TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 40 Units for TracFone Phones

by Tracfone

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 3.8 x 0.2 inches ; 0.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0001MLAEM
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Compatible with all TracFone prepaid cell phones, this card is good for 40 prepaid wireless units, and works 60 days from time of activation. Units work as follows: Local and long distance calls use 1 unit per minute, roaming calls use 2 units per minute. This card provides access to nationwide service. With prepaid service, you'll get no contracts, bills, credit checks, or activation fees.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy it. Negative 5 stars, August 2, 2004

By 

J Miller - See all my reviews

This review is from: TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 40 Units for TracFone Phones (Wireless Phone Accessory)

It sounds a good idea of not having to pay monthly fee, no tax, no commitment. However, you end of paying more than that, plus tons of troubles.

After I purchased the phone, I signed up the service, set up the account and voice mail. It costs me almost 20 air time units to make it work. (1 unit = 50 to 60 cents)

I called home 3 miles away from my home, and still in my home area, (not in roaming) a recorded voice told me that "you have to dial the area code first", this stupid message costs me 2 units. And I have to use the roaming dial to reach my home which costs me 2 units per minute.

Carrying Tracfone to roaming area without even touching the keypad, which costs me another 2 units.

Since, there is no contract, once you run out of airtime or the airtime expired, you will lose your phone number. For this reason, the phone number are recycled fast, so I received a lot of calls from people looking for previous phone numbr owners. Which ends up I have to pay a lot of units for wrong numbers.

I have no idea why the air time units displayed on the phone decreased so fast, neither do I know what causes it to decrease.

The phone (or the service) is very unreliable. It will NOT work in malls, groceries, and hotels. People can NOT reach you, and you can NOT call out. In the open area, it works, so far.

The customer services is terrible. You may spend 30 minutes on you home phone in order to get a person to talk you. (Warning: DO NOT use Tracfone to call their Customer Services, You may end up paying 60 air time units in order to get a real person to talk). And that person will NEVER solve your problem. DO NOT even try to complain that air time units disappear without a reason, they will insist that you have made phone calls a lot. There is no record of you phone call activities, you can only simply take their words.

Recharging air time is another headache. You spend half-hour to go through snail-responsed webpage, at the same time working on your cell phone to get your series number. The series number is NOT printed on the phone, you have to read the user's menu first to know how to get the series number out of your cell phone. Then give your credit card number. Then it the webpage responds "There is a error occur, please call our customer service." Then, start all over again to struggle to reach a person to talk on customer service. Eventually, type a 30 digits code into you phone.

I wish people have posted these messages before I purchased the phone.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware Tracfone!, June 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 40 Units for TracFone Phones (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Type "Tracfone scam" into Google and see what you get. I can vouch for the fact that these complaints are true through personal experience. To make a long story short, I have only half the minutes I paid for, and my Tracfone doesn't work anyway, so it doesn't matter how many minutes I have. Customer service is a joke; hardware is worthless junk. Don't be ripped off by Tracfone.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best, but still useful, February 20, 2005

By 

M. Lavenz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 40 Units for TracFone Phones (Wireless Phone Accessory)

[...]

After I purchased the phone, I signed up the service via internet to set up the account and voice mail. The programming consisted of entering four or five sets of numbers somewhere around 12-20 numerals in length. I was then advised by the website to wait 24 hours for the company to activate the account. Unfortunately, after 5 days and no activation, it ended up costing me the 20 free minutes (trying to call to/from the phone) I received when I activated it online.

Then, after calling from my home phone it took about 10-15 minutes with the automated phone system for Tracfone customer service I was finally able to speak with a LIVE person who had to reactivate the phone with another set of codes.

This actually worked. When I asked if there was a way to get the minutes back that I lost by tring to activate the phone, I was basically told NO.

I may be wrong on the following, but if I read the "fine print" correctly, it appears that even if you buy the 150 minute/1 year card like I did, you still have to purchase and activate a tracfone airtime card every 60 days to keep the phone from being turned off.

This phone is mainly for emergencies, so I do not use it much, and am somewhat satisifed with the local coverage and have had no problems other than the initial dissatisfaction. If you plan to only use the phone for calling AAA, 911 or such, it still might come in handy. If you travel more, you will definitely want to go to another cellular service provider. And, obviously, research the actual coverage in your area before deciding on ANY cellular service.