Review: Tracfone 1 Year of Service & 400 Minutes
February 10th, 2011 Filed under: Best Prepaid Cell Phone — Cell Phone Author
Adds 1 year to your service end date and includes 400 minutes of airtime. With Tracfone, you will not receive unwanted bills and there are no unexpected surprises. No wonder Tracfone is America’s #1 Prepaid Cell Phone.
Review:
(i would give it negative 10 stars, but one star is the lowest rating at Amazon)
In short, here is my summary after 10 years:
1.The customer service non-existent: they take your money and run, you are on your own after that. if you call customer service – brace yourself for at least 30 min waiting time.
2.The phones are flimsy. They feel cheap and they look cheap.
3.I’ve got huge number of unknown incoming calls (which were burning my airtime). Sometimes in the middle of the night.
4.Cost of call per minute is higher than any other carrier.
5.If you want to roll over your unused minutes you have to keep buying more airtime – which is essentially a rolling contract – more expensive than VZ or ATT.
6.Miniscule pool of phone numbers to select from (i could choose from only one!)
7.They can close the shop at any given moment – and you’ll pick up the loss. They don’t care about you anyways!
8.Terrible connection. Phone connects sporadically, sometimes does not connect the call at all.
I had this phone for emergencies for my mom, and I have a contract with Verizon. When you call Verizon they work with you to solve the problem. When you call Tracfone – they don’t give a “1234″ about your problem, they don’t even ATTEMPT to solve the problem!!!
Before dealing with tracfone ask yourself: if they treat like “1234″ a customer who was buying from them for a decade, how will they treat you?
PS. BTW, when i callded tracfone with a problme, they essentially told me that they have company policies, and they don’t care about the customers or long term profits (only short term). I was shocked! What a myopic vision: in the current economy a company dependent on month-to-month sales would severe 10 year long customer relationship!
12 Responses to “Review: Tracfone 1 Year of Service & 400 Minutes”
By Jim on Feb 16, 2011 | Reply
I must say. I disagree with your opinions of Tracfone. I have been a Tracfone customer for 3 years and I have never had a bad experience with the company. You seem to be discounting the important fact that Tracfone is a fraction of the monthly cost of a Verizon plan. Plus Tracfone is on the Verizon and At&t network, so we get the same coverage as all you fools on contracts:)
By Celeste on Feb 23, 2011 | Reply
I’ve been with Tracfone for over 2 years and so far the reception on my LG410G phone is absolutely great as Tracfone are using major networks.
Since getting my phone activated I haven’t had to deal with customer services as Tracfone plans are so cheap and simple to operate.
I do believe Tracfone has a great use in the market sector as a low usage phone and allows even the poorest people the opportunity to afford a phone.
By Dianne on Feb 23, 2011 | Reply
Sounds odd. I have actually had a good experience with Tracfone. They are exactly what they say they are. They offer a low cost phone service for people who don’t use the phone much. I have had no problems with call quality at all.
By Brian Williams on Feb 28, 2011 | Reply
Tracfone is brilliant. My friends grandma got a phone with SVC Tracfone and it is such a good deal. You only pay $14.99 for the phone and then $7 a month after that. The phones have larger numbers and bigger screen display and the service in very good.
By Pashles on Feb 28, 2011 | Reply
you should check out the svc phone with tracfone. the actual phone just has the absolute basics that you need – nothing fancy but it is under $20 adn costs as little as $7 a month from then on. free incoming texts, double free minutes for life if you would like and free 411 calls!
By Mark Time on May 29, 2011 | Reply
That’s odd. I’ve seen there Facebook page and they handle complaints there rather quickly, despite your unfortunate experience.
I’ve seen them handle Tracfone, Safelink and SVC issues. That senior value phone is a Tracfone marketed for seniors by the way. Very simple and cheap. $20.
By Marty Colon on Sep 11, 2011 | Reply
Agreed that there phone support is inconsistent byut there Facebook page is excellent.
The value of svc is quite solid, btw, since there’s no contract and it’s super cheap, simple and great coverage. Good value!
By autokredyt on Oct 26, 2011 | Reply
Ohmygod- Awesome! If Im lucky I’ll see you Monkey’s in NY & NJ! Dates soon pleasee =]
By grandma on Nov 22, 2011 | Reply
I am a senior so this is from the horse’s mouth. I have the Tracfone SVC and at my age being alone having my SVC by my side all the times makes me feel safe and reassured. All this for just $7 a month is not a high price to pay
By trudi on Dec 18, 2011 | Reply
It is always to know that there is good value for money out there, especially when it comes to cellphones – there are such rip offs out there preying on getting the more vulnerable senior’s cash
By benjie on Jan 18, 2012 | Reply
The SVC for seniors from Tracfone is by far the best value that I could find for a cellphone. $20 gives me service for 3 months and 60 minutes. That works ou o less than $7 a month which is really affordable and well within my budget.
By bell on Jan 21, 2012 | Reply
I cannot believe how super cheap the SVC is to run at less than $7 a month. Currently I pay a lot more than that for my dad’s phone. Guess that as soon as possible I will be switching to Tracfone