TracFone Wireless

My TracFone paid text (SMS) balance was substantially deducted (from 13077 to 6518) between May 1, 2023 and May 18, 2023 while I had little text usage.
My typical SMS usage per month is less than 50. TracFone deducted 6559 SMS from my account between 5/1 - 5/18 for some reason.
As I do not use text much, I called TracFone customer support to get an explanation or usage history tracking. The agent can not tell me why the sudden reduction and just hung up on me.

Here is the relevant 611611 balance history that I have kept on my phone. It should be clear that I have low text usage.
Your Balance as of: Apr 7, 3:40 PM
Minutes: 6,094
SMS: 13,077
Data: 6.74 GB
Service End Date: Mar 7, 2024
Your Balance as of: May 1, 5:52 PM

I tried to send my daughter a text on Wednesday June 7, 2023. Kept getting the message "Couldn't send message". Tried several times so I then went to the app and it said"Your phone cannot be used at this moment. For more information, please call our Customer Care Center at [protected] and we will gladly assist you." I called the number and talked to Customer Service who then transferred me to the Fraud Department. They told me to verify phone numbers that I have used to make or receive calls. Each one that I gave them they told me nope that is not a good number. Asked for my 4 digit pin on my account and they told me nope not right. After 3 tries my account was locked and I was told to call back again after 15 minutes as the system would then unlock my account. Asked if they could email a code to me. The person I talked to said she sent it and I checked and did not receive it. I asked if they sent it to my email address which I told her what it was and she said she could not give me that information. I was never told why I was talking to the Fraud Department, but I definitely felt like a criminal after I got off the phone. I was told someone would call me back and I waited until 10:30pm and never received a call.

The next morning (Thurday June 8) I called again and went through the same scenario, but at least one person told me my account was deactivated because I disputed the charge for adding a card to my account and I needed to call my bank. Asked how to see what the transaction was and I was told how to find it on the website. When I checked the site I saw 3 transactions which I did not do as a Mastercard and a Discover card had been used. Told the person I did not have either one of those cards and they said "You purchased a 1 year plan, right?" And I said yes that I purchased it on eBay from a seller who added the minutes, data and the 1 year extension. They told me again to contact my bank to find out why the charge was being disputed on my card. I then explained again that the cards listed for the transactions were not my cards so it would be useless to call my bank. Luckily I used PayPal and this person proceeded to tell me to contact PayPal which I did. Paypal is now working with eBay about this seller and working to get my money back.

Then I went through the verify the phone numbers and each time I was told that were not good numbers. I did pass my security question and I asked if they could have me verify my address or birthday or something to prove it was me and they said no. I needed to give them the 4 digit pin. Tried 3 different pins and again after 3 tries the system locked access to my account and I was told to call back again after 15 minutes. Told the person I have been with Tracfone for 26 years and have never had this problem before. I honestly do not ever remember setting a pin up. Then I was told to go to Walmart.com to purchase a 1 year plan and when I got the email with the e pin number to call back and they would reactivate my account. I did purchase the 1 year plan to a tune of $134.99 and I called back later in the day thinking they would be able to reactivate my account. Again went through the phone number drill and each time I was told no they were not good numbers. I assured the person they were and of course I was told no they were not. Was asked the security question which I passed and then was asked for the pin. Of course after 3 tries my account was locked and I was told to call back again after 15 minutes.

Called on Friday June 9 first thing in the morning and talked to Customer Service and I asked to speak to a supervisor or someone higher up. They transferred me and the connection was lost so I had to call back. The person I talked to asked for the phone numbers again, but this time only wanted out - going calls. I told her in the time period before was phone was deactivated I only had 3 and again I was told the numbers were not good. I asked for a higher up person who could help to activate my account and I was told no one could do that at the company. She said they had procedures to follow and not one person in the whole company could not do that for me. Really? So I said I am literally out of luck and can not get my phone reactivated and she said yes that is correct.

I spent more than 4 hours on the phone from Wednesday night to Friday afternoon and that is the final response that I got.

After work yesterday, June 6th, 2023, I tried to text then phone home to let me wife know that I would be coming home. She gets nervous if I don't get home within an hour. But, the text and calls would not got through. I phoned "611" and talked to staff at least six times. It starts with the phone number which their automated system recognizes, and then I'm told that the person who answered cannot solve my complex issue so I will be transferred to the higher support. When the line was not dropped they asked for phone numbers I called or texted in the last 60 days, but not in the last 3 days. Looking in my text history I read the numbers I contacted over a week ago. Failed! Went back two more times and read the numbers. Failed. I am reading these from my call/text history. How could this fail? Next they tell me without validation they CANNOT tell me why the phone was deactivated, and they CANNOT re-activate! What the heck is going on?

Edward Willis
1732 London Ridge Ct.
Toledo, OH [protected]
[protected] – Landline
[protected]@klcm.com
5/30/2023
TracFone
Executive Resolution Department
9700 N.W. 112th Avenue
Miami, FL 33178

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about the missing minutes from my account. I have noticed that there are approximately 5,000 plus minutes missing from my account. I would like to request that these minutes be credited back to my account as soon as possible.

I purchased a new phone from Walmart on 5/4/2023 and I called TracFone to switch to number from the old phone to the new phone. The agent stated that I would have to buy new minutes for the new phone in an effort for him to switch the phone service. I question why I would have to purchase new minutes for the new phone. I had over, or approximately 5000 minutes on the old phone. It ended with all the minutes I had on the old phone account totally deleted and I don’t know what he did but according to another agent, the old account no longer existed.

I have been a loyal customer of your company for approximately five years and I have never had any issues with my account before. I am disappointed that this has happened and I hope that you will take the necessary steps to rectify this situation.

Please let me know what steps you will be taking to resolve this issue. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

[protected] - Cell Phone

Sincerely,

Edward Willis

7:07pm CDT, 31 May 2023, attempted to log into Tracfone.com to check service days left, but received the following message:

"Alert

We are unable to validate the information you provided. Please try again."

The same message when trying to log into My Account app. I tried again, using phone number and IMEI with the same message each time. I wanted to double check when this current monthly plan ends, as I am considering dropping Tracfone and going with another company due to problems like this logging in error. The log in fail has occurred before, but eventually was corrected. One time, couldn't log into app, but could on the website. Will be interested to see how this resolves. Thank you!

I purchased a tracphone on May 20, 2023 over the internet. On May 22, 2023 tracphone recieved my payment of $27.65. The problem is that Tracphone never sent me a confirmation email about my purchase (but did take the money out of my checking account). I called to find out what had happened with my new phone that was said to be arriving between May 24 thru May 26, 2023. I was aked for a purchase order number which I replied that I didn't ever receive one, and I was told that because I didn't have a purchase order number that there was not anything that they could do, even though they already took my money. This is not right. I have the fees from my bank showing that the funds were indeed taken. I don't know why Tracphone is doing this because I never had a problem before. Maybe it is the people in Cutomer service but I really want my money back. I have written the Better Business Bureau and they are trying to get in touch with Tracphone. I have contacted my bank and now they are trying to contact Tracphone. Can someone who knows what they are doing from tracphone contact me. Thank You Gary McMahon, [protected] (email) [protected]@aol.com

Check the ticket # [protected] you stole my phone and refuse to complete the promised transaction. SCAMMER and LIARS all of them! you need to replace the defective phone with the one you told me to send to your warehouse. The warehuse received toe defective unit over 6 months ago and never sent out the replacement. company keeps lying and makeing fals promisses. NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF SCAMMERS and LIARS! Stop the B/S and do what you promissed. NO more LIES!

TRACFONE stole my cell phone when they were to replace a defective unit. I was told to send in the defective unit for an exchange, NOW after 6 weeks they will not give any info why they havent shipped the replacement. After 20 to 30 phone calls and hours on the phone, all they do is LIE and say how sorry I got caught up in there SCAM SHOW. They first told me if I send in the defective unit I will receive a replacement within 3 to 5 days. THAT was 6 monhs ago. I had to go out and purchase another phone from a reliable CO now. They need to be put out of business for FRAUD and SCAMS. They will stall and LIE everytime you call them. Submit a report to the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU. at least they will be informed of tracfone SCAMS. Customers DO NOT SEND ANOTHER PENNY WITH THIS FRAUD outfit!

Tracfone sent updates to my phone and totally destroyed it. When I called tracfone customer service they told me phone is no longer useable so send it to us by ups and we will send you a replacement within 3 to 5 days. Wow what a super lie that was. I did as instructed that was over 8 weeks ago, customer service tells me everytime I call, it is on its way, just wait a little longer you will get it. Wow was that another huge lie. 15 different agents at tracfone has lied to me the last 8 weeks. I have spent numerous hours on the phone with them only to hear more lies. I now believe they have stolen my old phone and will never make good on the replacement. There goes my full year of paid service and without a phone. People do nt spend another penny with these scam artists! They need to be taken out of the scam business for good!

In the past few days (5/26/2023 through 5/29/2023) my husband and I have spent at least 4-5 hours per day attempting to resolve multiple Tracfone issues. My issues have been: network connection dropped (a number of times) minutes/text and data disappeared (although the app showed thousands of minutes and texts plus 1.7 GB of data - all went to 0 in less than a day), needed to buy another plan, spotty service. My husband was scammed by an eBay seller (customer buys the card, service/minutes/data/text are added to the account, seller stops payment to Tracfone, customer’s account is restricted due to a ‘chargeback’, unable to recover the phone or pay the ‘chargeback’ because the verification system fails, customer buys new plan, attempts to activate phone, after hours/days unable to connect to a network (receive a ‘roaming error message), phone is still not working. Customer Service is useless. Every time you have to go through all the steps that didn’t work. Calls are often dropped. No resolution was gained. We are out more than $300 in the past 4 months and will be going with a different cell service.

I purchased a 30 day SIM while visiting in the States. I also purchased additional data. First I had problems with making calls. I called twice to customer service and the issue was finally resolved. But I never had access to the 1 GB data that was included. I purchased more data. My phone currently shows 0 GB of data, but I have not used any. I called 2 more times and talked to Tier 2 tech support. Supposedly they updated the system, I guess they did, because my data is gone. I still have the card, so I will try and upload it again. But I also had 1 GB included with the Unlimited Calls/Text plan I purchased.

It's really been difficult navigating through the city without internet, that I paid for. Tech support keeps telling me to call back, but they cannot help me.

I returned a A53 Galaxy phone because it was defective. Tracfone received it on April 23rd. I have not received a replacement. Tomorrow will be one month. Every time I call I'm told that it will take 3 to 5 business days. Today I was told the same thing 3 to 5 more days. They will not tell me when they will ship it. This is the worst product support. There has been 5 tickets written for a replacement.

Last ticket I wrote down was [protected] Does anyone care if I receive a phone

George Jacob [protected]

I have a tmobile service that is active as of right now but the phone that was provided with that service had been extremely damaged and us unable to be used I was told by a friend that the tracphone was compatible with tmobile and I'd be able to activate the tracpho e using my tmobile service and phone number that I could only call tracphone and have them use the tmobile as my chosen provider and then I'd be able to use my already active service with no problem j double checked and even loomed l on line to make sure my sim card from tmobile was compatible with this particular tracphone and it is but when I called the custo.er service number to be able to set all this up the representative told me I had to have am active service with Trac phone for 60 days in order to unlock the phone but that is not I was mislead to have understood I only.got the Trac phone in order to activate as a tmobile provider in which I'd be able to keep my existing tmobile account and phone number I am not haply at all the 6o day waiting period I need the phone to be unlocked now so I can put my tmobile service on. The phone I'm out of town at the moment and I need to have a working phone right now I'm financially right now not able to purchase once again. Another anything really I need the phone to be unlocked now if at all possible the imei number to the phone I need to have unlock is [protected] and the service im needed added to the tracphone is with tmobile and phone number is 9105830071plz help me to asap

Purchased a new Orbit 5g phone on April 3rd. On May 11 the phone would not boot up, it would just freeze at the Welcome to TracFone screen. Spoke with tech support and they advised that they would send me a replacement phone in 3 - 5 days. May 18, still no phone, TracFone ticket shows still active and I should receive it in 3-5 days. Support then informed me that someone should have told me that I needed to send the old phone in and that I should have received an email with the return instructions. Neither of those happened, they refused to send it out until I sent it in. I then spoke with Aletha (ID# 510868) at the FL corporate office who also refused to do anything, other than to send out the return email so I could return the phone. I asked to speak with her manager/supv and she stated that she could not transfer calls out. I told her that's OK, just give me their number and then she told me that they did not have a phone and their is no way I can get in touch with them. At this point I now know that she is just making things up or lying to me. Now I have to go another 10 days without a phone because of their mistakes. Terrible customer service and they don't take any accountability for their mistakes.

I have talked to three different people about this with no satisfaction. On Monday May 15 my current plan end date was August 2, 23, I added a one month card and my new current plan end date went back to June 14, 23. I feel like I just paid to have you take two months service from me. I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but even I can understand what is the problem from the above statement!

Have had problems when making outgoing calls to cell phones and land lines.

I had been using the number [protected] to make outgoing calls. But on the receiving line the call would not show up as me but as "Allison Brooks". Often times the party I was calling would not answer as they did not know this person.

I call tracfone and was told this was the previous owner of this number but nothing could be done but get a new number. I did this thinking my name would then appear as the caller. And now I have the number of [protected]. Now when I make a call the receiving line shows,"spam risk" Very very few people, I am calling, when pick up this call. So this tracfone now is basically useless to make outgoing calls. I have been a tracfone user for many years but this is getting to be serious and aggravating.

disabled cancer person had problems scratching off label on renew cards but had the bar code for the card. the customer service rep asked for the cancer person to guess at the pin numbers when only 6 of 15 numbers were legible and other 12 of 15 were legible. the cards had been purchased from Dollar General and one from Walmart. If this company treats all disable customers this way it is the worst customer service i have ever been associated with. The Customer service individuals both regular and upper management disconnected calls even thou the client was polite and patient.

Tracfone is playing with peoples privacy and Personal Accounts, it's not right I purchase a Phone Card and add the minutes to my phone, here to find out they put my 8581 Text, 4286 Talk. NO! I purchase every three months to talk with my friends in MI, NC, VA, PA, Cali, FL, not to be Texting them, Quit messing with people accounts. I will report these finding TEXT is NOT what I use. the 8581 Minutes should be Transferred to TALK, and stop messing with people accounts. I will report this to Social Media, Don't mess with my account.

My PAGEPLUS (Verizon compatible) SIM card has not worked for anything except SMS from its first use about six months ago. Yesterday I spoke with a support person and we did a number of checks and a network reset as well as using the sim card in another functioning phone with the exact-same results; SMS only, no signal bars and if any bars came, the moment one tries to make a call, the bars drop immediately and the call drops. With BOTH phones the same performance with this SIM. Additionally, Verizon signals on other phones in the house is always reliable on any floor in the house, but this phone, on the top floor (or anywhere else for that matter) does not often find any signal from Verizon!

My call was escalated to supervisor and further checks made and then escalated to your senior technical team. That lady said that the problem is related to some issues on the PagePlus system and that she would have resets made. She also agreed that I should be reimburded my payments made since August as the phone could not be made for calls ever; she said also that, when the resets at PagePlus were done, in up to two hours or so, that she (or a colleague) would call back on my US cell (267.271.1590), and they would ask me to boot up the phone and run through a check to make sure I had a signal (and can make calls). Nothing happened in 24 hours. So, today I called in and spoke at length to the junior support. They had no notes as all are “with the senior team”. More time was spent but… he says that the problem is likely also the SIM Card itself and that he would get me a new PagePlus ‘Verizon’ SIM Card, sent gratis, as it has never worked for call use since new. He routed me to speak to a supervisor regarding the repayments (for having NO CALL SERVICE due to PagePlus settings failure), but the lines were busy and my call was dropped by the system… Not a happy situation. I have no email regarding the replacement (gratis) replacement SIM and nothing from your senior technical team about the PagePlus settings reset on your servers and nothing about the reimbursement of charges (since day #1 with no calls being made) due to these failures. A letter sent to TracFone Wireless, Inc. - CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS., 9700 Northwest 112th Avenue, Miami, FL 33178 on March 24th 2023 has not been acknowledged or answered.

I'm 77, disabled PLUS "HEARING IMPAIRED" I bought a TRACPHONE one (1) week ago 26 April 2023, to use exclusively for TEXT messaging ...the TEXT messaging worked for only 4 days ..now Tracfone wants me to pay them money via giving them a Charge Card number or ATM Number with no limit of costs to fix/repair it. This is a brand new phone! It is a Pre-Paid phone service by which I bought a one month card on 26 April 2023 and seller (Walmarts) install this card; now after 4 days TracFone terminated my use of this phone even with a full month paid in full in advance.

Web-site is full of complaint of TracFone scams... nothing new.

I want my money back (FULL REFUND) $60.06 and costs and expenses and all damages and inconveniences they have cost me.

Note: I am filling a Complaint with the Federal Government, Elder Consumer Protection Division