Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Trac fone for emergency use only and no need for cust svc., January 24, 2005
I purchased the Trac Fone because I don't like cell phones, but figured they must be used in emergencies (Pay phones are becoming VERY scarce).
The cell phone services offered by the big carriers are a much better deal if you frequenly spend more than a minute or two on the air. Trac fone minutes go by too quickly and are expensive to replenish. I have noticed that Trac fone charges you for a call even if no one answers on the other end. That sucks.
I didn't learn my lesson. I purchased a Trac fone for my son last month. The battery wouldn't hold a charge and I had to pay to ship it back to the Tracfone warehouse. The replacement phone works, but I ended up losing the bonus minutes I was supposed to receive. I tried to explain it to the customer sercvice people in India, but got no satisfaction. The people are very polite, but don't understand that I was promised 240 minutes of air time and service until March 2006. What the phone shows is 169 minutes of airtime that expires December 2005, and I have't placed or received a single call on this Trac fone!
My wife's AT&T wireless (Cingular) ia a MUCH better deal. 60 prime time minutes plus 240 night & weekend minutes for less than $20 per month (all taxes included!)
Jim
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
From Bad to Worse... terrible Tracfone service/quality, October 31, 2004
UPDATED REVIEW:
I've talked to Tracfone customer service now five times on the phone, spending close to four hours waiting on the phone. The second SIM card they sent me apparently doesn't work (see below). If you buy a Tracfone, you had better chance you NEVER have a problem because problems tend to snowball. I have to say I like to see a silver lining in every situation, but I can say this is honestly the worst customer service I've ever dealt with. I HIGHLY recommend you look elsewhere before you buy a tracfone. I would hate anyone to go through the headache I've went through. For more reviews and stories of tracfone service, go to the following website.
www.planetfeedback.com
Type "Tracfone" in the company title box and search.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I ordered my new Nokia 1100 tracfone from tracfone.com only a week ago. My first complaint is that although they say on their website that they require signature to recieve the package, the FedEx guy left it on my door step in plain sight so any Joe could have taken the phone. Next, the supporting material in the box is great. It took me 3 hours to charge my phone out of the box (surprisingly short). After doing the website activation, it took about 24 hours to activate my phone (not bad, but I was hoping for shorter). Fairly simple to try the features with the manual included. I had good reception with my first call, had free voice mail, and received a text message for free. Which is great if you do a lot of online instant messaging.
The REAL problem I had was attempting to change my security code. In order to permanently change the security code, you have to input your PIN code. Simply, the PIN code in the Nokia manual provided was wrong and I ended up locking my SIM card. This required me to go online and fill out a technical issue on tracfone.com. They emailed me the next day telling me to call their technical service number. I did but while the lady spent 40 MINTUES on the phone trying to get both my PUK and PIN codes to work; in the end, my SIM card was permanently locked and now they have to send me a new SIM card. :( Very sad. The lady did seem sincerely sorry for the problem and checked in on me at least every 45 seconds, even while I was on hold. However, she didn't offer to mail the new card via overnight (instead it's coming 3-5 day mail) or offer me any minutes for my inconvenience.
Weaknesses:
-Tracfone.com simple look and feel, hard to find information
-FedEx leaving package on step
-Length technical assisstance and no help via online technical website
-Numbers, numbers everywhere for every thing imaginable
-Lack of incentives (i.e. shorter shipping/free minutes) due to problems
Strengths:
-Don't have to spend a fortune for service
-Nokia 1100 phone cute, small, and just plain cool
-Free Voice Mail
-Can receive text messages for free
-Free Caller ID
-Sincere Technical service
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy it. Negative 5 stars, August 2, 2004
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.
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