TracFone had advertisements on the NBC Today show (7:40 AM & 8:10 AM). I’ve owned a TracFone for a decade. My former phone would only pick up an AT&T signal. However, I lived in Verizon territory (Waxhaw, North Carolina, and Livingston, Texas). Read about my battle to get an instrument that would pick up a signal from a Verizon tower within sight of my residence.

TracFone Nightmare

TracFone Nightmare – Part Two

TracFone Nightmare – Part Three

TracFone sleuth

TracFone response (finally)

TracFone service at long last

Visitor to this blog message: Please do your homework before you invest in a TracFone.

On the Consumer Affairs web site, on Nov. 14, 2014, Daniel of Oak Lawn wrote:

I spent so many hours on the phone trying to transfer my minutes. I tried going to my old phone because I lost my android tracfone. They did the transfer and said, “Oh the sim card is not working.” I waited then got the sim in the mail. Called back. “Oh that sim card isn’t working”… then they called me back. At this point my time on the phone with them was hours and hours. “Oh the reason why we can’t transfer your minutes is because you had an android and we can only transfer to an android.” Thanks for telling me now.

I go buy an android and spend the next 3 hours on the phone. They keep repeating “what’s your father’s middle name for verification?” I never gave you that info and I tell them my father’s name. “Oh that’s incorrect.” Finally I pull up my email and tell them when I had the phone registered and they are able to verify me after 3 hours. The guy has me on hold for like 30 minutes and finally gets the transfer. I say, “what do you do for people like me? Can I at least get some complimentary minutes?” “No sir we have a process and if you don’t know the verification information you gave us we can help you.” I know my own father’s middle name and I know I never gave it to them. Unfortunately English is a second language to every tracfone worker. You get what you pay for.

Don’t settle for this company. It’s not worth the stress. Nightmare after nightmare after nightmare you will read in the website. It is all true and they are extremely robotic and impersonal. STAY AWAY, support American jobs for people who deserve your business.

On Nov. 8, 2014, Brian wrote:

This is a scam from your company, and I will go without a phone before I pay another dime to you!!!….My GrandMother passed away and wanted to transfer her remaining minutes to my number….. You said you could if I wanted her phone number…. I don’t want her phone number……. there are 0 service days on her phone and I have 10 years of service time…….. Your policy sucks for the honest customer……. All you care about is charging hardworking people more money……… Not this veteran…… I hope you sleep well, while ripping off the public…. I am also sending this to the BBB…… You can explain it to them.

On Nov. 8, 2014, Steven of Orleans, MA, wrote:

I paid for airtime for a new trac phone, went thru activation process and then dialed number to activate phone and got recording that number is not in service. They have my money for the phone, money for airtime and a useless phone.

On Nov. 7, 2014, Steven of Overland Park, KS, wrote:

I went online and purchased a year’s worth of minutes (1050) for one of our two cell phones. However, the company put the minutes on the wrong phone (our 2nd phone, not the phone number I entered online). In calling back to get it corrected, I was told they had no way of correcting that. Then later in the call the rep told me he could refund the purchase and then help me buy the minutes for the right phone. Since I didn’t have the phone with me and couldn’t give him the serial number, he said to call later with a reference number and they could handle it. In calling that night, I was told they could do nothing and I should call my credit card company to have the charge taken off and then re-buy minutes. I called again the next day and talked to a person identifying herself as the Operations Manager who said they could do nothing about it. I asked what could be done since they had put the minutes on the wrong phone and she said that was done online so no one could do anything.

On Nov. 5, 2014, Russell of Peyton, CO, wrote:

If you file an FCC complaint TF will call YOU and work to resolve the complaint from their tech center in Florida. These people work overtime to keep the FCC from shutting their operation down. An FCC complaint is the only dog in the fight that will get their attention. After ten years of fantastic TracFone (TF) service, ‘the fat lady began singing’ in June 2014. In June I bought my daughter a brand new TracFone and attempted to activate it via land-line call to tech support. Technician asked for my TF phone number to access my account. This is where it all went downhill. He activated my daughter’s phone and assigned it my phone number which immediately render my phone inoperable and the 300+ minutes I had accumulated vaporized.

They quickly resolved my daughter’s phone with a new SIM card and phone number in 5 days (Great!). BUT.. I spend the next 2 months without a phone as tech support sent me SIM card after SIM card promising me that the new card would restore my phone and my number. Don’t yell at the tech support guys, they just do as they are trained, and they are not trained well. The seventh (!) SIM card finally worked and my number was restored, but I had to file a complaint with the FCC to get my minutes back, and then they told the FCC that they gave me 300 minutes as compensation for the inconvenience. Nonsense! Those 300 minutes were bought and paid for by me long before TF deleted them.

Now a month after getting everything back on track, they spontaneously deleted my minutes! But now I have a direct dial phone number to their Corporate Tech support office in Florida, and get to speak to the same person each time! File your complaint with the FCC and save yourself some frustration. If the FCC sees a sharp increase in complaints against a particular carrier, they can fine the carrier, or possibly suspend their operating license – TracFone won’t let this happen, they will work to resolve your complaint. By law, they must respond to the FCC and you must acknowledge that your complaint was adequately addressed.

On Nov. 5, 2014, Gary of Santee, CA, wrote:

I ordered and paid for a Tracfone online, but they won’t deliver it unless I sign for it in person. I was not informed of this until after the purchase. This is unacceptable. It is completely unreasonable to expect me to stay home all day waiting for a $20 item. Tracfone will not respond to my emails or answer my calls requesting a refund. They’re only interested in the sale, not customer service.

On Oct.28, 2014, Peggy of Mendon, MO, wrote:

I have had TracFone for years never really had a problem until just over a week ago when I bought a new phone. So I get new phone and have number from old phone put on it and want a number on the old one so my son could use it. So they send me a sim card. Here is where the problems started. Instead of putting a new number on the old phone they put the old one back on the old phone. So now she tells me we have to wait for a new sim card. They were to send two sim cards after second call that day.

New sim card shows up but only 1 and they put old number back on new phone but can’t do anything with old phone until a new sim card comes in, so now have to wait again. Sim card got here this morning and they ask what number, I said, “phone does not have a number, do you want my 4th ticket number?” So she goes and does everything and says to try phone after all done blah blah blah. So I try and call new phone with old phone so son’s number would be on it and once again unregistered sim on new phone.

So I call back madder than a hornet’s nest, lady was like “we are gonna send new sim” and I said “I better get my minutes I bought and still have my number.” Husband took phone from me and told the lady I better get some extra minutes for the crappy service I have had to put up with and no phone and I have to drive with no phone hoping I don’t hit another deer and no way to call if I do. Harvest time around here means more deer crossing roads and I drive to and from work at the peak time for them to cross. How hard is it to do this simple task.

Lorraine here; note what Chris, and Chen, had to say.

On Oct. 22, 2014, Chris of Albany, NY, wrote:

Stay away from this company. My phone was not working and I needed to make urgent call… The customer service folks are complete dumb and can barely speak in English. The customer service call will land up somewhere in South America. Very bad connection and very difficult to communicate. They charged my credit card and I never received the minutes. When I requested for refund… they kept transferring me from one department to another, and kept me on the phone for 45 minutes… and kept asking the same questions 3-4 times like what my serial numbers, I should restart my phone, etc. It is worthless company. Please stay away. Sooner or later you will have bad experience with this ** company.

On Oct. 19, 2014, Chen of Ankeny, IA, wrote:

I just purchased a new LG 440G to replace my old Motorola170, which I’d had for seven years. I had 852.8 units left on my old phone and tried to transfer them online, but could only transfer 80 units. I called Tracfone, and explained the problem, but they insisted that I only had 80 units on the old phone. At that point I asked to speak to a supervisor, which ended up being a nerve-racking experience. I was on the phone for an hour, entering various codes, to try to transfer my minutes, not being able to understand the foreigner I was speaking with. As it turned out, she transferred 820 units, which means I lost at least 32 units, and the only explanation I could get was, this was all she could transfer, because my Motorola phone was so old. Interestingly enough, my husband recently purchased an Alcatrel Tracfone, to replace his old phone, and the same thing happened to him. Buyer beware…. don’t try to replace a Tracfone with a newer model, or this will probably happen to you too. Very poor customer service!

Lorraine here; read this complaint on Pissed Consumer–and this complaint. ~~ Read this on Ripoff Report.

This complaint from c/net:

Have never even used service.  I cannot get passed their insane customer service.  They don’t speak English.  They don’t understand English.  They don’t understand what you say.  They have managers who lie. Their managers don’t speak English.  They kept me waiting for a phone for a week, when I called them they told me they stopped shipment.  They couldn’t understand why it was stopped.  They didn’t bother to contact me.  Now, 2 weeks later…still waiting.  Now they have shipped me the wrong phone.  I have NEVER dealt with such idiots!!!!  Not even my ex-husband can top this!!  I really just want to smash the phone in the road, Run it over 5 times and go crawling back to my overpriced Verizon.

Nothing can prepare a person for the level of frustration they will experience when dealing with this company.  All roads and conversations lead you in the same never ending circle.  YOU GET NOWHERE!!!   I have now had 5 calls with these people.  Lost time from work.  Still miserable.  RUN FROM THIS COMPANY.