Customer Reviews

Nokia 5180i TracFone Prepaid Cell Phone with 10 FREE MINUTES

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Have had my TracFone for a couple weeks now. Set-up on the internet was no problem and did receive the extra minutes for doing so. Find the phone to be a bit on the heavy side and bulky. Does not fit in a pocket very well unless wearing a jacket. Battery charge does not last the 250 hours on stand-by as the Nokia book states it should. Get about 48 at most in a digital area.

Potential buyers may be warned that TracFone "piggy-backs" with different carriers across the US. My local carrier is Verizon Digital. The Nokia Phone features such as voice mail indicator and text messaging do not work in my service area. As I purchased the phone to free up my land line for job hunting, the voice mail indicator is important to me. Have missed calls not having this feature. Had to call the outsourced customer service in India many times before they finally admitted text messaging and voice mail indication is not offered by Verizon in my area. If you do not like using the outsourced customer service reps, and are still having problems, ask them for the customer service number in Miami. I just wish they would be more truthful to customers about what services are offered by their various carriers.

One last thing, beware your unused pre-paid units are not refundable.

I received a new Tracfone as a Christmas gift from my husband. We attempted to activate the phone for 10 days. We used the internet site, it was down. We tried the phone contact, it was down with heavy traffic, or involved a long wait. We kept waiting. Email contact netted a standard computer reply after 4 days from the initial inquiry directing us to use the company website. We continued to call and call the 800 number. We finally reached someone after 5 days and supposedly our phone was to be activated. It didn't activate properly. Again we contacted customer service and were told our phone was "used". Next we received a shuffle around through various managers. They finally stated we would need to reactivate and wait another 24-48 hours. We'd also have to eat 6 days of service because they stated our contract would be up one year from the initial phone contact even though we've had no service. Don't waste your time or money. We're trying to return our phone (didn't get to use it), although if you buy a prepaid card, they are nonrefundable. Our lesson learned, prepaid services may provide a phone but stick you with no service.

My husband and I have had Tracfones for about one year. It is a perfect plan for us, as neither of us enjoys talking on the phone very much and had no desire for another monthly bill. The Tracfone is ideal as long as you promise yourself you won't use it to make those "So, I'm here in the aisle at Wal-Mart ... what are you doing?" calls.

My complaints are that the live customer service is AWFUL, but fortunately you can do pretty much everything on the website, and that the voicemail feature is impossible to figure out.

The phone itself is good, appears to be sturdy enough, basic features, but the Tracfone prepaid service leaves much to be desired. For starters, it is nearly impossible to get in touch with a live person, if you need to speak with someone on a customer service issue. Emails are usually returned within 24-48 hours, but sometimes don't even address your original question. My biggest beef is the minutes deducted. When traveling out of one's local area, sometimes a validation code must be entered in order to "prove" you're who you say you are. Tracfone deducts minutes each time, even though the cellular company announcement says "this is a free call." So let's say you are in the NYC area, and want to make a call ... you must first be validated (once per 12-24 hours), which knocks off 2-4 units (1-2 minute call, in roaming mode), THEN you get to make your call. And if for some reason you get a "Your call cannot be placed" message? Forget it -- those minutes are GONE. Keep these things in mind, if you are using this for an emergency phone. I was left walking in this past weekend's blizzard up on Long Island, searching for a payphone, when Tracfone wouldn't come through for me. I'll continue to use them in my local area, as my only cell phone use is to check messages or make important calls, but I'll not make the mistake of depending on them again when traveling.

We bought two Trac phones for the kids. Between the horrible features of this phone as well as the expensive cards. If that's not enough, when you buy more minutes and try to install them either by calling Trac Phone or through their web site, it doesn't work and it takes them over a week to get the minutes in the phone. They don't even try to you happy. They just are miserable to deal with! Don't waste your time or money. Tracphone is just not worth the time or aggravation for the activation!

The phone is nice and has good features. I bought this for my son for Christmas. He was so happy he told all his friends. Well at the end of Jan. the phone still was not activated. I called 4 times. Customer service sucks. I do not think any of them new english that well. And then one guy was trying to explain to me that the phone won't work without singal, like I am stupid. He told me this 3 times. I got so mad I had to give the phone to my husband before I started to say things that would not of helped. I gave up after the 4th call. I finally told them to cancell the whole thing. My son liked that because of this my son ended up with a flip phone from verizon. And I end up paying more. Stupid tracphone company.

Terrible customer service; misinformed service reps (I was told that I would be able to transfer my existing Tracfone nubmer to an upgrafed Tracfone, which wasn't true). Trying to get a refund is next to impossible. As someone who has used TracFone, I can say with absolute certainty it is not worth it. Learn from my mistakes and go with a more reliable pre-paid service such as AT&T, Cingular, Virgin, etc. Avoid TracFone unless you want sub-standard service, false promises, and crappy phones.

I have used the Tracfone service for about three years. I went prepaid because I did not use the monthly minutes of my previous cell phone plan. I was wasting my money every month. I use the phone to call and check in with my children and other short phone calls probably less than 20 min a month. I would not recommend prepaid to those who use their phone to makes lots of calls, the price per minute is too costly, but for those who use wireless ocassionally, prepaid is the way to go. From the comparisons that I've made it appears Tracfone has the cheapest per minute rates.

I have had no problems with the Nokia 5180i and find it a pretty simple phone to use. The reception has been good and the coverage is acceptable as well.

I use the website for renewing my minutes and it is pretty straightforward. There are long wait times if you do need to speak with customer service but they have always worked out my problem after the long wait.

I live in a rural area and was very concerned that I wouldn't get good reception. So the 30-day money back ($ restocking) was a major buying point. I had trouble with shipping because when buying direct from Tracfone they ship Fedex SIGN. REQ., absolutely no redirect, home address only. Activated online (some instructions were confusing [some menu shortcuts on the phone don't act like the instructions read]). Phone was active immediately (despite that they say it might be 24-48 hrs.) got a friend referral for the extra 100 minutes and had trouble adding them, got an "FCC number allocation" error on the website. Called Customer Service, got a person who spoke broken english and seemed to be on a cell phone, but was very courteous and took care of the problem quickly. I've gotten several other errors on their website.
-Great Phone/Service
-Affordable for occasional/emergency use
-Good, understandable terms - no hidden fees
-Customer Service and website need improvement

I specifically bought my Nokia phone with Tracfone service for emergency use. The reception is extremely clear, except when I am WAY out in the sticks. I only use it for outgoing calls, probably about 10-20 minutes per month, but it only costs about $ a month. It would be a poor choice for someone who chats away and uses their cell phone as a substitute for a land-line phone, but it's great for a cheapskate (like me) who wants the security of having a phone instantly available for emergencies.
I have never had any of the trouble that others reported with their service, but I've never had to call customer service, either. I just buy the cards, activate them online, and away I go.
I do not recommend buying accessories from Nokia/Tracfone online, however. They made an error on my order, but I had to pay priority mail to ship the erroneous item back to them.