FreedomPop

TERRIBLE! Returned the sim next day, disputed with my bank, and got over it. I'm going back to Page plus! You can't even get freedompop's return address unless you wait and wait and wait after going through the whole mess of trying to get an authorization! Being that I only got the SIM card package in a regular mailing envelope with no other information, I just cut out that label from the Poway address in Poway California, and sent it back to them. I tested to my bank that I did so and I got my refund.

I have been using FreedomPop phone SIM service, on Sprint network and AT&T, for over 2 years as an economical way to have cell service for my two children for communication with their parents. I can now say with confidence, it was not worth the hassles I have gone through and I likely paid more in the end than using a major carrier. I honestly don't have the time to go through the numerous, almost made me go postal, moments I have had with FreedomPop service, but I will just summarize some of the hassles I have had with them.

-You can not get phone support unless you pay extra. Amazingly, there is no exception to this rule... ever. Even if you are getting charged incorrectly, which I have been.

-The only group you can talk to consistently is sales, of course. I just talked to "Ryan" for example, who sounded a lot more like an Aditya or Ashish, and when I asked for billing support for invalid charges, he would not help me and literally hung up on me while I was calmly explaining to him that their automated support system will not let me through to billing unless I agree to pay for support service. I pay about $35 on average per phone a month, and an extra $26.45 mystery fee, and I have to pay more for call support to know why I'm getting charged the extra $26.45.

-When I added a second sim card for phone back in Aug, I was told my sales that I could port over a Sprint SIM phone number to an AT&T phone. I would just need to call support to port over the number once I had the SIMs. Once I got the SIM cards, I had to pay additional for phone support to talk to someone to try and get the number transferred. Yes, I had to pay for service to get a phone to work with the correct number that sales said it could. The first support person I talked to said I absolutely, without any doubt in her mind, could not transfer the number over. She would not escalate my call either. Eventually, with a lot of calls, I talked to someone at higher level in support that fixed the issue in about 1 minute.

-In Feb of this year my charges mysteriously jumped up about $10 per SIM per month. No explanation given. Again, I can pay extra for support to talk to someone to find out why.

-The phones stopped working a couple months ago for no reason. Again, I had to pay for support to find out why. They told me some ridiculous thing that their account managing system has a expiration period on the plans, even if I'm still paying for service. I have to email them when this happens so they can reset the expiration timer/date?!?!?!? As I think about this again now, I am just amazed by this. I have to remind them to reset a timer on my account, after my phones stop working.

-If the support issues were not enough, these phones require you to use an APP to make calls and to text. You are not using the phones standard features. The APP does link to the iPhone contacts, so you don't have to maintain separate contact lists. The APP is not full featured and is sometimes unstable.

-My daughter has had numerous times when she tried to make calls, or we tried to call her, and the call did not work. This negates the idea of just using these for important calls as I had originally intended.

Beware the Trojan Horse also known as FreedomPop. If you would like to use their free service you will experience nothing but problems. The problem is that the problems change each and every time you try to use the phone. The chance of making a call without a hassle is miniscule because the system blocks the phone periodically. Unfortunately I purchased three phones from FreedomPop. If you're going to have a paid service then FreedomPop is not for you. FreedomPop will nickel and dime you to death and your phone service will cost more than you ever imagined. Just read the other reviews. There is a reason why one star reviews are greater than any other. Buyer beware.~ a PostScript, if you need customer service and your desire is to have someone talk in circles then perhaps you'll be amused.

Low to moderate users can benefit from the FP sims (and phones although I have no personal experience with those).
I have a SIM onthe "free plan" - 200 minutes/texts/mb per month. You can increase the Mb to 700 with FP friends.
I also have an annual 1000 promo that gives 1000 mins/texts and 1gb data per month for an annual charge of $49.99 (again FP friens can increase data to 1.5gb)
You need to go through the downgrade to free process carefully at start up to avoid default charges. Google it to make sure you get it right and your on a $0 a month plan.

I purchased $0.99 SIM card one month FREE trail on November 30th 2017. Since that date I was able to use FP only few days, few days in 2.5 months! One week I was waiting for shipped SIM card, two weeks to unlock my cell phone because MetroPCS phone was not working as promised with installed FP SIM (probably it is my problem, not FP), last week I finally was able to setup everything and made mobile voice calls just before trail expiration. I downgraded my plan to Basic. Immediately I was charged $10. I did not know that there are two things to deal with - plan and service. I canceled my payment method and refunded $10, but FP attempted $26.94 service charge that did not get through. My account was suspended. It took me over one month submitting Support Tickets to figure out what is going on and how to re-activate FREE service. I changed payment method and was immediately charged $26.94 on new credit card.
I disputed the charge. Next day my account was canceled. Well, all I wanted is to try the advertised FREE Basic service. What did I get? No service and definitely not free.
FP trail was a disaster. Always some kind of problems, not working, suspended, canceled...
- Dont even try FP for your main cell phone;
- There is no live customer service unless you pay $6 a month. Any troubleshooting will take you much longer. You will have to read many forum posts to troubleshoot and learn how things work;
- Support Ticket people do not read your post. You will get auto reply of facts that you already know. They do not help at all;
- Your service will be cut off immediately with no warning or grace period if any danger to the "money link";
- Set Automatic top up off and never touch it again! If you turn it on it will cost you additional $5 to turn off again;
- Use spare credit card as payment method because you will have to dispute FP charges and it simpler than deal with PayPal;
- The advertisement of FREE is false. There is absolutely nothing for free at FP. The business model is to get your credit card and charge it all sorts of fees for any your move, providing no service in first place. The amount of all charges will be more than you simply buy $10-$20 a month basic plan from many other MVNOs. (About same time I purchased prepaid MintSIM less than $10/m and it works just fine, hassle free);
- FP does not want your business. FP wants your "money for nothing";

FreedomPop is loaded with hidden charges - even if your billing shows $0 due you may still be charged. They have a variety of hidden "services" that are also billed but aren't considered part of your 'Plan' since they fall under services. Ignore the next payment amount due on their home page and make sure you look at ALL their pages to see what other charges you will incur. It takes a lot of work to get their "free" service to be free. Also note that once you navigate through their maze of hidden charges and get to actually not paying them anything, they will throttle your speed.