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Tracfone - TracFone is a rip off and a scam

  • by   Jun 12, 2008
  • Review #: 123869
CompanyTracfone
Location Washington, District Of Columbia
Category Advertisments and Cons
Views182
 

I used TracFone for over three years and I highly WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT to anybody. You have to keep all your and scratched off that you use to add minutes. If the cards don't work, and most of the time THE CARDS DO NOT WORK, they will put you through days of wasted time digging through your records to "PROVE" you bought the cards before granting you the services and minutes you purchased. Then you will spend days typing in long codes and repeating them back and waiting 24-48 hours to "see if it will work". It doesn't work!.

I bought for the life of my phone". After one year the double minutes no longer work at all and the company will not help me, at all!. I've called, written, and complained". I still get e-mails from them advertising that I can buy minutes which will be doubled:. Doubling minutes is the only way to get a 10 cent per minute rate that is on par with other pre-paid like AT&T, which I highly recommend'.

Do NOT be Trac-FOOLED! Buy TracFone service at your own !. Be prepared to be FLEECED, lied to, stolen from, and in general treated like a ,.

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Cowcharge Cowcharge
Jun 07, 2012 
Tracfone works fine, $40's worth of minutes lasts me about 4 months. I just hate the ad texts trying to get me to buy more minutes.
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RichieC RichieC
Mar 19  from New Bedford, Massachusetts
I agree totally, actually I use the one year card with double your minutes. I get a free code by searching Google for TRACFONE CODES. There are a few good sites with code, always use the 200 extra! So I get 1200 minutes on a one year card, which is $100, a good deal! As of right now, Tracfone is giving the 200 extra minute themselves!
Though I don't really use my phone much and now have some 850 minutes still on it, I think I am going to sign up for there free auto renew service. Which charges you $5.99 for a month of added service, when your time frame ends, that is if you don't add minutes! So as long as you have minutes, you service continues!
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Linda Linda
Jan 28, 2012 
Tracfone keeps sending me text messages to buy more airtime, then they deduct their own text message from my airtime. I can't afford to keep reading their sales messages. If I call them to discuss it, they deduct more airtime. Is this happening to anyone, and what can I do to stop them from constantly texting me?
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RichieC RichieC
Mar 19  from New Bedford, Massachusetts
That is not true, period! I have used Tracfone for way more than five years and never have been charged by them for any message received! They also only send a message or two near the time of your renewal. I see a lot of complaints about different issue with Tracfone and to be honest, I think a lot of these people are trolls working for the competition!
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TJS TJS
Jan 25, 2012 
I forgot. Always record every conversation with any customer service reps and be sure to get names before yous start complaining, if you are nice first they will give you the info. If they try to scam you tell them you have recorded the conversation and will slap it all over the internet, especially you tube. It always worked for me. But, first always be nice and never get exasperated.
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TJS TJS
Jan 25, 2012 
I use to be a customer service rep and we were offered incentives to give to the customer if they were nice to us. Being a *** to the customer service reps never pays off.
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TJS TJS
Jan 25, 2012 
This is my experience with this company. I bought this phone from their website which said I would receive free a 60 minute phone card, but when the package arrived, it was not there and you can't activate your phone without it. When I called I got a customer service rep who was new and didn't know what she was doing, so I asked to speak to a supervisor,which to my surprise I was promptly directed to. The supervisor was nice, but what she said made me think about the integrity of this company, she said "Since you have your confirmation number, I will direct you to someone who can turn on your phone and give you the 60 min. card." So, their scam is to offer the free 60 min card, but when you receive your package and it won't be there, so be sure to keep your confirmation number. I did receive my minutes + 10 more. The phone now works just fine. The customer service people from Guadalajara were very nice and most of them I could understand just fine. SO the object of this story is to always keep your confirmation numbers; to prevent any scams.
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yep yep
Dec 26, 2011 
not all that surprised about tracfone. Just an overall scam with terrible customer support
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Joan Snodgrass Joan Snodgrass
Oct 26, 2011 
My problem is with minutes - My land line was inoperable and so was internet so I had to call company from Tracfone - I timed the call because I suspected more minutes were being deducted than used - I was on Tracfone for 42 minutes and they deducted 1 hour 22 minutes - what's up with that - have also noticed being charged 6 or 7 minutes for 2 or 3 minute calls
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rh rh
Sep 12, 2011 
I've had a TracFone for many years, with absolutely no complaints. I enrolled in Double Minutes for Life last year. Unused minutes all rolled over this year with no problem. I also "super-sized" my purchase this year to double the number the years (and reduce the per-year cost). Several years ago they needed to replace my phone with a no-cost upgrade. Again, no problems. Go figger.
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trackfool trackfool
Sep 04, 2011 
*** I didn't even get a phone number on mine and you can't contact customer service unless you have your tracktrash phone number. when will someone step in an close these theifs down. Oh I forgot they are the same goverment company that supplies the phones to the welfare trash for free.
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Daniel Daniel
Aug 27, 2011 
I used to be a TracFOOL as well.

I'm a heavy HEAVY phone user. While I had no real technical problems as far as the phone device itself and adding minutes to it, I would never recommend this to anyone who uses their phone a lot. I was spending 20 dollars A WEEK on minutes because of how much I text and that was me being conservative about it. Now I'm on a contract family talk plan with my mom, stepdad, and little sis through AT&T for $30 a month with an IPHONE. Prepay isn't always cheaper. And if you wanna do prepay, I'd suggest a company like Virgin Mobile who charge by the month instead of by the minute.
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RogFox RogFox
Jun 09, 2011 
My heartfelt thanks to all the people who told their horror stories. I almsot got suckered by the TV ads, but then I went to their website, and found out that the cost per minute was awful. Thank you!
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Pete Pete
Feb 04, 2011 
I just tried buying minutes for my phone. I spent a total of 35 mins trying to get my credit card accepted but was declined for some unknown reason. This is the exact same card that I used to purchase the last batch of minutes and everything has remained the same. Now I am told to go and purchase a card from a retailer as they can't credit my phone with the minutes I require. This company sucks!
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Total Ripoff Total Ripoff
Jan 14, 2011 
Since I live in Canada, I wanted a cheap disposable phone I could use during my vacation in California.

First, the phone wouldn't work. I spent a whole day without it until I could get back to Target. It activated fine on their side, and they weren't going to exchange it. A head manager finally did it. I bought a 60 minute card, and supposedly it was supposed to be doubled with the package I bought. It worked for about a day, but I could not call my husband in Canada yet. The phone quit working when he called ME. Supposedly my minutes were expired. When I called them, I got the same song and dance I'd gotten over the phone itself- that it wasn't activated correctly. When I asked the operator where they were located (I was suspicious over EVERY operator having a strong, hard to understand Spanish accent), she said GUATEMALA. TracPhone is a scam. BEWARE!!!
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tracfone customer for years tracfone customer for years
Dec 30, 2010 
my whole family has had Tracfones and never had problems with them...I even had a phone tear up and they put the minutes on another phone for me. They have always been friendly and the minutes always show up on my phone super quick....
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lrt lrt
Dec 30, 2010 
(PLS EXCUSE MY CAPITAL LETTERS.I'M JUST NOT USED TO USING KEY SHIFTING)

TRACFONE BLOCKED ME FROM USING MY PHONE EVEN THOUGH I STILL HAVE MINUTES 233 MINUTES LEFT.WHEN I CALLED THEY TOLD ME TO SEND $172.89!!!! TO GET BACK THE SERVICE BECAUSE I HAVE CREDIT CARD ISSUE???? I BOUGHT MY PREPAID CARDS AND NEVER USED CREDIT CARDS....SO WHAT IS THIS ABOUT???
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infocyde infocyde
Oct 30, 2010 
I just bought a trakphone LG 420 today as I'm going broke and thought I would save some money by ditching AT&T. Bought a 60 minute airtime card and it looks like one of the digits deliberate rubbed right off! So I've got 14 digits and need 15 to cash it in. THEY WILL add those minutes, and give me double minutes since it is a double minutes for life phone, or I will be on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc...) for a good long while letting people know what I think of Trakfone. Course I can't call customer service cause I'll be burning up those 20 minutes that came with the phone...
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Sam Sam
Oct 04, 2010 
The Family Value Plan doesn't seem to be of such great value when they refuse to cancel it. Of course you can tell your credit card company not to accept any more charges from them, but you aren't getting back the money they stole.
On top of that, they keep calling you to help de-enroll you from the program, which they still refuse to do anyway. I swear they intentionally waste your time.

They also have a window system, where you can only enroll, de-enroll, and receive minutes you have paid for. It took a month for me to get my time once. Don't expect your phone to be useful for an emergency if you have to wait a month before you can use it.
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jack gossard jack gossard
Jun 06, 2010 
buying an airtime card is risky because the pin number comes off with the backing making it useless, also you only get an unemployed 3 word of english speaking immigrant wanna be for customer service rep
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