Customer Reviews

TracFone Prepaid Airtime Card, 40 Units for TracFone Phones

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

[...]

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.

Tracfone is a great prepaid service. No daily fees and no contracts. All you have to do is buy minute cards and activate them on your phone. I have been a tracfone user for about 3 years and have just upgraded my phone with this new digital phone from my old analog phone. The digital service comes with free voicemail, caller id and call waiting. Airtime cards usually last about 60 days before you have to add more airtime. The cards also come in one year services as well. Prepaid is not a good service if you use a lot of minutes but if you only use it for emergancies or infrequently prepaid is a great inexpensive way to get cellular service. The phones are not that expensive either.

I HAVE ALSO JOINED THE REFER A FRIEND PROGRAM AND I GET 100 FREE MINUTES FOR EVERY PERSON THAT I REFER, PLUS EACH PERSON I REFER GETS 100 FREE MINUTES ALSO. If you do this enough you can get free use of the phone for a while. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET 100 FREE MINUTES ON YOUR NEW TRACFONE, OR IF YOU HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF TRACFONE FOR LESS THAN A MONTH, EMAIL ME AT hagriffith@yahoo.com TO GET A REFERRAL EMAIL FROM ME. I will try to be very quick at responding to you.

I knew I wanted to do prepaid wireless, so I did my research and then bought a Tracfone thinking that this would be perfect for me as I only sparingly use a cellphone, and the minutes I did use could be approxiately 10 cents a minute. This happened according to plan...however, when I started the process to port my number from a Cingular wireless phone, the nightmare began. I started with the website, which indicated was the best way to talk to them, where I entered my zip code, only to find that they "cannot process this transaction at this time". So I called the customer care center, and quickly realized that their people cannot understand or speak English. The reps will continuely tell you to repeat yourself, because they cannot hear you, they are having problems with their phones, or you need to adjust your phone. However, you can hear them crystal clear. I've called them from multiple phones, all land-lines, and they still say they can't hear you. It's not that they can't hear you, or that you are not speaking clearly...it's that they don't know English. I know how to talk clearly, I've lived in Japan for a summer, so I know how to use simple words to communicate, but these reps can barely understand that! It's obvious that's why they direct you to the website first.

After finally communicating the problem, they said I would need a new SIM card (the card which apparently contains the info the phone needs to connect to the network). Well, that seemed a little wierd, but I waited 5-10 days like they told me to get my new SIM card. When it arrived on the 10th day, I installed as directed, and then called the "help" center to get the phone activated. They then said that this SIM card too was not correct--they would have to send me another one! I was frustrated, but I tried to remain calm...and I asked to speak to a manager. After waiting about 15 minutes, I was hung up on...So I called again...another 15 min...and finally I was speaking to a manager, but her English was only marginally better. When I told her what had happened, she only said, "Don't worry, we will send you a new SIM card" I said I understood that, but that this one was the replacement SIM card, why wasn't this one working. She repeated her answer, and acted like it was perfectly normal for this to happen...why was I bothering her with this problem, essentially.

So the new, NEW SIM card arrives. I install it. I call them.

Once...they tell me to wait 5-10 business days for the port to go through

Twice...the website says it went through, but my phone is not yet activated, so they have me enter some codes on the phone...at last I feel like it might work! They tell me to wait 24 hours for the phone to activate

Thrice...the phone never activates. I call and they tell me THE MOST RIDICULOUS thing ever!

"You need a new sim card, we will send it in 5-10 days."

ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

At this point, I'm in awe of their total incompetance. I remain calm. I tell them this phone has had a total of 3 SIM cards--none of them has worked--and I do not want another one.

They put me on hold. They ask for some serial numbers, after I've told them once during this call. They put me on hold again. She talks with her manager. They put me on hold again.

Finally...the answer. The Nokia 1100 phone I bought is defective. They have been having many problems with this phone. They will have to send me a new phone. I will have to send this phone back and pay for it's shipping...but don't worry... I will be reimbursed for the shipping with some extra MINUTES! This is the last thing I want. I want to use up my minutes and BURN THIS PHONE!

So here I stand. I have no working cellphone, because when they ported my Cingular number, the account was automatically cancelled. The Tracfone certainly doesn't work, and I my old number will probably be lost. I will have to wait for my phone to get to them, and them for my new phone to be sent back to me. I cannot cancel everything, because then I will lose all of the minutes I had on this phone.

My advice...STAY AWAY, STAY VERY FAR AWAY!

I have had a tracfone for a few years. I have not had problems with reception or making calls. The customer service is a nightmare. You really can not transfer your phone number. I tried from one tracfone to another. What a mess and hours talking to people who barely speak English. Last time I purchased minutes I got 800. I used 400 in about 4-5 months. I rarely use my phone which is why I have a tracfone. The surprise came in the last two weeks when suddenly 350 minutes of my last 400 were gone. I did not increase my time on the phone. What happened to the minutes??? My father in law has had the same problems. He never uses his phone, but his minutes have disappeared. With this recent issue I would suggest looking for some other plan. I am not sure it will save me any money.

I've owned a Tracfone for 3 years. My old Tracfone quit working, so I purchased a new one. I've been trying for 4 weeks to transfer my old phone number to my new Tracfone. It's been a nightmare-after 4 weeks, 3 new sim cards, and countless calls to TracFone customer service reps, I've accomplished nothing. My phone is still not activated, I still don't have my old number transfered, and I've wasted 7 hours speaking to customer reps. I don't recommend TracFone.

I've had my Tracfone for about 3 months now. The reception has been generally good. Once i got the phone activated, I haven't had any problems. Tracfone has a 'refer a friend' program that will give each of 100 free minutes. All you have to do is send me an email asking for a referral. My email is debsclay@gmail.com
thank you.

I've had my Tracfone for about 6 months. It has good battery-life between charges. The phone itself is compact and stylish. I also bought the optional adapter that plugs into my car cigarette lighter. Tracfone has a 'refer a friend' program that will give each of 100 free minutes if i refer you anytime before you activate the phone. All you have to do is send me an email asking for a referral. My email is mariadream@gmail.com

I purchased my phone with a 1-year plan ($8/mo.) and have been happy with both phone and service. When normal customer service doesn't work, contact the little known Executive Resolutions Department with this link.

http://www.tracfone.com/about.jsp?task=about&CurrentView=mediaContacts

These guys are a step above the regular customer service and will handle ANY problem.

I travel constantly and have not encountered any problems with reception. I highly recommend either the Nokia 2600 or 1100 because of their no roaming set-up. They are both GSM phones and utilize the same nationwide network as T-Mobile/Cingular.

If you purchase the 1-year card in July and activate at tracfone.com use the promotional code 51351 for +100 free minutes.

The following codes work for the rest of the year:
Aug 59394 40 minutes with a 100 card.
Sep 57396 20 minutes with a 100 card.
Oct 52094 40 minutes with a 100 card.
Nov 54114 100 minutes with a 1year double minute card.
Dec 53600 50 minutes with a 200 card

Tracfone also gives +100 free minutes to customers referred to by current Tracfone users. E-mail me at captwilliams@gmail.com for a referral or with any other questions you might have.