the box that the phone is shipped in-it was my belief that I had access to voice mail when in fact-without having 2 phones-I cannot access any voice mail.That is fraud. I have no intention of wasting any more minutes on my monthly service trying to resolve this. I have several options to fully resolve this to my satisfaction 1. create a video showing my attempts to gain access to my voice mail and post it on youtube for the entire world to view and decide on not buying your phones or falling for your false advertising-my last video on that service got thousands of hits. 2. Just calling my friends at KING5Investigates our local news in Seattle and let Jessie expose you on CBS news so all consumers can avoid being ripped off by Tracfone and StraightTalk 3. Allow you to communicate to me and see if it is actually possible without me buying another phone, or finding a payphone and racking up another $20 in fees to gain access or flagging down some fool on the highway to see if they are willing to allow a long distance call to the Philippines to try to resolve this-Personally-I would never help anyone I dont know this way as there are so many frauds out there trying to pull a scam on you..like tracfone, straight talk etc Therefor: I demand replacement of all costs associated with the utilization of this cellphone, and or costs associated with the purchase of a similar phone with another carrier that works in my area, full reimbursement of all monthly fees at treble the damages of my expenses to communicate with your company and loss of time in minutes, internet, etc as a majority has been spent trying to setup this service. Its is entirely possible that I picked up a defective unit simply by chance still since its impossible to set up voice mail without a second phone-your still guilty of consumer and wire fraud.Who wants to be held responsible? Just supply me with that persons name, business license information-so I can ask the Dept of Licensing in Washington State to suspend or revoke permissions to advertise, display, promote, or sell all Tracfones or Straight Talk services in our state. May I suggest you forward this to the CEO of your company to resolve it as you did not even bother calling me? It shows you could care less-youd rather have consumers file suit than provide customer services. Better yet-I think I'll do some research and find the corporate officers and forward this to them and post this up at Boeing's main building ( largest by volume in the world ) in Everett so all the 26, 000 employees who pass the complaint board each day can avoid this mistake i made by choosing your product and ### services! It looks like I can communicate directly with > Mr. F. J. Pollak Chief Executive Officer and President Mr. Kevin Gulbranson Senior Vice President of Product Management Mr. Steve Ritter Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Do you suppose they will be upset to learn your employees caused all this or that you took no effort to resolve it?

I also have had a positive experience with their customer service. I dug out a pretty old Tracfone to load minutes onto but it was no longer on their current list of models so I could not load them. I actually put off calling until I had a free hour to waste on the phone because I expected it would be a dreadful ordeal but it was anything but an ordeal! Someone answered in a timely manner and stayed with me. I wasn't put on hold forever. The rep did have an accent but he spoke excellent English that I had no trouble understanding. He was pleasant and knew what the problem was and how to fix it. He offered to send me a new card to update the old phone so it could get on the system and he followed through. I did not have to buy a new phone! We have since added two more Tracfones and have had no problems with any of them.

You Have a bad cell phone.. I had the same problem . Turns out that the quality control on Tracphones are not the greatest and many have receiver problems.
GEt yourself a new phone.

When I recieved a new tracfone I tried to activate it on line. When the website failed to credit all 1382 minutes currently on my contract, I called customer svc to have the new phone activated. All the old minutes were transfered to the new phone but the phone was not activate untill the next day. The next day, when I began recieving calls for someone other than me, I realized that they had put someone elses number in my phone! Now, a week later, six hours of telephone time with their useless tech. support people, I still do not have my old number restored to my new phone. Each time I call they tell me that it will be fixed in 24 hours and that I should be patient. I believe that I have been patient long enough. I have sent numerous e-mails . only to be placated again to be patient. The responce to my situation has been the worst customer service that I have ever encountered.

I am on the line with Tracfone for the second time in 24 hours simply trying to obtain a transfer of my current phone number from Net10 a distributor of Tracfone. Once again I am given the 'run around' since I will not allow myself to be 'ripped off' by this company. Placed on hold and the rep deliberately allowed the phone not to be placed on hold but left the line open and proceeded to use disruptive tactics (loud sounds that resembled ruffling paper, voices from other that appeared to be coming from a radio of some sort), all while because I asked to speak to her superior.
I have had this backup phone # for 2 years ( I AM A LOYAL VERIZON customer; almost 30 years for my primary services, thank you!)

The 'rip off' began when I purchased a LG 500G tracfone in June, 2011 from Walmart. In March, 2012 the charger port failed to work, which caused me not to be able to charge the phone. Go figure...a phone that is used possibly once or twice a month and rarely is on. Defective product so that one would have to make an additional purchase of another phone with almost ALL the previous minutes purchased still available (was under warranty for 1 year)!

Loved the LG 500G product, am a staunch LG product user for other devices...Purchased another LG 500G phone from Target. Salesperson stated since it was the same identical phone, there would be no problem in making the transfer of the phone number. Went to activate the phone, was told by Rep on the helpline that I had purchased a Net10 carrier phone and therefore, I would have to purchase minutes for the Net10 phone because the Tracfone minutes I have from the broken charger port LG 500G will not transfer to the Net10 carrier (also in the Tracfone family of services) RIPPPPPPP Off, I say.

The saga continues...on yesterday [protected], I spoke with 3 different personnel from Tracfone; a Customer Rep, a Supervisor and a Manager, at least that's who they claimed to be! Each were adamant that I had to purchase yet another phone (Tracfone specific to transfer the phone number back to Tracfone). So, again, I loose minutes from the NET10 LG 500G phone... over 500 minutes remained after for 30 days of usage. Started with about 720 minutes that cost me $25 in May 2013 (as you can see the phone is rarely used monthly).

See where this is going! The LG 500G I purchased in March 2013 now has to be put to rest and another phone purchase (Tracfone specific) will have to occur. The Manger indicated that for my troubles (as I had stated that I would just get another carrier and discontinue my frustration laden encounters with Tracfone, Net 10 carriers) she would provide 300 additional minutes to the 120 minutes card purchased at Target I made to go with the NEW Tracfone (Samsung phone). When I queried her as to how long would those 300 minutes last...she stated for 15 days...Wooooooah! I made a NEW phone purchase of $30, another prepaid card purchase of $30 and Tracfone is making all this right by providing 300 additional minutes for a measly 15 days on a prepaid card that last 120 days... In others words PISS on you Customer...we 'rip people off' for a living!

I have also filed a complaint to the FCC regarding my encounter and provided all the names of the individuals I spoke with (although without Rep ID numbers it will be difficult to locate them) in addition to the date, time and my phone log. Yes, I record conversations too Tracfone/Net10!

Awfuuuuuuuuuuuuul Service and very unprofessional personnel!

Proud american citizen...Wowwwwwww ! You seem really proud of it and in love with USA when you state "not you guys that only speak english"...Keep your crap for yourself...You obviously have some inner anger toward us and what USA represents to your eyes. Now, realize that the majority of american people are hard working people who struggle too everyday. USA is not "Hollywood" (what you see on tv) but is not a third world country neither. You contract with american customer, you owe them to speak english like i owe to speak german to my german customers : english is the official language of USA and the universal business language in the world (like it or not).

I never call Tracfone customer service. I use the support tab on their Facebook page. Much better. Serious! Give it a try. Now that they got there service together, it makes Traphone invinceable. Ha!

I have had a Tracphone for years. Never had any trouble except once. Loves country store sold me a double minute card. Instead of a 200 minute card. My phone has double minutes. Tracphone wouldnot give me Double mins. instead of 400 i got 200. To me Thats not good business. I think they still owe me 200. If they dont like this. TUFF

My tracfone which which I have had a couple of years. The 1st phone Safelink sent me finally went out or quit, so I requested and got but I guess I forgot yo re-register. Now it wants me to re-register now, but can't call out on it, have to do it on line.
Phone # [protected]
Serial # [protected]
I have 67 min until 2/1
ser until 01/31/2018

I got the same problem only using the safe link phone four or five times. This is a rip off! If they want you to make a purchase to keep the service, they should make that aware when you sign up for the stupid service. Their customer service is awful as well! It's the worse company by far!