FreedomPop

First I have been very patient and understand with this company for about 2.5 years now. I agree they have low prices but that comes with many headaches and stress... but when it's down to them being liars and thieves, it's the last straw.

Here is the long story, but covers alot:

In mid 2016 they had bundle of a used phone and 1 year of unlimited text/talk, 1 gb data for about $250. Steep but I needed a phone and plan. I paid $10 to port my number over and did not work, I was promised a refund for that and never got it. So lost of $10 and lied to. Upon using the device, I found out I cannot use group text/chat with my family. Then I had to cough up another $20 for this service by FP. I barely use the phone but it's hit and miss with both phone calls and texts. The very next year before I can switch I already got charged, they do this a month beforehand to make sure you are stuck. Well, they overcharged me by $20. They charged me twice for group texting and took nearly a week for them to refund me after threat of chargeback.

A few months gone by and my son broke the phone. I asked them what phone I can get to continue using their service because my family donated an unlocked phone to me. They told me I have to go to their shop and buy one that said CDMA on it. The one I got was GMS and wont work. I could not afford their crazy prices so I waited a bit more.

Then they had a prepaid plan the same as mine for way, way cheaper at $50 so I got one and a preown unlock phone to use this time. Activation and again paid extra $20 for group texting. However I was told after a year I cannot use the card and will have to buy a more expensive one that they have. Note when I bought this off of Best Buy, it said it can be renew for the same rate... one said this while their ticket reps said not true. After a good dozens of messages and a claim with the BBB, their supervisor said it can be renew for the same price. This was important because I need to port the number over and cancel the other account I have with them before they charge me hundreds again.

Service has been crappy to be honest, missing calls and but at least the texts are fine. A few months ago, I keep getting a 2mb data usage out of nowhere but
Never affected me because I don't use up any data to begin with. Less
Than a week ago they had a update to their messaging app and I did that.
Right away I got message I used near my max, first time ever but still
Under the 1gb. This was at the end of my last cycle. Then on Nov 26 I
Went out and the first thing I got was I used all my data and need to
Top off. I wasn't able to use my phone at all. I came home and check my
Usage online and saw they drained my entire 1gb for the month in less
Than 50 mins (35 mins to be exact, from 7:15 - 7:50 pm)on Nov 24 at around 7ish pm. I as at home on wifi with
Their data turned off as usual. I checked my phone and saw it was
Running in the background when I turned of data already. Wow, I checked
The months before and notice each month my data usage keep going up and
Used all by their app. I have on option for my phone to switch to wifi
At home or anywhere that has it and manually check each time for more
Than 2+ years with them so I know for sure. My phone showed them running
In the backgound on their own. So all my month's data gone 50min on the
First day of cycle and I no longer able to use my phone. I called but
Not allow to speak to them unless I paid a monthly fee. Either I top
Off, which mean keep paying $20 each time just to having them drained
Data within mins, even when you are not using your phones. The only app
That used all this was their app. I have other running which uses less
Than a few megs each for the whole cycle. Also, beware if you add your
Cc to your account, they will charge you out of nowhere.

Had a FreedomPop phone for a couple of years and barely used it. Maybe once a year or so my son would fly into town and we'd use it to connect at the airport. Most of those times I'd discover that phone had been disabled due to my not using it. So I'd never get to use it the few times I wanted to. Then unfortunately my son accidentally threw it away and I had to get a new phone. New phone came with conditions that were certainly not understood by me. I just wanted phone I could use for the basic plan, can't afford monthly fees. It's been 4 months of back and forth with them via email and today they tell me they've cancelled my account because I disputed their fees with my credit card company. Cannot be reinstated so now I have a phone I cannot use and no emergency phone. I told them I demanded then that they refund my money for the phone as it still is in original packaging and has never been opened. I believe they're going to say no because it was not within 30 days (even though we've communicated since June on this).

I signed up for a free account because I wanted to try it out but they charged me a "Top Off" credit without my consent! This was before I even started using it. I knew from there it was a bogus service designed to rope people in but make it hard to leave and charge erroneous fees in a shoot first ask questions later type of deal. Now I'm trying to cancel my account and I already tried on multiple devices but it won't let me. When I click on the button, it does nothing. Super shady! Stay away. Sprint has a free 1 year offer that I might try, otherwise I'll stick to MintSIM for $15/mo.

This is an awful and unethical company.

I ordered their equipment on 9/17/2018 which included a free 7-day trial subscription. The equipment was never sent. On 10/01/2018, I reported the issue to PayPal. On 10/03/2018, I received a message from FreedomPop advising me that the equipment had been sent to me.

On 10/09/18, the equipment arrived. The equipment required charging. On 10/10/2018, after the equipment was charged I tried accessing to connect the Internet every attempt to do so, but failed. I contacted FreedomPop via email and received an automated message that it would take 24 to 48 hours to respond.

Later, the same day, I received a message from PayPal advising me that I authorized FreedomPop to withdraw $15 from my checking account. I never authorized the charge. Furthermore, I was enrolled in a free of charge 7-day trial.
A few minutes after reading PayPal's email, FreedomPop sent me an email advising me I had used up all of my allotted GB's (gigabytes).

I contacted Paypal and discovered FreedomPop submitted 7 requests to debut my checking account. Upon learning what FreedomPop had done, I submitted a request to cancel the transaction but the money was nonetheless taken from my checking account on 10/11/2018.

I wrote to FreedomPop advising them they charged my checking account without authorization and that I wanted to cancel their service. FreedomPop replied they were "sorry" to see me leave. I accessed my FreedomPop account and their policy advised me that if I cancel, all exchanges between myself and their company would be deleted. I copied the messages sent from me to them and their replies and afterwards, cancelled my account. This company misrepresents what it offers and perpetrates deceitful and even abusive billing practices. BUYER BEWARE.

I don't know where to begin... I have heard nothing but lies out of FreedomPop. It started on day one, September 1,2018. I made the big mistake of ordering from them a device for internet service. Afterwards I did some more digging for information then decided to cancel that order. The same day. That's where the trouble began. You can not find anybody to talk to! It "sagest" you go to here... after you go there it tells you to go someplace else... you go there and it tells you to go to the first place you went to. A circle and you never get to anybody or site to cancel. After finally finding a phone number and calling you get the lies. They started there. I call my bank they tell me what to do. I waited a day or two call FreedomPop back because the charge to my account has not been removed. The bank has to continue until FreedomPop tells them to remove it... which the never do. FreedomPop says as long as there is a dispute filed with the bank they can do nothing to my account. I get with the bank they say there is no dispute filed. Okey... I tell FreedomPop who then puts the blame on PayPal. PayPal says same as bank. FreedomPop says upon digging in their files they see where a refund was issued on September 3. I get with PayPal who says and shows me that there is no refund from FreedomPop on file. I've lost count on how many lies FreedomPop has given me.
FreedomPop is a no good place to deal with. Not at all. I would hate to think what would happen if I had bought then something happened to the device...?! Mercy... the courts would have to be involved. Which may be where this goes.
Please,. DO NOT DEAL WITH FREEDOMPOP IN ANYWAY! If they treat their customers like they treat me (which I'm sure they do) their product is no good. A No Good Company... Managed by No Good; s... with No Good products. Don't Deal with FreedomPop!

Freedom Pop proves that you CAN go wrong with a "free" service
Here is my list of grievances with Freedom Pop, please read before you try their service!

TLDR: You can't answer your calls, they hold your voicemail hostage, they hijack your phone number if you port it to them, and their customer service ignores you.

1) the Alcatel phone they bundle with their service is so slow and laggy that I often could not get the screen to load in time to answer calls, so I would miss the calls
2) there is no basic voicemail service, the visual voicemail is the only option to retrieve messages, and it is behind a paywall. Essentially, they hold your voicemail hostage and send you texts to let you know that you have a message that you cannot access without paying for it
3) When I actually answer the calls in time, I do not actually get connected more than half of the time. The line is silent for a while, then the call drops.
4) IMPORTANT: They will hijack your ported number. You cannot port your number from Freedom Pop to other common carriers. When I tried to port my number to Cricket, they did not show it as a valid, portable number. My wife and I both had Verizon phones before I tried Freedom Pop. I ported my Verizon number to Freedom Pop, then when their service proved impossible to use, my wife and I both decided to switch to Cricket; her Verizon number ported fine, my Freedom Pop number would not.
5) Customer service is also behind the paywall. They allow you to send emails for free, but as far as I could tell, they didn't actually care when I sent my complaints. I sent several in my frustration, trying to give them time to fix things so that I could get my number ported to Cricket, but although I got a message telling me that they have escalated my issue, I have not heard from them for two weeks.

Please do NOT waste your time and money trying Freedom Pop! They are THE WORST!
If you choose to ignore that warning, at least don't port your phone number over, you will never see it again!

Freedom Pop sounded great Got phone upgraded for 32,99 - but no voice mail and call keep fropping
So ordered another Phone and kept first one for a back up

2nd phone was even worse a lg3 black
Nothing worked on it

Took me 2 weeks to get freedom pop to agree to replace the 2nd phone

Have not received it after sending 1st back over two weeks ago but back up phone stopped sending rexts and I have an unlinites plan but get error "You are out of text balance Please upgrade your plan" Again I have unlimited texting I did and was charged an additional 16.99 and my textx still does not work

Reps must not be in the US - YOU can tell by the words they use in the emails

I am sick of getting an email that starts with "I am sorry"

All i ask for is something that works

I returned a non-working phone to FreedomPop all on June 18th. After many emails and no refund, I was told the issue would be "escalated". Still no refund so I did a dispute for the charge on my card. FreedomPop's response was to cancel my account. This was the 3rd non-wroking phone bought from them and didn't credit me when it was returned so you all cancel my account. The terms state that you have to contact customer service prior to going to the financial institution. I sent 6 emails with no refund so I went to my financial institution. FreedomPop is claiming I didn't follow their terms. But I did. Scam!

When I purchased my Sim kit, I tried to pay with PayPal. Because it didn't immediately go through, I was prompted to use a credit card & I did. I was setting this phone line up for my elderly mother. After an aggravating startup, everything was fine until my account was canceled because PayPal didn't pay (nevermind the fact I paid with my debit/visa). When calling to inquire about this, I was on hold for 18 minutes & then hung up on. I called back & held for approximately 12 minutes to be told I can never have an account there because I stopped the PayPal payment, although they took $17.98 from my bank account. I lost $17.98, my mother has no phone or phone service, & I am highly displeased with this company/experience.

There was a time when Freedompop was great. But now I would not recommend them to an enemy. Me, and many other customers, have been without voicemail service for over two months now. They also use deceptive tactics to bill you for services that you did not opt in to and top ups that you did not specifically agree to. Be careful. There are better, more honest discount services available.

I bought the hot spot service in hopes that it would work in specific, somewhat remote locations. It didn't. In fact, it couldn't even provide a weak signal. Worth mentioning, my cell phone worked fine in these locations, so we're not talking about extremely remote areas. While I was disappointed in FreedomPop for their inability to get a signal as advertised (and I asked about these specific areas before buying), it was their deceptive and arguably fraudulent behavior afterwards that has led me to write this review. Once it was clear that FreedomPop was not capable of doing what I needed, I downgraded my plan to the "Free" service and quit using the hot spot entirely. The downgraded plan was supposed to give me the option to use the service if I wanted to, but only be charged for actual usage (albeit at a much higher rate). There was to be no monthly plan charge. However, even after email confirmation of my downgrade to the Free plan, FreedomPop continued to charge my credit card every month, sometimes more than once, with unusual charges of $8.99, $9.99, $15.00, $34.99, etc. Trying to resolve with Jose in customer service begins a journey like no other. He tells me that after I downgraded, I still had additional services and multiple accounts active! Seriously? I went back and looked at my original sign up, and there was only one service and no additional accounts. I didn't even know you could have multiple accounts. There is no documentation, not even fine print, that suggests I signed up for multiple accounts and additional services. Nevertheless, Jose continued to quip things like "it took one month for us to approve your downgrade (really? One month to approve a downgrade)", "you were confirmed to have additional services (there is no documentation that shows I purchased anything beyond a single monthly plan)", etc. Ultimately, I had to get my bank to intervene and reverse the erroneous charges. My view is that their practices border on fraud and deception. My strong recommendation is to stay away.

They would not give my a refund for a phone and service i never used. They would not answer my phone calls or and were my questions through email. I was ready to file a small claim please do that if they are giving you trouble. They are not worth the headache. They are basically thieves with a business licence. There is even a face book group called victims of freedom pop. I am really surprised why this company still exists. I bet you the people writing the good reviews are the people who work for the company, and that is part of their job. If they have not give you your refund, let them know you will file a claim