TracFoneReviews 362

When I call on my Tracfone the name that appears on caller ID is not mine. I have made numerous attempts to have this problem corrected but the other name remains connected to my phone. Why this happened and how it can be fixed seems to be of no concern to the tech support people. Each time I call them I must go through all the same details over and over with no corrections. I have had to talk to operators with little understanding and waited for call backs that never came. I was told it was a glitch but that hardly explains how their programs could do this to my phone with no specific instructions from me? What a crappy service!

06/24/2022
So now I have learned that to use another ID, not your own, when calling calling on your cell phone can be determined to be fraud. This is a federal regulation resulting in a 10,000 dollar fine, per instance. I have tried again just today to insist that Tracfone to fix this as it is not due to actions taken by me. I am being told I should change the ID on this device myself. So all this is very curious to me, as I told the agent of the phone company, "what is to stop anyone from switching their ID anytime to anyone?" does that seem like a working function on any US regulated phone? Well I spent a fair amount of time trying to do what the rep. Had said I needed to do to fix the problem, guess what? There is no such function on my phone as the name window isn't interactive by the user! How can these people stay in business?

Bought a one year plan Cell phone will not work in most of Vermont asks for a CC number or pin # I am from Vermont Data will not work spent over ten hours on the phone with them trying to get it fixed they couldn't so I asked for a refund and they refused paid for service and did not get any. I would not use them terrible service and they hardly speak English they are from the Philippines and do not know what they are doing

Intermittent system performance, customer service is world's worst. Website is completel worthless, voice support is some 4th world country staffed by ignoramuses who know less about their own system than my dog does. A HORRIBLE excuse for a phone (sic) system

To send the SIM card $20 plus tx but my phone would not activate. They just kept the money and started charging monthly. Because I don't have an account, they cannot stop charging me! Talked to 6 agents and supervisors. 3hours! They dumped me back in queue or just hung up, when they did not know what to do. They say I will get a refund, but I will have to pay my bank to stop their charges. Unbelievable.

I have never in my life experienced such poor quality customer service. The first problem I had with them was when they erased approximately $70 dollars worth of data and minutes from my account. I kept asking to speak with the manager. When I finally got her she told me there was no record of my account and that I must have been mistaken. She talked down to me told me I was wrong and hung up. More recently I signed up for auto-renew for a $5 dollar discount in the first 2 months. I only got it the first month. I've only stayed with them since the phone can't be transferred to another carrier. Avoid this company at all costs!

I've been having a problem with my phone it keeps freezing and it drops calls and I can't use apps due to it constantly freezing up on me, I tried calling customer service but they couldn't resolve my problem and barely spoke English

Had to get a new phone in March. Still doesn't work. Countless hours on the phone. Do not recommend. They are awful!

I have had Tracfones for over 10 yrs. Used as backup phones and had one for each child in school. Paid for 90 days in mid-March. The minutes were added, but I immediately got a text that could not use because I had to upgrade. 4/1/22: While replacement was activating, phone shut off and would not turn on. Customer service had me try everything before admitting the phone was defective. Asked if I wanted the return label mailed or emailed. I chose email. Lady offered to transfer minutes to another Tracfone. I declined. The email delivered had NO BARCODE for UPS to scan. UPS said the email was corrupt. Tracfone re-sent same useless email 3x even to different email address. Told me that UPS could just use the numbers and create a barcode in the store. Tracfone now refused to mail me a return label. They also refused to transfer the minutes because suddenly it could not be determined that I owned the phone because I had no credit card associated with account (I buy the cards at the store) and could not provide the two phone numbers they thought were my most called numbers. I paid $13 and shipped the phone back to them for replacement #2. UPS confirmed delivery on Wed. After a week, I asked Tracfone again to just transfer the minutes. Now they said that the phone I would transfer it to had to lose all its minutes before the transfer. They said they would transfer minutes to a new replacement phone and activate it before sending. Instead they cancelled my number, ALL 2696 minutes I had accumulated over the years and sent me a phone with no service even though I had paid thru 6/13. Customer service then made a statement about it being a government phone because I had no credit card associated with account and was not enrolled in their reward program (with its constant annoying texts). They refused to "approve my benefits to ADD minutes that I "claimed" to have". How about TRANSFERRING my minutes and service that I paid for. Thank God they do not have my credit card number.
5/7/22 end: 4 hrs and 45 minutes with customer service. $20 plan could never use a minute of. $13 to UPS to get a phone with nothing on it.

I've used Tracfone since 2011 and always loved it. Very easy to refill my service plans online; never took more than ten minutes to buy and add a plan. Now Verizon has acquired it, and like everything else Verizon, it's a mess.

Tonight I tried to refill my Tracfone with only a minute of airtime left, and have to hope I won't have car trouble tomorrow, because it was simply impossible. I spent several hours, including the time wasted trying to talk to US Bank on my Verizon Home Phone, which didn't convey the account numbers I keyed in, trying to make this simple renewal. Finally decided to add another credit card, and this was impossible too. It looked as if I had added it, but it didn't save, when I tried to confirm my order I got an error message, "Sorry, we cannot process your order at this time." Tried to login over and over, eventually had to complete Captchas (did this several times, correctly), and then it didn't accept the user name it had accepted before, and "Continue" was greyed out.

Hope I can upload this review, because my Verizon internet keeps going offline too.

Nothing Verizon ever seems to work properly, and now they have acquired Tracfone - something that DID work - and spoiled that too. Thanks a lot, Verizon.

Update, 5/8/22: I tried again to refill, and there is no reason on earth why it should not have worked. I got the same message again: "We cannot process your transaction at this time." The credit card is 100% correct, and so is everything else I've done to get this refilled. It gets up to the confirmation point, then gives the error message. That is pure Verizon. Tracfone was excellent before.

May 9: I've tried several times since writing the review, but am unable to even login. Today I tried the customer service number and was told the wait was more than 40 minutes. Decided to stick it out, but after about 10 minutes my Verizon Home Phone began to beep regularly. Hanging up and trying again does not help. All it does when I lift the receiver is beep.

May 9,5 PM: After spending 3 1/2 hours on the phone with Tracfone support, I GOT MY MINUTES! (I got the Home Phone working again by removing and replacing the battery.) The first representative was unable to get any of three credit cards to work. (Or so she said - Verizon is very crooked; see my other review.) The second representative needed only to use one credit card, put the airtime into my account, and eventually - this was not a quick process either - I got a text message that the airtime and service days had been added! And indeed they are on my phone. I told her she was a genius.

No idea why I had to try the website for five days and speak to reps from 1:30 to 5 PM to add airtime to a Tracfone. This was previously a very easy process. Maybe Verizon bought Tracfone to kill the competition. But I can tell you that, if you are very patient and persistent, and willing to talk to reps on the phone until you are almost too hoarse to speak, it can still be done.

Android phone stopped working, could not receive or make calls as of March 16,2022. Called tracfone almost every day about this problem. Spent 3-4 hrs on phone with agents, repeating same info with each one. On 2 occasions I was disconnected FOUR times, each time placed on hold only to repeat info all over again. My last call on 4/19 was the last when a "corporate manager" stated she could not help me, that she has to transfer me to "a corporate manager". Was disconnected (second time). I paid $39 in March to renew phone plan, and cannot use phone for calls!

I was on the phone with 3 different reps, the last one was the most frustrating phone call I've ever had in my life, and I'm 73 years old. She asked me the same questions at least 5 time each. Turn off the phone off, on 5 different time. She said stand by a window to get a good reception, I stood out on my porch, she wanted to know how many bars I got, I said nothing. I told her I was not going to stand on my front porch every time I wanted to make a phone. That's not the worst part, she said Wi-Fi has nothing to do with it, I had an excellent Wi-Fi connection. I finally told her if she ask me one mor time to shut off the phone, I would hang up, that's what I did. She promised if I pay for a plan in advance, she promised she would activate the phone for me, after two hours that never happened, now I have to dispute the charge on my credit card. At one point she said I went over my minutes, Duh, the phone was never activated so that would be impossible, LOL

Every month, there's some glitch somewhere that cancels my account or resets my data to zero no matter what my balance. Phone call after phone call after phone call and even then, their system doesn't update until the "new" info is "system generated." They're trying to run their data on weak processors and it shows. I'm shopping for anyone else.

Since 2013 I have been buying 100 minutes from Tracfone each year to make sure I have a working emergency phone with airtime. In February 2022 I bought my usual 100 minutes to renew for another year. Three weeks later I get an email that a week prior the wireless network which provided my service shut down and my phone stopped being supported. Their phony offer of a "free" VoLTE compatible phone was a joke. They were out of those. They had plenty for sale, but the "free" ones were gone. I asked for a refund for the airtime service the were now not going to provide me but they said it was against policy. I disputed with my credit card issuer and they are now fighting that. So basically, for $102 I get about two weeks of service and then a big middle finger, and they are now clinging to my money tighter than a vampire feeding on a corpse. STAY AWAY FROM TRACFONE. All they sell is disappointment.

Just got a new Tracfone thru HSN, seemed like a great deal but...
When I call my home phone caller ID says "Spam Risk", I can't use as is since many won't answer the phone when seeing that. Wasted several hours with Customer DISservice trying to correct, much time on hold with no answer when I finally spoke with someone and 3 promises thru chat of a callback within 15 minutes, all of which have resulted in NO callback after several hours. I don't know if HSN will accept it as defective but it sure as hell is, and so is Tracfone's alleged Customer Service!

So I have 3 lines with Tracfone. You don't get a lot of data for the money, so I decided to Port the lines out with Cricket Wireless, the phones should be unlocked I assumed I paid for them full price with a debit card, I did not finance them nor sign a contract. All 3 were ordered online. Well assuming I owed the phones since I paid for the phone's, thats a joke. You have to pay 150 dollars per line to unlock the phone's. Hmm. Phone's I paid for up front no contract on a month to month service? Odd because my AT&T phone once it was paid off was mine and I ported it so how is it that this company owns your phone even though you pay for it up front. Apparently when you buy a Tracfone you have to keep it for a year before switching which is absurd for a pre paid non contract company to do. The plans cost more with less data. Sure there's unlimited talk and text the max gigs is 2-5. That's not very many for the price of 40 dollars. I now have to buy 3 new phones to port my numbers which I'll gladly do over ever having to deal with this company ever again. I told the customer service representative that I will go ahead and mail back the phone's because tracfone owns them they stated they don't and there is no contract and yet I still was unable to unlock the device because I didn't have service on a phone we just purchased for my son for his Birthday, my account however and phone numbers have been active for years but since the device itself was new I was unable to unlock it. I am super disappointed in this company and will never ever ever ever recommend them to anyone ever again. I just can not believe how they could still "own" my pre paid no contract phone I purchased full price.

I've been lied to, hung up on, wasted time with customer service. TracFone has customer service and all of it is bad.

They do not deserve 1 star.
In over 3 hours on the phone I have been transferred 9 times, disconnected 4 and it's not over yet.
They continue to want to send a code to set up the new phone that's not working because they can't get it set up.
I worked in customer service for IBM for over 20 years followed with over 17 years of Apple support, part of it Apple Certified support.
Tracfone support is some of the worst I've ever encountered. It's as though they have no idea how their business works. I realize it's a complicated environment supporting multiple devices and manufacturers but it seems they don't understand the basics of their core. The appearance is that they are completely incompetent.
RESOLUTION: I didn't count but likely the 15th or so person had me push a software update on the iPhone. The phone worked as soon as it rebooted. Previous software release was February 10 and my battle began March 31. Over two days I ended up with approximately 8 hours on the phone with at least a dozen transfers and eight disconnects.

Since3/15/2022 I have been trying daily to get service to the new ORBIC phone they sent me and can't get verification code and when representative said she entered it at her end it still wasn't activated. Asked for a different phone tobe sent but no deal so I am giving up when my service runs out 5/15/2022

-3 gig data disappeared after a forced update to my phone. They would not credit it back
-I was paid up 3 months ahead, but auto charged my debit card without any notice.
-They would not allow me to delete my debit card number from their site or chat
-They would not allow me to stop the autocharge service from their site or chat

I've now wasted 5 hours trying to get help and have gotten nothing resolved.