(wow, my third post of the day — rare for me)
My parents and sister have used TracFone prepaid wireless phones for years, so I thought I'd give them a try to fill my cell phone needs while in America. We'll be here for six weeks, and then from time to time in years to come.
There are three cost components to using TracFone: you must buy a phone, buy service time, and buy minutes. The latter two are combined into minutes that expire some months or years after you buy them.
Last weekend, while still in Ohio, I stopped by a Radio Shack and bought two Motorola V176 phones (they seemed small and were the flip-type, which I wanted), and two 60-minute/two-month airtime cards (if I don't add more minutes before the minutes or months run out, I lose the use of the phone until I buy more minutes). The total was about $110.
I charged the batteries and activated the phones via TracFone's web site, which involved entering some long ID numbers into the web form, then entering long strings of digits (encrypted commands) into the phones. Everything went smoothly, and my phone showed that I had 80 minutes of airtime (the 10 that comes with the phone, 10 extra for activating online, and the 60 extra that I'd bought). According to the web site, they should be ready to use any time between immediately and one business day.
On Sunday it wasn't working yet. The “one business day” hadn't passed, but I was in a fairly tech friendly area, so I thought it should probably be working, and called up tech support. After going through 5 levels of phone menu, I was immediately connected to a person. She was very polite, and after working with her and entering what seemed like endless numbers into the “code entry” screen of the phone, the phones knew their phone number.
She confirmed something that the guy at Radio Shack had told me (but the TracFone website neglected to mention), that the first area in which you use them becomes your “home area”. Since I'm going to be spending most of the summer in California, I wanted that to be my home area, so I had to wait until later that day, when I got to California, before I could use them.
Unfortunately, when I got to the airport in San Jose and needed them, they still didn't work.
To make this way too long story shorter, I called TracFone customer support at least twice a day since then, each time being told (in very polite but oddly scripted English) that “they should work within 3 to 4 business hours, and if not, call us back.” And each time, they didn't work, and each time I'd call them back, half the time finding that they've closed for the day.
This seems to be a great business model: sell a service people need, take their money, then don't provide the service.
I bought the phones and service because I need them, and it's been very inconvenient not having them. It's been all the more frustrating because the customer care people can't or won't deviate from their well scripted interaction. When I say “well scripted”, I mean exactly that – scripted. At times, they clearly don't even understand what they're saying. For example, one of the (very polite) ladies I talked to yesterday kept saying “I'm updating the following information on my computer” but didn't continue to say what that information was – after about the 9th time, I realized that she was meaning to say “please hold on while I update information on the computer.” Anyway, it only added to the frustration, and it happened over and over.
So I decided that if it wasn't fixed by today, I'd just bite the cost and buy something else. But today's customer-support guy actually had a new idea: turn on the phone, take out the battery while the phone is still on, remove the SIM card, and after 30 seconds, put it all back together. That did it! It finally worked.
Geez, why couldn't they have put that idea on their web site? Why couldn't they have suggested it earlier? It seems to be a generic kind of solution, not in any way particular to me. It was extremely frustrating. If you do a search on the web, you'll find many others with frustrating TracFone activation experiences — I wonder how many would have their problem solved if they tried this?
So, our phones are working. Frankly, though, I wouldn't choose the Motorola v176 again. Here's what the top part of the keypad looks like:
What in the heck do those buttons mean?
The intuitive use is that the center button is the “select” button, after using the arrow buttons to select from among menu items. But the center button is not the select button, it's the upper-left “dot” button (as opposed to the identically labeled upper-right “dot” button).
Motorola gets an “F” for usability.
I’m so sorry to hear about this case, sir. I will forward this url to our operations manager. I’m sure he’ll be interested to hear about this. I just hope that in the near future, the procedure done to your Tracfone may be added to our script. Again, I apologize. Thank you.
“Motorola gets an “F” for usability”!?! That’s a very standard keyboard layout for today’s phones and the Motorola V176 is about the best prepaid phone you can get buy. Read the manual. When was the last time you owned a cell phone?
I first used a cell phone circa 1989 (I remember trying to use it, with little success, after the bay-area earthquake that year), and have used them pretty consistantly for the last, oh, 8 years or so.
Some of the layout of the V176 is indeed fairly standard — it’s similar to many phones I’ve had. Neverthless, that’s no excuse whatsoever for not labeling them. Quick, what does the “>” key do? The “<” one?
In any case, everyone’s got to use a phone for the first time, and I certainly wouldn’t recommned this one if for no other reason that the keys are unlabeled. Yet, that’s not the only usability problem — having used the phone more since my initial post, I’m all the more convinced that Motorola has no concept of the human user. Here’s an example: I missed a call, and wanted to see whom it was from. I found the “missed call” list and displayed the entry, and it showed something like this
40877380
Now, as you look at that on the tiny screen, without any spacing, it’s a bit difficult to parse. So you squint and read the first three digits, and then just about then it starts to scroll sideways. You see, although the screen is plenty wide enough to show the full number, in a larger font, with appropriate punctuation, e.g.
408-773-8021
for some incomprehensible reason a lot of space is shown, and the last two digits are not shown. So they do this jumpy little horizontal scroll for the two digits, during which time you can’t possibly track where in the middle of the number you were, so you have to wait the two seconds for it to reset back to showing all but the last two digits, then try to parse as much as you can before it moves again. Once you get all but the last two digits, you have to let it do it’s jiggy-dance until the last two digits are shown, then grok those quickly before it resets.
The first Noikia I had, about 9 years ago, had a smaller screen yet still displayed the number in a larger font, with common-sense punctuation: if 7 digits, XXX-XXXX and if 10 digits XXX-XXX-XXXX. Why on earth can’t Motorola do this?
I stand by my statement that the Motorla V176 has a horrible, undesigned user interface.
I came across this while searching for places to complain about tracfone. I’ve already left comments on consumeraffairs.com. I am having major difficulties with my tracfone purchased off tracfone website (refurbished Nokia 2600 which came with (2) 60min cards) and I have encountered numerous HOURS of exactly what you described as their “customer service”- most of which is on hold and the rest is script talk like you mentioned.
Problems?
Phone couldn’t activate online- called and eventually was told the phone status was incorrect- it was listed as old/exchanged phone instead of a new customer phone. They fixed this, I activated online- I did not receive any minutes or airtime when activating.
I call again- another long time on the phone and eventually they had me enter long codes and the 20min/60 days showed up.
Then I went to do step 3 of their referral program since I’d received the email before even purchasing/activating this phone- and it said I wasn’t eligible!
Since then I have spent COUNTLESS hours for over 9 days now trying to get my 120min from the referral program and they keep me on the phone for really long periods of time (mostly on hold- the rest mostly telling me they are going to put me on hold or reading from scripts or repeating what the “problem” is that I just told them) and last week I was told that I did qualify (ofcourse) but that there was a system error and they would call me on Monday to give me the minutes in the phone- and they said they’d give me extra minutes also for my inconvenience. No one called Monday or Tuesday.
Meanwhile the person that referred me and myself both received emails on Monday asking for our phone numbers, names and EMEI #’s to see if we were eligible. On Tuesday the referrer received an email to call the cust. service number to get her minutes- she did so and after a long time spent on the phone she got her 120min for referring me. I, however, never received another email or a call.
So I call again late Tuesday evening and TWICE was on the phone with them almost an hour each time- the first time I was told that they tried to call the contact number I gave them and it was invalid. This is not true- it’s my home number and was always working and in fact I was using it to call them right then! Then they said that they tried to call and no one answered- I was home all day Mon and Tues available for their call- they never called. Then they said a supervisor named Sylvia would have to call me to give me the minutes- that they couldn’t.
The 2nd time I called saying I wanted to just return the phone because I was tired of this mess. Another long time on the phone and eventually one supervisor in another dept (so they said) said he could give me the minutes and even had me go all the way to the code entry part on my phone only to put me on hold several times again and then eventually said there was a system error and the phone was showing “blocked” so they would have to call me back in 24-48hrs. I’m tired of waiting!
I decided to just go ahead and add one of the 60min cards that came with the phone. I had been intending on waiting to use those as I’d prefer to use the 120min referral minutes first and it was also supposed to come with 60 days time on it (did for everyone I’ve read about online and including the referrer who got her 120min/60 days added today/Tuesday!) and the limit is 120 days… so I didn’t want to use the phone cards until later so it would add another 60 days also. I had problems getting the code to work 3 times- the first two times it said the promotional code was invalid (I was also using a promo code given to me with the phone paperwork) and the last time it went thru- but did not add the 30min for the promo code.
Now if I FINALLY get the 120min referral minutes someday (I’m not holding out hope on that though and I’m tired of spending time and minutes on my sprint phone which I fortunately haven’t cancelled yet- so I’m not going to continue to call them about this!) -but if I get the 120 referral minutes, I’m already going to be at 120 days or so -so even when I get the minutes it won’t add to the airtime.
In short- refurbished phones purchased as new off their website can have a lot of issues and their customer service is abysmal at best, as well as lengthy, time consuming and majorly frustrating.
The referral promotion is a rip off if you have a refurbished phone and it doesn’t read it as a new phone.
You are wasting your time trying to contact them by phone or emails, no matter how persistent you are, because they won’t help you and will keep giving you the run around.
Promotional codes don’t work.
Minutes are deducted if you make text messages that don’t even go thru saying message failed.
It’s just not worth it. I have been with sprint for 8yrs without even one reason to ever call their customer service. I simply wanted to pay less per month by paying when I needed the minutes instead of paying a lot each month whether I used the phone or not. Tracfone obviously is not the way to go with prepaid phones!
Customer Service must mean something different in what ever language tracfon CS are speaking because the cs reallly BITES
but i cannot complain tooo much because i have
been with tracfone for about 2 years
over all decent service on my phones (i get service more places than hubbys tmobile or daughters sprint
plus since i have more time than money i never buy minutes i buy promo phones and just refer myself then give the phones away with the promo min on it
I tried to get my old Tracfone units reinstated when I had to get a new phone because my old Nokia phone failed. Unfortunately, since my old phone was completely inoperative I did not remember how many units I had had. I did know it was quite a few. Tracfone could not reinstate the old units until they “investigated” their data base. They said this will take 30 days! I am waiting. I will never again get their service.
Tracfone seems to be a unique beast as far as being a prepaid carrier. Some people love them and some people hate them. It’s very rare to see an “in between” as you can see in these TracFone reviews. I also experienced the “oddly scripted english” when speaking with customer service - also very hard to figure out how to get a human on the phone. Personally, if good, full english customer service is really important to you, Cingular prepaid and T-Mobile prepaid both provide awesome customer service support - in addition to having great pricing plans and coverage. Good luck with your next try into the prepaid realm. Sounds like the first one was a doozy LOL.
TracFone is EVIL!
I bought a Tracfone 1month ago and i got it actavated and everything and the DAMN thing wont work. Im Going to sue The People That Made this Stupid Phones.
I’m waiting 3 days now for activation. I call cust. service, put in a bunch of codes and wait the 24 hours. Finally got a number with no activation. still waiting!!! Not to mention the “test calls” cost you minutes too.
I have been trying for SIXTEEN days (from 1/1/07 until today 1/16/07) to activate a new tracfone I purchased using the website. Each time I get an error message. I have contacted the customer service three different times online requesting an explanation of why the website is down and a time frame as to when will it be functional and each time I get a scripted email on “how to” activate the phone. Duh! I can read! The page said:
ERROR.
Sorry, there seems to be a problem.
We are unable to process your request at this time.
Please click here to re-start your transaction.
If this does not resolve the problem please call the
TracFone Customer Care Center at 1-800-867-7183.
This was truly very demeaning! And good luck calling the so called Tracfone Customer Care Center…
I have and previous experience with tracfone’s language barrier and tried to avoid calling the customer service . However, I finally decided to call one evening after being super frustrated that the website was STILL not functional, to speak to a customer service person only to find out that the office was closed for the day!
Still waiting to activate a phone purchased 1/1/07!
There is a way to get immediate help from Tracfone. It involves emailing the CEO. I did it and ended up with a free phone, a year of service, double minutes and over 600 minutes of free time.
Email me via my yahoo group listed here above.
John
Well i know my comments are all to late. But i just wanted to let you all know. I have had the trace fone service for 6+ years , in Boston, Wyoming and Vermont. I figured after a while the problems would subside. But Nope. NOT a chance i have been promised after having to send my phone in once due to it not turning on but i got the blinking light, ring and vibrating all at once i had to take the batteryout for it to stop. So While i went 3-5 days w/out a phone. I was patient. I recieved the phone and had to spend about a hour just transfering #’s .But first i had to get the phone to turn back on oh the way i did that i threw it against a wall and all was fine after that. Figures….grrr! Anyhow the for i guess my waiting for the phone to get to me i got a slip stating that i get 30 free units to anycard i get forever. I called the next three times to get my 30 extra units and after that i just forgot about it. And i can’t STAND the ” one moment i am waiting for my computer” bit I told them once you don’t have to keep saying that and you don’t have to repeat every # i say . Response……ok then they keep saying it. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH it sucks. ANyhow just a few of my rustrations about my luck or lack of on the track phone.
I bought the v176 from TracFone two weeks ago and so far I like it. The quality of the phone is a big improvement over the v170 I had before (also from TracFone).
I successfully transferred my phone number and units from the v170 to the v176 by calling TracFone’s tech support. They had me enter two long strings of numbers. It worked! So I have no complaint.
The only thing I don’t like so far is: I haven’t been able to get Google Calendar to send my cell phone notifications of appointments (I had it working with my v170). With Yahoo Calendar, it was easy: I took a guess that my carrier was Cingular and that worked! No such luck with Google Calendar. I tried specifying several different carriers. TracFone isn’t listed as a carrier.
Has anybody gotten Google Calendar to send their v176 notifications?
42 days & they still cant get my number ported from AT&T. AT&T said they released my number 40 days ago! Not sure whos lying… but there both Customer Reps. so you deside!!
Ok given a cell phone by a relative - but it is from a different calling area about 100 miles from me - same area code - but if I were to call that area - or they to call here - it would be a LD call.
I would like to make it so I don’t have to use the 1 and area code all the time - other people don’t want to call me thinking it is an LD call and they will get extra charges.
Also I maybe charged extra units - because I may be roaming?
So do I try to resolve this problem with Tracfone - or just get another phone?
Just an update to my earlier post of May 4th, 2007:
I just tried again to setup Google Calendar to send notifications to my TracFone Motorola v176 after being unsuccessful for several weeks, and this time it was SUCCESSFUL!
I guess Google or TracFone fixed whatever the problem was.
Hey Dude, Tracfone sucks. I bought 2 of them and one of them did not work right. They were quick to send me a “replacement” Phone. One that was a refurbished fone and not programed to todays standards. It charged me .5 units for a text instead of .3 units for a text. Tracfons answer, Oh well, that fone is an old fone programed to the old standard. Nothing we can do. Then I bought a new phone and wanted to transfer the number of my old fone to the new fone. No problem they said. Guess what? Sure I could transfer my number to the new fone but I cold not move the minutes that were on the fone or the Double minutes that I paid $50.00 for. I would have to pay another $50.00 to get double minutes on the new fone. Tracfone has a practice of robbing the people who are their backbone. US!
Anyone reading this Blog trust me. Their are better ways to get Cellular service. GoPhone from AT&T, Virgin Mobile, T-Mobile, Alltel. All are much better then The stupid company of tracfone.
Purchased Tracfone in Minnesota a few years ago. Generally, phone works well. On our trip to Texas, I had no cell service in Texas. While in McAllen, Texas I called Tracfone using a number from their website. The rep was very polite, spoke English much better than I, and had me entering various numbers into my phone. He asked that I hang up(I’m using the motel room phone) and he would call back. Didn’t happen. Cell phone didn’t work until Around Kansas or Missouri on our way back to Minnesota.
My wife’s phone from “Virgin ” worked well the whole trip. Did not help my ego one bit.
May I advise anyone who is considering signing up for TracFone - DON’T. We got one for my elderly mother for emergencies. After the first year, and minimal usage, TracFone said they were sending an upgraded phone (I don’t recall why). We specifically said we wanted the same phone number and paid to renew for a year. Long story short, they changed the phone number but didn’t bother to tell us. And my mother is getting crude text messages which we haven’t figured out how to delete without opening and she gets charged every time we open one.
We have spent at least 4 hours on the phone to TracFone trying to figure out the new phone and why it wasn’t working. Finally we said we wanted to cancel the whole thing and get our money back. FYI, TracFone “does not give refunds”. We experienced the “oddly scripted English” that other people have mentioned. Went up four levels of the hierarchy when someone finally figured out we had the wrong phone number. When asked for help with deleting the text messages, they said someone would call us back in 48 hours. Well, it’s been 7 days and no one has called! I’m going to contact the CEO as suggested above. Save yourself some aggravation and go with another service. My family is very happy with Verizon - we’ll add my mother to our plan as soon as we can get her money back.
Sorry to see people have been spending time in “Tracfone Hell.” My experience has been very good. No problems with activation, usage or anything. I ordered a reconditioned V170 package for my wife, bundled with two 60 min cards. When it didn’t ship in a timely manner, Tracfone sent us one overnight at their expense for the delivery upgrade. Their service has been fine and I’ll continue to use it for now.
I’ve went threw every thing that has been told about TracFone.. Time, No Service, they would call me back in so many hours, put me on hold, gave me many tickets numbers and never even wrote anything down… I say call CEO’s Fredrick/Sara Pollak in Miami at
(305) 640-2000 or you might get the Manager Andres Collazo and if not him then the very rude Supervisor Syrenthia Walker if she don’t hang up on you… I have many hours of waiting for results and still not able to use my phone. #1 my time is money too and my phone, calling cards all added up to very much money but they think nothing of it. Well they live off of our hard erned dollar they sit in their $1,199,000 home and laugh at ripping us all off. Do a search on google and read things reps. say who work for TracFone/Net 10 same owners say about us Americans. The jobs are all out sourced and they know not a thing on how to program a cell phone or resolve the problems. I got my Tracfone and the gave me a landline verizon phone number. Duh I have verizon cell I needed a Phone to work in a area that didn’t get verison. I was told TracFone will feed off any cell tower well not this phone and they won’t do a thing about it. OH well I keep getting the run around but I will keep posting and I am even going to make my own blog about TracFone/Net 10. Fredrick/Sara Pollak CEO’s WILL REALLY CHEAT YOUR RIGHT… WARNING DON’T BY A TRACFONE I have been doing some research and the gophone seems Okay didn’t buy one just yet but do your homework before you buy.
(GOOD LUCK)
Ditto, Ditto, 5 calls 1email 1 not returned call waiting on another.
Thanks for the advice on taking out the SIM card, battery and putting everything back together. I have been on the phone with their “customer service” for four nights. Three times they have disconnected my call while putting me on hold. I finally got ahold of their supervisor, Kent. He was very polite but had no clue as the other people.
Some of my favorite quotes from being on hold for hours…
“please bear with me”
“i’m updating some information in my system”
Grrr…