Tracfone User Reviews

Pros: Good basic phones, free transfer of minutes between phones, good coverage in GA, SC, and NC. Bonus minutes available almost every month. Easy to buy/add minutes using website or phone.

Cons: Customer service closes around 9pm EST during week and not available at all on Sunday.

Summary: We have used tracfone for several years now. My husband bought the first phone (about 5 or 6 years ago) because he was sometimes using less than 10 minutes a month and paying over $35 a month with Cingular. He needed a cell phone but didn't like the plans with all the other companies. His first phone was still working last year when tracfone changed their technology and discontinued using his type of phone. They sent him a free phone, transferred his minutes and even gave him some bonus minutes. I bought a very cheap tracfone ($15) when I was in SC last year. It came with 30 minutes and when I activated it online they gave me an extra 20 minutes. When I got back to GA I called tracfone and they sent me a new sim card and changed my phone number to a local number. I decided to use it for my 'work' phone. I bought another cheap phone a few months later. I received 20 bonus minutes for activating it online also. Both phones are still working perfectly. I bought 120 minutes from tracfone 2 weeks ago and they sent me a free phone. It is great! It's a flip phone by Motorola. I don't need 3 phones, so I'm going to quit using the 2nd phone and just keep the 1st and 3rd. I can always reactivate the 2nd one if I ever need to. Yes, it's sometimes hard to understand the customer service reps, but that's true with HP, Dell, and other companies. All of the representatives that I've spoken with over the years have been very helpful and courteous. Coverage is great and I never have dropped calls. I will never go back to Cingular (AT&T) or the contract plans again. Tracfone rocks!

Pros: NONE

Cons: POOR customer service, poor technical support, unreliable

Summary: As many of its customers we purchased a phone for our 12 years old daughter. She do not used the phone as much because she likes to have minutes. Last October we purchased 500 minutes (@$100.00). These minutes were good to be used over a year. My daughter did not use the phone on December or the first week on January. She used it couple of times mid January. Last week she needed to use it for an emergency she had at school and it did not work. I called the “customer service” and after the same robotic routine of “give me the serial, sim car, put the phone on code mode” enter I do not know how many numbers the “agent “ told me that they needed to send me a new sim card. I received and called to activate it. When they told me it was done the display read “emergency calls only” I advised the “agent” and she told me to wait an hour, turn off and on the phone and it should work fine.
I did it, did not work, and called again, same scenario, serial number, sim card number etc, Still not service, they keep “ pass it to another department”. I spent 2 hours; the last agent hanged up on me. I called again wait 20 minutes to get someone, she stated again like if it was my first call and start again with go to this and put this, take off the battery and sim, put it back on, and the result same “NO SERVICE”
Requested a supervisor she then told me that the case was still open and that I have to wait 24 –48 hours and call them again. I asked for a manager, she pretended she was going to connect me but instead she disconnected the call. We have NO SERVICE and I really doubt we ever will so we pay $100.00 dollars for 500 minutes and my balance minutes is 486, my daughter used 14 minutes meaning that each minute cost us $7.14 EXPENSIVE!!!!!!! TRACFONE IS taking our money promising service that they do not provide!!!!!!!! Customer service agents, supervisor, etc do not have clear answers, the only clear one is the minutes you purchase are NO REFUNDABLES even if they did not provide you with service for you to use them.

Pros: none

Cons: Highly incompetent, poorly trained customer service reps who speak poor English in a robotic manner as if reading from a step by step manual.

Summary: After using this service for 3 years, tracfone just suddenly turned off my service in late DEC.2007. I called cust. service to find out the problem and they said the were changing the service technology in my area and had to send me a new upgraded phone. After receiving their cheapest model,I called back to activate my new phone but was told it would take a 'few 'days. Well, After many frustrating calls and referrals "to my supervisor" my phone was finally activated on 1/11/08. I asked to be compensated with additional minutes for my inconvenience and many hours on the phone in attempting to get my service activated. The cust. rep. went thru 3 "supervisors" to get approval and proceeded to take 1 hr to add 8400 minutes to my phone. I asked if she was sure these were my compensated minutes to keep and she said , "yes I would love to have that many minutes on my phone."I used the phone for two weeks until 1/28/08 when in the middle of a familly emergency my service was cut off again with no warning. I called cust.serv. to see what was going on and they said they added the minutes in error and that the case was being referred to their Fraud Dept. Now this was after many calls and several people hanging up on me. Each time you call the company you must repeat your story over and over until you're blue in the face and still their is little comprehension going on here. I was given rote responses to my questions and went round in circles with this misnamed Department. It should be renamed "Customer Circus" I told cust.serv. I resented their insinuation that I personally had committed some type of fraud ( they kept asking me for proof of purchase receipts and I kept telling them their 'supervisors' approved the compensated minutes and that I as a loyal customer should not be penalized for any possible internal so-called errors)I requested to be connected to someone in upper management to no avail so I went on their website and wrote a scathing letter to management and as of 1/31/08 (more than 48hrs)I have not receveived a response. After calling them yet again to get some of my purchased minutes restored- they had to send me a new sim card-I informed them that I would be pursuing this matter to the fullest through their company' CEO and with the appropriate government agencies regulating their trade and communication activities . What a nightmare company, they need to have their previledge to do business revoked !!!

Pros: I'm not sure there are any.

Cons: Lousy customer service, and a ripoff to boot.

Summary: This is to add on to my previous story. Tracfone refused to refund the money for my phone even though it rarely connected, and my signal strength was weak. Customer service even suggested that my main problem is that I want to use the phone in the evening when it's busy! I told her that they should put a disclaimer on their website that the phones only work at 3 am, but she didn't seem to think I was very funny.

I found a big problem with their plans -- Dont' buy any plan where they promise you a free phone if you buy hours!

It's real easy to miss this fine print on their website: "Refunds will not be provided for any purchases of airtime, prepaid plans or annual service cards which include a phone."

That means that even if they ship you a shoddy product that doesn't work, you are out of luck! The risk is all on you.

The customer service lady actually suggested I sell the time card on ebay to get my money back. Gee, I didn't think she was funny at all!

I told her I'm shipping my phone back whether they want it or not and canceling my credit card payment. They did seem to back down and then told me they would refund me but I have to pay for shipping. I'm not about to pay for shipping -- I'll stuff everything into a prepaid envelope they gave me for the first phone that didn't work.

I don't trust them to refund my money but will see what happens. Just to cover myself I called the credit card company.

You better be very careful about Tracfone deals. I have spent at least 4 hours on the phone with these guys and still don't have a working cell phone. It's all very frustrating.

Pros: I'm not sure there is a pro yet. They did send me a new phone but I'm not sure I will try it.

Cons: Customer support was in El Salvador. They seemed polite but hard to understand and couldn't solve my problem.

Summary: My new phone says it cannot connect to their network. After spending about 90 minutes with tech support entering codes into my phone, their computer system crashed. They didn't call me back which really angered me. They sent me a new phone, but I'm considering cancelling my credit card payment and mailing both phones back. Perhaps I should cut my losses while I can.

Pros: Voice mail, call ID, call waiting and 3-way caling are included.

Cons: Customer service and inaccurate pamphlets.

Summary: I've had the phone 2 days and already I'm dissatisfied. First, they make your zip code the only place that the phone won't be roaming. I wouldn't be upset over that if it was made clear in the pamphlet, BEFORE I bought the phone. Then, they take forever to activate it. I Called to activate the phone on the 28th at 4 PM. At 2 PM the next day, I called to make sure everything was going to plan (since the phone's usually activated within the first couple minutes). After going through the process of giving a 15-digit number multiple times, the service rep says (through a barely comprehendable accent) that the phone should be active in 4 hours. That would be 2 hours past the latest time that the pamphlet says it takes to activate a phone. So false advertising again. Then I had to call customer service again to find out how to check voice mail from a land line. . . because they don't give basic information like that in their "information booklet." If possible, go with Net10. I haven't even used their service before, but it's got to be better than this!

Pros: Excellent coverage, price, easy to use, NO CONTRACTS, great customer service people,

Cons: Not for the type who walks around all day with a cell phone glued to an ear or the gadget lovers who not only want a phone, but also a personal secretary, computer system, musical stereo system, and/or a Star Treck transporter. One must also be patient and civilized while dealing with their phone customer service. The people there are extremely helpful but seem to speak with heavy accents and I don't mean a Southern drawl. Be civilized and patient with them and they will do the same with you. Ge

Summary: No thrills cell phone service that is growing in popularity by the month! I've used cell phones since the "cool" phone to have was a brick-sized monster made by Motorola and Tracfones are my all-time favorite.
Tracfone are cheap, made of good quality, and you can usually get "cellurized" for around $20.00. For those who only use the phone for emergencies, or short calls, you can purchase a 30 minute card for around $10. You can't beat having the securiity of a cell phone at your disposal for $10 a month.
As for coverage, I live in a small town in Central Florida, borderline with the Everglades, and have excellent coverage anywhere I go, including when I'm fishing in the middle of nowhere. You want one better? Remember the year Florida had 4 major hurricanes? Well folks, my Tracfone was the only service operational during and after the storms. My whole family relied on my Tracfone to make/receive calls for a whole week.
Bottom line, if you want to look cool while walking around the mall and talking nonsense on your cell DO NOT use Tracfone, it will cost you a fortune. If all you need is a no-thrill cell that is very inexpensive and reliable, this is the service to go with.

Pros: cheap, easy to use, clear voice quality

Cons: Higher per minute cost

Summary: I wanted to buy phone for my wife so that we can be in touch when she goes for after school activities for my kids or for shopping. After reading reviews on the net and studying all the available deals, I decided to go for "Tracfone". Since we may be using not more than 15 minutes per week, cost per minute was not our selection criteria but ease of using, buying minutes etc. I started the tracfone service after following the instructions given in the booklet, which were easy to understand. Though it was lot of digits to be punched, since it was one time, I did not care. I did it online. I read lot about bad customer service but I was never required to call them at all during installation. Buying minutes was also easy online. So I would highly recommend this phone who rarely use the phone but want it more as security and connectivity.

Pros: No monthly bills.. cheap for my use.

Cons: Customer service is hard to understand.

Summary: I have had 3 different tracfones over the last 5 years, all worked fine for me. Ported phone number OK. Worked in remote off road areas. I do not talk a lot however it has always worked for me. There are areas with no cell phone coverage by any company. Most companies have outsourced their Customer Service overseas and are hard to understand. Just a fact of life in the "Modern" world.

Pros: No contracts, no penalties, no monthly bills, no roaming, Minutes do not expire each month, voicemail notification of messages received is almost always nearly instantaneous, signal strength is very good due to Tracfone's contracts with various carriers. If you invest in the annual plan and one time double minutes programs, cost of use is very reasonable, especially during "prime time" and to other countries (no extra cost). My wife and I have been customers for years and Tracfone's customer s

Cons: It can be difficult and time consuming to get your existing phone number ported over to a new phone.

Summary: I recommend Tracfone for most people who don't use a cell phone a lot and if they don't need a "high end"/ fancy phone.